Listening
4 sections, 40 questions, about 30 minutes. Play each section’s audio once only. Spelling is graded.
Questions 1–7
Complete the form. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Pomodoro Cookery — Class Enrolment
1 Caller’s surname:
2 Cuisine chosen:
3 Number of sessions:
4 Start month:
5 Class day:
6 Total cost: £
7 Item students must bring:
Questions 8–10
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Questions 11–13
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Questions 14–20 — Label the map
Which feature is shown at each numbered point on the map? Choose A–I and type the letter in the box.
14 Point 14:
15 Point 15:
16 Point 16:
17 Point 17:
18 Point 18:
19 Point 19:
20 Point 20:
Questions 21–25
Which group does each finding apply to? Type A first-year undergraduates · B second-year undergraduates · C postgraduates.
21 Reported the longest study hours per day.
22 Most likely to study together in groups.
23 Showed the highest stress levels at exam time.
24 Spent the most time on online courses outside the main programme.
25 Most likely to take an afternoon nap.
Questions 26–30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Questions 31–34
Complete the lecture notes. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Lecture: how birds navigate during migration
31 Some species migrate more than kilometres each year.
32 By day they use the sun; by night they use the .
33 Many species can also detect the Earth’s field.
34 Young birds inherit a basic from their parents.
Questions 35–37
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Questions 38–40
Complete the sentences. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
38 Light pollution affects birds most strongly in .
39 Many species follow the same fixed year after year.
40 The biggest gap in current research is birds’ use of .
Full transcript (Sections 1–4)
You will hear a conversation between a receptionist at Pomodoro Cookery and a caller called Whitfield, who is enquiring about a cooking class. First you have some time to look at questions 1 to 7.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 7.
RECEPTIONIST: Good morning, Pomodoro Cookery. CALLER: Hi, I’d like to enrol in one of your evening cooking classes. R: Lovely. Could I take your surname? C: It’s Whitfield — W-H-I-T-F-I-E-L-D. R: And which cuisine would you like? C: The Italian course. R: Italian, good choice. That runs for six sessions in total, one evening a week. C: Six sessions, fine. R: It begins in October. C: October, perfect. R: We run it on Tuesdays. C: Tuesdays, that works. R: The total cost for the six-session course is two hundred and ten pounds. C: £210, fine. R: Please bring your own apron — we provide everything else. C: Apron, got it.
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, just a few details. The classes are actually held in a local restaurant, not at the college as you may have seen on the website — we’ve moved this year. C: A local restaurant, okay. R: Each class is limited to a maximum of ten students so everyone gets attention. C: Ten students, fine. R: Would you like to pay online today, visit the restaurant first, or call back tomorrow once you’ve thought about it? C: I’ll pay online today, please.
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 a guide welcoming visitors to Birchwood Nature Reserve. First you have some time to look at questions 11 to 13.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 13.
GUIDE: Hello everyone, and welcome to Birchwood Nature Reserve. A few quick facts first. The reserve covers about a hundred hectares — not as small as some visitors expect — so do leave yourself time. We’re open seven days a week from sunrise to sunset, no weekly closing day, so any day is a good day. Photography is welcome everywhere in the reserve; we used to ask people not to use flash in the bird hide, but we removed that restriction last year after research showed it made very little difference.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at the map and questions 14 to 20.
Now listen and answer questions 14 to 20.
GUIDE: Now let me describe the layout, since it’s easy to get lost. You came in along the main entrance road from the south. As you came in, just inside the gate, you’ll have seen the visitor centre — that’s at point fourteen on the map, where the road meets the trail. From the visitor centre, the trail loops up to the north. Follow it west and you’ll soon come to the bird hide at point fifteen — an excellent spot in the early morning. Continue north and you’ll find a small pond at point sixteen; it’s home to several species of dragonfly in summer. In the centre of the trail, at point seventeen, we’ve set up the picnic area, with several tables and an awning for shade. At the very top, at point eighteen, you’ll see our observation tower — the steps are worth it for the view across the canopy. Turning east, at point nineteen you’ll find the butterfly garden; please move slowly through it. And finally, on the eastern path back south, at point twenty, you’ll find a compost toilet. The car park, by the way, is the only feature outside the reserve boundary, just south of the entrance gate.
