LISTENING TEST – ACLES English B2

June 2019

Name ____________________________________________________________________________

Read the instructions carefully:

1. You will hear/see two different recordings / The procedure for the listening exam is as
videos.
2. You will hear / see each piece twice.
3. There are ten questions for each piece.
4. For questions 1 – 20, choose the answer (a,
b, c,d) which best fits according to what you
hear.
5. Wrong answers are not penalized with
negative scores. Thus, answer all the
questions.
6. You will receive 0.5 point for each of the
questions answered correctly.
7. To pass the test you must answer at least 10
questions correctly in total.
follows:
1. You have 5 minutes to read the questions
of both exercises.
2. Then the first audio / video will be played.
3. You have 5 minutes to attempt to answer
some questions.
4. The audio / video will be played again.
5. You have 5 minutes to answer the
questions you did not answer the first
time or reflect on your answers.
6. The second video / audio will be played
and then, steps 3 – 5 will be repeated.

AUDIO 1: OBAMA SPEECH

0. What does President Obama question at the beginning of the speech?
a. That in America all things are possible.
b. The dream of the Founding Fathers.
c. The power of democracy.
d. He does not question anything.

1. What stretched in numbers never seen?

a. lines
b. schools
c. people
d. churches

2. What does he say to the people about their voices?

a. That these voices are silenced.
b. That these voices have never been heard before.
c. That these voices could make a difference.
d. That these voices have only been heard today.

3. Who isn’t mentioned by President Obama when he says an answer was given in the
election?
 a. Politicians.
b. Social Classes.
c. Soldiers.
d. Ethnic races.

4. How does he describe voters?

a. As being cynical.
b. As being scared.
c. As being doubtful.
d. None of these.

5. What does the election mean in words of Obama?

a. Continuity.
b. A new time.
c. A happy surprise.
d. A radical revolution.

6. According to President Obama, his telephone conversation with his opponent was…
a. …cordial.
b. …challenging.
c. …grafted.
d. …short.

7. What does he promise his daughters?

a. A dog.
b. A car.
c. Better allowance.
d. A new room.

8. Which sentence is true, according to the speech?

a. Obama was most people’s choice from the beginning.
b. Obama’s campaign started in Washington.
c. Obama’s campaign had big donors from the start.
d. Workers chipped in with what they could.

9. Complete the sentence, “According to Obama, today is ________________.”

a. the beginning
b. the end
c. a fresh start
d. an accomplished task

10. Which option is not mentioned in the closing statement by President Obama: “Tonight is a
night ____________________”.
a. to celebrate
b. to remember the Armed Forces
c. to criticize his political rivals
d. remember the social problems
AUDIO 2: TED TALK BY JULIAN TREASURE
11. Are we efficient listening?
a. Extremely efficient, we are good at listening.
b. We only retain a quarter of what we hear.
c. In general, 25% of the people understand 60% of what they hear.
d. We spend 16% of our time listening.

12. Listening is...

a. ...extracting sounds from nature.
b. ...processing sound into images.
c. …making me sound.
d. ...a mental process of extraction.

13. What type of noise do we end up ignoring?

a. White noise.
b. Pitch noise.
c. Pink noise.
d. Noise pollution.

14. Which sentence is untrue?

a. Most people are entirely conscious of noise filters.
b. Filters tell us what we're paying attention to right now.
c. Noise filters create our reality.
d. Intention is very important in listening.

15. Sound places us...

a. in a happy marital situation.
b. in space and time.
c. in a revelation.
d. in the universe.

16. Recording...
a. helps us listen in every situation.
b. helps us listen when it is audio recording, not when it is video recording.
c. is a premium way of listening.
d. is not helping us to listen.

17. Which sentence is not true when we refer to listening?

a. We want sound bites.
b. Nobody is listening to anybody anymore.
c. We are patient.
d. We do not want oratory.

18. The fact of losing our listening is…

a. trivial.
b. not tribal.
c. not very scary.
 d. serious.

19. Which sentence is true?

a. Silence resets our capacity to listen.
b. Silence is bad for listening.
c. The best silence lasts around three seconds.
d. Silence is the opposite to listening.

20. Separating "mixed sounds" in a noisy environment is...

a. a bad idea.
b. impossible.
c. useful.
d. useless.