Cambridge IELTS 11 Listening Test 1 Answers

SECTION 1

1. Answer: Charlton

2. Answer: 115/ a/one hundred (and) fifteen

3. Answer: cash

4. Answer: parking

5. Answer: music

6. Answer: entry

7. Answer: stage

8. Answer: code

9. Answer: floor/floors

10. Answer: decoration/decorarions

SECTION 2

11. Answer: animal/animals

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • I must give you some advice and safety tips before we go any further.  As it’s a working farm, please don’t frighten or injure the animals.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (animals): harm = injure
  • Explanation: the speaker welcomes visitors, giving advice about what to do. The first thing is not to injure (harm) the animals.  So, the answer is animal/animals.  (We can sometimes use a singular or plural noun after ‘any’)

12. Answer: tool/tools

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • And do stay at a safe distance from the tools: some of them have sharp points which can be pretty dangerous, so please don’t touch them.
  • Explanation: visitors are warned not to go near the tools – to stay at a safe distance from them.  Then, they are warned not to touch the tools.  The answer is tool/tools.

13. Answer: shoes

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • I’m glad to see you’re all wearing shoes – we always advise people to do that.
  • Explanation: because the ground is uneven and visitors may slip, they should wear shoes.  The answer is shoes.

14. Answer: dogs

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • I don’t think any of you have brought dogs with you, but in case you have, I’m afraid they’ll have to stay in the car park, unless they’re guide dogs.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (dogs):
    •  certain exceptions = unless
  • Explanation: The speaker tells visitors not to bring dogs into the farm, but dogs which accompany blind people (guide dogs) are allowed.  These are the ‘exceptions’ to the rule.  The answer is dog/dogs.

15. Answer: F

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • Now let me give you some idea of the layout of the farm…….The scarecrow you can see in the car park in the corner , beside the main path,  is the traditional figure for keeping the birds away from the crops…
  • Explanation: It is important to notice the ‘X’ – You are here on the map.  Use this to follow the instructions about where to go.

So, we look for the scarecrow in the corner of the car park, at the side of (beside) the main path.  This gives us the answer F.

16. Answer: G

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • If you look ahead of you, you’ll see a maze.  It’s opposite the New Barn, beside the side path that branches off to the right just over there.  The maze is made out of hedges which are too tall for young children to see over them, but it’s quite small, so you can’t get lost in it!
  • Explanation: there are only 2 possible letters opposite the New Barn (I and G).  However, the speaker says that the maze is ‘beside the side path’ to the right.  So, the answer is G.

17. Answer: D

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • Now, can you see the bridge crossing the fish pool further up the main path?  If you want to go to the café, go towards the bridge and turn right just before it.  Walk along the side path and the café’s on the first bend you come to.
  • Explanation:  the bridge crosses the fish pool, which is marked on the map.  Just before you arrive at this bridge, turn right.  This is marked as the ‘side path’.  The building at the first bend is the café, so the answer is D.

18. Answer: H

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • As you may know, we run skill workshops here, where you can learn traditional crafts like woodwork and basket-making.  You can see examples of the work, and talk to someone about the courses, in the Black Barn.  If you take the side path to the right here, just by the New Barn, you’ll come to the Black Barn just where the path first bends.
  • Explanation:  to visit the Black Barn, take the side path to the right of the New Barn.  Where the path bends is the Black Barn, so the answer is H.

19. Answer: C

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • You can picnic in the field, though do clear up behind you, of course.  Or, if you’d prefer a covered picnic area, there’s one near the farmyard: just after you cross the bridge, there’s a covered picnic spot on the right.
  • Explanation:  the covered picnic area is just after you cross the bridge. We know that it is near the farmyard, and it is also on the right, (the answer cannot be B, which is on the left, and is part of the farmyard),  so the answer is C.

20. Answer: A

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • And the last thing to mention is Fiddy House itself.  From here you can cross the bridge then walk along the footpath through the field to the left of the farmyard.  That goes to the house.
  • Explanation:  crossing the bridge, we take the footpath to the left of the farmyard.  We can see that this goes in the direction of the road, and letter A.  The answer is A.

