B1_LMS_ Listening Skills and Practice

LISTENING SKILLS
I. INTRODUCTION
Listening tests consist of some short or long conversations. Each conversation is about
2-3 minutes long and there will be 4 questions for each conversation. Each question
has 4 options.
The conversations will have clear topic and longer than short conversations in Part 1.
VSTEP learners and test-takers may find it difficult to answer the questions in this
part due to a large amount of information and long questions. You are also very likely
to get confused with the voices and the conversation going on, which may become
troubles for you to catch up well, when you try to relate the audio with the question.
The conversation may consist of up to 3 people discussing one topic. Most topics in
this part are not academic, so you’re not expecting academic lectures or
conversations.

I. SKILLS AND STRATEGIES

Listening skills consist of various sub-skills: Listening for main ideas, Listening for
specific information in longer conversations and Listening for Inference.
1. General steps:
It’s suggested that you follow some steps to do this part better:

Step 1: Read the questions first and identify what TYPE of question it is. (the
types of question are below). (Take the time the instruction being read aloud to do
this).
Step 2: Underline the key words in the questions.
Make good guess and try to see the general picture of the conversation
rather than specific words.
Step 3: Stay focused and answer all questions as you hear, especially the DETAIL
questions. Don’t leave any question unanswered.

Notes:
- Remember: the questions check your understanding of the RECORDING, not your
knowledge, so DON’T answer questions based on what you KNOW, answer them by
what you HEAR.
- If there are new words, try to make a good prediction of the meaning in the context you’re
dealing with.
- The answer options can be confusing, they may contain similar ideas and words. Don’t
get confused between ideas. You need to choose the MOST suitable answer.
2. Common Types of questions:
a. Main idea questions:

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Examples:
- What are the speakers discussing?
- What is the topic of the conversation?
- What is the conversation mainly about?
This kind of question may appear at the beginning or the end of the conversation
that you hear. There will be at about 1 MAIN IDEA question for each conversation.
Main idea questions assess the understanding of the overall topic or basic idea of a
lecture. The test taker is supposed to understand the speaker’s general purpose of
having a conversation and should listen for keywords that are emphasized or
repeated.

Exam tip: Grasp the general ideas, reading the questions first may help you connect ideas
and predict what the conversation is about. (but try to make educated guess, not lucky
guess!)
b. Detail questions: Who – What – Where – When – Why – How (much/ many)
Examples:
- How has the man mainly learnt English?
- Why did the woman travel to Spain?
- Why do young people learn languages more quickly?
This is the most popular type of question. There will be about 2-3 detail questions
for each conversation. The order of the question will follow what you hear in the
recording.
Although this kind of question refer to specific facts and number that you hear in the
recording, it may contain a lot of tricks to mislead you into listening for incorrect
words or information. To answer well, you may need to:
 Stay focused on what is being asked.
 Take notes of major points and important details of conversation to solve
detail questions.
 Listen for signal expressions that identify details, such as for example, the
reason is, on the other hand, however, I would say, etc.
 Choose what speakers actually say because the detail questions do not require
inference.
 Since answers to questions are found in order in the passage, you’re suggested
to take notes in order of what you hear.
 Test-taker has to be cautious enough about the incorrect choices which may
repeat within some of the speaker’s words, but they are unable to reflect correct
information from the lecture or conversation.

Exam tip:
Don’t look for the exact words in the recording and the questions. Look for
paraphrases and synonyms.

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c. Inference questions:
Examples:
-What do the speakers mean by mentioning “more rights”? -> Inference
-What is the man/woman most likely do to save the environment? ->
Prediction
 There will be about 1-2 questions of this kind.
 Inference questions assess the ability to guess the implied meaning or to draw a
conclusion based on the main points of a lecture or conversation.
 Inference questions include words, e.g. infer, imply or suggest.
 One needs to give attention to the tone, stress, and intonation of the audio
clips and speakers to guess the meaning in a proper way.
 Read the questions carefully and make sure you understand the words
correctly.
 Try to match the words in the questions with what is spoken. Remember to
look for synonyms and paraphrases instead of correct words.

