hi there it's asiya today let's practice answering one of the most common types of
questions in ielts listening missing words or as they're also known filling the gap questions i'll
give you some tips on how to find answers and what to look out for to avoid mistakes
i've prepared for you two recordings with different types of questions to practice
together so grab a pen and paper to write down your answers and let's get started
the first recording is what you usually get at the very beginning of the listening test
you'll hear a dialog and need to complete information in the notes when you see this task
check how many words are you allowed to use in your answers if the task says not more
than one word and or a number and your answer has two words it's incorrect read
all the questions before the recording begins an anticipate the answer are you waiting for a number
is it the size in meters centimeters or maybe inches is it a noun or a verb
this information will help you concentrate let's practice ready
now you have some time to read questions number one to eight
you will hear a telephone conversation between a
customer and an agent at a company which ships large boxes overseas
good morning pakham's shipping agents can i help you oh yes i'm ringing to
make inquiries about sending a large box a container back home to kenya from the uk
yes of course would you like me to try and find some quotations for you yes that'd be great thank
you well first of all i need a few details from you fine can i take your name it's jacob m kerry
can you spell your surname please yes it's m k e r e is that m for mother yes
thank you and you say that you will be sending the box to kenya that's right and where would you like
the box picked up from from college if possible yes of course i'll take down the address now it's
westall college is that w e s t a double l yes college westall college
and where's that it's downlands road in bristol oh yes i know it and the postcode it's bs89pu
right and i need to know the size yes i've measured it carefully and it's 1.5 meters long
right 0.75 meters wide okay and it's 0.5 meters high or or deep great so i'll calculate the volume
in a moment and get some quotes for that but first can you tell me you know very generally what will
be in the box yes uh there's mostly clothes okay and there's some books okay good um anything else
yes there's also some toys okay and what is the total value do you think of the contents
well the main costs are the clothes and the books they'll be about 1 500 pounds but then the toys
are about another 200. so i'll put down 1 700 pounds okay how did it go let's check
the first answer is a surname muker in this case it was just spelled out one letter after another
when you have a more common sentence the spelling may be not what you expect listen to this example
my name is alice brown is it b-r-o-w-n no it's b-r-a-u-n so listen to all the information
provided don't assume you already know the answer before they finish discussing it next
west hall when your answer is a name of a place or a surname don't forget to capitalize the
first letter alternatively you can write all the answers in capital letters number three
bs8 9pu this is a postcode a british postcode which means it's a combination of letters and
numbers written with a space in the middle so you may not know that so both answers with a space and
without a space are acceptable if you remember they were talking about bristol and the first
two letters here are bs which in our case means bristol that's a little tip number four and five
okay here we have tons of options of how you can write down your answers i find that the easiest
way is to use the format you see in the example the length was already given 1.5 m please note
that in english we put a point and not a comma in the recording you could hear not 0.75 meters
and not 0.5 meters not means zero in a telephone number it's common to say o instead of zero my
number is 0785 and so on perhaps i shouldn't spell it out so you can write down the word meter using
the british or american spelling but i think you should just write m and for centimeters cm not sm
next in either order books toys if you include the word sum it's okay and the last one 1700
in english we put a comma to separate thousands it's called a thousands separator use a comma and
not a point in some languages it's the other way around i think you should also know that
this number can be read as seventeen hundred so how much is twelve hundred it's one thousand two
ready for the next recording you'll be required to complete sentences this means that you
need to read whole sentences to find out what you're looking for before the recording begins
during your exam use the time given to revise questions from the previous section
and the time for instructions to read all the questions from the next section
i'm going to be generous and give you 20 seconds let's start
the other thing i wanted to ask you was did you find it hard studying with the open university
you mean because you're studying on your own most of the time well it took me a while to get
used to it i found i needed to maintain a high level of motivation because it's so different
from school there's no one saying why haven't you written your assignment yet and that sort of thing
oh dear you'll learn it paul another thing was that i got very good at time management
because i had to fit time for studying around a full-time job well i'm hoping to change to
working part-time so that'll help what makes it easier is that the degree is made up of modules
so you can take time off between them if you need to it isn't like a traditional three or four year
course where you've got to do the whole thing of it in one go that's good because i'd like to spend
six months traveling next year huh it's all right for some then even though you're mostly studying
at home remember you've got tutors to help you and from time to time there are summer schools
they usually last a week they're great because you meet all the other people struggling with the same
things as you i've made some really good friends that way sounds good so how do i apply okay let's
check the answers number one rachel said i found i needed to maintain a high level of motivation
because it's so different from school the correct answer is motivation number two another thing was
that i got very good at time management because i had to fit time for studying around a full
time job the correct answer is time management as you can see you may or may not use a hyphen
it's very important to spell words correctly if you make a mistake your answer is incorrect
number three what makes it easier is that the degree is made up of modules so you can take
time off between them if you need to the answer is modules plural not module look at the question
it was helpful that the course was structured in remember that we don't include articles in
our answers as there is no article a or an in the question the noun that follows
must be plural or uncountable otherwise the sentence completed with your answer
won't be grammatically correct there should be no missing articles or verbs in incorrect forms
you should read the sentence and it should be correct and the last question from time to time
there are summer schools they usually last a week they were clearly talking about summer schools
in plural however both summer school and summer schools are correct answers put them
into the sentence she enjoyed meeting other students at summer school or summer schools
both are correct okay before summarizing the tips from today's lesson tell me in the comments
how many questions out of 12 could you answer correctly i'd love to know and here are the tips
check how many words you are allowed to use in your answers if the task says not more than one
word and or a number and your answer has two words it's incorrect be careful read all the questions
before the recording begins and anticipate the answer are you waiting for a name or for size
or for a verb check if this spelling is correct you may use british or american spelling
the spelling of names may be unexpected you may write your answers in capital letters
don't include articles or prepositions in your answers check if the completed sentences are
grammatically correct of course you don't have time to do that while the recording is playing
but you are given some time after the test when you can do that today's practice questions are
written by cambridge english and their practice tests are just like the real exams so i recommend
using them to practice if you're wondering what other steps you should take to prepare for ielts
listening or other sections of the test feel free to download my step-by-step ielts study plan
and you can also watch the video about one of the most challenging types of tasks in ielts listening
max thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye