IELTS Listening Practice Test | 2026-01-30

**Estate Agent:** Hello, Brindle's estate agents here. How may I help you?
**Martin:** Oh, good morning. I'm ringing to see what flats you have for rent at the moment.
**Estate Agent:** Right. Can I start by just taking your name, Mr. um...
**Martin:** Hill. Martin Hill.
**Estate Agent:** Right. And are you looking for a flat for yourself or um a family perhaps?
**Martin:** Well, it's for three of us. Myself and two friends. We're going to share together.
**Estate Agent:** I see. Um, what about employment? Are you all students?
**Martin:** Oh, no. We've all got full-time jobs. Two of us work in the central bank. That's Chris and me. And Phil, that's the other one, is working for Hallum Cars, you know, at the factory about 2 miles out of town.
**Estate Agent:** I'll put you down as young professionals then. And I suppose you'll be looking for somewhere with three bedrooms.
**Martin:** Yeah, at least three. But actually, we'd rather have a fourth room as well if we can afford it for friends staying over and stuff.
**Estate Agent:** Is that with a living room to share plus kitchen and bathroom?
**Martin:** Yeah, that sounds good. But we must have a bathroom with a shower. We don't mind about having a bath, but the shower's crucial.
**Estate Agent:** Okay, I'll just key that in. And are you interested in any particular area?
**Martin:** Well, the city center would be good for me and Chris. So that's our first preference, but we'd consider anything in the west suburbs as well. Really actually for Phil that would be better, but he knows he's outnumbered. But we aren't interested in the north or the east of the city.
**Estate Agent:** Okay, I'm just getting up all the flats on our books.
***[Pause]***
**Estate Agent:** Just looking at this list here, I'm afraid there are only two that might interest you. Do you want the details?
**Martin:** Okay, let me just grab a pen and some paper. Fire away.
**Estate Agent:** This first one I'm looking at is in Bridge Street and very close to the bus station. It's not often that flats in that area come up for rent. This one's got three bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen, of course, and a very big living room. That sounds a good size for you.
**Martin:** Mm. So, what about the rent? So, how much is this a month?
**Estate Agent:** The good news is that it's only £450 a month. Rents in that area usually reach up to £650 a month, but the landlord obviously wants to get a tenant quickly.
**Martin:** Yeah, it sounds like a bit of a bargain. What about transport for Phil?
**Estate Agent:** Well, there'll be plenty of buses, so no problem for him to use public transport. Uh, but unfortunately there isn't a shower in the flat and that location is likely to be noisy, of course.
**Martin:** Oh, okay. What about the other place?
**Estate Agent:** Let's see. Oh, yes. Well, this one is in a really nice location on Hills Avenue. I'm sure you know it. This looks like something a bit special. It's got four big bedrooms and um there's a big living room and oh, this will be good for you. A dining room. It sounds enormous, doesn't it?
**Martin:** Yeah, it sounds great.
**Estate Agent:** That whole area is being developed. And the flat's very modern, which I'm sure you'll like. It's got good facilities, including your shower. And of course, it's going to be quiet, especially compared with the other place.
**Martin:** Better and better. But I'll bet it's expensive, especially if it's in that trendy area beside the park.
**Estate Agent:** Mm, I'm afraid so. They're asking £800 a month for it.
**Martin:** Wow. It sounds a lot more than we can afford.
**Estate Agent:** Well, maybe you could get somebody else to move in, too. I'll tell you what. Give me your address and I can send you all the details and photos and you can see whether these two are worth a visit.
**Martin:** Thanks. That would be really helpful. My address is flat 5...

Good evening. I'm here to tell you about the Huntarian Museum in London, which is part of the Royal College of Surgeons. Although a medical museum, it is open to the general public. The museum specializes in the history of the study of anatomy and especially the work of John Hunter in the 18th century.
If you would like a free guided tour of the museum, then come along at 1:00 any Wednesday. Spaces on the tour are limited to 25 though, so it's best to reserve a place by phone, and these tours are for individual members of the public, families, and small groups of friends only.
