IELTS Listening Practice Test | 2026-01-31

**Narrator:** Now turn to section one. Section one. You have some time to look at questions 1 to 7. Now we shall begin. You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time. Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 7.
**Megan:** Hello. Megan speaking.
**Ken:** Hello Megan.
**Megan:** Hello Ken. I'm glad you called. Thomas asked me to give you his telephone number.
**Ken:** Is that his office number or his home number?
**Megan:** I can give you both. His new home number is 94523456. Would you like his office number?
**Ken:** I think I have it. Does 97314322 sound right?
**Megan:** That's it. But the home number is 94523456. He moved in last week.
**Ken:** Good. I've got that. Now, what would you like to do?
**Megan:** Well, I'd like to go dancing, but Jane hurt her ankles, so she'd rather not.
**Ken:** That's a pity. I guess it means she doesn't want to play tennis either.
**Megan:** That's right. She says it's okay to go bowling if we don't expect her to do well.
**Ken:** Okay, let's do it. I guess we can go dancing some other time. Well, I booked us some time at the bowling alley of Entertainment City. Do you know it?
**Megan:** Is it on Smith Street down near the university?
**Ken:** That's right. It's on the corner of Smith Street and Bridge Road.
**Megan:** What time did you book for?
**Ken:** The first booking I could get was 8:00.
**Megan:** Okay, it's 7 now. What do you want to do first?
**Ken:** Well, I think we should leave now. We can meet at the bowling alley.
**Megan:** I can't be that quick. I have to call Thomas to start with and I need to get changed.
**Ken:** Okay, I think I'll leave in 10 minutes and meet you in there.
**Megan:** That makes sense. I'll take my car, so I'll be quite quick. I'll be out of here in half an hour.
**Ken:** Okay. You're so lucky to have a car. You can get around so easily.
**Megan:** Well, yes and no. I often spend ages driving around trying to find a park. The traffic can be very bad.
**Ken:** Well, that won't be a problem for me because I'll take the bus. It goes right past my door and I'll have plenty of time.
**Megan:** Sounds good. Who else is coming?
**Ken:** I think nearly everyone from the afternoon class will be there.
**Megan:** Which class? The big maths class or the afternoon tutorial?
**Ken:** The maths class. What's more, we get a concession for large numbers.
**Megan:** That's good. I'm trying to keep my expenses down this month.
**Ken:** So am I. I expect tonight will cost about $20.
**Megan:** You must be good with money. I expect it to come to nearly $40. So how are you going to manage that?
**Ken:** Well, the bus is cheap and if I come home early, I won't have time to spend too much. In any case, I have to be up early tomorrow morning, so I'd really better try to get home by about 11:00.
**Megan:** That reminds me, I have to phone the taxi company for my mother. Goodbye, Megan. I'll see you later.
**Ken:** Goodbye, Ken.
**Narrator:** Ken calls the taxi company. Now you have some time to look at questions 8 to 10. Listen carefully and answer questions 8 to 10.
**Automated voice:** Thank you for calling Acme. Please follow the instructions on the tape. If you wish to order a cab now, press one. If you have placed an order previously, press two. If you wish to make an advanced order, press three. Please be ready to tell us your street number and name. If you wish to speak to the radio room supervisor, press four. If you want to inquire about lost property, press five. If you want to order a taxi equipped to carry wheelchairs, press six. Your call is very important. Please stay on the line for the next available order taker.
**Ken:** Hello. I think I left something in one of your cabs on Thursday. It was a brown paper package with an address written on it in green ink. Has anyone handed it in?
**Narrator:** That is the end of part one. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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**Narrator:** Now turn to section two. You will hear the head teacher of a school giving a talk to parents about some new classrooms. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14. Listen carefully to the first part of the talk and answer questions 11 to 14.
**Head Teacher:** Good evening everyone and thanks for making it along. I know how busy you all are with term coming to an end. As you know, the aim of this meeting is to show you the plans we've got to add two new classrooms and how that will affect the playground. Now, I've heard that quite a few of you are worried that there'll be hardly any playground left, but I want to reassure you that that's not the case at all. I think there's been quite a lot of uninformed talk going on and people have started worrying unduly. I certainly hope I can dispel any of your concerns this evening.
