Joy English
Joy English

B1 Listening

B1Study12 min

At the library help desk

A student and a university librarian talk about an essay he is writing.

Before you listen

You are going to hear a conversation at the help desk of a university library. A student, Ravi, is talking to a librarian about an essay he has to write. Before you listen, think about where you look for information when you study a new topic.

dueadjective
expected or needed by a certain timeMy homework is due on Monday.
cataloguenoun
a list of all the books and other items in a libraryYou can search the library catalogue from home.
borrowverb
to take something and give it back laterCan I borrow your pen for a minute?
sourcenoun
a book, article or person that gives you informationAlways say which sources you used.
regretverb
to feel sorry about something you did or did not doI regret not practising more before the concert.

Listen · 1:23

At the help desk

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Show the transcript (try the questions first)

Ravi: Hi, sorry to bother you. I'm writing an essay about the history of parks in the city, and I'm a bit lost. I've searched online, but I keep finding the same three websites.

Librarian: Don't worry, that happens to a lot of students. When is it due?

Ravi: In two weeks. It needs to be about two thousand words.

Librarian: Okay, that's plenty of time. First, try our catalogue instead of a general search. If you just type parks, you'll get hundreds of results, so add the name of the city and a time period.

Ravi: Ah, I only typed parks yesterday. That explains a lot.

Librarian: Then I'd recommend the local history room on the second floor. It has old maps and photographs of the parks when they were being built. It's only open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, though, and you need to book a desk.

Ravi: Can I book one here?

Librarian: Yes, I can do that for you now. How about Thursday at two?

Ravi: Perfect. And how many books can I take out?

Librarian: Students can borrow up to eight books for three weeks. Here's a useful tip: when you find one good book, look at the list of sources at the back. It'll lead you to others.

Ravi: That's clever. I'd never thought of that.

Librarian: And write down where every idea comes from as you go. Students who leave it until the end always regret it.

Ravi: Thanks so much. I feel much less stressed now.

Exercise 1 of 2

Understand the conversation

Listen to the conversation. Choose the best answer.

  1. What is Ravi's problem at the start of the conversation?

  2. What mistake did Ravi make when he searched yesterday?

  3. What does the librarian think about Ravi's deadline?

  4. What can Ravi find in the local history room?

  5. What is one disadvantage of the local history room?

  6. What does the librarian suggest doing after finding one good book?

  7. How does Ravi feel at the end?

0 of 7 answered

Exercise 2 of 2

Listen for details

Listen again and type the missing word or number. You can write numbers as words or digits.

  1. Ravi's essay is due in weeks.

  2. The essay should be about words long.

  3. The local history room is on the floor.

  4. The librarian books a desk for Ravi on Thursday at .

  5. Students can borrow up to books.

  6. Students can keep the books they borrow for weeks.

0 of 6 answered

Source

Original script by Joy English, read by open-source text-to-speech voices (Kokoro-82M, Apache-2.0).

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