Cambridge IELTS 19 Listening Test 1 answers are set out in full on this page, with the official answer key for all 40 questions, playable audio for each part, clear explanations for every item, and complete transcripts to read alongside the recordings.

The paper opens with a phone enquiry about a country park school visit, moves to a twinning talk that ends with a plan of Farley House, continues with two students comparing food projects and judging food trends, and closes with a lecture on the Céide Fields beneath an Irish bog. Every explanation quotes the exact line that proves the answer, so you can see why each word or letter scores and why the distractors fail.

Before you press play, skim the gaps in Parts 1 and 4 and predict each one’s word class: the Section 1 strategy shows how for note completion, and the Section 4 strategy keeps you oriented through ten lecture questions without a pause.

Section Walkthroughs

• Country Park Visit Enquiry (Questions 1–10) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• Twinning Association Talk (Questions 11–20) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• Vegan Egg Alternative Project (Questions 21–30) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• The Ceide Fields Lecture (Questions 31–40) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section

Section 1 — Country Park Visit Enquiry

Questions 1–10

Complete the notes below.

Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Habitats: wetland, grassland and woodland

Wildlife includes birds, insects and animals

• Hinchingbrooke Country Park
• The park
• Area: 1 ………… hectares
• Wetland: lakes, ponds and a 2 …………
• Subjects studied in educational visits include
• Science: Children look at 3 ………… about plants, etc.
• Geography: includes learning to use a 4 ………… and compass History: changes in land use
• Leisure and tourism: mostly concentrates on the park’s 5 …………
• Music: Children make 6 ………… with natural materials, and experiment with rhythm and speed.
• Benefits of outdoor educational visits
• They give children a feeling of 7 ………… that they may not have elsewhere.
• Children learn new 8 ………… and gain self-confidence.
• Practical issues
• Cost per child: £ 9 …………
• Adults, such as 10 ………… , free

Section 1 Answer Explanations

1. 69 — the notes ask for the park’s area in hectares, and the ranger says “that’s 69 hectares” straight after “the park covers 170 acres”. The 170 figure is the acreage trap, and the task allows ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER, so the digits 69 score alone.

2. stream — the wetland row lists lakes and ponds before the gap, and the ranger adds “ponds and a stream that flows through the park”. Lakes and ponds are the distractors, because the missing feature is the one that flows.

3. data — the science note reads children look at …… about plants, and the children “collect and analyse data about the things they see”. Plants and insects describe the objects studied, so the noun before about is data.

4. map — geography covers navigation, and the park is “a great environment to learn and practice reading a map and using a compass to navigate around the park”. Compass is printed in the notes, so map fills the blank in front of it.

5. visitors — the leisure and tourism note asks what the subject concentrates on, and John offers “That focuses on your visitors”, confirmed by “Yes, mostly”. Requirements and problems are details studied about the visitors, not the answer.

6. sounds — the music row pairs the gap with natural materials, and the children “experiment with natural materials to create sounds and explore rhythm and tempo”. The notes paraphrase tempo as speed, making tempo the trap and sounds the answer.

7. freedom — the benefits list starts with a feeling, and John says the children “get a sense of freedom that might not be a normal part of their lives”. Creative and explore belong to the ranger’s earlier sentence about learning outside.

8. skills — the next benefit is something learned, and the children “can do things they didn’t know they could do, and they develop new skills”. Self-confidence is printed in the notes as the outcome, leaving skills for the gap.

9. 4.95 — the price note prints the pound sign, and the ranger states “it costs £4.95 for each child who attends on the day”. Write the bare number 4.95, because £ is already in the stem; 30 and 40 are group-size figures that never score.

10. leaders — the final note names which adults come free, and the ranger confirms “There’s no charge for leaders and other adults”. Adults alone is too general for adults, such as ……, free, so the specific plural is leaders.

Section 2 — Twinning Association Talk

Questions 11–15

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

• Stanthorpe Twinning Association

11. During the visit to Malatte, in France, members especially enjoyed going to a theme park. experiencing a river trip. visiting a cheese factory.