SECTION 3

21. Answer: C science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • About the study of college students done by Akira Miyake and his team? Yeah. I was interested that the researchers were actually a mix of psychologists and physicists. That’s an unusual combination.- Yeah. I got a little confused at first about which students the study was based on. They weren’t actually majoring in physics – they were majoring in what’sknown as the STEM disciplines. That’s science, technology, engineering and …- … and math. Yes, but they were all doing physics courses as part of their studies.
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (C):major in physics = physicistmajor in psychology = psychologistmathematics = math
  • Explanation: Answer B seems appropriate at first because “the researchers were actually a mix of psychologists and physicists”.  However, the question does not ask about the people carrying out the research but about “the students in Akira Miyake’s study”. Therefore B is not correct. It is also said that “They weren’t actually majoring in physics” (“they” refers to the students which the study was based on) so A is not correct either. They were actually majoring in STEM disciplines, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or math). Hence C is the correct answer.

22. Answer: B a way of improving women’s performance in physics.

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • That’s correct. So as I understood it, Miyake and co started from the fact that women are underrepresented in introductory physics courses at college, and also that on average, the women who do enrol on these courses perform more poorly than the men. No one really knows why this is the case.-Yeah. But what the researchers wanted to find out was basically what they could do about the relatively low level of the women’s results. But in order to find a solution they needed to find out more about the nature of the problem.
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (B):
    • aim = want to

investigate = find out

performance = results

  • Explanation: The above conversation is about women who study physics at college, but no mention is made of the different kinds of women, therefore A is irrelevant. In addition, Miyake’s study compared the results, NOT the number, of women and men attending physics class: “the women who do enrol on these courses perform more poorly than the men” so C is also incorrect. The speaker says that Miyake’s team “wanted to find out”, which means they aimed to “investigate”, a solution to the problem of the poor results of women in physics. So, we understand that they want to “improve” such poor “performance”, hence B is the correct answer.

23. Answer: B. the male students expected them to do badly.

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • Right – now let’s see if I can remember… it was that in the physics class, the female students thought the male students all assumed that women weren’t any good at physics … was that it? And they thought that the men expected them to get poor results in their tests.-That’s what the women thought, and that made them nervous, so they did get poor results. But actually they were wrong … No one was making any assumptions about the female students at all.
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (B):
    • females = women

believe = thought

male students = men

do badly = get poor results

expect = assume = make assumptions

  • Explanation: The entire dialogue does not mention anything related to teachers, so A is obviously irrelevant. We need to be careful when the speaker says “That’s what the women thought, and that made them nervous, so they did get poor results”. So C: “their test results were lower than the male students’ ” is the consequence of what the females thought, but it does not describe what the women were thinking or believing, hence C does not answer the question. As the speaker says “No one was making any assumptions about the female students at all”, we can understand that men did not “assume”, which is similar to “expect”, the women to do badly, meaning the women were wrong to think that way. The answer is B.

24. Answer: C. something that was important to them personally.

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • Anyway, what Miyake’s team did was quite simple – getting the students to do some writing before they went into the physics class. What did they call it?-Values-affirmation – they had to write an essay focusing on things that were significant to them, not particularly to do with the subject they were studying, but more general things like music, or people who mattered to them.
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (C):
    • ​​​​​​​asksb to do = get sb to doimportant = significant = mattered to
  • Explanation: It is said that Miyake asked the students to write an essay “on things that were significant to them, not particularly to do with the subject they were studying”. Even though “significant” things can refer to the things they enjoyed, we can clearly see that the essay is not related to studying physics, so A is not correct. B is not the answer because the conversation does not mention anything about others’ experiences. Meanwhile, “significant” is the same as “important”, and the speaker gives examples of the essay topics like “music, or people who mattered to them”, implying that the students should write about their personal life. If something ‘matters to you’, it is important to you. Therefore the most appropriate answer is C.

25. Answer: A. to reduce stress

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
  • Right. So the idea of doing the writing is that this gets the students thinking in a positive way.-And putting these thoughts into words can relax them and help them overcome the psychological factors that lead to poor performance.
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (A):
    • writing exercise = doing the writingaim = ideareduce stress = relax
  • Explanation: It is clear that “verbal ability” is not mentioned and C cannot be the answer. One of the speaker says that the idea behind, or the “aim”, of Miyake’s exercise is to encourage positive thinking, not logical thinking. Therefore C is incorrect. Beside positive thinking, the writing exercise also helps the students with relaxing, not physically but psychologically (“help them overcome the psychological factors”).We can deduce from this that the exercise helps them to “reduce stress”, because stress is a psychological factor that can affect the performance of students. The answer is A.

