Cambridge IELTS 21 Academic — Test 1 Listening: All 40 Answers Explained

The most useful question after a Listening test is not simply which answers were wrong. It is what happened between hearing the information and choosing the answer. Did you identify the right noun but miss its plural ending? Follow a topic but overlook the speaker's judgment? Accept a possible answer before the next sentence qualified it?

Test 1 provides unusually clear examples of these distinctions. A sailing-course enquiry tests precise information; a makeup-career talk tests advice and restrictions; a student discussion tests evaluation; and a lecture about rubber tests the ability to follow a structured explanation.

Use this commentary after completing the test with your own authorized copy. Answers have been checked against Cambridge's printed key and the supplied book's transcript. The explanations are original; the questions and full transcript are not reproduced. Pronunciation advice below is practice guidance, not a claim about a particular acoustic detail verified from an audio file.¹

Questions 1–6 allow one word and/or a number. Questions 7–10 and 31–40 allow one word only. Questions 11–30 require letters, with two selections in each of the pairs 21–22 and 23–24. The accepted pairs can be entered in either order. Read each task's instruction rather than carrying the previous task's rule forward.

Part 1 — A sailing-course enquiry

The table and notes do much of the organisational work for you. Read the column headings, distinguish course-specific details from general arrangements, and predict the kind of information each gap requires. A prediction is a category to listen for, not a guess to defend.

Question 1 — Answer: 10 / ten

The gap concerns the largest possible group, not the usual attendance. The conversation distinguishes a typical group of eight from an upper limit of ten. That contrast, rather than the mere appearance of a number, decides the answer.

Before listening, predict a number of people. The nearby prices belong to a different column and are irrelevant to this gap. Eight is a plausible distractor because it describes a real group size, but it answers a different question. The lesson is to identify the measurement and its qualifier: maximum, usual and minimum cannot be treated as interchangeable.

Question 2 — Answer: weather

The course combines practical sailing with theory, and the theoretical examples include weather and tides. The missing item sits alongside tides, so weather completes the pair. You are identifying a subject of study, not a piece of equipment or a sailing location.

Predict a noun that could be understood or studied. Harbour describes where practice takes place later; it does not belong to this part of the course description. Weather is uncountable in this use. Its pronunciation matches whether in many accents, so meaning and spelling must work together: the conjunction whether cannot name the conditions relevant to sailing.

Question 3 — Answer: safety

The practical training includes an instructor ensuring that beginners understand how to remain safe. The question compresses that explanation into a noun modifying information. Safety supplies the required meaning and grammatical shape.

Safe would be the wrong word form: it is an adjective describing a condition, while safety names the subject of the information. Dinghies and instructor are nearby details, but neither expresses what the instruction covers. Predicting the role of the gap helps you separate the training arrangement from its purpose. Learn the natural combination safety information, rather than remembering safe and safety as undifferentiated translations.

Question 4 — Answer: discount

The speaker explains that joining the club reduces the course fee and identifies the reduction as a discount. The table already supplies the basic price; the gap asks what members can receive. A monetary figure would therefore answer the wrong part of the information.

Cheaper is an important meaning clue, but it is not the noun required after the article in this gap. Membership is the condition for obtaining the benefit, not the benefit itself. This tests the move from an everyday comparison to a named financial arrangement. In review, connect cheaper for members with a membership discount and keep the noun's spelling intact.

Question 5 — Answer: dictionary

The included book explains sailing terminology and uses illustrations to help beginners. Those descriptive details point to a dictionary. The answer is the object supplied with the course, not the unfamiliar words that the object explains.

Terminology is tempting if you catch the topic but lose the grammatical relationship. Pictures is also mentioned, but describes a feature of the book. The note requires one singular count noun after a useful. Predicting an included learning resource narrows the search without deciding the answer in advance. This is a useful reminder that the correct noun can be followed by a longer explanation while the conversation moves towards the next gap.

Question 6 — Answer: certificate

The speaker describes a certificate awarded when the course finishes. The reference to completing the course establishes the timing, while the document itself supplies the answer. The possibility of progressing to another level follows, but is a separate consequence.

Do not substitute qualification merely because it sounds related: the answer must reflect the actual item identified in the recording. The singular form fits the article preceding the gap. Certificate is worth practising as a complete written form, since hearing the intended word does not protect you from a spelling error. Notice the transition from what the fee includes to what participants receive at the end.

