IELTS Listening practice test with audio and answer key

Part 1

IELTS Listening. Practice Test Six.

You will hear a number of different recordings and you will have to answer questions on what you hear. There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions, and you will have a chance to check your work. All the recordings will be played once only. The test is in four parts.

Part One. You will hear a woman phoning a transport company about a bag she has lost. First, you have some time to look at questions one to five.

Now listen carefully and answer questions one to five.

A: City Transport lost property, how can I help?

B: Hello. I think I left my bag on a bus yesterday.

A: I'm sorry to hear that. I'll take some details. What kind of bag is it?

B: It's a leather bag, a sort of briefcase with a shoulder strap.

A: A leather bag. And what colour is it?

B: It's blue. Well, actually, it's dark green. It looks blue in some lights, but it's definitely green.

A: Dark green. And what was inside?

B: My laptop, the charger, and a notebook with all my work notes. The notebook is the thing I'm most worried about, to be honest.

A: Is there anything with your name on it?

B: Yes, my name is printed inside the front pocket of the bag.

A: That's helpful. Inside the pocket.

Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions six to ten.

Now listen and answer questions six to ten.

A: When did you lose it?

B: Yesterday, the twelfth of October, at about six in the evening.

A: And do you remember which bus you were on?

B: It was the number thirty-six. No, sorry, I usually take the thirty-six, but yesterday I took the thirty-eight because I was going to the shops.

A: The thirty-eight. And where did you get off?

B: At Victoria Square.

A: OK. Can I have your name, please?

B: Sophie Marsh. That's M, A, R, S, H.

A: And a contact number?

B: It's 07842, then 6 1 9, 0 5 2.

A: Six one nine, oh five two. Right. I'll give you a reference number. If you call back, please quote it. It's LP 4 4 7 1.

B: LP 4 4 7 1. Thank you so much.

That is the end of Part One. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Part 2

Part Two. You will hear a festival organiser speaking on local radio about a harbour festival. First, you have some time to look at questions eleven to fourteen.

Now listen carefully and answer questions eleven to fourteen.

F: Thanks for having me on the programme. I'm Rachel, and I'm one of the organisers of the Harbour Festival.

F: It's a special year for us, because this is our twentieth festival. It started twenty years ago as a small event with just a few stalls, and now we welcome around fifty thousand visitors.

F: The festival will be held in the same place as usual, along the harbour front, and as always, entry is free, though some events need tickets. The big change this year is that the festival will be longer: four days instead of three, from Thursday to Sunday.

F: Now, travel. Parking near the harbour is very limited, and the roads get extremely busy. There are some extra buses, but they tend to get stuck in traffic. So our advice is to come by train. The station is only five minutes' walk from the harbour, and there will be extra trains on all four days.

F: As for food, there'll be more than forty stalls, with food from all over the world as well as local seafood. Please note that all the food stalls are cashless this year, so you'll need to pay by card or phone. Prices should be about the same as last year.

Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions fifteen to twenty.

Now listen and answer questions fifteen to twenty.

F: Let me run through some of the highlights. The festival opens on Thursday evening with an opening ceremony on the main stage, with music and a welcome from the mayor.

F: On Friday, the main event is the cooking competition. It used to be in the afternoon, but this year it's on Friday evening, so that more people can come after work.

F: Saturday morning is when the boat race takes place. Teams of rowers race across the harbour, and it's always very exciting. Then on Saturday afternoon we have the children's parade, when local schools march along the harbour front in costumes they've made themselves.

F: On Sunday morning, there's a craft market where local artists sell their work, and the festival ends on Sunday evening with a spectacular fireworks display over the water.

That is the end of Part Two. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Part 3

Part Three. You will hear two students, Tom and Grace, discussing a project about cycling in their city. First, you have some time to look at questions twenty-one to twenty-four.

Now listen carefully and answer questions twenty-one to twenty-four.

H: So, Grace, let's go over what we're going to say in the presentation.

E: OK. We should start by explaining why we chose the topic.

H: Right. It was because of the new cycle lane on the high street. When we saw it being built, we thought it would be interesting to see what effect it had.

E: And we collected data in three ways. We did an online questionnaire and a few interviews, but most of our data came from counting cyclists at three junctions.

H: Yes, we spent hours standing on street corners! And the main finding was that the number of cyclists on the high street went up by around forty per cent after the lane opened.

E: Some people had predicted that traffic would get worse, but the data didn't show that.

H: And we asked people who don't cycle why they don't. I expected the weather to be the main reason, but actually safety concerns were mentioned far more often.

E: Distance was quite low down the list too.

Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions twenty-five to thirty.

Now listen and answer questions twenty-five to thirty.

H: Then we can talk about the different groups we spoke to. Shop owners first.

E: They weren't very happy. They complained about losing parking spaces in front of their shops, which they said would reduce their customers.

H: And parents. They were generally supportive, but what they really wanted was lower speed limits near schools.

E: Students were interesting. Lots of them said they would cycle if there were more lanes connecting the university to the city centre.

H: And the regular cyclists we interviewed said they felt safer than before, which was good to hear.

E: We also wanted to talk to bus drivers, but they were difficult to contact. The bus company never replied to our emails.

H: And the older residents surprised me. I thought they might be against the changes, but they were the most positive of all, mainly because the high street had become quieter.

That is the end of Part Three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Part 4

Part Four. You will hear a lecture about yawning. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty.

Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty.

D: Good afternoon. Today's topic may make some of you yawn, which in fact is rather appropriate, because we're going to look at the science of yawning.

D: Yawning is extremely widespread in the animal kingdom. Not only mammals but also fish and birds have been observed yawning. In humans, it starts remarkably early. Ultrasound scans have shown that babies start to yawn before they are born, at around eleven weeks of pregnancy.

D: So why do we yawn? For a long time, the most popular explanation was that yawning increases oxygen in the blood. When we're tired or bored, the idea went, our breathing slows down, and a yawn brings in extra oxygen. However, when researchers tested this by giving people air with more or less oxygen, it made no difference to how often they yawned. So this theory is not supported.

D: A newer theory suggests that yawning helps to cool the brain. A deep breath of air, combined with the stretching of the jaw, increases blood flow and brings cooler blood to the head. Interestingly, studies have found that people yawn more in cold weather than in hot weather. This fits the theory, because when the air is as warm as the body, a yawn would not cool the brain at all.

D: Perhaps the most fascinating aspect is that yawning is contagious. Seeing someone yawn, hearing a yawn, or even reading about yawning, as some of you may be discovering now, can make people yawn. Contagious yawning is more common among people who are close to each other, such as family members and friends, than among strangers.

D: Children rarely catch yawns before the age of four, which is roughly when they develop the ability to understand what other people are thinking and feeling. For this reason, many researchers believe contagious yawning may be linked to empathy, the ability to understand others' feelings.

D: And it isn't only humans. Studies have shown that chimpanzees catch yawns from each other, and dogs may catch yawns from their owners, which suggests a close emotional bond between the two species. Next week, we'll move on to look at another everyday behaviour: laughter.

That is the end of Part Four. You now have two minutes to check your answers.

That is the end of the Listening test.