BULATS Listening – Part 4 – Multiple Choice – long conversation or monologues

Task Description

What sort of text do candidates listen to?

• monologues, or conversations, interviews or discussions between two or three people.

What do the candidates have to do?

• There are 3 sections, each with 6 multiple-choice questions on the text. For each question, candidates have to choose one of the three given answers (A-C).
• The questions follow the order in which the relevant information occurs in the text.
• The three sections cover Levels 3 to 5.

What skill is being assessed?

How long does this section last?

• Each of the three recordings lasts around three minutes.
• Each recording is heard twice before the next recording is heard.
• Candidates are given 20 seconds to read the written input on each of the three tasks.

What text types are used?

Understanding the Task

To understand better how candidates need to approach this task, it may help you to do the activity yourself, and analyse what you had to do to choose the right answer.

Look at this extract – which is at about Level 3 – together with the relevant parts of the tapescript. Complete the task, thinking about how you are doing it.

Sample Part 4 Task
Tapescript
Answers

Things to consider

Now look at these questions about how you approached the task and consider your answers.

1. Did you read the questions and options before trying the task?
   
   
2. How did you know which part of the text was relevant to each question?
   
   
3. What do the questions focus on?
   
   
4. What strategies are useful for finding the answers?
   
   
5. Does knowledge of the topic help?