IELTS listening practice: England’s newest tourist attraction

Some listening practice for Section 2 of the IELTS Listening test

As you may know, Section 2 of the IELTS Listening test is often a recording of someone talking about a tourist attraction like a museum or a park. For this reason, I’d like to recommend you listen to a description of England’s newest tourist attraction as part of your IELTS preparation.

Traffic on the M25 in London

In the recording, you’ll hear about a new coach trip around one of Europe’s busiest roads: the M25 motorway.

England’s newest tourist attraction

To make the recording easier to understand, check you understand the following vocabulary related to the topic of transport before you listen: Read the full post »

An example of IELTS-type speaking (3)

Hi

For some listening practice and for an example of IELTS-type speaking, check out the recording ‘Daily routine‘ on the elllo website.

In the recording, notice how one of the speakers talks about what he usually does at the weekend and how this compares to his daily routine on weekdays; the examiner may well ask you some questions about your daily routine in Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking test.

It would be better listening practice to hide the transcript the first time you listen to it. Read the full post »

60-second listening practice

Hi

If you’re short on time and want some quick listening practice for your IELTS test, check out the 60-second podcasts on the Scientific American website.

Although these recordings are not specifically for IELTS, they will give you practice listening to American accents and the recordings are on topics that commonly occur in the IELTS test, e.g. science, environmental issues and health.

You can choose recordings from categories like 60-second Science, 60-second Earth and 60-second Health.

For those of you who are married, check out the recording ‘Being married affects heart and waist‘ for some interesting facts about how marriage (and divorce) can affect your health and weight.

If you saw the launch of China’s first space laboratory last week, check out the recording ‘Chinese space program takes giant leap‘. In the recording, which was made before the launch, you can find out the purpose of the space laboratory and China’s future plans for space exploration.

There’s a transcript included for each recording so you can check any words or phrases that you don’t hear clearly.

Get listening,

Pete

See our IELTS tutor profiles to find out more about our qualified and experienced English language teachers.

Should children have mobile phones?

Hi

If you’ve read the article I recommended the other day about the health risks of using wireless phones, you may enjoy listening to the recording ‘Children with mobiles phones‘ on the elllo website.

A mobile phone

In the recording, you’ll hear a speaker from Canada (Akane) explain why she thinks that children should  have mobiles phones and a speaker from England (Rachel) explain why she thinks children shouldn’t have them.

It would be better listening practice to hide the transcript the first time you listen to it.

I hope that with the ideas in the article and the recording, you’ll now be better able to develop your ideas in the IELTS test if you’re asked to talk or write about the advantages and disadvantages of having mobile phones for a certain part of society (e.g. children or the elderly).

Have a good weekend,

Pete

See our IELTS tutor profiles to find out more about our qualified and experienced English language teachers.