Cambridge IELTS 21 Listening Test 2 answers are set out in full on this page, with the official key for all 40 questions, clear explanations for every item, audio for each of the four parts, and complete transcripts for each part.

The paper opens with a phone call to a college about one-day classes, moves to an announcement on history and nature walks, then a student discussion with their tutor about a food science course, and closes with a lecture on the cruise ship industry. Questions 11–14 and 21–26 are Choose TWO items scored in either order, Questions 15–20 label a coal mine plan, and the remaining items are completion work under strict word limits.

Skim the gaps in Parts 1 and 4 before you press play and predict the word class each blank needs: the Section 1 strategy sets up the routine for the opening table, and the Section 4 strategy tracks a single voice through ten lecture questions.

Section Walkthroughs

• College One-Day Classes Enquiry (Questions 1–10) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• History and Nature Walks (Questions 11–20) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• Course Feedback Discussion (Questions 21–30) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• Cruise Ship Industry Lecture (Questions 31–40) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section

Section 1 — College One-Day Classes Enquiry

Questions 1–10

Complete the table below.

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

Section 1 Answer Explanations

1. 13 January — the Vietnamese cookery row leaves the date blank, and the caller remembers “that was on the 13th of January”, which the man confirms with “you’re right about the date”. The key prints the number with the month, a format the ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER limit allows.

2. 48 — the bread making price is settled by “The actual cost is £48”, while the ingredients carry “an extra charge as well as that for the ingredients”. The extra charge runs to “no more than twenty pounds”, so twenty is the trap figure and 48 scores as a bare number.

3. pizza — the class bakes several items: “they make white bread and then they make sourdough”, and then “they learn how to make pizza”. White bread and sourdough are already printed in the table, so pizza completes the list of products.

4. India — the stem reads The teacher trained in ……, and the man explains the massage is “a traditional technique used in India” and that the teacher “did her training there”. There points back to the country just named, so India fills the gap.

5. mirror — participants work on their own faces, so “you have to take a mirror to the class”. Wrinkles describes what the massage treats rather than an item to bring, and the singular matches the Bring a …… stem.

6. 6 April — the candle class date moved, because “It was on the 23rd of January but they had to change the date”, and the man settles the new one: “it’s on the 6th”. The old January date is the trap, and the key prints 6 April as one number plus one word.

7. natural — the selling point of the candles is that “the candles are all made out of natural products”. The note turns products into ingredients, so natural is the adjective that completes Only …… ingredients.

8. 67.50 — two prices are heard for silk painting: “It’s £67.50”, while a class elsewhere cost £110. The class on offer is the cheaper one, and the key prints 67.50 with its decimal point and no currency symbol.

9. shirt — to keep dye off clothing, bring “an apron if you’ve got one, or a shirt that you don’t use any more”. Apron is already printed in the note, so shirt takes the gap.

10. hammer — the DIY class teaches the drill and the saw, and the caller adds her own request: “how to use a hammer”, confirmed by “Yes, you’ll do that too”. The stem already names the other tools, and shelf names the practical job, so hammer completes the tool list.

Section 2 — History and Nature Walks

Questions 11–12

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

11–12. Which TWO pieces of advice are given about the Marsden Coastal Walk? Stop for lunch in an ancient town. Don’t miss the ruins of a certain building. Catch a boat to the start of this walk. Be careful of the steep and rocky paths. Don’t worry about getting lost.

• A — Stop for lunch in an ancient town.
• B — Don’t miss the ruins of a certain building.
• C — Catch a boat to the start of this walk.
• D — Be careful of the steep and rocky paths.
• E — Don’t worry about getting lost.

Questions 13–14

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

13–14. Which TWO things are said about the Melby Heritage Walk? This walk is mostly downhill. The paths can get busy during the day. This is a circular walk. A tower stands on the site of an older structure. There are far-reaching views the whole way.

• A — This walk is mostly downhill.
• B — The paths can get busy during the day.
• C — This is a circular walk.
• D — A tower stands on the site of an older structure.
• E — There are far-reaching views the whole way.

Questions 15–20

Label the map below.

