Short listening — function, intonation and the repeated-words trap
Listen and Choose a Response
- You hear one short turn and choose what would naturally come next.
- This is everyday conversation, not academic English. The right answer is what a real person would say.
- Every recording plays once. There is no pause and no replay.
Practice
You can replay a recording if you miss something.
Every recording plays once. That is also why practising with replays trains the wrong skill.
Listen for the function, not the words
- Ask what the speaker was doing: requesting, offering, complaining, apologising, suggesting.
- The reply has to match the function. An offer gets accepted or declined; a complaint gets an apology or an explanation.
- Intonation carries meaning. You're coming to the meeting? rising is a question; falling is a statement.
Practice
You hear: 'I could give you a lift if you like.' What is the speaker doing?
An offer is accepted or declined. Naming the function first tells you the shape of the right reply before you compare the options.
The repeated-words trap
- An option that repeats words from the prompt is usually wrong.
- Natural replies use different words. Hearing library in both the prompt and an option is a warning, not a match.
- Distractors are built from the words you just heard, precisely because those are the ones you remember.
Practice
The prompt mentions 'the seminar room'. One option also says 'the seminar room'. What does that suggest?
Natural replies use different words. Distractors are built from the remembered ones precisely because they feel familiar.
Listen to a Conversation
- Two speakers, often a student and someone at a university — a tutor, a librarian, an office.
- Track who wants what: one has a problem, the other offers a solution. Most questions sit on that line.
- Write down numbers, dates, room names and prices as you hear them. Do not trust memory for a number.
Practice
In a student-and-tutor conversation, where do most questions sit?
Tracking who wants what gives you the spine of the conversation, and the questions hang off it.
How to practise
- Practise once through, like the test. Replaying trains a skill the test does not measure.
- Shadowing — play a sentence, say it back immediately — improves listening and pronunciation at the same time.
- Format facts checked on the ETS website on 13 September 2026.