Some listening b2 first Cambridge Skills for the Cambridge exam.

FCE Course Lesson 33 – Some listening B2 first Cambridge Skills for the Cambridge exam.

A tip from your First Certificate Trainer is: The listening comprehension test is made up of 4 parts. Let’s focus on Part 3, called “multiple matching”! You will focus on: General ideas, the gist, detail, specific information, purpose of the speaker, opinion of the speaker … This test contains 5 questions, each preceded by a different recording / listening passage that you have just heard.

Dialogue 33: Five speeches about a common topic – Why we’re learning English?

JOANNE: I’m not learning English because I want to, I’m doing it because I have to. English is the universal language and it is so necessary in the current economy. I’m in the last year of my university degree, studying business and economics. I want to have a good level of English so that employers view me as a better candidate and my chances of getting a job or an internship will improve. Further down the line, I want to have a career in multinational companies, so I am considering doing a masters in something related to this, maybe international business management or something like that. I’m not sure yet. If I did do a masters, I would love to do it in USA. I have looked into this a little and as I expected, you need to have done the TOEFL exam to be considered, with a score of 80 or above to be accepted onto the program. I’ve heard that the TOEFL certificate expires after two years which is annoying, but if it’s a requirement, I will obviously have to do it.

TOM: I want to improve my level in English because I love to travel and English is the most spoken language across the globe. At the moment, I am planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand and I hope that if I am confident enough with my use of English, I will be able to communicate with others. Not just for getting across what I mean in taxis and hotels but also, I would be so happy if I could have genuine conversations with the natives of these countries, immersing myself in their cultures and having the adventure of a lifetime!

MEGAN: I’m about to start my final exams of high school and as soon as these have finished, I hope to do an intensive English course. I want to study either medicine or biomedical science in university and people have told me that it would be a good idea to have a better level of English because all of the academic texts of these courses are written in English. Although I’ve always been passionate about science and try very hard, I never get very high marks in my exams. If I will already struggle with the actual content of the course, I want to at least make sure I can understand the meaning of the words! When I feel confident enough, I want to study for the First certificate exam because I want to have something which attests to my level.

BOBBY: My reason for learning English might seem a bit silly compared to others’. I am obsessed with film and would love to be able to watch movies on the television and internet in original version. Since I have been coming to my English academy, I have noticed an improvement in my comprehension but still need to put on subtitles when I watch a film in English, otherwise I would get completely lost. I really want my English to get better so I don’t have to rely on subtitles any more.

KATIE: I have always felt embarrassed speaking English because I’m already shy so the idea of speaking another language, especially with foreign people, terrifies me. But now, as I am training to be a primary school teacher, I need to study English intensively in order to pass an exam and obtain the B1 level. The government have made it obligatory to have this level now to complete the degree. I’m really nervous because my level at the moment is low so I need to get better very quickly if I want to finish my studies this year. It annoys me because English is taught so badly throughout our education in school; we don’t get to practice conversation skills at all. So when it comes to getting jobs and things like that, we have no confidence in our abilities to speak and seem to be behind the rest of Europe.

Vocabulary First Listening Skills 3

ENGLISH	SYNONYM or DEFINITION
an employer	a manager, a boss
an internship	work experience
to look into	to investigate
to expire	to run out, to come to an end
annoying	irritating
a requirement	a thing that is needed or wanted
the globe	the earth
to get across	to manage to communicate an idea clearly
an adventure	an unusual and exciting experience or activity
a lifetime	the duration of a person’s life
to struggle with	to have trouble handling or coping with
to attest to	to provide or serve as clear evidence of
to be obsessed with	to be fixated on/upon
otherwise	or else, if not
embarrassed	red-faced, ashamed

Exam tips Some listening b2 first cambridge exam. Skills 3

EXAM TIP FOR First Listening Skills 3

The Listening exam is comprised of 4 parts. Let’s focus on Part 3, called “Multiple matching”!

You will be focusing on listening b2 first cambridge:

General ideas, the gist
Detail, specific information
Purpose of the speaker
Opinion of the speaker

This test contains 5 questions each preceded by a different recording/listening passage you will have just listened to. Each of the 5 monologues is themed and last approximately 30 seconds. Each of the 5 listening extracts cover the same topics or are related in some way yet cover different opinions or aspects of the same subject. Each of the 5 speakers is different.

For the 5 questions you will be given 8 options to choose from, 3 of which will not be used. You have to match the 5 correct statements with their corresponding 5 speakers.

Advice:

Go over your everyday vocabulary again, i.e. travel, food, leisure, work…
Read the questions thoroughly so as to identify what they are listening for.
Rephrasing exercises will also help you practise for the exam as often the statements provided will summarise what the speaker has said, using different grammatical structures and vocabulary.
During the exam you will have 2 listenings so don’t make rash decisions. You have time.