12
Listening & Speaking
Listening
It is very important to read the questions before
you listen. They contain valuable information about
the situation, and also about what you should be
listening for.
Your understanding of the following things will
be tested in this part:
– general topic
– speaker’s feelings/emotions
– speaker’s attitude/opinion
– speaker’s purpose
Listen once and note down any answers you can.
Listen again and complete the answers.
STRATEGY POINT
Read through the ten items before you listen and try
to guess what kind of information is missing.
Bear in mind that the information you need to fill in
the boxes will be heard ‘word for word’, but its
context outside the boxes will be paraphrased in the
recording.
You will need between one and three words for each
gap.
Make sure that your answers fit grammatically.
STRATEGY POINT
1 You’ll hear a person talking about the
organisation she works for. What service is she
talking about?
A
medicine for the blind
B
school for the blind
C
books for the blind
2 You hear a conversation in an office. Why has
the man gone there?
A
to repair something
B
to phone somebody
C
to check the line
3 You want to get connected to the Internet, and
you call a helpline. What do you have to do?
A
Press ‘1’
B
Press ‘2’
C
Press ‘3’
4 At the airport, you hear a man leaving a
message on someone’s answerphone. What
does he want the person to do tomorrow?
A
collect the car from a garage
B
meet him at the airport
C
fix the car’s brakes
5 You are listening to a radio interview.
How does the man being interviewed feel?
A
angry
B
embarrassed
C
uninterested
6 You are listening to a news programme.
What is the report about?
A
a new mobile phone company
B
a new way to send text messages
C
a new way to communicate quickly
7 You hear a couple talking in a café. How does
the man feel about what the woman is showing
him?
A
He is convinced he needs it.
B
He doesn’t understand it.
C
He thinks it’s too expensive.
8 You are listening to someone talking to a group
of people. What is the man’s purpose?
A
to persuade people to buy a product
B
to reassure people that a product is safe
C
to stop people from buying a product
2
a. You will listen to a report about the decline in
the use of public phone boxes in the UK. Before
you listen, discuss the following questions.
1
Do you use public phone boxes? In what situations?
2
Paraphrase the sentences outside the boxes in Ex.
2b.
3
Look again at the incomplete sentences in Ex. 2b.
With a partner, try to guess what kind of information
is missing. For which item(s) is the missing
information a
number
? For which is it a
colour
?
b. Now listen to the recording. For questions 1-10,
complete the sentences with one to three words.
c. Look at the tapescript and underline the
words/phrases that refer to the items in bold in
Ex. 2b.
1
a. Before you listen, read questions 1-8 and
underline the key words in each. Then think
about:
how many people you will hear
what kind of language you expect to hear
what else you expect to hear
b. Now listen and, for questions 1-8, choose the
best answer (A, B or C). What key phrases
helped you answer each question?
