Listening: Two Singles to Cambridge
A1 Listening, Part 2. The candidate hears a recorded dialogue twice between a customer and a ticket clerk at a UK railway station. Before the first playing, the candidate has 20 seconds to read three multiple-choice questions. In the dialogue, the customer asks for two tickets to Cambridge. The clerk says a single is £12.50 each and a return is £18.20 each. The customer chooses two singles and pays £25.00. The clerk says the train leaves at quarter past ten from platform 6. The customer repeats, 'Platform 6, ten fifteen, thank you.' Later the clerk adds, 'The next one is at half past ten from platform 16,' because the customer asks about later trains. The three questions ask: How much does the customer pay? What time is the train? Which platform? The options are £25.00 / £36.40 / £12.50; 10:15 / 10:30 / 10:45; platform 6 / 16 / 60. The recording is at normal A1 speed with one repetition.
1. For the payment question, why is £25.00 correct rather than £36.40? What does each distractor test?
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£25.00 is correct because the customer buys two singles and each single is £12.50: 2 × £12.50 = £25.00. £36.40 is the price of two returns (2 × £18.20). It is a distractor for candidates who hear the word 'return' and do not follow the customer's final choice. £12.50 is the price of one single, so it catches candidates who miss 'two tickets'. The question tests holding two numbers in memory and applying the final transactional decision. The customer asks about a return but then says 'two singles, please.' At A1, the skill is listening for the final choice, not writing down the first price heard.
2. A candidate chooses 10:30 and platform 16. Explain the likely listening error and the evidence in the dialogue that should prevent it.
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The candidate probably listened to the clerk's later sentence and stopped processing after 'half past ten' and 'platform 16'. But the clerk marks that train as 'the next one', and the customer confirms 'Platform 6, ten fifteen.' The correct train is the one the customer buys: quarter past ten = 10:15, platform 6. The distractor tests whether the candidate can separate the main transaction from extra information and understand 'next one' as a later alternative. A1 candidates often match a number they hear without tracking whose train it is. The confirmation by the customer is the strongest evidence.
3. The dialogue contains 'quarter past', 'ten fifteen', and 'half past ten'. What is the teaching point for A1 learners, and what should they do in the 20-second reading time?
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A1 learners need both analogue and digital time phrases: quarter past ten = 10:15, half past ten = 10:30. The 20-second reading time should be used to underline the question words ('how much', 'what time', 'which platform') and predict the answer type: money, time, or number. During listening, candidates should wait for the customer's decision and confirmation instead of writing the first number. The option 10:45 (quarter to eleven) is not in the dialogue; it catches candidates who confuse 'quarter past' and 'quarter to'. This is a useful follow-up drill: match spoken time phrases to digital times before doing the transaction.