Write the correct letter, A-I, next to Questions 15-20.

15. Exhibition

16. Baths

17. Tools

18. Vehicles

19. Ponies

20. Education centre

Section 2 Answer Explanations

11. B (Don’t miss the ruins of a certain building) — the walk “passes a castle built in the 1400s”, and today “The castle’s now just a pile of stones”, which is exactly what ruins means. A fails because the nearby town is “a now-vanished market town”, so there is nowhere to stop for lunch, and C fails because the “hourly ferries to and from the beautiful Hooker Island” serve the island, not the walk’s starting point. Questions 11 and 12 score in either order.

12. E (Don’t worry about getting lost) — the route is fully marked: “As there are clear signposts all along the way, you don’t even need to take a map with you”. D fails because this family walk has “no strenuous climbs”, the opposite of steep and rocky paths.

13. C (This is a circular walk) — the route “brings you back down to the starting point – the car park at Melby Coal Mine”. A fails because walkers “climb to the top of the valley”, and E fails because in the valley bottom “the only things you’ll hear are the sound of your own footsteps”, with views only at “At the highest point”. Questions 13 and 14 score in either order.

14. D (A tower stands on the site of an older structure) — energetic walkers “climb the tower that’s situated where there was once a seventeenth century hunting lodge”, so the tower occupies the site of an older building. B fails because the daytime woods are silent, not busy.

15. F — visitors reach the site “via a covered walkway to the Main Visitor Centre”, pass the ticket office and the locker area, and then “Beyond that room is the exhibition”. The official key gives letter F for that room beyond the ticket office.

16. B — the bathhouse is located from a landmark: “You can see that in the building directly to the north of the engine house”. Tin baths still stand on its stone floor, and the plan prints letter B on that building.

17. D — the early mining tools occupy “a small L-shaped building in the middle of the northern boundary”. The building’s shape plus its position on the boundary fix it at letter D on the plan.

18. A — the vehicle shed, home to wagons and cutting machines, “is in the southwest corner of the site”. That corner position earns letter A on the plan.

19. H — the ponies’ field lies “on the north-eastern boundary of the site” and is “not approached via a covered walkway”. That negative separates the ponies from the three features that do use walkways, and the plan marks the field with letter H.

20. E — the education centre holds a library and gift shop for school groups and the public, and its cue is final: “The centre is connected to the ticket office via a short section of covered walkway”. That short link back to the ticket office places it at letter E.

Section 3 — Course Feedback Discussion

Questions 21–22

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

21–22. Which TWO facts in the sessions on food safety were new information for Nadia and Fergus? the amount of plastic in the ocean the number of diseases caused by contaminated food the amount of food that is wasted the number of people who are obese the result of treating animals with antibiotics

• A — the amount of plastic in the ocean
• B — the number of diseases caused by contaminated food
• C — the amount of food that is wasted
• D — the number of people who are obese
• E — the result of treating animals with antibiotics

Questions 23–24

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

23–24. Which TWO features of a project aiming to prevent food fraud impressed Fergus? the new technology it used the publicity it received the use of multiple tests on food items the variety of dietary requirements included the way information was made widely accessible

• A — the new technology it used
• B — the publicity it received
• C — the use of multiple tests on food items
• D — the variety of dietary requirements included
• E — the way information was made widely accessible

Questions 25–26

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

25–26. Which TWO topics do both students recommend should be included in the course? sustainable fishing targeted nutrition global differences in consumption sustainable agriculture digital technology and food

• A — sustainable fishing
• B — targeted nutrition
• C — global differences in consumption
• D — sustainable agriculture
• E — digital technology and food

Questions 27–30

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose FOUR answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-F, next to Questions 27-30.

Student project: developing a new food product

Initial aim

Literature review

Product development

Product production

• A. This was challenging but enjoyable.
• B. This led to some disagreement.
• C. This was easy to decide on.
• D. This was helped by the guidelines provided.
• E. This seemed like an unnecessary stage.
• F. This involved selecting a new ingredient.

