Listening
4 sections, 40 questions, about 30 minutes. Play each section’s audio once only. Spelling is graded — a misspelt word is marked wrong. Type your answers in the boxes.
Questions 1–7
Complete the form. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Lakeside Cottages — Booking Enquiry
1 Caller’s surname:
2 Type of accommodation wanted:
3 Number of guests:
4 Number of nights:
5 Preferred start date: the of August
6 Cost per night: £
7 Guests must bring their own:
Questions 8–10
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Questions 11–15
Complete the notes. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Greenfield Charity Garden Festival — visitor talk
11 The festival was first held in .
12 All money raised goes to the local .
13 New this year: a in the evening.
14 A free shuttle leaves from the .
15 Last entry to the festival is at .
Questions 16–20
Which feature is at each location? Choose A–G and type the letter in the box.
Features: A first-aid tent · B information desk · C children’s area · D food stalls · E craft market · F music stage · G lost-and-found
16 By the lake:
17 Near the main entrance:
18 In the walled garden:
19 At the top of the meadow:
20 Beside the car park:
Questions 21–25
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Questions 26–30
Who will do each task? Type S (Sam), O (Olivia) or B (both).
26 Contact cafes for interviews:
27 Design the survey:
28 Analyse the results:
29 Write the introduction:
30 Build the slides:
Questions 31–40
Complete the lecture notes. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
Lecture: a short history of the bicycle
31 The first bicycles appeared in the early century.
32 The earliest machines had no .
33 The penny-farthing was famous for its enormous front .
34 The safety bicycle had two wheels of equal .
35 Crucially the new design became accessible to .
36 Bicycle factories employed many workers.
37 Cycling boomed in the eighteen-.
38 The motor car later reduced bicycle sharply.
39 Today cities promote cycling to reduce .
40 The speaker calls the bicycle a tool of .
Full transcript (Sections 1–4)
You will hear a conversation between a man called Tom at Lakeside Cottages and a woman called Patterson, who is enquiring about booking a holiday cottage. First you have some time to look at questions 1 to 7.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 7.
RECEPTIONIST: Good morning, Lakeside Cottages, Tom speaking. How can I help? CALLER: Hi, I’d like to enquire about booking one of your cottages. R: Lovely. Could I take your surname? C: It’s Patterson — P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N. R: Thanks. We have several types of accommodation — cabins, lodges and cottages. Which were you thinking of? C: I was torn between a cabin and a lodge, but I think a cottage suits us best. R: A cottage, good choice. How many guests? C: There’ll be four of us. R: Four guests. And how many nights? C: Seven nights, please — a full week. R: And when would you like to start? C: We’d like to come on the 12th of August. R: The 12th of August — let me check. Yes, that’s available. The cost for that week is £85 per night. C: Eighty-five per night, fine. R: One thing — please bring your own towels; we provide bed linen but not towels. C: Right, our own towels.
Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 8 to 10.
Now listen and answer questions 8 to 10.
R: Now, parking is free for all guests, with two spaces per cottage, so you won’t be charged. C: Free parking, that’s great. R: And Wi-Fi is free throughout the cottage, not just in the lounge. C: Even better. R: Would you like to book now, think about it, or come and visit first? C: I’ll book it right now if that’s okay. R: Wonderful, I’ll take the details.
That is the end of section 1. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Now turn to section 2.
SECTION 2You will hear the organiser welcoming visitors to the Greenfield Charity Garden Festival. First you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15.
SPEAKER: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Greenfield Charity Garden Festival. A little history: the festival was first held in 2007, and has run every year since — this is our seventeenth festival. All money raised goes to the local hospice; last year we passed forty thousand pounds. New this year: we’ve added a silent disco in the evening, which is excellent fun for adults and children alike. A practical point — if you came by train, please use our free shuttle, which leaves from the railway station every fifteen minutes. Last entry to the festival is at 6 in the evening; after that, you can stay on, but no new tickets are sold.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20.
Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.
SPEAKER: Let me describe the site. By the lake, with a view of the water, we’ve put the music stage. Near the main entrance, on your right as you come in, is the information desk — if you need anything, that’s your first stop. In the walled garden, which is beautiful at this time of year, we’ve set up the craft market. At the top of the meadow, just past the rose bed, you’ll find the food stalls. And beside the car park we’ve put the children’s area, with games and face-painting, so it’s easy to drop the children off and collect them later. We also have a first-aid tent and a lost-and-found, both clearly signed.
That is the end of section 2. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Now turn to section 3.