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, Tom and Lisa, discussing a study-habits research 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: How’s the study-habits project going? TOM: Quite well. We compared three groups: first-years, second-years and postgraduates. LISA: The clearest pattern was actually about hours. Postgraduates reported by far the longest study hours per day. TUTOR: Group differences? TOM: First-years are very social about it — they were the most likely to study together in groups, by some margin. LISA: And, perhaps unsurprisingly, first-years also showed the highest stress levels at exam time. TUTOR: What about extras? TOM: Postgraduates spent the most time on online courses outside their main programme — they’re always learning a new tool. LISA: Second-years, interestingly, were the group most likely to take an afternoon nap, which we found amusing.
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: Any big surprises overall? TOM: Honestly, the biggest surprise wasn’t sleep loss or library use, and most students didn’t have part-time jobs — it was how few took regular exercise. Embarrassingly low across all three groups. TUTOR: Good finding. When’s your presentation? LISA: Six weeks from now. TUTOR: My main advice is to add a focus group — not more interviews, not another survey. Five or six students discussing in a room will give you depth your numbers cannot. TOM: Sensible. LISA: We’d also like to compare with another university — same year groups, different campus. TUTOR: That works. The hardest part so far? LISA: The coding of the open-ended answers, by miles. Numbers were fine; words were hard.
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 how birds navigate during migration. First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
LECTURER: Today’s lecture: how birds navigate during migration. The scale is extraordinary. Some species migrate more than eleven thousand kilometres each year, often returning to the same nesting site within metres. How do they do it? Birds use multiple cues at once. By day they use the position of the sun; by night, many species use the stars, in particular the rotation of the night sky around a pole. Beyond visual cues, many species can also detect the Earth’s magnetic field — an internal compass that points roughly north. Young birds, on their first migration, inherit a basic compass from their parents, an inherited direction-and-distance programme. The most striking evidence for a magnetic sense comes from laboratory experiments with magnetic coils, in which researchers shift the magnetic field around captive birds and the birds reorient accordingly. There are modern threats. Predators have always been with them, but one major modern problem is light pollution: brightly lit cities draw migrating birds off course, sometimes fatally. Climate change is the larger long-term concern. Spring is arriving earlier than the migration cycle has yet adjusted to, and food sources at stopover points are shifting. The speaker’s view is that climate change will make migration harder for many species rather than easier. Practical issues: light pollution affects birds most strongly in cities, and many species follow the same fixed routes year after year, so loss of a single stopover can be catastrophic. Finally, an open research question: the biggest gap in our current research is birds’ use of smell. We know they can smell — field studies show this clearly — but how much they use it in navigation is still being argued out.
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 “six” · 5 “Tuesdays” · 31 “11,000” / “eleven thousand”.
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.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13.
The disappearing night sky
For most of human history, the night sky was a familiar part of daily life. Children grew up knowing the names of constellations; sailors crossed oceans by them; farmers and astronomers alike planned their work around the predictable motions of stars and planets. Within the past century, however, much of humanity has lost this view. Artificial light at night, useful as it is, has gradually washed away the darkness on which the visible night sky depends.
The change has come faster than most people realise. A recent series of measurements suggests that the brightness of the night sky has risen by roughly nine per cent each year in many populated regions — a rate that doubles the sky’s overall brightness in less than a decade. Today, more than eighty per cent of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies. In a large city, only a few dozen of the thousands of stars visible to the unaided eye still cut through the glare. The Milky Way, once an obvious band across the sky, is invisible from most cities in Europe and North America.
The most visible cause is poor outdoor lighting. Street lamps that spill light upwards and sideways, illuminated advertising and the increasingly common bright security lights all add to what astronomers call sky glow. The light is not used for any useful purpose; it simply leaks into the atmosphere and is scattered by air molecules, dust and water droplets, creating a dome of artificial brightness over every populated area. Modern LED lighting has, paradoxically, made matters worse: although LEDs use less electricity than older lamps, they are typically brighter, often whiter, and are installed in greater numbers.
The effects reach far beyond stargazing. Many species — migrating birds, sea turtles, moths, fireflies — depend on natural light cues to orient themselves and synchronise their behaviour, and they are visibly disrupted by artificial light. Hatchling sea turtles, for example, instinctively crawl towards the brightest horizon, which historically meant the moonlit ocean; on a modern coastline it now often means a hotel car park. Human health is also affected. Long-term exposure to bright light at night disrupts the human circadian rhythm, and has been linked to sleep disorders and several chronic conditions.