• A — going to a theme park.
• B — experiencing a river trip.
• C — visiting a cheese factory.

12. What will happen in Stanthorpe to mark the 25th anniversary of the Twinning Association? A tree will be planted. A garden seat will be bought. A footbridge will be built.

• A — A tree will be planted.
• B — A garden seat will be bought.
• C — A footbridge will be built.

13. Which event raised most funds this year? the film show the pancake evening the cookery demonstration

• A — the film show
• B — the pancake evening
• C — the cookery demonstration

14. For the first evening with the French visitors host families are advised to take them for a walk round the town. go to a local restaurant. have a meal at home.

• A — take them for a walk round the town.
• B — go to a local restaurant.
• C — have a meal at home.

15. On Saturday evening there will be the chance to listen to a concert. watch a match. take part in a competition.

• A — listen to a concert.
• B — watch a match.
• C — take part in a competition.

Questions 16–20

Label the map below.

Write the correct letter, A–H , next to Questions.

• Farley House

16. Farm shop

17. Disabled entry

18. Adventure playground

19. Kitchen gardens

20. The Temple of the Four Winds

Section 2 Answer Explanations

11. B (experiencing a river trip) — the speaker recalls “the final boat trip down the river”, calling it “the real highlight”. A fails because “The theme park trip had to be cancelled”, and C fails because the cheese visit was simply part of the programme.

12. A (A tree will be planted) — in Stanthorpe “we’ve decided to plant a poplar tree in the museum gardens”. B fails because a garden seat was considered until “the authorities weren’t happy with that idea”, and C fails because the footbridge is “in the municipal park” at Malatte in France.

13. B (the pancake evening) — “Our pancake evening was well attended and made record profits”. C fails because the cookery demonstration was “nearly as successful”, and A fails because “Numbers for our film show were limited because of the venue”.

14. C (have a meal at home) — the first-evening advice is “have dinner in the house or garden rather than eating out”, which rules out B. A fails because the stroll round town belongs to the next morning’s market day.

15. A (listen to a concert) — at the football club “we’ll have Toby Sharp and his band performing English and Scottish country songs”. B fails because the club is only the venue, and C fails because the quiz night ran the previous year.

16. G — the farm shop sits in the old stables round a courtyard, and “the shop’s in the far corner on the left”. The letter at that far left corner of the courtyard on the printed plan is G.

17. C — the main entrance “has a lot of steps”, so the speaker recommends the disabled entry “on the far side of the house from the car park”. The letter marking that far side on the plan is C.

18. B — the adventure playground is “at the northern end of the larger lake”, in “a bend on the path that leads to the lake”. The letter at that northern tip of the big lake is B.

19. D — the kitchen gardens are “rectangular and surrounded by a wall” and lie “to the north-east of the house, quite near the smaller lake”. The letter beside that walled rectangle is D.

20. A — the Temple of the Four Winds stands at the end of the route where the speaker says “take the right-hand path” and climb “with the woods on your left” until “the temple is right at the end”. The letter at that path end is A.

Section 3 — Vegan Egg Alternative Project

Questions 21–22

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

21–22. Which TWO things did Colin find most satisfying about his bread reuse project? receiving support from local restaurants finding a good way to prevent waste overcoming problems in a basic process experimenting with designs and colours learning how to apply 3-D printing

• A — receiving support from local restaurants
• B — finding a good way to prevent waste
• C — overcoming problems in a basic process
• D — experimenting with designs and colours
• E — learning how to apply 3-D printing

Questions 23–24

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

23–24. Which TWO ways do the students agree that touch-sensitive sensors for food labels could be developed in future? for use on medical products to show that food is no longer fit to eat for use with drinks as well as foods to provide applications for blind people to indicate the weight of certain foods

• A — for use on medical products
• B — to show that food is no longer fit to eat
• C — for use with drinks as well as foods
• D — to provide applications for blind people
• E — to indicate the weight of certain foods

Questions 25–30

What is the students’ opinion about each of the following food trends?

Choose SIX answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-H, next to

• A. This is only relevant to young people.
• B. This may have disappointing results.
• C. This already seems to be widespread.
• D. Retailers should do more to encourage this.
• E. More financial support is needed for this.
• F. Most people know little about this.
• G. There should be stricter regulations about this.
• H. This could be dangerous.

• Opinions

25. Use of local products

26. Reduction in unnecessary packaging

27. Gluten-free and lactose-free food

28. Use of branded products related to celebrity chefs

29. Development of ‘ghost kitchens’ for takeaway food

30. Use of mushrooms for common health concerns

Section 3 Answer Explanations

21. B (finding a good way to prevent waste) — Marie names the project’s reward: making “something appetising out of bits of old bread that would’ve been thrown away otherwise”. Rescuing discarded bread is waste prevention, and Questions 21 and 22 accept the letters B and D in either order.

22. D (experimenting with designs and colours) — Colin had time to “play around with different patterns for the biscuits” and to add fruit and vegetables “to make them a more appetising colour”, ending “really pleased with what I managed to produce”. E fails because “I’d used that before”, A fails because restaurant interest is only a hope, and C fails because “The basic process was quite straightforward”.

23. A (for use on medical products) — Marie looks beyond food: “I thought it might be really good for drug storage in hospitals and pharmacies”. Drugs in hospitals are medical products, and Questions 23 and 24 accept the letters A and E in either order.

24. E (to indicate the weight of certain foods) — Colin proposes using the labels “for other things besides freshness. Like how many kilograms a joint of meat is”. Kilograms measure weight; B fails because spoilage bumps are the current design, C fails because “things like milk and juice as well” already work, and D fails because blind users were the original purpose, not a future use.

25. D (Retailers should do more to encourage this) — on local products, Marie notes “the shops are still full of imported foods” and Colin agrees “they need to be more proactive to address that”. Shops needing to act makes D the match.

26. G (There should be stricter regulations about this) — on packaging, Colin declares “The government needs to do something about it”. Government action means regulation, so G beats E, since no funding is discussed.

27. C (This already seems to be widespread) — on gluten and lactose-free food, Marie replies “Lots of people I know have been buying that type of food for years now”. Years of mass purchasing is exactly widespread.

28. B (This may have disappointing results) — Marie says “I bought something like that once, but I won’t again”, and Colin’s celebrity spice mix “didn’t actually taste of anything”. Products that fail to deliver taste give disappointing results.

29. F (Most people know little about this) — ghost kitchens are “a cooking facility just for delivery meals”, and Marie stresses “it’s all kept very quiet”. Colin has never heard of them either, which matches F.

30. H (This could be dangerous) — on mushrooms for health concerns, Marie warns “They might be taking a big risk there”, and Colin concedes “it’s hard to know which varieties are safe to eat”. Risk plus unknown safety is danger.

Section 4 — The Ceide Fields Lecture

Questions 31–40

Complete the notes below.

Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

an important Neolithic archaeological site in the northwest of Ireland

– carbon dating later proved the site was Neolithic.

Neolithic innovations include:

– cooking indoors

• Céide Fields
• Discovery
• In the 1930s, a local teacher realised that stones beneath the bog surface were once 31 ………… .
• His 32 ………… became an archaeologist and undertook an investigation of the site:
• – a traditional method used by local people to dig for 33 ………… was used to identify where stones were located
• Items are well preserved in the bog because of a lack of 34 ………… .
• Neolithic farmers
• Houses were 35 ………… in shape and had a hole in the roof.
• – pots used for storage and to make 36 ………… .
• Each field at Céide was large enough to support a big 37 ………… .
• The fields were probably used to restrict the grazing of animals – no evidence of structures to house them during 38 ………… .
• Reasons for the decline in farming
• a decline in 39 ………… quality
• an increase in 40 …………

Section 4 Answer Explanations

31. walls — the teacher saw rows of stones in the bog and “realised that these must be walls”. Rows of stones is printed in the notes, so the plural noun walls completes the sentence.