SECTION 3You will hear two students, Sam and Olivia, discussing a marketing project with their tutor. First you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.
TUTOR: So, how’s the marketing project going? SAM: Pretty well. Our topic is reusable coffee cups — specifically whether the small discounts cafes offer really do persuade customers to bring their own. OLIVIA: Yes, the data’s genuinely interesting. Honestly the budget is fine, and our sample size is okay too. My real concern is the timeline; we’re cutting it close. TUTOR: Timeline pressure is normal. But before tackling that, my main recommendation is this: you should interview a few more cafes. You have two; aim for five or six. I wouldn’t simplify the survey at this stage, and I don’t think a literature review is necessary now. SAM: Got it. How will we present the findings? TUTOR: A ten-minute talk, please, rather than a written report. SAM: Right. What’s been the most useful source so far? OLIVIA: Honestly, the industry reports — far more up-to-date than the academic articles we found, and government data was patchy. TUTOR: Sensible.
Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.
Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.
TUTOR: Right, who’s doing what? SAM: I’ll contact the cafes — that’s me. OLIVIA: And I’ll design the survey. SAM: We’ll analyse the results together — there’s too much data for one person. OLIVIA: Yes, both of us on that. SAM: I’ll write the introduction. OLIVIA: And I’ll build the slides for the talk. TUTOR: Excellent. Clear plan. Send me the survey before you launch it.
That is the end of section 3. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Now turn to section 4.
SECTION 4You will hear a lecture about the history of the bicycle. First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
LECTURER: Today we’ll trace the surprisingly recent history of the bicycle. The first bicycles appeared in the early nineteenth century, and they would look very strange to us — those earliest machines had no pedals at all; you sat on them and pushed yourself along the ground with your feet. The next leap forward was the penny-farthing, famous for its enormous front wheel: riders perched dangerously high, and falls were common. The true breakthrough was the safety bicycle, which had two wheels of equal size, low to the ground. With a chain transferring power to the back wheel, it was far less dangerous, and crucially the new design became accessible to women, who had been largely excluded from earlier machines. Production grew quickly. Bicycle factories employed many skilled workers, particularly in Britain and the United States. Cycling boomed in the eighteen-nineties — by 1895, club rides drew enormous crowds, and bicycles outsold almost every other consumer good. Then the motor car arrived. Across much of the twentieth century, the car reduced bicycle use sharply in many countries, especially in North America. But the wheel has turned again. Today, cities promote cycling to reduce pollution, congestion and obesity, and bike lanes are spreading through capitals worldwide. So I’d argue the bicycle remains, above all, a tool of freedom — cheap, simple, repairable and within reach of almost anyone.
That is the end of section 4. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
That is the end of the listening test. In the real exam you would now have ten minutes to transfer your answers to your answer sheet.
Listening answer key (Questions 1–40)
Accepted variants: 3 “four” · 4 “seven” · 5 “12” / “twelfth” · 15 “six” / “6pm”. Spelling must be correct.
Score guide (out of 40): 36–40 ≈ Band 8.5+ · 30–35 ≈ Band 7–8 · 23–29 ≈ Band 6–6.5 · 16–22 ≈ Band 5–5.5.
Reading
3 passages, 40 questions, 60 minutes. There is no extra time to transfer answers in the real exam — type them as you go.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13.
How seeds travel: the science of dispersal
Plants are rooted in the earth, but their offspring must travel. A seed that grew up directly beneath its parent would face stiff competition for light, water and nutrients, and would also be vulnerable to any pest or disease that struck the parent. Dispersal — moving seeds away from where they were produced — is therefore not a curious extra; it is essential to a plant’s success. Over hundreds of millions of years, plants have evolved a remarkable variety of strategies for getting their seeds elsewhere.
The most familiar method is dispersal by wind. Many plants produce seeds that are small and light, equipped with wings, parachutes or fine hairs. The dandelion’s tufted parachute is a classic example; sycamore seeds spin like helicopters; orchids produce some of the lightest seeds known, almost dust-like, capable of being carried huge distances on a breeze. Wind, however, works best when seeds are light: a heavy seed simply falls to the ground.
Water moves seeds too. The most striking example is the coconut, whose tough, buoyant husk allows it to float across oceans and germinate on distant shores. Smaller seeds may be carried along streams and rivers, sometimes for hundreds of kilometres before lodging on a bank where they can grow. Some water-dispersed seeds even contain an internal air pocket that keeps them afloat for weeks.
