This is the new Cambridge First Certificate in English Listening test, 2016.
Practicing on these Cambridge FCE Listening tests helps raise your score in the Cambridge English First exams. These tests are also very good to exercise English listening skills.
Correct answers & audio transcript are posted below.
This video is in the series of NEW Cambridge First Certificate in English exam preparation:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp39kaAVtLBSDL3HMhv1aTXV4SCOc9_8s
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TRANSCRIPTS
Speaker 1.
There are only two examples of this instrument in the world, one in a museum in Japan and one recently unearthed in southern China. Many experts do not consider it to be one instrument as it is made up of 46 silver alloy bells each suspended from its own supporting wooden frame. I must mention that some of these bells weigh as much as 40 kilograms. What makes this assembly one instrument, in my opinion, is the fact that each one of the forty six bells plays a separate note and that the wooden supporting structure has been designed so that they fit together in an ascending scale rather like the strings inside a piano or the frets on a guitar.
Speaker 2.
What gives this drum its unique mellow tone is the fact that the bowl around which the skin has been stretched is made from a single piece of white ivory. The outer surface of the bowl has been carved with special places for the fingers. In each of these there is a hole that the player can cover with one of the fingers of his left hand to slightly alter the tone as he beats the skin with his right hand. The finger movements of the left hand are not dissimilar to those used with a guitar. It is, perhaps, rather sad that since international trade in ivory has been made illegal, few of these instruments have been made. There is a risk that the tradition behind its production will soon be lost forever.
Speaker 3.
What is particularly interesting about this traditional hand drum are
the unique red and gold patterns painted on its wooden underside.
This, of course, does not affect the sound but reflects the social importance of this instrument for the Sachawaya tribe who produce it. They believe that as a result of its use in pubic celebrations, it is filled with the good spirits of the community. Then, later in the year, when the autumn winds begin to blow, the drum can be displayed outside a building of importance to drive away the evil spirits that may cause destruction in the winter ahead.
Speaker 4.
The stem and sound-box of this instrument are made from the wood of the eucalyptus tree. This is quite a soft wood which means that the instrument goes out of tune very rapidly. The craftsmen who construct them still use stretched snake-gut to make the five strings. This, of course, makes the instrument very expensive and it was traditionally only played by tribal chiefs and their families. Surprisingly, not only its appearance but the tuning as well are similar to that of a classical guitar, suggesting that this tribe must have had some contact with the outside world long before the twentieth century.
Speaker 5.
The curved base and supporting structure of this instrument are made of matured rose-wood while the nails that hold the blocks are traditionally made of ebony, which was the hardest wood available until recently. Four different trees are used to make the blocks themselves which are matured in different ways, to give each one its own individual note. The special hammers are fashioned by hand from willow, a wood still widely used in the manufacture of guitars. As a result of its construction, the instrument is surprisingly light, making it easy for the Nabungda tribe to use it at its various social functions and annual celebrations.
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CORRECT ANSWERS
19D - 20E - 21F - 22B - 23A