Question 7 — Answer: towel

The learner asks whether a towel is needed, and the club representative confirms that it is. The answer is introduced by the person making the enquiry, not initially by the person giving information. Both sides of a conversation can contain assessable information.

The surrounding discussion separates equipment provided by the club from personal items participants must bring. Wetsuits and life jackets belong to the first group; clothing and toiletries already have their own places in the notes. The confirmation makes towel a requirement rather than an unaccepted suggestion. Listen beyond a proposed answer until its status is clear, and obey the one-word limit.

Question 8 — Answer: café / cafe

The enquiry about food identifies a café at the club, and the reply confirms that food can be bought there. The answer is the facility, not one of the foods available. Sandwiches and snacks support the interpretation but cannot name the place requested by the note.

The official key accepts both café and cafe. Do not add an article or a description of what it sells: the gap requires one word. This question again uses an enquiry followed by confirmation. A candidate who listens only for statements from the staff member can miss the word even while understanding the answer to the conversation's question.

Question 9 — Answer: videos

The recommended preparation consists of training videos available online. The speaker then offers to send a link. The link is the means of reaching the material; the videos are the material candidates are advised to use.

The plural is part of the answer. Video changes the grammatical form of the identified resource, while online is already supplied by the note and should not be repeated. During review, listen specifically for the ending of videos and then for the following sentence, which confirms the purpose of the resource. Being able to explain what a detail does is more reliable than copying the last noun you heard.

Question 10 — Answer: lockers

The learner needs somewhere to leave valuables, asks about lockers, and receives confirmation that they are available in the changing rooms. Lockers names the storage provision; changing rooms identifies its location. The latter also exceeds the one-word limit.

The note uses a plural verb, which supports the plural answer lockers. A final question after an apparently completed conversation can still carry an answer, so do not stop attending when the main booking discussion seems finished. In your review, distinguish the practical problem, the proposed solution and the location of that solution. Only the second fills this gap.

Part 2 — Working as a makeup trainee

The first six questions concern advice, expectations and experience. The last four match duties to abilities. A fact can appear in the recording without being endorsed as the answer: much of this section depends on restrictions, contrasts and the purpose of a detail.

Question 11 — Answer: A

The trainee should ensure that transport costs are paid. That corresponds to the option about travel expenses. The speaker separately explains that this kind of work may be unpaid and that food is unlikely to be supplied, so neither wages nor meals is the dependable expectation being identified.

All three topics are mentioned, which makes simple word matching unsafe. Listen for entitlement, advice and probability: a warning that food may be absent cannot support an option promising it. This is analysis of the scenario in the test, not employment-law advice about whether unpaid work is lawful in a particular country.

Question 12 — Answer: B

The relevant opportunity is experience with people from different ethnic backgrounds. The speaker also mentions a range of ages, reinforcing the idea of varied clients. On these productions, hair styling belongs to another department, while specialist effects work is not something trainees should expect to practise.

The distractors are attractive precisely because hair and special effects belong to the general world of screen makeup. Their relevance to the industry does not establish the trainee's access to them. Track who does each task and what experience is actually available. A negative prediction about being offered an activity rules it out even if its name is easy to hear.

Question 13 — Answer: A

The difficulty concerns directors who may be impatient or dissatisfied. The experienced makeup artists are described as managing that pressure professionally. The supervisor is offered as a model of calm behaviour, not identified as someone who shouts at trainees.

The suggestion of long periods with nothing to do is also undermined: the account emphasises a busy, pressured workplace. This question tests relationships between people as much as vocabulary. Assign the behaviour to its actual agent. If you recognise stressful but attach the stress to the wrong person, you can choose an option that sounds emotionally plausible but is not supported.

Question 14 — Answer: A

The speaker recalls being so overwhelmed by meeting famous actors that speaking became difficult. That reaction supports shyness. The question targets her first encounters, whereas the later account describes becoming accustomed to meeting well-known performers.

Do not allow the present-day comment that actors can look ordinary without makeup to become evidence of earlier disappointment. Nor does working near famous people establish pride. The time reference controls which part of the story matters. This is an inference from described behaviour, rather than a requirement to hear the exact adjective printed in the correct option.

Question 15 — Answer: A

The advice is to have a basic makeup kit available whenever it is needed. The speaker limits the expected contents to essentials because trainees' tasks will not initially be highly complicated. Nothing requires buying only the most expensive or supposedly best products.

Looking at other artists' kits is suggested as a way to learn. That is not the same as asking those artists to inspect your own kit. The distractor reverses the direction of the activity. Track the verb and its object, not just the shared noun kit. The warning about borrowing is additional professional advice rather than the main answer here.

Question 16 — Answer: C

The trainee needs approval from the person responsible for makeup before using the photographs. That condition supports the permission option. Digital submission means printed portfolio photographs are unnecessary in this context; the speaker does not advise retaining both formats for the portfolio.

Taking photographs of the work and, if possible, its stages is different from a restriction to a tiny selection. A later discussion of printed records for continuity must not be transferred backwards into this answer. Similar vocabulary can recur under a different purpose. Match the advice to the portfolio specifically, and treat the permission requirement as the decisive detail.

Question 17 — Answer: C

Preparing an actor's skin may have to be completed promptly so that the makeup artist does not fall behind. That consequence identifies speed as the relevant ability. The task itself involves preparation, but preparation does not automatically mean that organisation is the intended match.

Read the three ability labels before listening and translate each into possible evidence: avoiding delay points to speed; maintaining orderly records points to organisation; accepting varied requests points to flexibility. Here the schedule pressure supplies the discriminating clue. There is no need to invent a medical or cosmetic reason for the answer when the recording gives a straightforward operational one.

Question 18 — Answer: A

Continuity requires photographs and records to be stored systematically so that an earlier appearance can be reproduced, potentially much later. That is an organisational requirement. The central issue is keeping information retrievable, not simply taking pictures rapidly.

Notice why the examples are included: digital records, printed copies and an actor's file all support the same ability. Printed photographs are appropriate here even though the earlier portfolio discussion favoured digital presentation. There is no contradiction because the purposes differ. This question teaches a useful listening habit: when a detail recurs, check whether its function has changed before carrying an earlier answer forward.

Question 19 — Answer: B

The general duties can vary widely, and the speaker values willingness to accept whatever reasonable work is assigned. That supports flexibility. The examples illustrate variety rather than an especially tight deadline or a filing system.

Being positive is not a separate answer in the option set; it helps explain the attitude behind the required adaptability. Do not choose organisation merely because any working day benefits from it. Matching questions ask which attribute this description foregrounds, not which attributes could theoretically help. The skill is narrowing an ordinary workplace account to its explicitly supported emphasis.

Question 20 — Answer: C

Applying makeup to many extras requires a fast working pace and limited time per person. The number of people waiting creates the need for speed. Confidence is mentioned as helpful, but it is not one of the three available ability labels.

The same answer letter is used for Question 17 because both descriptions emphasise time pressure. Do not force a one-to-one distribution across the abilities: this matching task permits a label to fit more than one duty. Also distinguish the extras from the principal cast. The recording limits what trainees are asked to do; it does not describe them making up every performer on set.

Part 3 — A discussion of ocean biodiversity

Here the main challenge is evaluation. Both students may recognise a topic while judging its treatment very differently. Separate a resource's subject from their opinion of it, and let a final qualification change your initial interpretation.

Question 21 — Answer: B or D

Questions 21 and 22 take B and D in either order. One correct selection is B: the examples range across the world and make the extent of the threats clearer. The national policy discussion is contrasted with this wider geographical perspective.

That distinction rules out choosing the government-policy option just because policy is mentioned. The students acknowledge that part of the lecture, but the strongest response concerns its broader examples. For a two-choice question, record the two supported evaluations rather than assigning significance to whichever topic appears first. Putting both letters into a single answer space is not a substitute for answering both numbered questions.

Question 22 — Answer: B or D

The other correct selection is D: the students particularly value the attention given to problems whose importance lies further ahead. This concerns the kind of issues discussed. They already knew something about the topic, but the longer perspective adds a different emphasis.

Practical solutions are not the main positive reaction. In fact, the difficulty of finding answers contributes to the lecture's discouraging ending. Local references are not what impresses them either. Read Questions 21 and 22 as one selection task: the final answer pair must be B and D, regardless of the order in which you write them.

Question 23 — Answer: C or E

Questions 23 and 24 take C and E in either order. C is supported by the students' enthusiasm for improved tracking systems and robotics used to investigate marine life and threats to it. These are examples of technological development, not simply a larger quantity of numerical results.

The fact that figures were available does not make extensive statistics a correct selection. One student appreciates the lecturer's decision to emphasise what the figures mean instead of overwhelming the audience with them. The lesson is to distinguish an impressive research method from information that is merely mentioned in passing.

Question 24 — Answer: C or E

E is the second correct selection: the team combines many specialists with different professional backgrounds. Both the number and diversity of experts help explain the positive reaction. Their international locations are mentioned too, but are treated as relatively ordinary in an age of remote collaboration.

