Answer key
Cambridge IELTS 2 Listening Test 1 Answers
The published key, in full, free — then sit the paper properly and let it mark itself.
The answer key
Taken from the same file this site marks candidates against, so the key here and the mark you are given cannot disagree. Question numbers run as they do in the book.
Section 1
Questions 1–10
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 1 | Black |
| 2 | 2085 |
| 3 | 9456 1309 |
| 4 | 2020BD |
| 5 | July |
| 6 | B, D, F (any order — 3 required) |
| 7 | B, D, F (any order — 3 required) |
| 8 | B, D, F (any order — 3 required) |
| 9 | $25 (also accepted: twenty-five dollars; twenty-five dollars refundable) |
| 10 | next week (also accepted: in a week; in one week; the following week) |
Section 2
Questions 11–20
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 11 | route book |
| 12 | 900 miles (also accepted: nine hundred miles) |
| 13 | North Africa (also accepted: N Africa) |
| 14 | A |
| 15 | C |
| 16 | B, C, E (any order — 3 required) |
| 17 | B, C, E (any order — 3 required) |
| 18 | B, C, E (any order — 3 required) |
| 19 | B, D (any order — 2 required) |
| 20 | B, D (any order — 2 required) |
Section 3
Questions 21–30
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 21 | Friday (also accepted: on Friday) |
| 22 | Biology |
| 23 | 57 (also accepted: fifty-seven; fifty-seven books) |
| 24 | 43 (also accepted: forty-three; forty-three books) |
| 25 | Wed (also accepted: Wednesday) |
| 26 | record them (also accepted: records them; record lectures; records lectures; she records them; she uses a recorder; she use a recorder; uses a tape recorder; uses a cassette recorder; recording) |
| 27 | skimming (also accepted: he skims books; skims books; he skims a book; skim the book first; skim book first; skim reading) |
| 28 | French Revolution (also accepted: The French Revolution) |
| 29 | Why study history (also accepted: Why study history?) |
| 30 | animal language (also accepted: the language of animals; language of animals) |
Section 4
Questions 31–40
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 31 | 4-month certificate (also accepted: four-month certificate; 4-month cert; four-month cert; 4-month certificate course; four-month certificate course) |
| 32 | employment (also accepted: current employment; job) |
| 33 | 1-year diploma (also accepted: one-year diploma; 1-year dyploma; one-year dyploma) |
| 34 | none (also accepted: no qualifications; no prior qualifications; no quals; no prior quals) |
| 35 | 6-month certificate (also accepted: six-month certificate; 6-month cert; six-month cert; 6-month certificate course; six-month certificate course) |
| 36 | r2 |
| 37 | r5 |
| 38 | r1 |
| 39 | r6 |
| 40 | r3 |
Counting by hand is the slow way
You have the key. The part it cannot tell you is how you would do under the clock, on the screen the real test uses, with the transfer time the paper actually allows. Cambridge IELTS 2 Listening Test 1 is free to sit here — no card, nothing held back — and it is marked against this same key the moment you hand in.
What your score is worth
IELTS publishes these four points per module and calls them indicative — the marks needed vary slightly between test versions. The thirty-six rows in between are not published, so a score of 27 is honestly "between band 6 and band 7" and nothing more precise. Any converter showing you all forty rows invented thirty-six of them.
- 5.0
- 16 / 40
- 6.0
- 23 / 40
- 7.0
- 30 / 40
- 8.0
- 35 / 40
Questions people ask about this paper
Yes. They come from the published answer key for the book, and from the same file this site uses to mark candidates who sit the paper here — so the answers on this page and the mark the platform gives cannot disagree.
Yes, in full, on a replica of the computer-delivered exam screen, with no card and nothing held back. It is marked against this key the moment you hand in.
30 correct is an indicative band 7. IELTS publishes four points per module — band 5, 6, 7 and 8 — and describes them as indicative, because the marks needed vary slightly between versions. Scores between those points cannot be converted exactly, whatever a calculator claims.
Some do. Where the published key accepts more than one form — "distilled water" and "distilled", for instance — every accepted form is listed beside the answer on this page. Anything outside that list is marked wrong, and American and British spellings are both accepted throughout.
Why the ones you got wrong were wrong
The question types this paper leans on, written out properly rather than listed as tips.
The rest of this book
Every Cambridge test on this site is free to sit, book 1 to 21.
You have the key. Now the clock.
Counting by hand tells you what you knew. Sitting it on the real screen, under the real clock, tells you what you would score.