32. son — the note follows His, and the lecture continues “when Patrick Caulfield’s son Seamus, who had become an archaeologist by then, began to explore further”. Patrick himself was the teacher; his son ran the investigation.

33. fuel — the probing method was one local people “had always used for finding fuel buried in the bog”. Probes names the tool, and the note asks what was dug for, so fuel fills the gap.

34. oxygen — preservation comes from “the acidity of the peat and the deficiency of oxygen”. The note frames the gap as a lack, and acidity and peat are the traps that surround the real answer.

35. rectangular — the houses “weren’t round as people often assume, but rectangular with a small hole in the roof”. Round is the assumption the lecture corrects, and the note needs an adjective before in shape.

36. lamps — as well as storing food, “pots were filled with a small amount of fat and when this was set alight, they served as lamps”. Fat and storage are the distractors; the note asks what the pots made, and the plural lamps fits.

37. family — each field was “of a suitable size to sustain an extended family”. Community describes how the farmers lived, but the note asks for the big unit one field supported, which is family.

38. winter — grazing was year-round because “no structures have been found which would have been used to shelter animals in the winter”. The note prints during before the gap, so the season completes it.

39. soil — the first cause of decline is that “The soil would have become less productive and led to the abandonment of farming”. The note paraphrases this as a decline in something quality, and that something is soil.

40. rain — the climate turned because “the conditions became wetter as there was a lot more rain”, which encouraged the bog to form. Wet is the adjective trap; the note needs a noun, and rain closes the paper.

Cambridge IELTS 19 Listening Test 1 Answers

Questions and Answers

Where two letters are shown for a single question, either order is accepted, exactly as in the official answer key.

Listening Transcripts

Section 1 Transcript

SALLY: Good morning. Hinchingbrooke Country Park, Sally speaking. I’m one of the rangers.

JOHN: Oh hello. My name’s John Chapman, and I’m a teaching assistant at a local primary school. I’ve been asked to arrange a visit to the park for two of our classes.

SALLY: OK. What would you like to know?

JOHN: Well, I’m new to this area, so perhaps you could tell me something about the park first, please.

SALLY: Of course. Altogether the park covers 170 acres, that’s 69 hectares. There are three main types of habitat: wetland, grassland and woodland. The woods are well established and varied, with an oak plantation, and other areas of mixed species.

JOHN: Right.

SALLY: The wetland is quite varied, too. The original farmland was dug up around 40 years ago to extract gravel. Once this work was completed, the gravel pits filled with water, forming the two large lakes. There are also several smaller ones, ponds and a stream that flows through the park.

JOHN: OK, so I suppose with these different habitats there’s quite a variety of wildlife.

SALLY: There certainly is – a lot of different species of birds and insects, and also animals like deer and rabbits.

JOHN: And I understand you organise educational visits for school parties.

SALLY: That’s right. We can organise a wide range of activities and adapt them to suit all ages.

JOHN: Can you give me some examples of the activities?

SALLY: Well, one focus is on science, where we help children to discover and study plants, trees and insects. They also collect and analyse data about the things they see.

JOHN: Uhuh.

SALLY: Another focus is on geography. The park is a great environment to learn and practice reading a map and using a compass to navigate around the park.

JOHN: Do you do anything connected with history?

SALLY: Yes, we do. For instance, the children can explore how the use of the land has changed over time. Then there’s leisure and tourism.

JOHN: That focuses on your visitors, I would imagine.

SALLY: Yes, mostly. The children find out about them, their requirements, the problems they may cause and how we manage these. And another subject we cover is music: here the children experiment with natural materials to create sounds and explore rhythm and tempo.

JOHN: That must be fun!

SALLY: Most children really enjoy it.

SALLY: And of course, all the activities are educational, too. Learning outside the classroom encourages children to be creative, and to explore and discover for themselves.

JOHN: I would imagine they get a sense of freedom that might not be a normal part of their lives.

SALLY: That’s right. And very often the children discover that they can do things they didn’t know they could do, and they develop new skills. This gives them greater self-confidence.

