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IELTS Listening  - Multiple choice

This lesson talks you through some of the skills you need to complete multiple choice listening questions in IELTS. While the format of the listening is part 2 – you get to listen to a tour guide – the same skills apply to the rest of the listening test too. You will also find a multiple choice listening practice exercise at the end of the lesson.
 
Multiple Choice questions – easy or difficult?
In some ways, the multiple choice listening questions look much easier than other types of question. You do not need to write any words down and there is no problem with spelling – all you need to do is circle the correct letter/option and in parts one and two there are only 3 options. Easy peasy? Not always.
The problem with these types of question is that very often there will be two answers that sound as if they could be correct – especially if you use a “key word” strategy where you concentrate on a few words in the question. If you don’t read, understand and concentrate on the whole question, it can be easy to go wrong.
 
Understanding distractors
To get this type of question right, it may help to understand how the questions work. This means thinking about “distractors”. Put simply, a distractor is the “trick answer” – the one you think that may be right if you don’t read the whole question. Here’s an example:
 
Question
The Japanese army planted cherry trees:
A as a sign of goodwill  between China and Japan
B to make Wuhan a special site
C to help their soldiers get better
 
Text/listening
These trees, well over a thousand of them by now, are by no means native to these parts. Wuhan was occupied by the Japanese during the war and the university complex was used by the Japanese army as a centre for convalescent soldiers. To make the wounded feel more at home, the army planted several orchards of cherry trees to remind the soldiers of Japan. In more recent times, the Japanese government gifted more cherry trees to China as a sign of friendship between the two the nations and many of these trees were subsequently planted here in Wuhan.
 
Understanding the distractor
Answer A looks as it it might be right. It isn’t. It is a distractor. Why?
The Japanese government gave the trees to China as a sign of friendship does not match The Japanese army planted the trees as a sign of goodwill between China and Japan.
The two may look similar but there is a difference between an army and a government and giving and planting.
 
Getting the skill right
To get this right, the first step is to know the “distractor” problem – don’t focus on single words like “goodwill”. Know that you may hear things that are close, but not close enough. The next step is simply to focus on the whole question – all the words in the question. Until you listen, you can’t tell which the key words are!
 
A practical note
Another difficulty go these question is that there is quite a lot to read in the thirty seconds before you listen. You have the stem of the question and all the options. My suggestion?
Before you listen, focus on the stem of the question (the “The Japanese army planted cherry trees:” bit) – this tells you where/when the answer is coming.
As you listen, focus on the options – this is tough as it means reading and listening as you go (two skills at once)
Leave your options open as you listen. What I mean by this is that you may hear something that is close to true but you are not sure about. Just mark that option with?, and keep listening. If yo hear a better answer later, mark it with a tick. If you don’t, go back to your first choice.



Script:

 Tutor: OK. Now, I also asked you to get some peer evaluation, from the other students.

Sharon: Yes, er, well, people said it was interesting, like the fact that in China the Internet was used more for shopping than in Northern Ireland. They said sometimes it was a bit hard to understand because we were talking quite fast... but we didn't think so when we watched the video.

Tutor: No, it’s a bit different though, because you know all this information already. Mmm. If you're hearing it for the first time, you need more time to process it ... that's why signposting the structure and organisation of the talk is important.
Xiao Li: That seemed OK, no one mentioned that as a problem. Some people said that we could have had more on the slides… like some of the other groups had nearly everything they said written up on the visuals as well, but other people said the slides were good, they had just the key point...
Tutor: Yes.
Sharon: And most people said we had quite good eye contact and body language. They all pointed out we'd over run... they all said we were five minutes over but we timed it afterwards on the video and it was only three minutes.
Xiao Li: We were a bit unsure about the background reading at first, but I think we did as much as we could in the time... anyway, no one commented on that under content, but one thing that did come out was that they liked the fact we'd done research on both Northern Ireland and China most other people had just based their research on one country. We managed to get quite a lot of data from the Internet, although we had to do our own analysis and we did our own surveys as well in both countries. So the class gave us best feedback for content but it was all OK.
Tutor: Right. Well, that's quite similar to the feedback I'm giving you I was very impressed by the amount of work you'd done and by your research methodology... so, actually, I’m giving you full marks for content, five. The structure of the presentation was good, but not quite as good as the content, so. I gave that four, and the same for technique. So, well done.
Xiao Li/Sharon: Thank you.
Tutor: Now, the next stage is to write up your report. So, just a few pointers for you here. First of all, in your presentation think your ending was rather abrupt - you suddenly just stopped talking. It wasn't a big problem but think about your dosing sentences in your report - you want to round it off well. One thing I forgot to mention earlier was that I felt a very strong point was that after you'd given your results, you explained then limitations.
Xiao Li: The fact that we didn't have a very reliable sample in terms of age in China?
Tutor: Yes, that section. So don't forget to include that. And you had some excellent charts and diagrams, but maybe you could flesh out the literature review a bit. I can give you some ideas for that later on if you want. OK, is there anything else you want to ask?
Xiao Li/Sharon: No... Thank you. / Thanks. 

 Choose the correct answer. 
 
 
1. Look at three bar charts above. Which bar chart represents the marks given by the tutor? ................
A. bar chart B
B. bar chart A
C. bar chart C
Explain:
2. Sharon and Xiao Li were surprised when the class said ................
A. their talk was not well organised.
B. they spoke too quickly.
C. they included too much information.
Explain:
3. The class gave Sharon and Xiao Li conflicting feedback on their................
A. use of eye contact.
B. timing.
C. use of visuals.
Explain:
4. The class thought that the presentation was different from the others because ................
A. the analysis was more detailed.
B. the data collection was more wide-ranging.
C. the background reading was more extensive.
Explain:
Total: 44 page(s)
Score: 0/10
No.DateRight ScoreTotal Score
 
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