The encouraging news is that light pollution is one of the most easily reversible forms of environmental damage. Unlike a chemical spill, the harmful pollutant disappears the moment the light is switched off. A growing number of towns and cities have begun to act: replacing fixtures so that light only points downward, dimming or switching off non-essential lighting after midnight, and creating “dark-sky” parks where the natural night is deliberately preserved. None of these measures sacrifices safety, and most reduce energy costs. The night sky, in other words, is one of the few large environmental losses that we could, with sensible choices, mostly undo.
Questions 1–5 — TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
1 Throughout most of human history the night sky was part of daily life.
2 The brightness of the night sky has fallen in recent decades.
3 Modern LED lights have completely solved the problem of light pollution.
4 Hatchling sea turtles are sometimes drawn towards lit areas inland.
5 Wealthier countries have higher levels of light pollution than poorer countries.
Questions 6–9 — Matching sentence endings
Complete each sentence beginning with the correct ending. Type the correct letter A–F.
A creates a dome of artificial brightness over every populated area. · B can be reversed simply by switching off unnecessary lights. · C has been linked to several chronic conditions. · D has been adopted by nearly all city councils so far. · E often relies on telescopes rather than the naked eye. · F mainly affects mountain regions.
6 Sky glow caused by leaking outdoor lighting
7 Long-term exposure to bright light at night
8 Unlike a chemical pollutant, light pollution
9 The replacement of upward-facing lamps with downward-facing ones
Questions 10–13 — Sentence completion
Complete the sentences with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.
10 More than of the world’s population now lives under light-polluted skies.
11 Astronomers call the dome of brightness above cities “”.
12 Some communities have created “” parks where natural darkness is preserved.
13 Long-term exposure to night-time light disrupts the human rhythm.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26.
How a volcano works
For all their drama, volcanoes are surprisingly simple machines. Beneath the visible cone of ash and rock lies a deep store of partly molten material called magma. As pressure builds, this magma rises through a vertical channel known as the central conduit, sometimes branching off into smaller side channels. When the rising magma reaches the surface, it erupts through the main vent at the top of the volcano. The molten material that emerges is then called lava.
The classic shape of a volcano — the steep-sided cone you see in textbook drawings — is built up over thousands of years by repeated eruptions. Each eruption deposits a fresh layer on the existing mountain: ash and pumice when the eruption is explosive, lava flows when it is calmer. These alternating layers are visible as bands in the cliff faces of older volcanoes, and they record the history of every previous eruption.
At the centre of an active cone, the main vent opens into a bowl-shaped depression called the crater, where erupted material is funnelled. Around the rim of the crater, hot gases — mainly water vapour, carbon dioxide and sulphur compounds — escape through small openings known as fumaroles even between full eruptions. Geologists monitor the chemistry of these escaping gases as one of the most sensitive early warning signs of a coming eruption.
Different volcanoes behave in very different ways, depending on the chemistry of their magma. Magma that is rich in silica is sticky and traps gases, building pressure until it bursts in violent, explosive eruptions; volcanoes of this kind tend to have steep cones and dramatic, occasional events. Magma that is poor in silica is runny and lets gas escape easily; the resulting eruptions are gentler, with rivers of lava flowing for kilometres. The broad, low-sloped shield volcanoes of Hawaii and Iceland are of the second type.
Volcanoes are not evenly distributed across the planet. The vast majority lie along the boundaries between the great tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s outer shell, particularly the so-called “Ring of Fire” that surrounds the Pacific Ocean. A few, including those of Hawaii, lie far from any plate boundary, sitting instead above persistent “hot spots” in the mantle below.
Questions 14–18 — Label the diagram
Label the diagram below using words from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
14 Gases escaping at the rim:
15 Bowl-shaped depression at the top:
16 Vertical channel that magma rises through:
17 Smaller channel branching off the main one:
18 Deep store of molten material below the volcano:
Questions 19–23 — Matching information
Which paragraph contains the following information? Type the paragraph letter A, B, C, D or E. (You may use any letter more than once.)
