B2 FIRST Listening Part 2

listening

40 min

The Cambridge B2 First listening test has 4 parts, 30 questions, and takes about 40 minutes. You normally do this after the Reading and Writing tests, so you might be quite tired before the listening test even begins. Every recording is played twice, but you will have to concentrate hard both times. Let's start this section with some general tips and then discuss each section separately.

listening

40 min

1. BEFORE THE EXAM

Make sure you know what to expect in each part of the exam. Accents - you will hear some standard British and American accents in the exam, but you might also hear Australian, South African, Irish, Scottish... Try to listen to a variety of accents to give you a good chance of understanding everyone.Ages - the speakers will range from teenagers to the elderly - so again, make sure you're listening to a variety of types of people. Oh, and don't only listen to men, or only women. Practice listening and writing at the same time! Some students complain that they can't listen AND write. But they can - they just need to practice a few times.

listening

40 min

1. IN THE EXAM Use whatever time you have to read the questions, underline keywords, and PREDICT possible answers. Guessing the answer before you listen is really helpful - just bear in mind that the answer you chose might be a distractor (see the next section).

• The sentences on your paper are different from what you hear on the recording. But the words you write should be exactly the same as what you hear.
• Spelling isn't super-important in this part of the exam, though if you spell something really incorrectly you could miss a point. Basically if it's clear that you heard and understood the word, you should get a point. The only way to be REALLY sure of getting a point is to spell it properly!

A monologue or text involving interacting speakers with a sentence completion task with 10 questions

listening

40 min

b2 first Listening Part 2 Tips

This is a task called sentence completion. On your answer paper is a text with ten gaps. You listen to a monologue for about 3 minutes and you have to put the missing words (or numbers) into the text. It looks like this:

You get a little time (45 seconds) to read through the text before the recording starts to play. The phrase will never be more than 3 words long. Right, let's take 5 seconds to guess some words that might fit the gap: mother / history / smell / nose / fluffiness. (The last word is pretty unlikely to be the answer - the answers are all at FCE level.)

A monologue or text involving interacting speakers with a sentence completition task with 10 questions

listening

40 min

Listening Part 2 Tips

Here's the transcript:

“Thanks for inviting me tonight. As you know, my main interest is in conservation and I’m lucky enough to work with lots of different organisations looking after animals both in captivity and in the wild. I’d been fascinated by all kinds of bears for a long time before I started working in this field. But it was the spectacled bear that really attracted me – some people find it appealing because of its size and shape, and it’s less well known than other types of bear, but for me I thought it was such a great name!”

A monologue or text involving interacting speakers with a sentence completition task with 10 questions

listening

40 min

Quick predictions - arms / legs / paws - any part of the body.

Here's the transcript:

“The name comes from the patches of yellowish fur around the bear’s eyes which grow in a sort of circle shape, like glasses, although these golden markings vary greatly from one bear to another and may not be limited to the eyes – they can extend as far as the bear’s cheeks or even chest”

A monologue or text involving interacting speakers with a sentence completition task with 10 questions

MORE TIPS FOR PART 2

listening

40 min

• Never write more than 3 words.
• If the answer is a number, you can write the number. 300 (or you can write three hundred), 1918, etc.
• Be careful to read the whole sentence to make sure your answer fits grammatically. For example, if I wrote 'name that interested her' as my answer to the bear question, I wouldn't get a point. It says 'interested' later in the sentence. See?
• The second question always comes after the first question. There is normally one 'paragraph' for each question - if you look at some transcripts from past papers you'll see what I mean. The first question is answered in the first paragraph - on the recording the speaker leaves a slight pause - then the next question is answered in the next section.

A monologue or text involving interacting speakers with a sentence completition task with 10 questions

listening

40 min

You will hear an expert snowboarder called Brad Mitchell talking about the sport of extreme snowboarding. For questions 9-18, complete the sentences with a word or short phrase.

Extreme snowboarding Brad says there are no 9_______ to warn extreme snowboarders of dangers. Brad advises snowboarders always to follow the 10_______ when descending. Brad always wears a 11_______ when he goes into the mountains. According to Brad, you need a lot of 12_______ to set off down the mountain. Brad particularly enjoys doing several 13_______ when he is going down a slope. Brad says at first he found it difficult to do a good 14_______ on steep slopes. Brad says you must never 15_______ if you feel you’re about to fall. Brad advises against putting your weight on your 16_______ in a fall. Brad always carries a 17_______ in case he is in difficulty following a fall. In the future, Brad would most like to try 18_______ snowboarding.

fce-listening 2

Thank you!