Animals provide some of the cleverest forms of transport. Some seeds, such as the burrs of cleavers and burdock, are armed with tiny hooks that catch in animal fur. The animal walks off, the burr eventually drops, and a new colony begins. Other plants take a quieter approach, wrapping their seeds in fleshy fruit that animals eat; the seeds pass through the gut and are deposited, often far away, in a useful dose of fertiliser. A particularly elegant case is the partnership between certain plants and ants: the seeds carry a small fatty appendage, and ants drag them home in exchange for this food reward, planting them in nutrient-rich nest debris in the process.
A small number of plants disperse their seeds by explosion. The fruit dries out under tension and finally splits open, flinging seeds several metres. The squirting cucumber and some pea-family plants behave this way. Although the distances achieved are short compared with wind or water, the force of departure can shoot the seed into a clear patch nearby.
What unites all these strategies is a single underlying logic: distance from the parent plant matters more than speed of growth. A seed that travels a short way to fresh ground will usually do better than one that lands in deep shade right beside its parent. Modern ecology has confirmed what farmers and naturalists long suspected — that the success of a plant species depends, perhaps more than on anything else, on how cleverly it has solved the problem of moving its offspring along. Even the most ingenious method cannot guarantee survival, of course: many seeds land in dry soil or dense shade and never germinate. The numbers compensate for the losses: a single oak tree may produce thousands of acorns over its lifetime, and only a handful will ever become trees.
Questions 1–5
Do the statements agree with the information in the passage? Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.
1 All plants disperse their seeds in essentially the same way.
2 Wind dispersal works best for heavy seeds.
3 Some seeds attach themselves to animal fur.
4 Coconuts can travel across oceans.
5 Dispersal by birds is more effective than dispersal by mammals.
Questions 6–9
Complete the sentences. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.
6 Dispersal helps a young plant avoid competition with the .
7 Burrs use tiny to catch in animal fur.
8 Some water-dispersed seeds float thanks to an internal air .
9 Ants carry certain seeds home in exchange for a .
Questions 10–13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26.
How forests communicate underground
A To anyone walking through a forest, the world appears to end at the soil. Above ground the trees compete; below ground, the assumption goes, they grow in private isolation. In fact, the opposite is true. Beneath our feet runs an extraordinary network linking tree to tree across thousands of square metres — an invisible web that ecologists have only begun to map in detail over the last three decades.
B The threads of this network are not the trees’ own roots but the filaments of fungi. Certain fungi, called mycorrhizal fungi, wrap themselves around or even grow inside the root tips of trees and form a true biological partnership. The fungus draws sugars from the tree, which has produced them by photosynthesis, and in return supplies the tree with water and mineral nutrients drawn from a much larger volume of soil than the roots alone could reach. Almost every forest tree on Earth is engaged in this partnership.
C The fungal network does more than feed the individual tree it is attached to. Because a single fungus can be connected to many trees at once, it forms a shared route along which carbon and other nutrients can move from tree to tree. Researchers tracing labelled carbon have shown that sugars produced by one tree can end up in the roots of another, several metres away. The forest, in other words, is not only competing; it is also quietly sharing.
D The flow is not random. Studies in Canadian forests have found that older, larger trees — sometimes called mother trees or hub trees — tend to be central nodes in the network, connected to many smaller neighbours. They appear to support nearby seedlings, particularly their own offspring, by sending carbon along the fungal threads to them. A young tree in deep shade can survive on the surplus a mother tree sends through the underground network.
E The network carries information as well as food. A tree attacked by leaf-eating insects can release chemical signals into the fungal threads, and neighbouring trees connected to the same network show changes in their own chemistry within hours, beginning to produce defensive compounds before they have been attacked themselves. In effect, the forest warns itself. This finding, more than any other, has changed how scientists describe a forest: not a collection of solitary individuals but a connected community.
Questions 14–18
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph and type the heading number (i–vii) in the box.
i The role of carbon and nutrients · ii An invisible network beneath our feet · iii Fungi as partners with trees · iv Older trees as hubs · v Threats to the underground network · vi Communicating danger · vii The rise of city forestry
14 Paragraph A:
15 Paragraph B:
16 Paragraph C:
17 Paragraph D:
18 Paragraph E:
Questions 19–22
Do the statements agree with the passage? Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.
19 The fungal network can be seen clearly from above ground.
20 Mycorrhizal fungi receive sugars from the trees they are attached to.
21 Younger trees regularly send carbon back to older trees through the network.
22 A tree under insect attack can warn other trees through the network.
Questions 23–26
Complete the summary. Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage.
23 Forests are linked by an underground network of
24 attached to tree .