A = paragraph 1 · B = paragraph 2 · C = paragraph 3 · D = paragraph 4 · E = paragraph 5
19 A description of how scientists monitor gases as warning signs.
20 An explanation of why some volcanoes are explosive while others are gentle.
21 Examples of broad, low-sloped volcanic islands.
22 A reference to the Ring of Fire.
23 A description of how the cone of a volcano is built up over time.
Questions 24–26 — TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
24 Hawaiian volcanoes are formed at the boundary between two tectonic plates.
25 Sticky, silica-rich magma tends to produce explosive eruptions.
26 Hot spots in the mantle eventually move and become extinct.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40.
Three theories of why we dream
Almost everyone dreams, even people who claim not to remember any. For most of human history dreams were taken seriously as messages from gods, ancestors or the unconscious. Modern science treats them as a biological puzzle: a regular, vivid mental experience that consumes hours of sleep every night and yet has no obvious purpose. Three influential theories of why we dream now dominate the discussion, each backed by experimental work, and each picking up where the others leave off.
The first theory belongs to the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud. Writing in 1900, Freud argued that dreams are essentially disguised wish fulfilment: thoughts and desires that the conscious mind would reject during the day re-emerge, suitably masked, in sleep. Bizarre dream content, on this account, is not random but symbolic, and a trained therapist can interpret it. The Freudian view enjoyed enormous cultural influence through the twentieth century, but most of its specific claims have been hard to test scientifically, and modern neuroscience does not require its mechanism in order to explain the phenomena Freud observed.
A radically different account came in the late 1970s from the American psychiatrist J. Allan Hobson and his colleagues. Their activation-synthesis theory begins with what we now know about REM sleep: certain regions of the brainstem fire essentially at random while higher brain regions remain active. The forebrain’s job, according to Hobson, is to make a coherent story out of these random signals, and that improvised story is what we experience as a dream. On this view, the strange jumps and surreal logic of dreams are not symbols of anything; they are simply what happens when a story-making brain is forced to work with chaotic input.
A third theory, building on neuroscience of the past two decades, takes the dreams more seriously again. Researchers including Robert Stickgold and Erin Wamsley have shown that what we dream about often reflects what we have just been learning. People taught a new skill before bed dream about elements of the skill more often than chance would predict, and they also perform better on the task the next morning. The proposed function is memory consolidation: during sleep, the brain reorganises and strengthens recently encountered material, and dreams are a partial side-product of that process.
The three theories differ in what they say a dream is for. For Freud, dreaming is for the discharge of repressed wishes; for Hobson, dreaming is essentially a by-product of brain physiology; for the consolidation school, dreaming is bound up with how the brain stores and integrates experience. They also differ in how testable they are. Freud’s specific claims are difficult to test directly; Hobson’s and the consolidation theory’s predictions can be checked against scans, behaviour and learning data. Most current researchers therefore lean towards the second and third accounts, often in combination.
None of this answers the question whether dreams are meaningful in the everyday sense. They certainly mean something to the dreamer in the morning. What science increasingly suggests is that the more interesting question may not be what individual dreams symbolise but what dreaming as a whole is doing for the brain that produces it. Even that more modest question is still open.
Questions 27–30 — Multiple choice
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Questions 31–35 — Matching features
Match each idea with the theorist it is most clearly associated with. Type A Freud · B Hobson · C Stickgold / Wamsley.
31 Dreams are essentially disguised wish fulfilment.
32 Dream content reflects what we have recently been learning.
33 A bizarre dream is the brain’s best attempt at a story from random signals.
34 Dreams are part of memory consolidation.
35 A symbolic content can be interpreted by a trained therapist.
Questions 36–40 — Summary completion (word bank)
Complete the summary using words from the box below. Type the correct letter A–G.
A random · B consolidation · C wishes · D brainstem · E testable · F conscious · G tools
36 Freud proposed that dream content reflects hidden .
37 Hobson’s activation-synthesis theory begins with apparently firing from a deeper region of the brain.
38 The deeper region in question is the .
39 A third group of researchers argues that dreams play a role in memory .
40 Most current researchers prefer the second and third theories because their predictions are more .
Reading answer key (Questions 1–40)
Passage 1 — The disappearing night sky
Passage 2 — How a volcano works
Passage 3 — Three theories of why we dream
Selected notes: 5 NOT GIVEN — the passage does not compare wealth and light pollution. 10 “eighty per cent” / “80 per cent” / “80” also accepted. 17 “side channel” also accepted. 26 NOT GIVEN — the long-term fate of hot spots is not discussed.
