Spelling Practice for IELTS Listening: City Names

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Spelling practice for city names and other place names, such as towns. Improve your listening and spelling by listening to the spelling of particular places and writing down the letters you hear. This is important practice for IELTS listening section 1.

Writing down the letters you hear. The place names will be given and then spelled. Each place name will be spelled only once. There are 15 place names to write down.

Listen & Write: 15 Town & City Names

 

Answers
  1. Birmingham
  2. Carlisle
  3. Chichester
  4. Leicester
  5. Peterborough
  6. Truro
  7. Wolverhampton
  8. Amersham
  9. Framlingham
  10. Gillingham
  11. Goole
  12. Ormskirk
  13. Painswick
  14. Rochdale
  15. Sawbridgeworth

 

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Alphabet Practice for Spelling

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Alphabet practice for spelling is designed to review the pronunciation of letters for accurate spelling. It’s an easy lesson but worth reviewing to refresh your pronunciation and accuracy for IELTS listening section 1.

Alphabet Review

 A  B   C   D  E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L  M   N   O   P   Q  R   S   T   U  V   W   X   Y   Z  

 

Similar Letters Practice

Listen to the pronunciation of the following similar letters.

  1.  B / P
  2. D / T
  3. S / X
  4. J / G
  5. M / N
  6. K / Q
  7. U / Y
  8. V / W
  9. Z (UK pronunciation & US pronunciation)

 

Practice Listening for Letters

Write down the letter you hear. There will be 15 letters given. Each letter will be said only once.

 

Answers
  1. S
  2. T
  3. P
  4. R
  5. U
  6. G
  7. I
  8. A
  9. Q
  10. X
  11. J
  12. B
  13. C
  14. F
  15. N

 

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Brain Drain Listening Practice

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This listening lesson has two different types of questions: list selection and sentence completion. This will also test your ability to know when to move from one question to the next. Make sure you use this lesson to also learn useful vocabulary because the brain drain is a common topic in writing task 2.

Questions 1-3

Which three reasons are given for the brain drain? Choose the correct letters A-G.

  • A) money
  • B) promotion opportunities
  • C) working with other professionals
  • D) quality of life
  • E) state-of-the-art equipment
  • F) political advancement
  • G) unemployment

Question 4

What problem does the brain drain cause developing countries? Choose one letter.

  • A) resentment
  • B) loss of facilities
  • C) conflict between remaining professionals
  • D) loss of reputation
  • E) loss of money
  • F) loss of materials

Question 5

Complete the sentence using no more than one word and/or a number.

In 2000, …….. million people, who were living outside their country of origin for more than one year, were employed.

Answers
  1. A
  2. D
  3. E (answers to questions 1-3 can be given in any order)
  4. E
  5. 65
  Transcript
Brain drain is the migration of skilled human resources for trade, education, health care and other sectors. Trained health professionals are needed in every part of the world. However, better standards of living draw many of them to more developed countries. Others decide to make the move because of better remuneration or for access to advanced modern technology.  For some the stable political conditions in the developed countries attract talent from less developed areas. The majority of migration is from developing to developed countries. This is of growing concern worldwide because of its impact on the health care systems in developing countries. These countries have invested in the education and training of young health professionals. This translates into a loss of considerable resources when these people migrate, with the benefit accruing to the recipient states who have not forked out to educate them. The intellectuals of any country are some of the most expensive resources because of their training in terms of material cost and time, and most importantly, because of lost opportunity. In 2000 almost 175 million people, or 2.9% of the world’s population, were living outside their country of birth for more than a year. Of these, about 65 million were economically active. This form of migration has in the past involved many health professionals: nurses and physicians have sought employment abroad for many reasons including high unemployment in their home country. (read more about this)

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……………………………..

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Listening Practice for Numbers

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This lesson focuses on listening for numbers. There are three sections of listening and each section has 10 questions. Make sure you have a pencil and paper ready.

Write down the numbers you hear. Each listening has 10 or 9 numbers.