Tours for groups of school students can also be arranged, and these are also free of charge. Teachers are encouraged to make a donation of around £3 per student if they can afford it, but this isn't obligatory. What teachers must do, however, is phone to agree a time in advance as only one school party is allowed in at a time. Then there's an online booking form which you can use to confirm the booking or just send a letter if you prefer.
For older students and adult groups, we provide more specialized tours and these cost £100 for a short tour of 30 minutes. Or if you want a slightly longer one, it's £130 for 45 minutes. There is a student discount, however, so college groups would pay £75 for the shorter tour, for example.
In terms of facilities available at the museum, teachers and others should bear in mind that space is very limited. As we're in the center of London with many cafes and restaurants nearby, refreshments aren't sold on site, though there is a small shop selling souvenirs. Most of the things on show in the museum are preserved animal specimens in glass cases, so there are no interactive displays aimed at small children, and our tours are only in English, although there is printed material available in other major languages on request. There's also a lecture room which groups can book for an extra charge and this is equipped with PowerPoint projector and microscopes.
***[Pause]***
Next, a bit about the history of the museum and the preserved animal and plant specimens you can see there. The museum's named after John Hunter, who was a pioneer in the study of anatomy. He was among the first to understand that the study of other animals could tell us a lot about how the human body works.
John Hunter was born in 1728 and came to London to work as an assistant in an anatomy school in 1748. Here John did his training in the study of human anatomy. It was after 1760 however that he turned his attention to animals. That's when he became a surgeon in the army spending 3 years in France and Portugal where he started collecting and preserving animal specimens such as lizards.
On his return to London in 1763, Hunter set up in private practice and started to build up his collection of specimens. When he moved to a big house in Leicester Square in 1783, Hunter started to take in resident students and gave the name teaching museum to his collection. By the time of his death in 1793, Hunter had collected specimens from all over the world, including the first kangaroo to be seen outside Australia. He had 14,000 different exhibits with 500 species of plants and animals represented. And many of these specimens can still be seen in the museum today because in 1799 the collection was purchased by the government who presented it to the Royal College of Surgeons and they've been looking after it ever since which is why the Huntarian Museum is located in their building in London to this day.

**Woman:** It was packed. There simply aren't enough seats in theater 4. There were people on the stairs, people in the aisles. I don't imagine everybody was able to get in.
**Man:** Was Jack with you?
**Woman:** No, of course not. I saw him with a pile of journals in the library as I walked past. You haven't seen him because you've been in here in the kitchen drinking coffee all morning, whereas he has been studying hard.
**Man:** Not me. I've been in my bedroom reading for my assignment on education in the classical world. Very interesting. It was easier than I expected. I should have been at the gym training for my next race, but that'll have to wait. And did you find your first lecture interesting?
**Woman:** Absolutely fascinating. We talked about this experiment. If you show a child a liter of water in a bucket and show him a liter of water in a tall container, he always thinks that the higher, taller, but narrower container has more water in it.
**Man:** Hold on. What do you show him?
**Woman:** Right. You show him two things. A bucket with a liter of water in it and also a tall glass vase-like thing or any tall container. This also has a liter of water in it. Now he will say that the tall thing has more in it than the short fat thing that is the bucket and all children will say this that is up to about 5 years of age. You can then actually pour a liter of water from the bucket into the taller narrower container and the child will still say that the tall container contains more water even though he's just seen the water come out of the bucket.
**Man:** And what's the point of that? Is it about measurement?
**Woman:** No, it showed how children are quite unable to think logically. It's connected with my assignment. It's about cognitive development of young children over time. That's to say, it's about how they think.
**Man:** But didn't you do that assignment last year?
**Woman:** No, I didn't. You see, I missed out on the first year when I changed subject.
***[Pause]***
**Woman:** I started psychology in the second year which is where I am now.
**Man:** Lucky you.
**Woman:** I'm not so sure. I've missed out on a lot of the basic stuff like that and I will have to catch up in my own time. So I'm relying on you.