• 27 …………
• 28 …………
• 29 …………
• 30 …………

Section 3 Answer Explanations

21. B (the number of diseases caused by contaminated food) — Fergus states that “unsafe food causes more than 200 different diseases”, and Nadia echoes “I’d no idea it was that many”. Contaminated food paraphrases unsafe food. A fails because plastic pollution was something “most of us were already aware of that”, and D fails because obesity was “stuff I knew already”. Questions 21 and 22 score in either order.

22. E (the result of treating animals with antibiotics) — treated animals pass the drugs to the people who eat them, so “the antibiotics get into the food chain”, and Fergus adds “I had no idea about that either”. C fails because wasted food “was only mentioned in passing” rather than presented as new information.

23. C (the use of multiple tests on food items) — what impressed Fergus was that “these tests were carried out at different stages in the food’s journey”, which means repeated testing. A fails because DNA methods have existed “for some time now”, and B fails because Nadia saw “there were some problems with that” in the publicity. Questions 23 and 24 score in either order.

24. D (the variety of dietary requirements included) — the project protects “so many different groups”, from “people with special religious rules” to vegetarians, vegans and “those with allergies”. That spread of needs is the variety of dietary requirements the option describes.

25. A (sustainable fishing) — Fergus flags “the seafood industry, where stocks are in danger of being overexploited”, and Nadia agrees: “that’d be a good topic”. D fails because the course has “already done quite a bit on that”, and B fails because personalised diets sound “more like a medical topic than food science”. Questions 25 and 26 score in either order.

26. C (global differences in consumption) — Nadia proposes sessions on “the variety of food and eating habits around the world”, and Fergus commits both students with “the whole class would be interested”. E fails because 3D printing and smart packaging struck him as “too specialist”.

27. C (This was easy to decide on) — the initial aim took no time: “We made up our minds about that pretty quickly”. Other groups “found it a lot harder to choose, and wasted a lot of time”, which confirms this pair had no such struggle.

28. D (This was helped by the guidelines provided) — the literature review was a first for both students, and it went well because “the handout with advice for the project was very useful here”. A handout of advice is a set of guidelines, so D matches the stage exactly.

29. F (This involved selecting a new ingredient) — product development meant “deciding what we’d use to make the falafel”, settled on jackfruit “even though it wasn’t something that either of us had ever tasted before”. Choosing an unfamiliar fruit to make the product different is selecting a new ingredient.

30. A (This was challenging but enjoyable) — production proved “harder than I expected”, yet “in the end it turned out fine and we had a lot of fun”. Difficult but fun matches A, and Fergus’s “We did!” seals the enjoyment.

Section 4 — Cruise Ship Industry Lecture

Questions 31–40

Complete the notes below.

Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

Challenges facing the cruise ship industry

Problems with overtourism

Problems of perception

• Cruises are generally associated with the elderly.

Solutions

Cruise lines are attracting younger customers by:

• becoming more sustainable e.g. using hybrid engines.

• • 31 ………… is one of the worst problems.
• • A tourist 32 ………… is being introduced in some cities to reduce numbers, e.g. Barcelona.
• • Bruges: action was taken to limit day trips from the nearby port because the city was becoming a ‘theme park’ (e.g. many shops were only stocking 33 ………… and souvenirs).
• • Dubrovnik: limits the number of tourists by managing the 34 ………… of cruise ship arrivals.
• • There is an assumption about the 35 ………… of cruises.
• • People think there may be too many 36 ………… .
• • having a wide range of activities e.g. boxing, 37 ………… and well-being programmes.
• • offering a diverse selection of food including 38 ………… options.
• • providing reliable 39 ………… .
• • improving marketing on social media with high quality 40 ………… .

Section 4 Answer Explanations

31. pollution — the first overtourism note matches the line “Pollution, for example, is among the greatest threats”. Greatest threats becomes worst problems in the notes, so the single lower-case word pollution fills Question 31.

32. tax — Barcelona answered overtourism by “imposing a tax which all visitors to the city from cruise ships have to pay”. The small size of the charge, “only a couple of euros”, is context rather than the answer, and the note’s stem A tourist …… needs a noun.