Numbers 1 to 100

Answers
  1. 8
  2. 13
  3. 50
  4. 24
  5. 47
  6. 86
  7. 19
  8. 97
  9. 17
  10. 29

Numbers from 100 to 1,000

Answers
  1. 116
  2. 196
  3. 332
  4. 480
  5. 390
  6. 830
  7. 901
  8. 642
  9. 589
  10. 772

Numbers from 1,000 to 1,000,000

Answers
  1. 2,350
  2. 6,719
  3. 10,300
  4. 80,500 (this one is missing from the audio)
  5. 65,000
  6. 12,450
  7. 15,000
  8. 28,560
  9. 990,999

 

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New Year in Vietnam: IELTS Listening Practice

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This is an IELTS listening exercise which I have made for my Vietnamese students about their wonderful New Year’s celebration called Tết. It is a sentence completion practice so you will need to fill in the gaps as you listen. Remember to read the questions before listening to the audio. Answers do come in order.Tet IELTS listening

Tết Holiday (Vietnamese New Year)

Listening Practice

Complete the sentences using no more than three words.

  1. Another name for Tết is ……………….
  2. One typical dish at this time is a soup which is made from ………………..
  3. Lucky money is given to ………….. and …………………
  4. At Tết, houses are adorned with …………. blossom and kumquat ……………
  5. …………  the house is forbidden during Tết.

ANSWERS

Click below to reveal the transcript, answers and vocabulary. I provide the transcript so you can check the answers in context and improving your pronunciation.

Transcript

Tết is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Vietnamese people consider Tết to be the first day of spring and the festival is often called spring festival.

Many Vietnamese prepare for Tết by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. These foods include square rice cake, Vietnamese sausage, dried young bamboo soup, sticky rice and boiled chicken. There are a lot of customs practiced during Tết, such as visiting a person’s house on the first day of the new year, ancestral worship, wishing New Year’s greetings and giving lucky money to children and elderly people.

There are certain things to observe during Tết and certain things to avoid. Houses are thoroughly cleaned in preparation for Tết. People buy kumquat trees and peach blossom to decorate their houses. There are dragon or lion dances in the streets. New clothes should be bought for every member of the family. And on New Year’s Eve, the kitchen god, Ong Tao, is welcomed back to the kitchen. On the other hand, somethings must be avoided. Sweeping during Tết is taboo and considered to be unlucky, since it symbolizes sweeping away the luck; that is why they clean before the new year. It is also taboo for anyone who experienced a recent loss of a family member to visit anyone else during Tết.

Note: I made a mistake in the audio in the second sentence. I said Chinese instead of Vietnamese. Sorry to all my Vietnamese students for that. Liz

 Answers
  1. SPRING FESTIVAL
  2. (DRIED) (YOUNG) BAMBOO
    1. This means there are three possible answers to this question:
    2. bamboo / young bamboo / dried young bamboo
    3. some books use brackets to show optional answers – but you can’t do this in your test. You can’t use brackets in the listening test.
  3. CHILDREN  ELDERLY PEOPLE
    1. you need all three words correct for one point
    2. if you put the word “and” in your answer, it is marked wrong.
  4. PEACH   TREES
    1. both words are needed
    2. “trees” must be plural
    3. no punctuation is needed between the words – just leave a reasonable space
    4. The words can be in any order
  5. SWEEPING
 Vocabulary
  • arises = happens
  • it is often called = it is frequently named
  • ancestral worship = praying to ancestors (past family members)
  • to observe = to follow (this is when relating to celebrations or festivals)
  • sweeping = using a brush to clean the floor
  • luck (noun) / lucky (adjective)
  • taboo = forbidden

MORE VOCABULARY

square cake

square cake (bánh chưng) = A cake which is made from sticky rice, mung bean and pork wrapped in leaves.

kumquat

kumquat = A small citrus fruit similar to an orange. Both peel and flesh is eaten.

peach_blossom

peach blossom = flowers on a peach tree

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Happy New Year to all students in China and Vietnam as well as any others who are currently celebrating Lunar New Year. Wishing you all the best in the year to come. Liz

If you would like me to make a lesson about a festival or part of your culture, please let me know the details by posting a comment in the box below. Regards, Liz.

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Listening Practice: Summary Completion Questions

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This IELTS listening practice for summary completion questions is about following the information as you listen and selecting the correct words or numbers to fill in the gaps. Before you listen, read through the summary and make a note of what kinds of words you need for each gap (noun, verb, adjective, number etc). Predicting answers is a key skills in IELTS listening.

Summary Completion Listening for IELTS

Buckingham Palace 

Questions 1-5: Complete the summary using no more than one word and/or a number.