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.
The two maps below show the centre of a small town in 1990 and the same area in 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)
In 1990, the centre was dominated by three spaces. A train station occupied the northern strip; immediately south of it lay a large public park; and along the southern edge stood two prominent buildings, a cinema on the west side and a large shop on the east.
By 2020, several major changes had taken place. The train station had been enlarged to roughly one and a half times its original footprint, taking land previously left as open frontage. The park had been reduced to about half of its former size, with the eastern half converted into a car park.
The most visible change occurred along the southern edge. The former cinema had been replaced by a shopping mall, while the large shop had been divided into three smaller restaurants. The town centre had therefore shifted decisively from leisure and culture towards retail, food and transport.
Why this is Band 9: clear overview (more commercial; station unchanged in location, expanded); accurate, specific changes; varied comparative language (“had been reduced to”, “divided into”, “shifted decisively”); approx. 205 words.
Some people believe that healthcare should be provided free by the government, while others think people should pay for their own medical care. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Write at least 250 words. Spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Band 9 model answer (Task 2)
The case for free, government-funded healthcare is fundamentally a moral one. Serious illness can strike anyone, regardless of income, and a society that lets people die from treatable conditions because they cannot afford a doctor is one that has failed at something basic. Universal access also has practical benefits: people treated early are cheaper to look after than those who delay until a crisis, and infectious diseases are contained much more effectively when no one avoids the clinic for financial reasons. Countries with universal systems consistently spend less, as a share of the economy, than those without.
The opposing view is not without merit. Defenders of paid healthcare argue that markets respond more quickly to patient needs, that competition raises quality, and that subsidising every visit risks waste. There is something in this, particularly for elective procedures and long waiting lists for non-urgent care. A purely state-run system can become rigid, and the freedom to pay privately for faster service is reasonable.
The most successful systems therefore combine the two: a tax-funded core that guarantees treatment for anyone who needs it, alongside a private layer for those who choose to pay for more. Free healthcare for essentials is a mark of a civilised society; full state provision of everything is neither necessary nor wise.
Why this is Band 9: clear position from paragraph 1; both sides developed with specific reasoning and example; precise language (“tax-funded core”, “mark of a civilised society”); approx. 290 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.
Topic: hobbies and free time
• What hobbies did you have as a child?
• Do you have time for hobbies now?
• Is there a new hobby you would like to try?
• Do you prefer indoor or outdoor hobbies?
Sample answer + why it works
Yes, actually — I’ve been meaning to try pottery for years. There’s a small studio not far from where I live that runs evening classes, and a couple of friends have done it and recommended it. I think what attracts me is that it’s slow and physical — you can’t do it on a screen and you can’t rush it — which is exactly the kind of break my actual job doesn’t allow.
Direct answer, one concrete plan, a personal reason at the end — natural and not rehearsed.
Cue card
• who the person is
• how you know this person
• what kind of person they are
and explain how they have influenced you.
You have 1 minute to prepare and may make notes. Then speak for 1–2 minutes.
Model long turn + planning notes
Planning notes: person = my old maths teacher · how I know = secondary school, age 14–16 · what kind = patient, demanding but kind · influence = taught me to think clearly, choose a career using maths.
What kind of person was she? She was unusually patient, and quite demanding at the same time. She made it very clear that she expected work, but she never made anyone feel stupid for getting things wrong. If you didn’t understand something, she’d explain it a different way, and then a third way, and then sit with you while you tried again.
The influence on me was twofold. First, she taught me how to think clearly, not just how to do maths — how to break a problem into smaller bits and not panic when the answer wasn’t obvious. That skill has been useful in pretty much every job I’ve had since. And second, on a more personal level, she made me feel that careful work was respected. That sounds small, but at fifteen it meant a lot, and it’s a large part of why I ended up choosing a career that uses maths every day. I went back to thank her a few years after leaving school, and I’m really glad I did.
All four bullet points addressed, notes used loosely (not read out), a small reflective ending — approximately 2 minutes.
Role models and influences
• Who are typical role models for young people in your country today?
• Are sportspeople and celebrities good role models?
• How important is it for children to have role models?
• Should governments do more to promote positive role models?
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. 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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