33. chocolate — Bruges had become a ‘theme park’ of shops “selling chocolate, which Belgium is famous for, and other souvenirs”. Souvenirs is already printed in the note, so chocolate takes the gap.

34. timing — Dubrovnik now “control the timing of all cruise ship entries” to its port. The note pairs managing with arrivals, and timing is the one word that links them under the ONE WORD ONLY rule.

35. cost — the survey showed “cost is also a major factor in putting younger groups off going on a cruise”. The assumption the note asks for is that cruises are expensive, even though the lecturer counters that they are “good value”.

36. rules — the second perception is that “cruises have lots of rules about what to wear and how to behave”. The note reads too many ……, so rules completes it, although the lecturer insists cruises are “no longer very formal”.

37. diving — the activities bullet already prints boxing and well-being, and the missing sport comes from “most offer diving expeditions”. A boxing ring is mentioned separately and feeds the printed word boxing, so diving takes the gap.

38. vegan — menus were radically updated, and “Vegan dishes are standard, for example”. Write the lower-case word vegan, not vegetarian, to match the key.

39. wifi — younger passengers work and keep in touch on board, so companies have to “guarantee wifi that can be relied upon at all times”. The transcript’s spelling, wifi with no capitals or hyphen, is the form that scores.

40. videos — the final solution is marketing, and leading lines now “employ top agencies to produce first rate videos for social media channels”. Social media is printed in the note, so the plural videos closes the paper.

Cambridge IELTS 21 Listening Test 2 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

MAN: Hello, Steynford College external course registration, can I help you?

WOMAN: Yeah, I’m ringing to find out about one-day classes next year. I got a leaflet about them in the post but I lost it, and I understand some of the classes are filling up fast, so I might need to book quite soon if I want to go ahead.

MAN: Sure. Can you remember which one you were considering?

WOMAN: There were a few actually. I remember there was one on how to make Vietnamese food that sounded good. I think that was on the 13th of January. It cost about 60 pounds.

MAN: Yes, you’re right about the date, but it’s 59 pounds actually. It’s a very popular class, and among other things the teacher explains how Vietnamese food includes lots of different herbs. I’m afraid that all the places are taken at present, but I can put you on the waiting list if you want?

WOMAN: No, that’s OK. I’m quite interested in the bread making class. That’s in March sometime, isn’t it?

MAN: Yeah, the 20th of March. Would you like to register for that?

WOMAN: I’m not sure. How much is it?

MAN: The actual cost is £48 but then there’s an extra charge as well as that for the ingredients – I’m not sure how much that is, no more than twenty pounds I think.

WOMAN: So what sorts of things do they make in the class?

MAN: Oh, various types of bread; I think they make white bread and then they make sourdough, that seems to be very fashionable at present, and they learn how to make pizza, which is apparently really good.

WOMAN: Well I’d definitely be interested in that, but there were also a few other classes that sounded interesting. I think there was one on face massage? I’d love to learn how to do that.

MAN: Yeah, that’s on the 23rd of February and it costs just £35 for the day. The teacher’s great, the type of massage done is a traditional technique used in India and she actually did her training there. The massage is meant to relax you and get rid of lines and wrinkles. You practise it on yourself so you have to take a mirror to the class, so you can see what you’re doing.

WOMAN: OK.

WOMAN: And I think there was a class in candle making?

MAN: Yes that’s sometime in April, I think. Let me check … yes, it’s on the 6th. It was on the 23rd of January but they had to change the date. It’s just £52. That’s a popular course too. I think one reason why people like it is because the candles are all made out of natural products. It’s filling up fast but there’s still a few places left.

WOMAN: Yes one of my friends did that class. She said the candles make really good presents. In fact she gave me one.

MAN: By the way, have you heard about the class on silk painting? That’s being held on the 18th of May. You learn how to create designs on silk fabric and colour them using special dyes. Apparently people can produce beautiful artworks that way, either to put on the wall as a picture or to use for something like a scarf. It’s £67.50, which is really good value I think – there’s a similar class I’ve seen that was £110.

WOMAN: That sounds interesting. Would I need to bring the silk?

