Author: Gareth

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Picture Description: VIP Flight on the Apron

A government VIP jet parked on a remote apron stand with mobile air stairs, officials in suits, hi-vis ground crew, a baggage cart and a waiting black limousine under a hazy sky

Describe the picture

Look at the photograph above and describe what you can see. Try to speak for about a minute, moving from a general overview of the scene, to the details, and finally to speculation about what is happening and why. Use the words in the box to help you. If you are not sure how to structure your answer, read our guide on how to describe a picture.

dispersal · air stair · APU · ground crew · baggage · visibility

Prefer to write? As well as speaking, you can write your description — move from a general overview, to the details, to what is probably happening, using at least two of the words above.

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Qantas A350 Completes First Project Sunrise Test Flight

A Qantas Airbus A350-1000 climbing into a golden sunset sky shortly after takeoff

Qantas has edged closer to operating the longest commercial flights in the world. On 2 June 2026, the first Airbus A350-1000ULR built for the airline’s “Project Sunrise” took off from Toulouse on its maiden flight, an event that marks the beginning of the end of a programme the carrier has been pursuing for the better part of a decade.
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Listening: Tail-Skid Contact on Departure from Bangkok

How to do this dictation

Listen to the audio recording and write down everything you hear. You can play the audio as many times as you like. When you are finished, check your work against the answer key below.

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Listening: Volcanic Ash Encounter near Bali

You’re going to hear about something that happened to an airliner during a night flight over Indonesia. Listen carefully for what the crew noticed first, what they decided the problem was, and how they dealt with it.

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Structure: ‘Purpose clauses’

Why did Southwest pull out? Talking about purpose

Every decision an airline makes has a goal behind it. When we want to explain the reason an action is meant to achieve — not what happened, but what it was for — we use a purpose clause. News reports are full of them: a carrier moves into a busy hub to attract business travellers, or trims its network so that it can keep costs down.

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Southwest Ends All Flights at O’Hare and Dulles

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 parked at a jet bridge at a busy airport under an overcast sky

Southwest Airlines has stopped flying from two of America’s busiest airports. From 4 June 2026, the low-cost carrier no longer serves Chicago O’Hare or Washington Dulles, and the final Southwest flights from both airports departed the day before. The move ends a roughly five-year experiment at two major hubs.
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