IELTS LISTENING
Short Story Competition
Dave: Good morning Dave speaking.
Candidate: Hi I’m phoning about this short story competition I saw an advert in a magazine and I was just calling to get some details.
Dave: Yes certainly I’m the competition organizer so I should be able to help.
Dave: What kind of details are you looking for?
Candidate: Well doesn’t cost anything to enter.
Dave: Yes.
Dave: There is an entry fee of five pounds.
Candidate: Okay, that should be fine.
Candidate: It’s a short story competition so how many words is that?
Dave: Well we want to give people a reasonable amount of freedom but the guidelines are around Q1 three thousand words.
Candidate: Oh that’s sounds quite a lot.
Dave: Well it’s not as much as it used to be we did have a limit of five thousand words but some people so that was too many so this year we’ve reduced it.
Candidate: Right, and because the story needs to be about anything in particular.
Dave: No you can write about any topic you like but the main point of the competition is that it has to have a Q2 surprise ending.
Candidate: Oh, I see that sounds interesting I don’t think I’ve ever written a story like that before.
Dave: Yes it’s something we’ve introduced for this year’s competition.
Candidate: Alright, I’m eighteen is there any hmm it?
Dave: Yes you need to be Q3 sixteen or over so if your eighteen that’s fine.
Candidate: Great.
Candidate: So you have the competition once a year is that right?
Dave: Yes we start advertising in January and the competition takes up a lot of the year.
Dave: We give people a few months to write that story and then it takes quite a long time to judge all the entries and to announce the winner is.
Candidate: I see so when is the closing date for the competition it’s already April I hope I’m not too late.
Dave: No you’ve still got plenty of time you need to submit your entry by the Q4 first of august often then it will be too late although you can always ends in next year’s competition.
Candidate: Okay, Good.
Candidate : So how do I answer?
Dave: Well we have a website and the best way to answer is to complete the entry form online we also have more details of the competition on the site shall I give you the web address?
Candidate: Yes, please.
Dave: Okay it’s www.Q5 comp4ss .com
Dave: P. 4.
Dave: S. S. dot com and that’s the number four, not the word for.
Candidate: Ok thanks. I’ve got that.
Candidate : So I can complete the entry form online but how do I send this story do I printed out and send it to you?
Dave: Well you may want to print the story out so you can review it but don’t Q6 post it to us when you finish your story you will need to email it to us.
Dave: The email address is on the website I gave you.
Candidate: Okay that’s fine. Can you tell me a bit about how the competition is judged and what the prices are?
Dave: Yes of course.
Dave: Well once we have all the entries I send them to all the judges.
Dave: Our competition is quite popular so we are lucky to be able to use Q7 famous authors who are very interested in the competition.
Candidate: That’s fantastic. It’s great to know that someone famous will be reading my story.
Dave: Yes that’s right it takes them quite a while to read through the entries but eventually they decide on the top five stories.
Candidate: I see and what happens then?
Dave: Well they will be published Q8 online so everyone can read them they will not be in any order at this point.
Dave: They will just be the five stories that the judges think of the best.
Candidate: and all the top five stories get prices.
Dave: No it’s just the top story and the runner-up.
Candidate: So how is the top story decided?
Dave: Well once the top five stories are available it will be the Q9 public who will vote for their favorite story.
Candidate: Right, I see so I need to get all my friends to vote for me then.
Dave: Yes that’s a good idea.
Candidate: And what is the price?
Dave: Well the runner-up gets a prize of three hundred pounds.
Dave: but the winner gets a trip to Q10 Spain to attend a workshop for writers.
Candidate: Wow that’s brilliant, I’d better get writing straight away.
Dave: Yes good luck.
Candidate: Thanks.