JOHN: It sounds great. So, what about the practical side of it? How much does it cost for a full-day visit? We would expect to bring between 30 and 40 children.

SALLY: If there are over 30, it costs £4.95 for each child who attends on the day. We invoice you afterwards, so you don’t pay for children who can’t come because of sickness, for example. There’s no charge for leaders and other adults-as many as you want to bring.

JOHN: That sounds very fair. Well, thanks for all the information. I’ll need to discuss it with my colleagues, and I hope to get back to you soon to make a booking.

SALLY: We’ll look forward to hearing from you. Goodbye.

JOHN: Goodbye, and thank you.

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Section 2 Transcript

It’s great to see so many members of the Twinning Association here tonight. Since the twinning link between our two towns, Stanthorpe here in England and Malatte in France, was established, the relationship between the towns has gone from strength to strength.

Last month, 25 members of the association from Stanthorpe spent a weekend in Malatte. Our hosts had arranged a great programme. We learned how cheese is produced in the region and had the chance to taste the products. The theme park trip had to be cancelled, but we all had a great time on the final boat trip down the river-that was the real highlight.

This is a special year for the Association because it’s 25 years since we were founded. In Malatte, they’re planning to mark this by building a footbridge in the municipal park. We’ve been discussing what to do here and we’ve decided to plant a poplar tree in the museum gardens. We considered buying a garden seat to put there, but the authorities weren’t happy with that idea.

In terms of fundraising to support our activities, we’ve done very well. Our pancake evening was well attended and made record profits. And everyone enjoyed the demonstration of French cookery, which was nearly as successful. Numbers for our film show were limited because of the venue so we’re looking for somewhere bigger next year.

We’re looking forward to welcoming our French visitors here next week, and I know that many of you here will be hosting individuals or families. The coach from France will arrive at 5 pm on Friday. Don’t try to do too much that first evening as they’ll be tired, so have dinner in the house or garden rather than eating out. The weather looks as if it’ll be OK so you might like to plan a barbecue. Then the next morning’s market day in town, and that’s always a good place to stroll round.

On Saturday evening, we’ll all meet up at the football club, where once again we’ll have Toby Sharp and his band performing English and Scottish country songs. Toby will already be well known to many of you as last year he organized our special quiz night and presented the prizes.

——–

Now on Sunday, we’ll be taking our visitors to Farley House. You may not all be familiar with it, so here’s a map to help you. You can see the car park at the bottom of the map. There’s an excellent farm shop in the grounds where our visitors can buy local produce – it’s in the old stables, which is the first building you come to. They’re built round a courtyard, and the shop’s in the far corner on the left. There’s also a small café on the right as you go in.

I know that one or two of our visitors may not be all that mobile. The main entrance to the house has a lot of steps so you might want to use the disabled entry. This is on the far side of the house from the car park.

Children will probably be most interested in the adventure playground. That’s at the northern end of the larger lake, in a bend on the path that leads to the lake. There’s lots for children to do there.

There are a number of lovely gardens near the house. The kitchen gardens are rectangular and surrounded by a wall. They’re to the north-east of the house, quite near the smaller lake. They’re still in use and have a great collection of fruit and vegetables.

The Temple of the Four Winds is a bit more of a walk – but it’s worth it. Take the path from the car park and go past the western sides of the stables and the house. Then when the path forks, take the right-hand path. Go up there with the woods on your left and the temple is right at the end. There are great views over the whole area.

OK, so that’s . . .

Section 3 Transcript

COLIN: I haven’t seen you for a bit, Marie.

MARIE: No. I’ve been busy with my project.

COLIN: You’re making a vegan alternative to eggs, aren’t you? Something that doesn’t use animal products?

MARIE: Yes. I’m using chickpeas. I had two main aims when I first started looking for an alternative to eggs, but actually I’ve found chickpeas have got more advantages.

COLIN: Right.

MARIE: But how about your project on reusing waste food – you were looking at bread, weren’t you?

COLIN: Yes. It’s been hard work, but I’ve enjoyed it. The basic process was quite straightforward -breaking the stale bread down to a paste then reforming it.