26. Answer: B. the positive impact it had on physics results for women

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • But what the researchers in the study hadn’t expected was that this one activity raised the women’s physics grades from the C to the B range.
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (B):
    • ​​​​​​​surprised = hadn’t expected
  • Explanation: It was to the researchers’ surprise, because they “hadn’t expected”, that their study might improve the grades of women, from C to B range in particular. This is obviously a positive change, so the answer has to be B.

27. Answer: C. the information the students were given.

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • Yes. Mind you, Miyake’s article left out a lot of details. Like, did the students do the writing just once, or several times? And had they been told why they were doing the writing? That might have affected the results.- You mean, if they know the researchers thought it might help them to improve, then they’d just try to fulfil that expectation?
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (C):the writing task = the writinggiven information = told
  • Explanation: The question of one speaker: “did the students do the writing just once, or several times” may trick you into thinking about “the length of the writing task”. However, it is not mentioned whether this may affect the results of the study. Also the number of times that students do the writing task does not refer to the length of the task. Therefore, A is not correct.There is no mention of the number of students who took part in the writing task, so B is also incorrect.Right after that, the speaker says that if the women students knew why they had to write the essay, “That might have affected the results”. Whether or not had they been told about the reason for writing the task can be understood as “the information the students were given”, hence C is correct.

28. Answer: A. two different writing tasks.

Here’s what the speaker says:

  • Explanation: We need to be careful when Greg says “oral task”, which appears in B and C. At first, Greg suggests a combination of a writing task and an oral task, so we might think the answer is B. However, later on both Greg and Lisa decide to go with two different kinds of writing tasks to see “if it really is the topic that made the difference, or something else”. This means that they want to know which topic or which task might affect the results of the study, so it is the same as “compare the effects” of the two different writing tasks. A is the only answer which refers to two different writing tasks. Therefore the answer is A.

29. Answer: B. had no effect on the performance of men or women.

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • And there was another article I read, by Smolinsky. It was about her research on how women and men perform in mixed teams in class, compared with single-sex teams and on their own.-Let me guess … the women were better at teamwork.-That’s what I expected, but actually the men and the women got the same results whether they were working in teams or on their own.
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (B):
    • no effect = the same resultsteamwork activities = working in teamsperformance = results
  • Explanation: At first, we can hear Greg’s guess about women being better at teamwork, which has the same meaning as A. However, A is not the answer because consequently Lisa reveals the fact that “the men and the women got the same results whether they were working in teams or on their own”. The “same results” means that teamwork “has no effect” on the performance of the men and women, so C is incorrect.Working in teams or on their own, men and women got the same results – class teamwork did not affect the results and therefore B is correct.

30. Answer: A. talk to a professor

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • Right, what do we need to do next? We could have a look at the timetable for the science classes … or perhaps we should just make an appointment to seeone of the science professors. That’d be better.-Great. And we could even get to observe one of the classes.-What for?-Well … OK maybe let’s just go with your idea. Right, well …
  • Here are some key words that help you to get the correct answer (A):
    • ​​​​​​​talk to = make an appointment to see
  • Explanation: When discussing about what they should do next, Lisa initially suggests looking at the timetable for science classes, which is answer C. However, if we listen carefully, Lisa then proposes a better idea of making an appointment with a professor. To “make an appointment” means that they will see the professor to talk about their project, so that is answer A. The next part is tricky because Greg also makes a suggestion about observing a science class, so we might think that the answer is C. So, we have to read the next line. But in the end, both of them agree to go with Lisa’s idea which is seeing a professor and the correct answer is A.

SECTION 4

31. Answer: conservastion

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • About 20 years ago biologists developed the idea of what they called ‘biodiversity hotspots’.  These are the areas which have the greatest mixture of species, so one example is Madagascar.  These hotspots are significant because they allow us to locate key areas for focusing efforts at conservation.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (conservation)
    • important = significant

targets = key areas

  • Explanation: the speaker talks about ‘biodiversity hotspots’, and explains what they are.  They are important in order to locate the areas in which to ‘focus’ (target) conservation.  The answer is conservation.

