By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Follow a lecture or talk.

• Determine the main idea and supporting or contrasting ideas.

• Listen for words indicating examples and theories.

• Practise strategies for answering Short Answer, Multiple Choice and Note Completion questions.

In the fourth Listening recording, you will hear an extract from a lecture.

You will have attended lectures before, so you will know what to expect in terms of structure. However, the subjects chosen are usually quite unusual. This is to give everyone a fair chance. So don't worry if, when you look at the question paper, it is clearly a subject you know nothing about.

In this section, the question formats can be any of the ones you have previously studied.

Even if you need to get an IELTS Band score of 7 .5, you can still do that even if you get some questions wrong in this section.

We will not be looking at any new question formats in this chapter. However, there will be lots of practice on answering questions for the final listening script.

The final Listening recording is usually an extract from an academic lecture. The language

used when someone gives a lecture is very different from when they are talking about their

subject to students individually. To prepare for the final Listening section, you will listen to

three short extracts from three different lectures

1. Listen to the three extracts from different lectures in Track 12. During each extract, try to make a note of the topic and the main idea of each lecture.

• Topic: the subject matter of the talk (in Listening) or the passage (in Reading)

• Main idea: the view or claim that the speaker/writer makes about the topic

2. How is topic different from main idea?

3. How can listening for topic and main idea help in the Listening module?

The final listening recording is usually an extract from an academic lecture. The language used when someone gives a lecture is very different from when they are talking about their subject to students individually.

1. Look at the following list and tick the features that you would expect to hear in an academic lecture.

• Higher level vocabulary

• Lots of phrasal verbs

• The word 'r

• Long noun phrases

• Passive verbs

• Explanations

• Colloquial expressions

• Clear signposting language

2. Before listening to the recording, look over questions 1-7 below and take 30 seconds to answer the questions a-d. Then, take a moment to review the answers for a-d at the back of the book before listening to the recording.

a. What type of question format is this?

b. Can you use numbers for your answer?

c. Which answer is going to be a type of job?

d. What type of word are all the answers going to be?

Now listen to the recording and answer questions 1-7. Be careful to spell all the answers

correctly.

The way the articles- a, an and the- are used in English can be quite confusing, so being able to use them correctly in your IELTS Speaking and Writing tests will really help you improve your score; you will often have to decide whether to include the article for a fill-in answer in the Listening test. Sometimes no article is required. The best way to learn how to use articles is to see how they are used in authentic speaking and writing.

Look back at the answers to the Listening and answer the following questions.

a. Why is there no article in the answer to question 1?

b. Why is the article in the answer to question 2 optional?

c. Why is there no article in the answer to question 3?

d. Which type of article is in the answer to question 4 and why is it necessary?

e. Which type of article is in the answer to question 5 and why this type?

f. Why is the article in the answer to question 6 linked with the adjective as being optional?

g. Why is there no article in the answer to question 7?

When someone gives a lecture, their language is more formal and academic. Thus, is it is important to become familiar with some of the most frequently used words in an academic context.

Look the words below and find as many synonyms as you can.

a. benefit

b. challenge

c. interpretation

d. conclusion

e. finding (noun)

f. explanation

g. recommendation

h. data

One way you can really help improve your IELTS band score is to increase your vocabulary by learning synonyms. Every time you learn a new word, find some synonyms and antonyms (words that have the opposite meanings) that go with it.

You are now going to a listen to an IELTS part 4 listening track. Before you listen, take 30 seconds to answer questions a-b below.

a. Underline one word in each 'answer' which could be replaced by a synonym in the Listening recording.

b. Which type of words are unlikely to be replaced by synonyms?

Now listen to the recording and answer questions 1-6.

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

A The cost of collecting snow or ice

B The difficulty of mixing cream with ice

C The cost of milk

D The difficulty of storing it

E The preference for baked desserts

This is your final listening practice. All 10 questions appear in the form of a table completion set. There is a lot of information given in the table to help you understand what the talk is about and what you are going to hear. Although you need to look at all 10 questions in the 30 seconds before the lecture begins, you can still learn a lot to help you answer the questions.

Two traditional theories as to why mice run inside exercise wheels:

• To relieve 1 .............. : the activity has a psychological benefit.

• It's a stereotyped behaviour: a repetitive activity without a 2 .............. .

Three criteria for a stereotyped behaviour:

• The behaviour occurs only in animals in 3 .............. , not in animals in nature.

• The behaviour is recurring and always the same, with no clear purpose.

• There is no external stimulus for the behaviour; for example, there is no 4 .............. .

Traditionally, wheel running by captive mice has been understood as a stereotyped behaviour.

• This is because they do it even in the absence of a stimulus.

• This is similar to 5 .............. in a cell pacing back and forth for no reason.

Two locations for the experiment involving wild mice:

• An 6 .............. area (a professor's back garden)

• A rural area (a remote dune inaccessible to the public)

Results of the experiment:

• The running wheels were used more than 7 .............. times.

• Later on, researches removed food from the boxes, yet the visits where the wheel was used increased by 8 .............. .

• Scientists concluded that running in an exercise wheel is inherently 9 .............. to wild mice.

• This means that the first theory is effectively true: mice run in wheels because it is something that they 10 .............. .