Source: ielts.org
1 = B (friends)
2 = C (about 6 months)
3 = B (1,500)
4 = A (Ireland)
BarterOnlineUK is a young, up and coming website in the United Kingdom where users can ‘buy’ new and used goods; however, instead of paying with money, registered users instead exchange their purchase for an item of similar value. This part is perhaps the most complicated, as the registered users themselves must mutually decide on an appropriate value, with value either being the recommended retail price (RRP), or simply how much they believe the item to be worth. 1 The website has been founded by a group of four friends in the north of England. Originally they exchanged their belongings among family members. They frequently found themselves swapping their belongings when they no longer had any use for them. They live by the motto ‘one person’s trash is another person’s treasure’, and hate to throw things away. As more and more people caught wind of the idea and wanted to participate in the exchanges, the group decided that the idea had the potential to become a successful business venture, and so it did.
2 BarterOnlineUK is a start-up online business, which took 3 months to set up and has now been running for around half a year. 3 Despite only being founded a short time ago, the website has already garnered about 1,500 registered users, with 500 more than expected, a huge achievement for the founders. 4 Some of the users are registered in the United Kingdom and Canada, with the majority from the Republic of Ireland. In order to become a registered member, users must first fill in their personal details followed by their credit or debit card details, which will be used to take payment of a monthly fee of £5. As long as this fee is paid, users will be able to perform an unlimited number of online exchanges.
2 = C (about 6 months)
3 = B (1,500)
4 = A (Ireland)
BarterOnlineUK is a young, up and coming website in the United Kingdom where users can ‘buy’ new and used goods; however, instead of paying with money, registered users instead exchange their purchase for an item of similar value. This part is perhaps the most complicated, as the registered users themselves must mutually decide on an appropriate value, with value either being the recommended retail price (RRP), or simply how much they believe the item to be worth. 1 The website has been founded by a group of four friends in the north of England. Originally they exchanged their belongings among family members. They frequently found themselves swapping their belongings when they no longer had any use for them. They live by the motto ‘one person’s trash is another person’s treasure’, and hate to throw things away. As more and more people caught wind of the idea and wanted to participate in the exchanges, the group decided that the idea had the potential to become a successful business venture, and so it did.
2 BarterOnlineUK is a start-up online business, which took 3 months to set up and has now been running for around half a year. 3 Despite only being founded a short time ago, the website has already garnered about 1,500 registered users, with 500 more than expected, a huge achievement for the founders. 4 Some of the users are registered in the United Kingdom and Canada, with the majority from the Republic of Ireland. In order to become a registered member, users must first fill in their personal details followed by their credit or debit card details, which will be used to take payment of a monthly fee of £5. As long as this fee is paid, users will be able to perform an unlimited number of online exchanges.
Be ready for multiple questions to be answered in a short period of time.
For example, the first half of the recording only has the answers to one question. However, the second half of the recording has the answers for questions 2-4.
Be ready to answer all of these questions quickly by writing down your answer on the question paper or extra paper. You can copy this to your answer sheet after.