Firstly, I have a plan of what the school should look like which I'll project onto the screen. The school governors and the developers want to hear your feedback before making final decisions. Your feedback's very important. When I've gone through the plan with you, you can ask questions and we'll discuss those queries in detail. There'll be plenty of time to tell us what you think over the coming weeks. And once the plans are a little more developed, they'll be available online. There'll be a weekly update. And once the actual construction begins, you'll be able to check progress as it happens.
Personally, I'm very happy with where we've got to. I knew we had to have the extra space, but I must admit, I worried long and hard about what we might have to sacrifice for it. The developers have certainly convinced me that we've made the right decision.
**Narrator:** You now have some time to look at questions 15 to 20. Now listen to the rest of the talk and answer questions 15 to 20.
**Head Teacher:** Right. Can everyone see the plan now? Good. Let's start at the Balfur road entrance since that's where most of you come and go from. The Farley Road entrance and lower playground won't be affected at all.
Now, as you come into the top playground, the two new classrooms will be on the right. There'll be a new gate and the steps down will be rebuilt. There'll be a ramp for disabled visitors too. On the plan here, only the parts of the building affected by the plans are shown. I'll explain why the hall is marked on later.
So, as I said, the new classrooms will be to the right of the entrance and as you can see, will take up very little of the playground space. We feel the year six children need their own area away from the younger children. So this one on the left of the two rooms will be the new year six classroom. As you can see there's no direct entrance from the playground. The plan is to include a small entrance area here from the playground for coats and boots and so on. Entrance to the classroom will be from that area.
There'll also be an additional entrance to the hall from this cloak room. So, children will be able to get to the hall from two different directions. From inside the main building and from the new entrance area. I hope that's clear.
Now, as you all know, the hall doubles up as the cafeteria at lunchtime. One of the rumors I heard was that we're planning to dispense with the cafeteria and open up a snack bar. I can categorically state that replacing healthy school meals with a snack bar is not remotely in our thoughts.
The other new classroom, that's the one with the playground entrance here, is going to be an exciting new venture for us. That's because its principal use will be for the preschool and after school clubs. More and more parents want that facility outside school hours and we need a dedicated space to run these activities.
I think there were also worries about the nursery school though I'm not really sure why to be honest with you. I can tell you now that the whole area on the other side of the main school building will be totally unaffected. The nursery will continue operating as it does now.
There will be a couple of smaller constructions, modernization work really down here on the other side of the top playground. Cycling into school is getting more and more popular, so we're replacing the old bike sheds with a brand new bicycle bay. There'll be space for 60 bikes.
The children's toilets will also be modernized, and the children will be able to enter them from inside the school building rather than from the playground as they do now. There'll be brand new staff toilets in that part of the building, too. I'm pleased to say.
So, I hope that's at least started to allay a few fears. Take a few minutes to look at the plan that I'll get out of the way. Then I'll answer a few questions if you have any.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part two. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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**Narrator:** Now turn to part three. Part three. You will hear a radio program in which the speakers discuss the importance of looking after old people in winter. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 24. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24.
**Presenter:** Nobody likes cold weather, but for old people it can be particularly uncomfortable and dangerous. They can become cold without even noticing it. To keep warm, they may need help from friends and neighbors like you. To find out how we can help, we've invited a representative from the social service department at the town hall to talk about the Winter Warmth Campaign. Mr. Hastings, can I first ask you why it is so important to keep an eye on elderly people during cold weather such as we've been having lately?
**Mr. Hastings:** Yes. There are two main reasons. First, the old suffer from the cold more than the rest of us. They're not as active or strong as you and me, and it's harder for them to keep warm. This can lead to all sorts of complications. They have less resistance to infection. The quality of their lives is badly affected, and in extreme cases, they may need to be hospitalized.
**Presenter:** According to the newspapers, old people are actually dying of the cold. Is this true?
**Mr. Hastings:** I'm afraid it is. I said before there were two main reasons why we should keep an eye on old people. Well, the other major problem is that so many pensioners cannot afford to heat their homes properly.
**Narrator:** Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 25 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 25 to 30.
**Presenter:** They may already be living in difficult circumstances. Then in an exceptionally cold winter such as this one, they may just not have enough money to pay for the extra heating necessary. It seems terrible that in a society such as ours, this should be happening.
**Mr. Hastings:** It is. And what the Winter Warmth Campaign aims to do is to bring this problem to the attention not only of the government but of everybody else in society. We all have a duty towards our old people to make sure that they do not suffer in this cold weather.