25 Through this network older trees can pass to seedlings,
26 and a tree under attack can send chemical to its neighbours.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40.
Why some languages disappear
Of the roughly seven thousand languages spoken today, linguists estimate that around half will no longer be in everyday use by the end of this century. That figure is striking, but it is the rate of loss, not the fact of it, that is new. Languages have always come and gone; what is unprecedented is the speed. In the past two generations, the disappearance of small languages has accelerated to a pace never previously recorded.
A language is usually classified as endangered when children stop learning it. As long as new generations grow up speaking the language at home, it can survive shocks; once the chain of transmission is broken, even by a single generation, the language is unlikely to recover without deliberate effort. The numbers are sobering: roughly half of the world’s languages have fewer than ten thousand speakers, and many have only a few hundred, almost all of them elderly.
Why does this happen? The most important driver is not, as is often assumed, simple inevitability, but economic and political pressure to use a dominant language. Parents make a rational calculation: the language of the city, the job market and the school system is the one that will help their children get ahead, even at the cost of the language their grandparents spoke. Government policy has often accelerated the process directly. Throughout much of the twentieth century, many countries operated schools that punished pupils for using their home language, in the name of national unity. The damage of such policies has been hard to undo even after they were abandoned.
Once a language has no native speakers left, it is considered extinct. Some are preserved in written form, but the everyday rhythms and the knowledge encoded in them — about local plants, weather, history and humour — are largely gone. For this reason researchers now work urgently to document endangered languages, recording stories, songs and conversations from elderly speakers while they still can.
There are also revival programmes, in which a community works actively to bring children back into a fading language: introducing it in schools, on the radio, online and in everyday public life. The Welsh, Maori and Hawaiian revivals are often cited as encouraging examples. None of these languages is yet safe, but each has measurably more young speakers than a generation ago. Realistic observers note, however, that revival takes decades of patient effort, requires political support and cannot be bought with money alone.
The picture, then, is mixed. The losses are real and historically extraordinary; the response, where there is one, is patient and serious; and the outcome for any given language depends on choices made by ordinary families, school systems and governments long before linguists arrive.
Questions 27–31
Do the statements agree with the writer’s views? Write YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.
27 Languages have always died out at roughly the same rate.
28 Most languages today have very many speakers.
29 Government policy can speed up the loss of a language.
30 Any language can be saved if enough money is provided.
31 The Welsh revival has fully restored Welsh as an everyday language.
Questions 32–36
Complete the sentences. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.
32 A language is usually classified as endangered when stop learning it.
33 Roughly half of the world’s languages have fewer than speakers.
34 Many schools once punished pupils for using their language.
35 A language with no speakers left is considered extinct.
36 Researchers record stories and from elderly speakers.
Questions 37–40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Reading answer key (Questions 1–40)
Passage 1 — How seeds travel: the science of dispersal
Passage 2 — How forests communicate underground
Passage 3 — Why some languages disappear
Selected notes: 2 FALSE — “Wind works best when seeds are light”. 5 NOT GIVEN — birds vs. mammals are not compared. 6 “parent plant” also accepted. 21 NOT GIVEN — passage describes older-to-younger flow only. 30 NO — “cannot be bought with money alone”. 33 “10,000” / “10000” also accepted.
Reading score guide (out of 40): 37–40 ≈ Band 9 · 33–36 ≈ Band 8 · 30–32 ≈ Band 7.5 · 27–29 ≈ Band 7 · 23–26 ≈ Band 6.5.
Writing
60 minutes. Task 1: at least 150 words in about 20 minutes. Task 2: at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. Task 2 carries more weight.
The line graph below shows the average number of minutes per day that adults in the UK spent reading newspapers and reading news online from 2000 to 2020. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words. Spend about 20 minutes on this task.
Band 9 model answer (Task 1)
Overall, there has been an almost complete reversal: print readership fell steadily while online reading rose sharply, with the two converging in 2010 and crossing over thereafter.
In 2000, newspaper reading clearly dominated, averaging about 35 minutes per day, compared with only 5 minutes for online news. Newspapers then declined steadily, to 30 minutes in 2005 and 22 minutes in 2010, before falling further to just 8 minutes by 2020.
Online news showed the opposite trajectory. From a low base of 5 minutes in 2000 it doubled to 10 minutes by 2005, and continued climbing to 22 minutes in 2010, matching newspapers exactly that year. After 2010, online reading accelerated, reaching 35 minutes in 2015 and 50 minutes by 2020 — ten times its 2000 level and several times greater than print.
