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.