MARIE: But you were using 3-D printing, weren’t you, to make the paste into biscuits?

COLIN: Yeah, I’d used that before, but in this project, I had time to play around with different patterns for the biscuits and finding how I could add fruit and vegetables to make them a more appetising colour, and I was really pleased with what I managed to produce.

MARIE: It must’ve been a great feeling to make something appetising out of bits of old bread that would’ve been thrown away otherwise.

COLIN: It was. And I’m hoping that some of the restaurants in town will be interested in the biscuits. I’m going to send them some samples.

MARIE: I came across something on the internet yesterday that might interest you. It was a company that’s developed touch-sensitive sensors for food labels.

COLIN: Mmm?

MARIE: It’s a special sort of label on the food package. When the label’s smooth, the food is fresh and then when you can feel bumps on the label, that means the food’s gone bad. It started off as a project to help visually impaired people know whether food was fit to eat or not.

COLIN: Interesting. So just solid food?

MARIE: No, things like milk and juice as well. But actually, I thought it might be really good for drug storage in hospitals and pharmacies.

COLIN: Right. And coming back to food, maybe it’d be possible to use it for other things besides freshness. Like how many kilograms a joint of meat is, for example.

MARIE: Yes, there’s all sorts of possibilities.

COLIN: I was reading an article about food trends predicting how eating habits might change in the next few years.

MARIE: Oh things like more focus on local products? That seems so obvious, but the shops are still full of imported foods.

COLIN: Yes, they need to be more proactive to address that.

MARIE: And somehow motivate consumers to change, yes.

COLIN: One thing everyone’s aware of is the need for a reduction in unnecessary packaging-but just about everything you buy in supermarkets is still covered in plastic. The government needs to do something about it.

MARIE: Absolutely. It’s got to change.

COLIN: Do you think there’ll be more interest in gluten and lactose-free food?

MARIE: For people with allergies or food intolerances? I don’t know. Lots of people I know have been buying that type of food for years now.

COLIN: Yes, even if they haven’t been diagnosed with an allergy.

MARIE: That’s right. One thing I ’ve noticed is the number of branded products related to celebrity chefs – people watch them cooking on TV and then buy things like spice mixes or frozen foods with the chef’s name on. I bought something like that once, but I won’t again.

COLIN: Yeah – I bought a ready-made spice mix for chicken which was supposed to be used by a chef I’d seen on television, and it didn’t actually taste of anything.

MARIE: Mm. Did the article mention ‘ghost kitchens’ used to produce takeaway food?

COLIN: No. What are they?

MARIE: Well, they might have the name of a restaurant, but actually they’re a cooking facility just for delivery meals – the public don’t ever go there. But people aren’t aware of that – it’s all kept very quiet.

COLIN: So people don’t realise the food’s not actually from the restaurant?

MARIE: Right.

COLIN: Did you know more and more people are using all sorts of different mushrooms now, to treat different health concerns? Things like heart problems?

MARIE: Hmm. They might be taking a big risk there.

COLIN: Yes, it’s hard to know which varieties are safe to eat. Anyway maybe now…

Section 4 Transcript

For my presentation today, I’m going to talk about the Céide Fields in the northwest of Ireland, one of the largest Neolithic sites in the world. I recently visited this site and observed the work that is currently being done by a team of archaeologists there.

The site was first discovered in the 1930s by a local teacher, Patrick Caulfield. He noticed that when local people were digging in the bog, they were constantly hitting against what seemed to be rows of stones. He realised that these must be walls and that they must be thousands of years old for them to predate the bog which subsequently grew over them.

He wrote to the National Museum in Dublin to ask them to investigate, but no one took him seriously. It wasn’t until 40 years later, when Patrick Caulfield’s son Seamus, who had become an archaeologist by then, began to explore further. He inserted iron probes into the bog to map the formation of the stones, a traditional method which local people had always used for finding fuel buried in the bog for thousands of years. Carbon dating later proved that the site was over 5,000 years old and was the largest Neolithic site in Ireland.

