IELTS Listening Completion Part 4

What are Completion Part 4 questions?

IELTS Listening completion questions in Part 4 test whether you can fill gaps in a lecture. The lecture may use a signpost, flip the grammar of a note, qualify an old idea, name a specific example, mark one main point, or hide a simple answer in jargon. Here are the main traps to watch for in Part 4 completion questions.

Strategy:

• The Signpost Distractor. Part 4 notes follow the order of the lecture, and the speaker uses signpost phrases such as moving on or let us turn to to mark each new heading. A signpost can sound as though the speaker has left your gap behind.
• Sentence Structure Inversion (Passive vs Active). The notes and the lecture often use different grammar for the same fact. A note line may put the effect first while the speaker names the cause first, so the word you need can arrive earlier than you expect.
• The Double Negative / Qualification Trap. A lecturer rarely makes a plain claim. Phrases such as it was once thought, a popular theory, and this has been disproved rule out an idea that has just been named.
• Class to Specific Paraphrasing (Category vs Instance). A note line may use a broad category such as materials or pollutants, while the lecture names several specific members of that category. Only one of them meets the condition written in the notes.
• The Main Focus Distractor. A lecturer often names several possible answers before the one you need. Words such as initially and however push an idea into the past, while mainly, predominantly, and chiefly mark the fact that belongs in the gap.
• The Technical Jargon Distractor. Part 4 lectures use dense subject vocabulary, and unknown words can make you lose your place. The language around a gap may be difficult, but the answer itself is usually a common word, because the test measures listening rather than specialist knowledge.

Strategy reminder: The Signpost Distractor. Part 4 notes follow the order of the lecture, and the speaker uses signpost phrases such as moving on or let us turn to to mark each new heading. A signpost can sound as though the speaker has left your gap behind.

We'll look at a sample IELTS listening practice.

Sample Question:

Let’s solve it using the strategy.

• Use the strategy. The Signpost Distractor. Part 4 notes follow the order of the lecture, and the speaker uses signpost phrases such as moving on or let us turn to to mark each new heading. A signpost can sound as though the speaker has left your gap behind.

Question 1: The speaker mentions changes in diet, then says Now, let's turn our attention to the nesting habits of urban birds. That sounds like a new topic. Then the speaker says But before we look at their nests and reports a spike in the mammal population. Do not jump ahead when you hear a transition phrase. The word that fills increase in the ____ population is mammal.

Question 2: The speaker uses the signpost phrase moving on to our final subtopic... let's analyze architectural shifts. If you skip ahead to look for building words, you will miss the answer. The speaker immediately backtracks with However, prior to examining... and states that authorities stabilized regional biodiversity.

Correct answer:

Strategy reminder: Sentence Structure Inversion (Passive vs Active). The notes and the lecture often use different grammar for the same fact. A note line may put the effect first while the speaker names the cause first, so the word you need can arrive earlier than you expect.

We'll look at a sample IELTS listening practice.

Sample Question:

Let’s solve it using the strategy.

• Use the strategy. Sentence Structure Inversion (Passive vs Active). The notes and the lecture often use different grammar for the same fact. A note line may put the effect first while the speaker names the cause first, so the word you need can arrive earlier than you expect.

Question 3: The notes say soil degradation was accelerated by the cultivation of something. The speaker names cotton first, then says planting cotton triggered severe soil degradation. The cause comes before the effect in the audio. The crop that fills the blank is cotton.

Question 4: The question uses an active format: destruction of wetlands (cause) resulted in an effect. The speaker inverts the sentence by stating the effect (flooding) first, and positions the cause at the end: accelerated by the wholesale removal of native wetlands.

Correct answer:

Strategy reminder: The Double Negative / Qualification Trap. A lecturer rarely makes a plain claim. Phrases such as it was once thought, a popular theory, and this has been disproved rule out an idea that has just been named.

We'll look at a sample IELTS listening practice.

Sample Question:

Let’s solve it using the strategy.

• Use the strategy. The Double Negative / Qualification Trap. A lecturer rarely makes a plain claim. Phrases such as it was once thought, a popular theory, and this has been disproved rule out an idea that has just been named.

Question 5: The speaker first says tribes used smoke signals. That would fit the blank. Then the speaker says this popular theory has been debunked completely. The real means of long distance communication is drums. Write the idea the speaker accepts, not the idea that is rejected.

Question 6: The speaker introduces hunting as a primary strategy, but surrounds it with the qualifier early anthropologists insisted. They then reject it using the phrase thoroughly disproved this assumption. The strategy the speaker ultimately accepts is farming.

Correct answer:

Strategy reminder: Class to Specific Paraphrasing (Category vs Instance). A note line may use a broad category such as materials or pollutants, while the lecture names several specific members of that category. Only one of them meets the condition written in the notes.

We'll look at a sample IELTS listening practice.

Sample Question:

Let’s solve it using the strategy.

• Use the strategy. Class to Specific Paraphrasing (Category vs Instance). A note line may use a broad category such as materials or pollutants, while the lecture names several specific members of that category. Only one of them meets the condition written in the notes.

Question 7: The speaker mentions carbon, sulfur dioxide, and copper. Carbon and sulfur dioxide stayed within legal parameters. The damage came from copper leaking into the streams. That matches introduced high levels into the river. The answer is copper.

Question 8: The question uses the broad category of a dangerous heavy metal. The speaker mentions lead, zinc, and mercury. Since lead and zinc pose no current environmental threat, they are incorrect. The specific substance matching the dangerous condition is mercury.

Correct answer:

Strategy reminder: The Main Focus Distractor. A lecturer often names several possible answers before the one you need. Words such as initially and however push an idea into the past, while mainly, predominantly, and chiefly mark the fact that belongs in the gap.

We'll look at a sample IELTS listening practice.

Sample Question:

Let’s solve it using the strategy.

• Use the strategy. The Main Focus Distractor. A lecturer often names several possible answers before the one you need. Words such as initially and however push an idea into the past, while mainly, predominantly, and chiefly mark the fact that belongs in the gap.

Question 9: Three nouns appear: currents, temperatures, and jellyfish. Currents and temperatures were initially tracked, so they are secondary. The final study focused predominantly on jellyfish, which matches focused mainly on. The answer is jellyfish.

Question 10: The speaker lists three funding options: corporate sponsorships, private donations, and a grant. The sponsorships and donations are downplayed because they were only originally applied for. The speaker uses the focus marker derived chiefly from to highlight the true answer: grant.

Correct answer:

Strategy reminder: The Technical Jargon Distractor. Part 4 lectures use dense subject vocabulary, and unknown words can make you lose your place. The language around a gap may be difficult, but the answer itself is usually a common word, because the test measures listening rather than specialist knowledge.

We'll look at a sample IELTS listening practice.

Sample Question:

Let’s solve it using the strategy.

• Use the strategy. The Technical Jargon Distractor. Part 4 lectures use dense subject vocabulary, and unknown words can make you lose your place. The language around a gap may be difficult, but the answer itself is usually a common word, because the test measures listening rather than specialist knowledge.

Question 11: The lecture uses difficult words such as avian specimens, subterranean, skeletal configuration, and anatomical transformation. The simple meaning is that the most dramatic change happened in their wings, which elongated. The answer is a common word: wings.

Question 12: The audio uses advanced jargon like auditory processing centers and unprecedented neuroplastic adaptations. Do not let these words panic you. The basic meaning of the sentence is that they used their ears to navigate.

Correct answer: