Answer key
Cambridge IELTS 4 Listening Test 4 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 | College Dining Room |
| 2 | office staff |
| 3 | students |
| 4 | 10th December (also accepted: 10 December; December 10; December 10th) |
| 5 | coffee break (also accepted: coffee breaks) |
| 6 | 6 (also accepted: six) |
| 7 | set of dictionaries (also accepted: dictionaries; a good dictionary) |
| 8 | music (also accepted: some music; music tapes; some music tapes; tapes; some tapes) |
| 9 | photos (also accepted: photographs) |
| 10 | speech |
Section 2
Questions 11–20
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 11 | B |
| 12 | A |
| 13 | A |
| 14 | A |
| 15 | B |
| 16 | 180 |
| 17 | nearest station |
| 18 | local history |
| 19 | 690 |
| 20 | walking club (also accepted: local walking club) |
Section 3
Questions 21–30
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 21 | 20 balloons (also accepted: twenty balloons) |
| 22 | units of measurement (also accepted: measurements; measurement units) |
| 23 | rock salt (also accepted: salt) |
| 24 | crystals |
| 25 | string (also accepted: piece of string) |
| 26 | light (also accepted: ordinary light; white light; ordinary white light) |
| 27 | Htoo dangerous |
| 28 | Btoo boring |
| 29 | Etoo long |
| 30 | Ctoo difficult |
Section 4
Questions 31–40
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 31 | 795 |
| 32 | tail |
| 33 | floor (also accepted: bed; bottom) |
| 34 | sense of smell |
| 35 | A |
| 36 | A |
| 37 | B |
| 38 | B |
| 39 | B, E (any order — 2 required) |
| 40 | B, E (any order — 2 required) |
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 4 Listening Test 4 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.