Part 4: Short Talks: Tips

The beginning of the talk is often very important. The first one or two sentences often contain or give clues to basic information, such as who the speaker is, who she/he is talking to, and where the talk is taking place. You will often be asked questions about these things, and knowing this information will also help you to understand the rest of the talk.

Example:

Talk

Good afternoon and welcome aboard Zoom Airways Flight 237 from London to Berlin. This is Captain Toby Smith speaking...

From these first two sentences at the beginning of the talk, you know that the talk is taking place on a plane, the speaker is a pilot, and she/he is talking to the passengers.

Do not answer the questions until you have heard the whole of the talk, even if you think you are sure what the correct answers are. There could be important information at the end of the recording! This applies to Part 3 too.

Example:

Talk

Before I take you around the plant, I'd like to tell you a little about our plans for the company...........After the tour, we will be able to discuss your requirements and how we can meet them.

Question

Who is the man talking to?

The man is probably talking to clients because at the beginning of the talk he mentions plans for the company and at the end of the talk he mentions your requirements.

Part 5: Incomplete Sentences: Tips

Learn to recognize which questions in this part are testing your knowledge of vocabulary. In the vocabulary questions, the answer choices will often be the same part of speech — for example, all adjectives, or all verbs. You should think about the overall meaning of the sentence, so that you can choose the answer which will make the most sense.

Example:

All sales personnel who meet or exceed their sales quota, will receive a _________ of $500 at the end of the year.

A. bonus
B. fine
C. salary
D. charge

All the answer choices are nouns, so this question is testing your knowledge of vocabulary. If you think about the meaning of this sentence, the key words are meet or exceed and end of the year. If a sales person meets or exceeds their sales target, they have done well, so it would make sense to reward them, not punish them with a fine or a charge. You pay a salary every month, not at the end of the year, so the only logical answer is bonus.

Learn to recognize which questions are testing your knowledge of grammar. In the grammar questions, the answer choices will often be different forms of the same word. You should look at the sentence from a grammatical point of view so that you can choose the answer which is the correct grammatical form.

Example:

The ______ in our new style cafeteria is on healthy and nutritious food.

A. emphasize
B. emphasis
C. emphatic
D. emphasized

The answer choices are different forms of the same word, so this question is testing your knowledge of grammar. If you look at the grammar of the sentence, you can see that the word before the missing word is the article the. After the, you use a noun, so the correct answer must be B because emphasis is the noun form of this word.

If a question does not seem to be testing your vocabulary or your grammar, and all the answers seem possible, it is probably testing your knowledge of English usage — which words are used together in English. For example, you use the word heavy with rain (heavy rain), but you do not use big (big rain). You use the word take with shower (take a shower), but you do not use do (do a shower). So when you learn a new word, it is important to also learn the words that are commonly used with it.

Example:

Property prices have _________ significantly in the past year and are expected to remain high.

A. expanded
B. enlarged
C. risen
D. grown

The word price is often used with the verb to rise, but it is not used with the verbs expand, enlarge, or grow, so C is the correct answer.

The error can be within the underlined word or phrase, OR in the relationship between the underlined word or phrase and another part of the sentence. So you need to look both inside and outside the underlined parts of the sentence when you are looking for the error.

Example:

The 

goods

 left our warehouse 

in

 perfect condition, 

so

 they

A

B

C

must 

have damaged

 in transit.

The error can be within the underlined word or phrase, OR in the relationship between the underlined word or phrase and another part of the sentence. So you need to look both inside and outside the underlined parts of the sentence when you are looking for the error.

Example:

The 

goods

 left our warehouse 

in

 perfect condition, 

so

 they

A

B

C

must 

have damaged

 in transit.

D

The error is contained within phrase D. The goods did not damage something — they were damaged — so you need the passive form have been damaged here.

I have no 

hesitation 

in

 recommending John Simpson,

A

B

which

 has been a 

most reliable

 and hardworking employee.

C

D

The error is in the relationship between word C and the words John Simpson. John Simpson is the name of a person, not a thing, so you need the relative pronoun who here, not which.