**Presenter:** So now to the practical side of things. What can we do to help?
**Mr. Hastings:** Well, we all know someone old, a relative, maybe a neighbor, someone living around the corner. We should adopt that person and make sure that we spare a few minutes every day to check that everything is okay. Make sure even if the old person is not actually ill, that he or she is not suffering. Check when you go inside that the house or flat doesn't feel cold to you. It's a good idea to try to feel some part of their body like their face or hands. Old people can become cold without even noticing it, you know.
**Presenter:** Okay. And if a person is too poor to afford to heat the house or flat?
**Mr. Hastings:** The best thing then is for the old person to live in one room only and to make sure that that one room is warm. Check that the bed is on an inside wall. Move it yourself if necessary. Check the room for drafts. A lot of cold air gets into the room through old windows or badly fitting doors.
**Presenter:** Is food important?
**Mr. Hastings:** Yes, make sure that the old person is eating well. You could help by cooking for them or doing the shopping. Remember, a good hot meal a day makes a big difference. Also, make sure that they are well-dressed. Old people need to wear more layers of clothes than we do, particularly at night.
**Presenter:** One last question, Mr. Hastings. Is there nothing the state can do to help?
**Mr. Hastings:** Oh, yes, indeed. Contact your town hall to find out about local organizations already involved in this kind of work. If there is a local meals on wheels service, for instance, you could get your adopted old person on the list. Then, of course, there are also many state benefits which an old person could be entitled to and which he or she doesn't know about and which therefore he or she is not claiming. An extra problem here is that it can often be complicated and old people don't like going to social security offices to fill in forms and all that. You can help by finding out for them what possibilities exist for claiming a little extra money from the government, then applying for it for them. That little extra could make all the difference.
**Presenter:** Yes, indeed. Well, Mr. Hastings, thank you for coming in and talking to us today.
**Mr. Hastings:** Thank you.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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**Narrator:** Now turn to part four. Part four. You will hear the first part of one lecture in a series of lectures about environmental issues. First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
**Lecturer:** In this lecture series, we have been looking at the most pressing environmental issues that the world faces. One of those issues, global warming, has become very fashionable to talk about in the past decade. Though I'm not trying to diminish its importance as a problem, it must be understood that the effects of an increasingly warm planet will not be seen for many more decades.
One problem affecting the lives of people right now is the scarcity of water. The need for fresh water will only increase as the world's population grows, especially in developing countries. In the future, changing weather patterns that come with global warming will only make the problem worse.
People need water to drink, cook food, shower, and wash clothes. Most of the planet is covered with water, but unfortunately, only a tiny percentage of it is fit for human use. Of all the water in the world, less than 3% is fresh water. More than two-thirds of that remaining percentage is locked up in glaciers, in Greenland, Antarctica, and elsewhere, also unavailable for human use.
The water vital for life comes from lakes, rivers, underground aquifers, rain and snow. This surface water, groundwater and precipitation is not distributed equally across the Earth's surface. For example, Canada, which has about one-half of one percent of the world's people, contains about 10% of the world's readily available fresh water. Brazil makes up about 3% of the world's population, but within its borders contain nearly 12% of the world's freshwater resources.
As economies of developing countries grow, the need for fresh water also grows. One example of this has to do with the production of meat. In some countries, the demand for beef increases when people earn more money. However, raising cattle is incredibly water intensive, requiring about 15 tons of water for 1 kg of grain-fed beef.
The scarcity of water has a direct impact on human life. When people are forced to walk many kilometers to the nearest source of fresh water, it may take hours away from their day. This in turn takes time away from school or from other productive work that helps the general economy.
A number of solutions have been proposed to deal with the scarcity of water. Some of them are technological like the construction of desalination plants. These plants convert brackish salty sea water into water fit for human use. They are very expensive to operate and maintain though and cannot meet the world's growing demand for water.
Other kinds of solutions involve only a little technology or involve modifying individual people's habits. In a rural part of India, a village facing water shortage started collecting rainwater. A simple system allowed them to save water that fell over a large area and use it during dry periods.
In the suburbs that surround the cities of developed countries, house owners are using xeriscaping techniques. The main purpose of xeriscaping, unlike traditional landscaping, is not to use supplemental irrigation. This requires the use of plants, shrubs, and trees that are appropriate for the climate. In dry areas, this means planting ones that use less water.
In the future, many countries will need to use a variety of these techniques in order to provide enough water for their citizens. Water security will be of utmost importance to those governments, especially in areas that are politically unstable.
**Narrator:** That is the end of section 4. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
**[End of Test]**