**Man:** Oh yes, I remember. What did you study before you changed?
**Woman:** I studied law.
**Man:** Why didn't you continue?
**Woman:** I found some of the subjects interesting enough. In fact, the criminal area was fascinating in general, but a lot of the law is very technical. It's full of little details which can be very difficult to understand. And I've got a terrible memory, too. I can never get all the rules and exceptions into my head. My number one hate really was international trade, which was a minefield of rules and exceptions. In fact, I think it was a complete nightmare.
**Man:** But law is such a popular subject. Lots of people would like to study it.
**Woman:** I'm sure they would, but they often don't realize that it's very book-based. You spend most of your time reading about famous cases, sitting in a stuffy library, and very occasionally you get out to a lecture or maybe a seminar. What do you find that's better about psychology?
**Woman:** Most of all, I like the experimental psychology we have to study. This involves doing something. So, it's practical and with any luck, you can make a small, okay, very small contribution to knowledge. And it is so useful in many careers, for example, business, commerce, education.
**Man:** Law is too, you know.
**Woman:** Yes. But the training is so long. You have to spend at least another two years on a professional practice course before you can start working. No, I'm happy with psychology.
**Man:** Well, as a psychology student, too, I must say I agree with absolutely everything you've said.

Good evening. Tonight I'm talking about Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean and its incredible wildlife.
First of all, let me explain that Christmas Island is a remote tropical island about 2,600 kilometers northwest of Australia, covering an area of 135 km² with 73 km of coastline. Around 85 square kilometers has now been made into a national park by the Australian government in recognition of the island's unique and threatened wildlife.
Although there's great potential for tourism on the island, the most significant economic activity is currently mining as there's a good supply of phosphates in the local rock. The role of the national park is therefore to protect the wildlife rather than to attract visitors.
Like other remote islands, Christmas Island has a number of unique and endangered species, some of which are already extinct or under threat of extinction. Two rodent species are known to have died out, as has one species of bat, and a number of reptile and bird species are seriously threatened.
The best known of all the island's creatures, however, are its land crabs, which are found in large numbers and which are essential to the island's ecology. And for an 18-day period each year, one of the island's 14 crab species, the red crab becomes the center of widespread attention as it makes its spectacular migration to the sea to breed. More about that in a moment.
Aware of the need to do more to protect the fragile ecosystem on Christmas Island, the Australian government has commissioned a report from the expert working group it has set up to investigate the problem. Previous inquiries by government-appointed committees did lead to the setting up of the national park. So there is much to hope for.
***[Pause]***
So back to the red crab which has attracted quite a bit of media attention in recent years. The red crab is found all over Christmas Island and is vital to its ecosystem. Although they do sometimes eat snails and other smaller creatures, the crab's diet is largely made up of leaves with the addition of flowers and seedlings when these are available. Their droppings then provide an important fertilizer for the island's soil. Also, by turning over the soil when digging the holes called burrows where they live, the crabs help the propagation of plant species.
Although you might think that an animal that goes in for mass migration would be quite sociable by nature, each red crab actually spends most of the year living alone in its burrow, and so is actually quite solitary. Each crab constructs a burrow in the earth with one chamber inside and one tunnel entrance and stays there most of the time, especially during the dry season.
The crabs are more active in the rainy season, and that's also when the famous migration occurs. It isn't the rain that triggers the migration, however, so much as the phase of the moon and the state of the tides. Trying to predict when the migration will occur is quite difficult as it can be as early as October or as late as December depending on the year, although it's usually sometime in November in fact. And when it comes, the migration is quite spectacular with literally millions of crabs heading for the seashore at the same time.
Conservationists do their best to limit the number of road casualties among the crabs by closing certain roads, encouraging car sharing, and other measures to reduce traffic, even constructing bridges for the crabs at certain key points.