Earlier work by some researchers is background identification rather than a strongly endorsed record of successful projects. Do not upgrade familiarity into achievement. The pair tests evaluation: which details do the students actually single out as impressive? The final combination is C and E, not whichever two factual details you remember most easily.

Question 25 — Answer: G

The article about lionfish makes a forceful environmental claim but does not adequately explain the basis for it. The students do not necessarily deny that the species is dangerous; their criticism is that the argument supplies too little support. That corresponds to G.

The tempting alternative is the option describing an effective account of a danger. Mentioning danger is insufficient: the question asks how well the resource handles it. A claim can be plausible and still poorly evidenced. In review, separate the subject, the claim and the evaluation of its support. Only the third determines the matching answer.

Question 26 — Answer: B

The microplastics documentary belongs to an earlier stage of public awareness and is judged dated. One student stops watching after discovering its age; the other finishes it but agrees that the presentation no longer reflects current understanding. Their different viewing decisions lead to the same evaluation.

Age alone does not make every documentary obsolete, but here the speakers explicitly connect age with outdated treatment. Do not replace that stated criticism with your own view of the subject. The useful paraphrase is between a resource revealing its age and being out of date, rather than between microplastics and any particular environmental danger.

Question 27 — Answer: F

The ocean-pollution podcast offers familiar observations without adding useful insight. The students already know that the pollutants mentioned cause problems, so the presentation gives them little to think about. F captures this lack of new or informative content.

This is different from Question 26. A resource can be current yet predictable; it can also be old but still insightful. Do not confuse dated information with obvious information. The phrase about receiving little benefit from the podcast is clarified by the reason that follows. That explanation, not a single negative adjective, identifies the correct type of criticism.

Question 28 — Answer: H

The coastal-ecosystems book is initially demanding, but the student's final judgment is positive: it leaves her understanding the issues much better. The other student agrees that the summary is effective and that diagrams help. H reflects that overall assessment.

The initial difficulty is a deliberate temptation to choose a label about excessive specialisation. Yet difficulty at the start does not prevent eventual clarity. Follow the change in evaluation across the whole turn. Words introducing a later result or contrast can reverse the first impression. Here the final understanding is the decisive evidence, not the opening complaint about detail.

Question 29 — Answer: A

Both students struggle to understand the article on metal toxicity. The content assumes more specialist knowledge than they possess, and neither reports gaining a clear understanding by persisting. This supports the option about a highly specialised readership.

Contrast it with the previous book: there, difficulty gives way to comprehension; here it does not. The expression describing the material as beyond the reader's understanding is idiomatic, not a literal location. An unfamiliar topic is not automatically badly explained, but the matching task asks which listed evaluation best fits these students' account. A is the supported interpretation.

Question 30 — Answer: E

The floating-cities podcast concentrates on advantages for people while leaving environmental consequences out of the account. That imbalance supports E. The students find the topic interesting, but interest does not cancel their criticism of the presentation.

Do not choose a solutions-oriented option merely because the proposal could be described as an innovation. The explicit judgment concerns a missing side of the discussion. A balanced account need not give equal time to every imaginable position, but it must not omit a directly relevant dimension. Here the contrast between human benefits and environmental effects identifies the particular gap.

Part 4 — Sources of rubber

The lecture moves from industrial importance to limits on supply, newer threats, synthetic alternatives and another possible natural source. The notes preserve that structure. Use it to recover your place if one word escapes you; do not sacrifice the following answers while trying to reconstruct a missed one.

Question 31 — Answer: metal / metals

The lecture begins with three essential industrial resources. Machines and transport illustrate the role of metal, alongside the separate categories of fuel and rubber. The missing entry is the material category, not a finished product made from it.

The official key accepts metal and metals; write one of those forms, not the notation metal(s). The one-word limit excludes a phrase such as industrial metal. Predicting a resource category prevents machines from becoming an attractive but incorrect answer. Structurally, the opening list establishes the lecture's context before the speaker narrows attention to rubber.

Question 32 — Answer: slow

The long period before a rubber tree becomes productive explains why growth is described as slow. The time span is evidence for the adjective, rather than the requested answer itself. The note has already organised the sentence around growth, so the gap needs a description of its pace.

Do not write slowly: after the linking verb in the note, the adjective describes growth; an adverb would require a different construction. Nor should you insert the number of years when one word is required. This item combines listening comprehension with word-class prediction, a common source of avoidable errors even when the underlying idea is understood.