32. Answer: food

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • Then a Canadian biologist called Boris Worm did some research in 2005 on data on ocean species that he got from the fishing industry.  Worm located five hotspots for large ocean predators like sharks, and looked at what they had in common.  The main thing he’d expected to find was that they had very high concentrations of food, but to his surprise that was only true for four of the hotspots – the remaining hotspot was quite badly off in that regard.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (food):
    •  rich in = had high concentrations of
  • Explanation: Boris Worm discovered five ocean hotspots for predators like sharks.  He expected that these hotspots would all have a lot of food for sharks, but one of these five hotspots did not have much food for large predators.  What he expected to find was only true for four of the hotspots, so it was not always true that ocean hotspots had a large food supply for sharks.  The answer is food.

33. Answer: surface

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • But what he did find was that in all cases, the water at the surface of the ocean had relatively high temperatures, even when it was cool at greater depths.
  • Explanation: In these hotspots, the deep water could be cool, but at the surface, the temperature of the water was high when compared with this deeper water.  The answer is surface.

34. Answer: oxygen

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • However, this wasn’t enough on its own, because he also found that the water needed to have enough oxygen in it – so these two factors seemed necessary to support the high metabolic rate of these large fish.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (oxygen):
    • sufficient = enough
  • Explanation: Boris Worm also found that in hotspots, large ocean predators also needed water that contained sufficient oxygen.  This enabled them to be very active (their high metabolic rate).  The answer is oxygen.

35. Answer: mammals

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • A couple of years later, in 2007, a researcher called Lisa Ballance, who was working in California, also started looking for ocean hotspots, but not for fish – what she was interested in was marine mammals, things like seals.
  • Explanation: Lisa Ballance was also interested in ocean hotspots, but her interest was not in the fish, but in the marine mammals which lived there.  The answer is mammals.

36. Answer: ice

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • For example, there’s an international project called the Census of Marine Life.  They’ve been surveying oceans all over the world, including the Arctic.  One thing they’ve found there which stunned other researchers was that there were large numbers of species which live below the ice…..
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (ice):
    • ​​​​​​​under = below
  • Explanation: the Census of Marine Life discovered many new species while surveying the Arctic.  Lots of these new species were found under the ice.  So, the answer is ice.

37. Answer: decline/decrease

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • So a body called the Global Marine Species Assessment ….consider things like the size of the population – how many members of one species there are in a particular place – and then they look at their distribution in geographical terms, although this is quite difficult when you’re looking at fish, because they’re so mobile, and then thirdly they calculate the rate at which the decline of the species is happening.
  • Explanation: when they make their list of endangered species, the Global Marine Species Marine Assessment want to consider numbers (population size), geographical distribution and, thirdly how fast this decline of these species is taking place (the rate of decline).  So, the answer is decline/decrease.

38. Answer: map

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • So far only 1,500 species have been assessed, but they want to increase this figure to 20,000.  For each one they assess, they use the data they collect on that species to produce a map showing its distribution.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (map):
    • aim = they want to

make = produce

  • Explanation: the speaker says that for each one of the species assessed, the aim is to show their distribution (where it can be found geographically), so a distribution map will be made for each species assessed.  The answer is map.

39. Answer: migration

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • In addition, to preserve species such as leatherback turtles, which live out in the high seas, but have their nesting sites on the American coast, we need to create corridors for migration, so they can get from one area to another safely.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (migration):
    • establish = create
  • Explanation: the final part of the talk is about recommendations – what can be done to retain the diversity of species in the oceans.  One of these recommendations concerns species which migrate – giving the example of turtles.  For such species, the proposal is to establish corridors so that they can migrate safely to their breeding (nesting sites).  The answer is migration.

40. Answer: comsumption

  • Here’s what the speaker says:
    • And finally, there’s the problem of the ‘by-catch’.  This refers to the catching of unwanted fish by fishing boats – they’re returned to the sea, but they’re often dead or dying.  If these commercial fishing boats used equipment which was more selective, so that only the fish wanted for consumption were caught, this problem could be overcome.
  • Here are some key words to help you to get the answer (consumption):
    • for the purpose of = wanted for
  • Explanation: the final recommendation concerns commercial fishing.  Better equipment could reduce the ‘by-catch’, so that only those fish wanted for consumption would be caught.  The answer is consumption.

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