MAN: No, the only thing is everyone has to bring something to protect their clothing, like an apron if you’ve got one, or a shirt that you don’t use any more, because the dye can really stain your clothes.

WOMAN: Right. Then the last class I was considering was a bit different, that was on DIY for beginners. I’d like to learn how to do household repairs. Are there any places left on that?

MAN: That’s on the 24th of February – yes, there are a few places. It’s a bit more expensive – it’s £125 – but it’s a very popular class. You learn how to use an electric drill and a saw.

WOMAN: Yeah, that would be really useful, and I even need to learn how to use a hammer because I always end up hitting my fingers.

MAN: Yes, you’ll do that too. And when you’ve learned how to use the basic tools, you do a practical job which is fixing a shelf to a wall.

WOMAN: Great. Just what I need to know. Right, well I’d like to enrol for that and also for …

Section 2 Transcript

Here is some information about history and nature walks in the region. They can be completed in less than a day and also be combined with a visit to Melby, a former coal mine now open to the public.

The Marsden Coastal Walk is suitable for all the family as there are no strenuous climbs. The route begins at Marsden harbour, where there are hourly ferries to and from the beautiful Hooker Island, a great place for fishing. The walk covers part of the coastal path trail. As there are clear signposts all along the way, you don’t even need to take a map with you. At one point, the route goes inland slightly and passes a castle built in the 1400s near to a now-vanished market town. The castle’s now just a pile of stones but it’s a great place to take photos, and fascinating information boards show what it once looked like. If you set off early, you can be back in time for midday.

The Melby Heritage Walk is a great place to take photos, especially of the night sky. At certain times of the year, people come here from far and wide. They climb to the top of the valley and take pictures of the stars. In the daytime, it’s completely different. As you hike through the dense woods in the valley bottom, the only things you’ll hear are the sound of your own footsteps. At the highest point, you can stop to take in the views, and those with lots of energy can climb the tower that’s situated where there was once a seventeenth century hunting lodge. The route continues along the tops of the hills and brings you back down to the starting point – the car park at Melby Coal Mine.

Melby Coal Mine has been open to the public for twenty years and has won awards for its visitor experience. Many of the buildings around the mine are still standing and have been converted into display areas.

Firstly, there’s an exhibition showing the history of the mine, with many original black and white photos. To see that, you go from the car park, via a covered walkway to the Main Visitor Centre. Go through the ticket office to an area where there are lockers to leave heavy bags in, and where you can borrow raincoats. Beyond that room is the exhibition.

There’s a small bathhouse where miners used to wash after their shift underground. You can see that in the building directly to the north of the engine house. The boiler has gone from there now, but there are lines of tin baths on the stone floor.

There’s a display of early mining tools from the days before mechanisation. You can find that in a small L-shaped building in the middle of the northern boundary of the site. It’s incredible to think how miners were able to use hand implements to cut through rock.

The vehicle shed, where you can find wagons of different sizes, along with some of the hi-tech cutting machines that were in use until the mine closed, is in the southwest corner of the site, and can be accessed via a covered walkway.

There is a field with ponies, which are always popular with children, on the north-eastern boundary of the site, not approached via a covered walkway.

The other building to mention is the education centre. This is where school groups go when they visit the mine, but it’s also accessible to the public as it contains a library and small gift shop. The centre is connected to the ticket office via a short section of covered walkway.

Section 3 Transcript

TUTOR: Thanks for coming along, Nadia and Fergus. So this is a chance for you to give us some feedback about different aspects of your course. What would you like to begin with?

NADIA: I’ve enjoyed the sessions on food safety. There was some information there that I found really surprising, although some was stuff I knew already, like the rise in rates of obesity.

FERGUS: Yeah, that’s been in the news a lot. But I hadn’t realised that unsafe food causes more than 200 different diseases.

NADIA: No, I’d no idea it was that many. And speaking of diseases, I knew resistance to antibiotics is on the increase, but I didn’t know why …

FERGUS: …that it’s partly because when animals are treated with antibiotics then consumed by humans, the antibiotics get into the food chain. I had no idea about that either.

