IELTS Practice Test 5

Transcript (on the real test you hear this once)

Fiona: Good evening, everyone, and thanks for coming to this preview of the refurbished Pittenlea Arts Centre. I'm Fiona Gallacher, the centre manager. We'd hoped to reopen in the spring, and I've heard all sorts of explanations for why we didn't. Lots of people think it was the roof, and the roof certainly needed more work than expected, but the builders still finished it on schedule. Nor was it the money — the council grant came through in good time. What held us up was the lift. The firm making it closed down halfway through our order, so we had to find another manufacturer and start again.

We'd originally planned to stay open late on Fridays, but the film society screens its films in the town hall that night and we didn't want to compete, so from next month we'll be open until nine on Thursdays instead. A few of you suggested Saturdays, but we already open all day then, and the staff need some evenings off.

Now, on the ground-floor plan, the main entrance is at the bottom, on Harbour Street. In the old building the café was on your left as you came in, but that space is now the shop. The café has moved to the room immediately on your right, where it gets the morning sun. The box office used to be just inside the door, which caused terrible queues, so go straight ahead, past the stairs and lift, and you'll find it in the middle of the back wall. The corner room to the right of it is a rehearsal room, not open to the public, and the other back corner, on the left, is the children's studio — it's the quietest room, furthest from the street.

People keep asking what else is new. I'm sorry to say we still haven't got lockers — there wasn't room — so bags go in the cloakroom as before. The baby-changing room has been redecorated, but it was always there, and the wi-fi is still free, just much faster. What's genuinely new is a hearing loop at the box office counter for anyone who wears a hearing aid, and a water-refill point beside the café door.

Upstairs, on the second plan: at the top of the stairs you're facing the back of the building. The main gallery is the long room straight ahead along the back wall, between the two corner rooms. We'd intended the members' lounge for the right-hand back corner, but that room gets far too hot in the afternoons, so it's storage now, and the lounge is at the other end of the gallery, in the left-hand corner. For the print studio, turn round so you're looking out towards the street. It's the room on the right of the balcony — sorry, no, on the left of the balcony as you look out. The room on the other side of the balcony is my office.

Our opening exhibition, Changing Tides, covers a century of the harbour. We'd expected to rely on the museum's archive, but nearly all the photographs came from family albums lent by local residents. Workshops start the week after we open. We advertised them at twelve pounds a session, but thanks to a donation from the Coastline Heritage Trust, adults will pay eight pounds fifty, and under-eighteens just five pounds.

Volunteers, your induction is on the first Saturday. You won't need proof of address any more, but please bring a passport-sized photograph for your ID badge; we can't print one from your phone. If you're cycling, the bike racks are now at the side of the building, next to the old loading bay.

Finally, we want your opinions. We thought about comment cards in the café, but they tend to disappear, and the volunteers on the door will be far too busy over the opening weekend to take comments. So please fill in the short online survey — the link is printed on the back of every ticket.