Buckingham Palace is where the Queen officially resides when she is in London and is well known for its famous(1) …………….. which was used for the first time by a royal during an official appearance in 1851. There were (2)………… bomb hits to the palace in World War II. There are a range of services available to the royal residents in the palace which has a total of (3) ………. rooms. There are 1,514 doors in the palace and 760 windows which are cleaned on a (4) …………. week rotation. The Queen hosts banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and garden parties and has over (5)………………… people visiting each year.

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Transcript and Answers

Click below to reveal the answers and transcript for this lesson:

Transcript

Buckingham Palace is The Queen’s official London residence. The balcony of Buckingham Palace is one of the most famous in the world. The first recorded Royal balcony appearance took place in 1851, when Queen Victoria stepped onto it during celebrations for the opening of the Great Exhibition. During the Second World War, Buckingham Palace suffered nine direct bomb hits.

Buckingham Palace has its own chapel, post office, swimming pool, staff cafeteria, doctor’s surgery and cinema. There are 775 rooms in the palace. Some rooms at Buckingham Palace have a Chinese theme. There are 1,514 doors and 760 windows in Buckingham Palace. All windows are cleaned every six weeks. More than 50,000 people visit the Palace annually as The Queen’s guests at banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and garden parties.

Answers
  1. balcony
  2. 9 / nine
  3. 775
  4. 6 / six
  5. 50,000

Adapted from royal.gov.uk

 

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IELTS Map Listening Practice

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This lesson is to practice Map Completion Questions for IELTS listening. First, there are some sentence completion questions and then you must fill in the gaps in the map given.

Tips for Maps

  1. Check the location of each number on your map
  2. Think of language that might be used to describe that location
  3. Look for any arrows on the map
  4. Answers to questions will come in order (the answer for question 1 will come before the answer for question 2 in the recording)
  5. Most map recordings are similar to a guided tour which follows a logical order
  6. Don’t be distracted by extra information
  7. Don’t forget that each time the question type changes, the instructions will change as well. Always pay attention to the word count in the instructions.

IELTS Map Listening Practice: The Taj Mahal 

Questions 1-2: Complete the sentences below using no more than one word and/or a number.

  1. The Taj Mahal was completed in ……………..
  2. Around ………… labourers were used in its creation.

Questions 3-7

Label the map below using no more than two words and/or a number.

building map ielts listening

Recording:

 

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Transcript and Answers

Click below to reveal the transcript and answers to this lesson:

Transcript

Welcome to the Taj Mahal. This is one of the most famous monuments to love in the world. It was built between 1631 and 1653 in the city of Agra by the Mughal Emperor Shah as a mausoleum for his wife. The construction involved some 20,000 workers and incorporated materials from China, Tibet, Sri Lanka and Arabia.

We are here at the Outer Gate and directly in front of us is the forecourt. On the left hand side of the forecourt, you will see some subsidiary tombs and opposite that are the tomb attendants’ quarters. If you go straight ahead, you will come to the Great Gate and beyond that is the formal gardens. The gardens are divided into 4 sections by paths which represent the 4 rivers of paradise. Midway, where the paths intersect, is a marble pond, in which the mausoleum is beautifully reflected. Walking through the gardens, past the pond, you will come to the mausoleum itself which has a marble dome, 35m high. Each side of the building has archways which are framed by carefully chosen verses from the Qur’an in beautifully stylised calligraphy. To the left of this, is the mosque and to the right you can find a guesthouse. Now I’ll give you some time to wander round and see this marvel for yourself.

 Answers

  1. 1653
  2. 20,000
  3. forecourt (you must have the correct spelling)
  4. Great Gate (capital letters not important – see IELTS Exam FAQ page)
  5. pond / marble pond
  6. mausoleum
  7. guesthouse / guest house

 

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Listening Practice: Big Numbers

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Improve your listening skills with this listening practice with big numbers. It is common in all section of the IELTS listening test to be asked to listen and write down large numbers.

Listen to the recording and write down the numbers you hear.

There are 10 questions.

Answers

  1. 451
  2. 730
  3. 1,600
  4. 2,460
  5. 6,768
  6. 10,550
  7. 20,200
  8. 35,050
  9. 102,700
  10. 1,400,002

 

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