NADIA: Then the sessions provided a lot of information about plastic pollution from food packaging in the ocean, but I think that most of us were already aware of that.

FERGUS: Yeah. But I thought we could have done more on how much food is thrown away unnecessarily through fear of it being out of date, that was only mentioned in passing.

TUTOR: OK, I’ll bear that in mind. What did you think about the sessions from visiting lecturers, Fergus?

FERGUS: For me the most interesting one was about that project to prevent companies giving incorrect information to consumers about food.

TUTOR: Ah, food fraud, yes.

FERGUS: I thought it was really good to address a problem that’s faced by so many different groups – people with special religious rules, as well as vegetarians and vegans.

NADIA: And those with allergies.

FERGUS: Yeah. And another thing, we’ve had effective ways of analysing DNA for some time now and these can easily be applied to analysing food. But what the researchers succeeded in doing was to ensure that these tests were carried out at different stages in the food’s journey from the producer to the consumer. So they knew that the food actually came from the place it was supposed to, and had the ingredients it was meant to.

NADIA: Exactly. So customers can be confident about what they buy.

FERGUS: And the researchers had a good system for publicising their findings too.

NADIA: Well, I thought there were some problems with that, actually.

TUTOR: OK. And do you have any recommendations for new topics that we could include in the course?

NADIA: Well, I’m interested in how crop yields can be increased without damaging the environment.

FERGUS: But we’ve already done quite a bit on that – but not so much on the seafood industry, where stocks are in danger of being overexploited as a food source unless we can find ways of keeping stocks up.

NADIA: Yes, that’d be a good topic. And I’m interested in the idea of a personalised approach to diet, now we have the technology to analyse exactly what individuals need.

FERGUS: That sounds more like a medical topic than food science.

NADIA: OK. What about sessions on the variety of food and eating habits around the world? That’s very relevant nowadays.

FERGUS: Yes, I think the whole class would be interested in that.

NADIA: Then there’s technological stuff, things like 3D printing of food and smart packaging.

FERGUS: Mmm – maybe too specialist.

TUTOR: Now, I’m particularly interested in your project – the one where you developed a new food product. So talk me through the stages… first you had to decide on your initial aim.

FERGUS: We decided we wanted to create something people could eat on the go rather than in a restaurant.

NADIA: Yeah so we chose falafel, which was originally a Middle Eastern snack.

FERGUS: We made up our minds about that pretty quickly. I know some students found it a lot harder to choose, and wasted a lot of time.

NADIA: Then we had to do the literature review. We hadn’t done one of these before so, the handout with advice for the project was very useful here.

FERGUS: Yes, especially the advice on how to present the information. Then product development, actually deciding what we’d use to make the falafel, and for me the interesting thing about that was that we wanted it to be something a bit different from an ordinary falafel.

NADIA: We really made the right choice when we finally decided to use jackfruit, even though it wasn’t something that either of us had ever tasted before.

FERGUS: Yeah, like the name tells you, it’s a fruit but actually it’s really good in savoury dishes. The product production, working out how to make the falafel, was harder than I expected because I’d never made them before.

NADIA: It was mostly trial and error. We started off with the basic recipe and then experimented and when it went wrong…

FERGUS: …which it did a lot of the time…

NADIA: …we just moved on and kept adapting it and in the end it turned out fine and we had a lot of fun.

FERGUS: We did!

TUTOR: Thank you. Well, your project was a very good ….

Section 4 Transcript

For my presentation today I’m going to talk about some of the issues facing the cruise ship industry and then some ways these can be addressed. The cruise ship industry has partly been responsible for the effects of overtourism in recent decades. Overtourism occurs in places where excessive numbers of tourists cause significant problems. Pollution, for example, is among the greatest threats to many popular tourist destinations.

Of course, for many places it’s a difficult balance to achieve. They want to promote their city or island as a desirable tourist destination, but at the same time, are unable to cope with thousands of cruise ship passengers on a daily basis. The trouble is, excessive tourism is destroying the beauty spots and places of interest that people come to visit. Several cities, such as Barcelona, have responded by imposing a tax which all visitors to the city from cruise ships have to pay. But as it’s only a couple of euros, many green campaigners think it won’t deter enough people to make any difference.

