Listening note completion: the correction and the missed gap
During a Listening mock, Noor hears Part 3, a note-completion task about a school environment club. The notes have one gap per line and the instruction says 'one or two words'. The recording says: 'We meet on Wednesday - sorry, Thursday - at 4.15 in Room 12, not Room 20 as last year.' A minute later: 'Last term we collected 30 kilos of paper, but this term our target is 40.' Noor writes 'Wednesday' because it was the first word she heard. She is still writing '40 kilos' when the speaker says, 'Bring gloves and a plastic bag - actually, just gloves; we have bags.' She misses the next gap. Later she writes 'Wensday' in another answer and 'Room 20' for the room. The recording is played twice. She does not use the second listening to check because she is still completing the first four gaps.
1. Which answers should Noor record for the day, the room and the target, and what rule about self-correction should she apply?
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Day: Thursday. Room: 12. Target: 40 (kilos). The speaker corrects each first answer: 'Wednesday - sorry, Thursday'; 'Room 12, not Room 20 as last year'; '30 kilos ... but this term our target is 40'. In note completion, the correction is the answer. Words like 'sorry', 'actually' and 'not' are signals to replace what you have written. Noor should write only the final value, not both, because a gap expects one answer and two answers may be marked wrong. She should also keep the unit out of the gap if the note already prints it: if the line says 'target: ____ kilos', write '40', not '40 kilos'. The contrast between last term and this term is also a clue: 30 belongs to last term, so it cannot be the target.
2. Noor misses a gap while writing. What should she do in the seconds after, and how should she use the second listening?
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When she realises she has missed a gap, she should not try to reconstruct it while the recording continues. Put a dash or question mark in the gap, move her eyes to the next line, and keep listening. The second playing is exactly for this: she can fill the missed item then, and check the ones she wrote. Between playings, use the pause to read the next set of notes and predict what type of word is needed (a day, a number, a room, an object). If the answer still does not come on the second hearing, write the most plausible word from the context and move on; a blank cannot score. Chasing one gap usually costs two more.
3. Spelling: she wrote 'Wensday' and 'Room 20'. Which matters for marks and why? Include what she should do with the remaining minute.
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Two different problems. 'Wensday' is a spelling error: the answer is 'Wednesday'. At B1, minor spelling slips may be tolerated if the word is still recognisable, but 'Wensday' is risky and easy to fix. 'Room 20' is not a spelling problem - it is the wrong information, because the speaker explicitly says 'Room 12, not Room 20'. Correcting spelling will not save that mark; she must change the content to Room 12. In the last minute she should check: (1) each answer is within the one-or-two-word limit; (2) she has not added words the note already contains; (3) no answer is blank; (4) handwriting is legible - an examiner cannot award a mark for a word they cannot read.