The Price He Heard First
A candidate is practising the multiple-choice part of the Listening test with you. In the recording, a man phones a language school. He says he booked the intensive morning course starting on 3 May, but he has changed jobs, so he needs an evening class instead. The receptionist offers two groups: Monday and Wednesday, starting on 8 May, or Tuesday and Thursday, starting on 6 May. The man says the 6th is 'too soon' and chooses the Monday and Wednesday group. He then asks about the fee. The receptionist says: 'The website still shows last year's price of £150. The fee is £180 now, but if you enrol before Friday you pay £160.' He replies: 'I'll come in on Thursday to pay.' The question asks which course he will take and how much he will pay. The options are A: Monday/Wednesday, £150; B: Tuesday/Thursday, £160; C: Monday/Wednesday, £160. The candidate chooses A, explaining that he heard 'Monday and Wednesday' and '£150'.
1. Which option is correct? Show how each of the three options is either supported or ruled out by the recording.
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Correct answer: C - Monday/Wednesday, £160.
Work through the two pieces of information separately.
- Day. He rejects the Tuesday/Thursday group ('the 6th is too soon') and accepts Monday/Wednesday. So any option built on Tuesday/Thursday is out, which eliminates B. The fact that he mentioned Tuesday/Thursday does not make it his choice; in this task type, mention is not the same as decision.
- Price. Three figures appear: £150, £180 and £160. £150 is explicitly labelled last year's price, so it is a distractor for anyone who grabs the first number. £180 is the standard fee unless he enrols before Friday. He says he will come on Thursday, so the condition is met and £160 applies.
A fails on the price; B fails on the day. Only C survives both checks.
Exam habit: track the final decision, not the first number you hear. Words like 'but', 'actually', 'still shows' and 'if' signal that information is being corrected or made conditional.
2. The candidate says, 'I heard 150 and I stopped listening.' What should they do differently between hearing a number and choosing an option?
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This is a classic B1 trap: the first number is planted to catch fast answers. A better routine:
- Mark, don't decide. When you hear a figure, put a small mark next to the option. Keep listening, because the speaker has not finished.
- Listen for the correction signal. 'But', 'sorry', 'actually', 'the website still shows' and 'that was last year' all mean: discount what came before.
- Check the condition. £160 is not automatic; it depends on enrolling before Friday. Ask yourself whether the speaker said he would meet that condition. He did, on Thursday.
- Eliminate rather than select. Rule options out one at a time instead of picking the first one that matches a word you heard.
You hear the recording twice. On the first listening, note the day, the three prices and the condition. On the second, confirm the final figures rather than re-listening for words you already recognised.
3. Suppose he had said, 'I'll come in on Saturday to pay.' How would the answer change, and what does this tell you about how the item is built?
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The day would stay Monday/Wednesday, but the price would become £180, because Saturday is not 'before Friday' and the discount condition would fail. The item would then need a 'Monday/Wednesday, £180' option to remain answerable.
The point is that the item tests whether you link a condition to the action the speaker actually takes. A candidate who hears £160 but ignores 'if you enrol before Friday' has done only half the job. Whenever a price, time or date arrives with an 'if', a 'before' or an 'until', mark it in your notes and check it against what the speaker says he will do next.
This is also why you read the three options before the recording starts. Knowing that £150, £160 and £180 all appear tells you the discrimination happens on the price, so you listen for the condition rather than for the digits.