II. SKILL PRACTICE

1. Underline the key words in the questions
2. What types of question is it?
3. Follow the suggested steps in (I) and do the following tasks:

Practice 1:
In this part, you will hear EIGHT short recordings. The recordings will be played TWICE.
There is one question following each recording. For each question, choose the right answer
A, B, C or D. Then, on the answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space
that corresponds to the letter of the answer that you have chosen.
First you will have some time to look at questions 1 to 8.
Question 1. What is the date of the end-of-year party at school?
A. 6th June B. 13th June C. 12th July D. 22nd July
Question 2. Which two activities does the woman prefer?
A. Singing and dancing B. Singing and running
C. Exercising and dancing D. Dancing and running
Question 3. Which photo does the girl dislike?
A. Walking on the beach B. Diving
C. Standing on the boat D. Walking in the dress
Question 4. What is probably true about Hazen Union’s team?
A. Their team members are old. B. They are very skilled players.
C. They don’t like tough games. D. They are from the same school.
Question 5. What time will the cake be ready?
A. 3.15 p.m B. 5.00 p.m C. 5.20 p.m D. 5.45 p.m
Question 6. Why is the teacher talking to her students?

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A. To tell them about her camping trip plan

B. To ask them about their plans for next weekend
C. To ask them about buying a tent
D. To convince them that being outdoors is important
Question 7. Which postcard will they send to Mark?
A. Bridge with old buildings B. A crowded beach
C. An old church D. An ancient castle
Question 8. What is the teacher explaining?
A. How to study history in the best way
B. Why people should read books by famous writers
C. How history can hurt and impair writers
D. How writers can affect the history they record

Practice 2:
In this part, you will hear THREE conversations. The conversations will be played TWICE.
There are four questions for each conversation. For each question, choose the right answer
A, B, C or D. Then, on the answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space
that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen.
Now you will have some time to look at questions 9 to 20
Questions 9 to 12
Question 9. What does the girl have to finish for Friday?
A. An English paper B. A large plate for sea food
C. A paper on a new restaurant D. A science exam and a social studies
exam
Question 10. What does the boy ask the girl to do?
A. Finish her homework before dinner B. Go on a romantic dinner date with
him
C. Join him for dinner at a seafood restaurant D. Try to like sea food though she
doesn’t
Question 11. What does the boy say about the seafood restaurant?
A. It only serves seafood. B. Its service was good.
C. It’s the first time he has been there. D. Its seafood is fresh.
Question 12. What will the two speakers probably do next?
A. Go to class B. Go eat dinner
C. Go cook dinner D. Go to the grocery store

Questions 13 to 16
Question 13. Marta started her website because
A. She wanted to learn about creating websites B. Her teacher said it was good
C. A local shop asked her for help D. Her friends asked her to create a logo
Question 14. Marta says her website is not like others because
A. It has more details about the price. B. It looks completely different.

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C. It has an unusual name. D. it makes exact comparison of prices.

Question 15. Why doesn’t Marta earn much money from her website?
A. The website doesn’t have many visitors B. It costs her a lot to run it.
C. She doesn’t charge her customers much. D. It is not very popular.
Question 16. How do Marta’s friends feel about her website?
A. Excited by its success. B. Happy to see her enjoying it.
C. Surprised at how hard she works. D. Not very supportive.

Questions 17 to 20
Question 17. How did Blayne learn to do his first skateboarding jumps?
A. He had a few lessons. B. His cousins showed him.
C. He took part in a skateboarding club. D. He watched some videos.
Question 18. Blayne’s favorite place to skateboard is
A. Around a city square in London. B. On a basketball court.
C. By the beach. D. In a park.
Question 19. What does Blayne say about keeping fit?
A. He finds it hard to work in the gym. B. He has changed his training routine.
C. He feels he should skateboard more often. D. Skateboarding is sufficient.
Question 20. When asked about his TV shows, Blayne says
A. Some people disliked it. B. He regrets doing this.
C. Very few people watched it . D. It helps him have more fans.

***The end***

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