Bruges is another city which became impossible to navigate at times because of the huge numbers of cruise passengers arriving on day trips from the port of Zeebrugge. The city was becoming like a ‘theme park’, with shops only catering for tourists, selling chocolate, which Belgium is famous for, and other souvenirs. The local council took action to limit cruise passengers to a more manageable level.

Dubrovnik had to limit the numbers of cruise ships after it became extremely popular as a cruise ship destination when it featured in a hugely successful TV series. What it does now is control the timing of all cruise ship entries to the city’s port. However, many people feel this measure does not go far enough.

Cruise ships may be unpopular in some of their destinations but they also have an image problem. They’ve always been perceived as a safe holiday for the elderly, with not much on offer for families or young couples. A recent survey showed that cost is also a major factor in putting younger groups off going on a cruise. But what they don’t realise is that compared to other types of package holidays, cruises can actually be good value, as all activities and drinks are often included. And another perception is that cruises have lots of rules about what to wear and how to behave. But these days, most cruises are no longer very formal and behind the times.

So what solutions are there for cruise lines to overcome some of these problems? How can they appeal to younger customers? Well one selling point is that cruise ships are becoming more sustainable. New ships are built with hybrid engines with large batteries which means ships do not have to keep their engines running while docked.

Cruise lines are also designing ships specially for those in the age range of 21 to 45. The décor in these feels contemporary and there are a range of activities on board that you wouldn’t find on a more traditional cruise. There’s even a boxing ring on one ship, and most offer diving expeditions. But there’s also a huge focus on well-being with a variety of sessions of different kinds.

Food is always a very important part of any cruise and cruise ships have had to radically update their menus to suit the tastes of their younger customers. Vegan dishes are standard, for example. The restaurants on board have also gone paperless with menus available on screen.

Unlike older generations who went on cruises largely to get away from everything, younger people expect to be able to keep in touch with friends and family. Many people going on longer cruises also spend time working, so companies have to guarantee wifi that can be relied upon at all times.

My grandparents used to love looking through cruise brochures, even when they weren’t planning on going on a cruise. Until very recently TV ads for cruises always felt dated and aimed at retirees. Cruise lines have been slow to adopt the power of social media but that’s all changing. Leading cruise lines now employ top agencies to produce first rate videos for social media channels.

It will be interesting to see whether …

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

Part 1 allows ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER and Part 4 allows ONE WORD ONLY, and both limits decide marks: 13 January scores in Question 1 because a number plus one word is legal there, while Question 34 must be timing alone. Read the instruction line first, then predict the word class of every gap with the table completion strategy.

Questions 11–14 and 21–26 are Choose TWO pairs scored in either order, so never agonise over which box a letter belongs in. The distractors quote the recording word for word — strenuous climbs, plastic pollution, obesity — and die on the speakers’ own corrections: the coastal walk has no strenuous climbs, and the students already knew the familiar facts. The multiple choice strategy walks through that elimination method step by step.

Questions 15–20 label a plan of Melby Coal Mine from compass cues such as directly to the north of the engine house, the middle of the northern boundary and the southwest corner. Fix north before the audio starts and use the ticket office as your anchor, because three features involve covered walkways and the ponies are the one that does not. The map and plan completion strategy covers the direction vocabulary in full.

Formats and spelling decide cheap marks across the paper: 67.50 with its decimal point and no currency symbol in Question 8, vegan in lower case in Question 38, and wifi with no capitals or hyphen in Question 39. Check every answer against the key’s exact form with the listening spelling rules guide before you count your total.

Practice More Listening Tests

Mark all four sections honestly, review every explanation for the questions you missed, and keep the momentum going with the free IELTS listening practice course from Simply IELTS, which drills every task type in this paper: table completion, Choose TWO, plan labelling, flow-chart completion and ONE WORD ONLY notes. When you want another full paper under exam conditions, try this interactive listening test: childcare services first, then take your running total to the Cambridge IELTS 21 Listening Test 3 answers page and see whether completion questions and either-order pairs still cost you marks.