Listening Comprehension (リスニング)
The listening section of the Osaka public high school entrance English paper comes first and sets the tone for the rest. It typically combines very short exchanges, a longer dialogue or monologue, and questions that are spoken but not printed on the paper, so you must hold the question in your head while you choose an answer.
What the questions ask you to do
- Choose the correct printed figure: times, prices, weather, routes, seating or room layouts.
- Choose the best response to a spoken line: invitation, request, offer, apology, suggestion.
- Answer a spoken question about a longer passage: what, when, why, how, how many.
Rules that decide the answer
- The correct figure is usually reached by one small calculation or by a correction: "The 3:15 is full, so take the 3:40."
- In response questions, match the function, not the topic. A suggestion ("Why don't we...?") needs an acceptance or a refusal, not a fact.
- Words that appear both in the audio and in an option are often distractors; the answer is usually a paraphrase.
Worked example
Audio: "I'll have the set lunch and a coffee, please. Oh wait - the set comes with tea, doesn't it? Then just the lunch." Spoken question only: How much will the customer pay? Options: lunch only / lunch plus tea / lunch plus coffee. Reasoning: the order is corrected mid-sentence. "Just the lunch" cancels the coffee, and the tea is already included in the set, so no extra drink is charged. Answer: lunch only.
Traps
- Teens and tens: 13/30, 14/40, 15/50.
- A number given early is revised later - keep listening after you hear a figure.
- "Which is NOT true" items; underline the NOT while you read the options.
- Writing during the audio instead of after it, so you miss the correction.