Listening: catching details and spotting corrections
What you hear
Level 1 listening is short: one or two sentences or a short dialogue, usually played twice. Topics are everyday - travel, shops, school, appointments, family, weather, directions. Questions ask for the gist (“What are they talking about?”) or a detail (a time, a price, a number, a spelling, a place).
Before and while you listen
- Use the pause to read the question and underline the key word (when, how much, where, who).
- Predict the kind of answer: a time? a number? a name?
- Write something the first time; check and correct it the second time.
- For spellings, write the letters as you hear them, then check the finished word.
Traps to watch
- The correction. Speakers often say one thing and then change it: “At seven? No, sorry, half past seven.” The second answer is the real one.
- Teens and tens. Thirteen and thirty sound alike; so do fourteen and forty. Listen for the stress.
- Negatives. “The shop isn’t open on Sunday” answers a question about Sunday with No.
- Distractor words. An option repeats a word you heard but is not the answer.
Worked example
You hear: “The museum is free for students, but you pay six pounds at the weekend.” Question: How much does a student pay on Saturday? Free is a trap - it only applies on weekdays. The answer is £6.