Thanks to the bog which covers the area, the remains of the settlement at Céide Fields, which is over 5,000 years old, are extremely well-preserved. A bog is 90 percent water; its soil is so saturated that when the grasses and heathers that grow on its surface die, they don’t fully decay but accumulate in layers. Objects remain so well preserved in these conditions because of the acidity of the peat and the deficiency of oxygen. At least 175 days of rain a year are required for this to happen; this part of Ireland gets an average of 225 days.

The Neolithic farmers at Céide would have enjoyed several centuries of relative peace and stability. Neolithic farmers generally lived in larger communities than their predecessors, with a number of houses built around a community building. As they lived in permanent settlements, Neolithic farmers were able to build bigger houses. These weren’t round as people often assume, but rectangular with a small hole in the roof that allowed smoke to escape. This is one of many innovations and indicates that the Neolithic farmers were the first people to cook indoors. Another new technology that Neolithic settlers brought to Ireland was pottery. Fragments of Neolithic pots have been found in Céide and elsewhere in Ireland. The pots were used for many things; as well as for storing food, pots were filled with a small amount of fat and when this was set alight, they served as lamps.

It’s thought that the Céide Fields were mainly used as paddocks for animals to graze in. Evidence from the Céide Fields suggests that each plot of land was of a suitable size to sustain an extended family. They may have used a system of rotational grazing in order to prevent over-grazing and to allow for plant recovery and regrowth. This must have been a year-round activity as no structures have been found which would have been used to shelter animals in the winter.

However, archaeologists believe that this way of life at Céide ceased abruptly. Why was this? Well, several factors may have contributed to the changing circumstances. The soil would have become less productive and led to the abandonment of farming. The crop rotation system was partly responsible for this as it would have been very intensive and was not sustainable. But there were also climatic pressures too. The farmers at Céide would have enjoyed a relatively dry period, but this began to change and the conditions became wetter as there was a lot more rain. It was these conditions that encouraged the bog to form over the area which survives today.

So now I’d like to show you some …

Listening Band Score Conversion

Your raw score out of 40 converts to an IELTS band score using the official listening conversion table below.

Key Vocabulary and Spelling

Study Tips

Parts 1 and 4 of this paper are note completion tasks with two different word limits, and the limit decides several marks. Part 1 allows ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER, so Question 1 scores with the digits 69 and Question 9 with 4.95, while Part 4 allows ONE WORD ONLY, so Question 40 must be rain rather than more rain. Read the instruction line every time with the note completion strategy routine.

Spelling and symbols cost easy marks across the paper: 4.95 never needs the £ sign because the stem prints it, rectangular carries two r’s, and hectares ends -ares rather than -acres. Run every written answer through the listening spelling rules checklist in the transfer minutes, because a correct word spelled wrongly scores zero.

Parts 2 and 3 reward rejection as much as selection. The theme park is cancelled, the garden seat is blocked by the authorities, and the film show loses to the venue, while in Part 3 the 3-D printing was old news and blind users were the labels’ original purpose. Eliminate the options the speakers close down using the multiple choice strategy, and for Questions 16–20 convert each description into movement on the plan with the map and plan completion strategy, since the letters mark positions on the printed plan.

The Choose TWO questions in Part 3 accept the two letters in either order, so bank B and D for Questions 21–22 and A and E for Questions 23–24 without agonising over which box each belongs in. In the matching task, the letter depends on the students’ final verdict sentence, not the first mention of the trend, so wait for phrases like “it’s all kept very quiet” before committing your answer.

Practice More Listening Tests

Mark the paper honestly, then keep the momentum going with the free IELTS listening practice course from Simply IELTS, which drills every task type that appeared in this test: note completion, multiple choice, plan labelling, matching and Choose TWO questions. When you are ready for full papers under timed conditions, try this interactive listening test: childcare services first, then follow it with the interactive listening test: maple syrup ielts listening test with answer. Compare your raw score with the band table above, review the explanation for every question you missed, and start the next test only when word limits and spelling stop costing you marks.