By the end of the period, therefore, the two formats had swapped roles: what newspapers had been in 2000, online had become by 2020.
Why this is Band 9: clear overview (reversal, crossover in 2010); accurate figures; varied comparison language (“ten times”, “swapped roles”, “matching exactly”); approx. 195 words.
Some people think that governments should invest more in public transport, while others believe they should invest in roads and motorways. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
Write at least 250 words. Spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Band 9 model answer (Task 2)
Those who favour investment in roads point to the everyday reality that most journeys, in most countries, are made by private car. Wider, better-maintained roads reduce daily congestion, allow goods to reach businesses more cheaply and connect rural communities to towns. New roads can also open up regions that have struggled economically. In a country with poor existing infrastructure, the case for road spending is strong simply because nothing else moves until basic links exist.
Supporters of public transport, however, argue that more roads tend to produce more cars, and that congestion soon returns. Investing in trains, trams and buses moves far more people per unit of space and energy, lowers urban air pollution and gives people who do not own a car — typically the young, the elderly and the less well-off — genuine independence. Cities such as Vienna and Singapore are often cited as evidence that good public transport, when paired with sensible urban planning, can reshape daily life for the better.
In my view, the priorities of the two sides differ in scope rather than in legitimacy. Roads address a present need; good public transport shapes the kind of city, and the kind of environment, a country will have in thirty years. For that reason, while neglecting roads entirely would be unwise, I would argue that the greater share of new investment should go to public transport, particularly in growing cities where the pattern of daily travel is still being set.
Why this is Band 9: both views developed with specific reasoning and example; clear personal position from paragraph 1; precise language (“differ in scope rather than in legitimacy”); approx. 305 words.
Check this before you submit
• Did I answer every part of the question?
• Is my position or structure clear from the first paragraph?
• Does each body paragraph develop one clear idea with a reason or example?
• Did I write at least 250 words (Task 2) / 150 words (Task 1)?
• Did I leave 3–4 minutes to check grammar, spelling and punctuation?
Speaking
11–14 minutes in three parts. Record yourself answering, then compare with the models. The same test format is used for Academic and General Training.
Topic: where you live
• Do you live in a city or a smaller town?
• What do you like most about where you live?
• Has anything changed in your area recently?
• Would you like to live somewhere else in the future?
Sample answer + why it works
What I appreciate most, honestly, is how walkable it is. I can get from my flat to a decent coffee shop, a bookshop and a park within about ten minutes on foot, which makes ordinary days easier than they would be in a bigger, more spread-out city. I also like the fact that I keep bumping into people I know.
Direct opening, one concrete reason (walkability), specific examples (coffee, books, park), and a small personal observation at the end — natural and not memorised.
Cue card
• what the book was
• what it was about
• why you decided to read it
and explain why you enjoyed it.
You have 1 minute to prepare and may make notes. Then speak for 1–2 minutes.
Model long turn + planning notes
Planning notes: book = a popular-science book about sleep · about = how sleep shapes memory, mood and health · why I read it = a friend recommended it · why I enjoyed = clear writing, surprising research, changed my own habits.
I decided to read it because a friend kept quoting from it over coffee, and after the third or fourth interesting fact I gave in and bought a copy. So curiosity, basically — and a bit of peer pressure.
The reason I enjoyed it so much was a combination of two things. First, the writing is unusually clear for a science book; complicated ideas come across without feeling watered down. And second — honestly — it changed my behaviour. I started going to bed earlier and treating sleep less as something to be sacrificed for productivity. So it’s rare that a book actually shifts a habit; this one did, and that’s why it stays with me.
All four bullet points addressed, the planning notes are used loosely (not read out), and the answer runs to roughly 1 min 50 seconds.
Books and reading in society
• Are people in your country reading more or less than in the past?
• Why might some children dislike reading?
• Is it important for schools to teach literature?
• How might digital books change reading habits?
How to reach Band 7+ in Part 3
1 Use the pattern opinion → reason → example every time.
2 Show range with phrases like “it largely depends on”, “broadly speaking”, “there’s a strong argument that…”
3 Acknowledge both sides before you conclude.
4 Buy thinking time naturally: “That’s an interesting question — I’d say…”
How this test is scored
Listening and Reading: raw score out of 40 converts to a band (see each section’s guide). Writing and Speaking: four equally weighted criteria each — Task Response / Fluency, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range & Accuracy. The overall band is the average of the four skills, rounded to the nearest half band.
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Send your Writing answers or book a free 20-minute assessment, and you’ll get a band estimate plus the three things to fix first.