In a previous post we looked at the importance of predicting and anticipating in the IELTS listening test. Practice your skills with these 10 questions by predicting as much as you can.
NOTE: there is no audio for this exercise – this is to improve your predicting skills.
Questions 1 to 5. Complete the missing information. Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Rugby International – receipt
Name of ticket holder: Carl Hawkins
Payment method: (1)_____________
Show answer Looking for a method of payment. Likely to be either cash or credit card but could also be telephone, Internet or in person.
New Zealand All Blacks v (2)____________
Show answer Given that the receipt is for an international game, you should predict it’s a country, possibly also the nickname of the team (e.g. South Africa or Springboks)
Starts at: (3) _____________
Show answer Very likely that this is a clock time, likely to be in the afternoon. Slim possibility that the date will also be required.
Number of people (4)______________
Show answer You should be able to work out that because it is a receipt, it is asking not for the number of people attending the whole match, but how many people are included in this transaction. Judging by questions 6 – 9 it is likely to be only 2. Question 10, with its future grammar referring to the brother, suggests he is not there at the time. Also question 5 only has space for two seat numbers.
Seat number(s) K112 and (5)_____________
Show answer Logically from question 4, you should be looking for one seat number. As they were booked together this is more than likely to be sequential (K111 or K113) but you should keep an open mind as it could also be J112 or L112.
Questions 6 – 10.
Answer the following questions using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
6. Why didn’t Carl Hawkins go to the match?
Show answer The question word is obviously looking for a reason.
7. Where had they planned to meet?
Show answer This is likely to be a location in reference to a stadium. This could include door number, stand number, seat number, etc. You should also be listening for a preposition of place (i.e. inside, outside, beside, in front) given that the word limit is three words.
8. Why was Jane angry?
Show answer We know from question 6 that Carl couldn’t go to the match but it was his name on the receipt. This leaves it probable that Jane was either left waiting or couldn’t go herself.
9. What are they doing next Saturday?
Show answer You should be able to predict a change in tone of the conversation, referring away from past events and using future grammar. You could also anticipate hearing the word ‘Saturday’ or similar (weekend, first day off work, etc). and also listening for an action verb, possibly connected with Jane’s brother arriving (cleaning the house, meeting him at the airport, etc).
10. When is Jane’s brother arriving?
Show answer This could be a day of the week, a date or a clock time.