Question 33 — Answer: demand

The speaker contrasts rubber trees with crops whose production can be adjusted more quickly when buyers want more or less. The long planting lead time makes those adjustments difficult. Demand names the market pressure to which production cannot respond easily.

Supply is the tempting economic counterpart, but it reverses the relationship: the problem is changing production in response to changing demand. The adjective or participle before the gap allows a noun naming a quantity that can rise or fall. Follow the causal chain across the comparison rather than choosing the broad topic of the lecture, which is limited supply.

Question 34 — Answer: equator

Temperature, rainfall and altitude constrain where the tree can grow. The lecture brings those requirements together by identifying an equatorial zone. Equator is the geographical reference that completes the note.

South-East Asia identifies the major production region discussed earlier, but is not the single word required here. Temperature and rainfall are reasons for the geographical restriction, not the reference point in the completed sentence. The lesson is to wait for the conclusion of an explanation: a sequence of relevant conditions can lead to a more compact answer than any one of those conditions.

Question 35 — Answer: recycle

The problem concerns recovering material after products have been used. The speaker contrasts rubber with resources that can be reused through recycling more readily. The note needs a base-form verb after to, and recycle expresses the process being discussed.

Recycling would not fit that particular grammatical frame. Extract is also discussed in the lecture, but concerns obtaining latex from a living tree at the production stage. This gap concerns what happens after use. A timeline is therefore as helpful as a vocabulary match: distinguish initial extraction, manufacture, use and recovery instead of treating every processing verb as interchangeable.

Question 36 — Answer: fungus

Low genetic diversity makes the trees vulnerable to disease, and a fungus is identified as the threatening organism. The question has already supplied disease as the consequence, so repeating disease would miss the cause requested by the note.

The article before the gap calls for a singular count noun. Fungi is the plural and does not fit this construction. Palm oil appears as a different threat, involving a change in land use, not the organism responsible for disease. The skill is tracing a causal chain without collapsing its separate links: limited diversity, vulnerability, pathogen and potential loss.

Question 37 — Answer: weather

The final threat in this part of the lecture concerns severe weather affecting the growing region. Weather completes the expression describing extreme events. It is separate from the earlier disease and crop-switching problems.

Climate may seem a sensible wider topic, but it is not the answer identified by the recording for this gap. Weather also appeared in Part 1; repetition across a test is not a reason to reject an answer. The lecture's signposting moves from one threat to another, so use the list structure to keep your place rather than assuming every new item requires a completely new vocabulary field.

Question 38 — Answer: strong

The lecture compares synthetic and natural rubber and identifies lower strength as the relevant limitation of the synthetic material in the account. The note turns that comparison into a less-plus-adjective structure, so strong completes it.

Strength names the property but is a noun and does not fit. Weak also mishandles the comparison: less weak would point in the opposite direction. This is a useful polarity check. The answer explains the lecture's contrast between uses, including demanding tyre applications; it should not be expanded into an independent claim that every synthetic rubber is inferior in every possible property.

Question 39 — Answer: roots

The plant is introduced descriptively before its potential usefulness becomes clear. The relevant substance is found when its roots are cut. Roots therefore names the part containing the rubber.

Flowers helps identify the plant, but is not where the substance is located. Dandelion names the plant as a whole and likewise answers a different question. Keep the plural ending, as in the official key. The example rewards patient tracking: introductory details such as colour or the plant's status as a garden weed may be memorable without being the required information.

Question 40 — Answer: soil

The alternative plant is presented as adaptable and able to grow without especially fertile ground. Soil supplies the growing medium required by the note. The quality adjective is already represented in the question, so an additional modifier would be unnecessary and would exceed the one-word limit.

Location is part of the surrounding advantage, but the gap concerns the condition of the ground. Rich, in this agricultural context, means fertile rather than wealthy. The contrast with the rubber tree gives the final detail its significance: the proposed alternative has fewer restrictive growing requirements, even though its output per plant is smaller.

What Test 1 Listening teaches you

The same discipline appears in several forms: listen for the relationship, not merely the topic. Eight and ten are both relevant numbers, but only one is the maximum. A link and a video belong to the same activity, but perform different roles. A resource can discuss a danger without explaining it convincingly.

In Part 2, changing the agent or purpose can change the answer. Looking at someone else's kit is not asking them to inspect yours. Printing continuity records is not the same as printing a portfolio. In Part 3, an initial complaint does not always remain the final judgment. In Part 4, the notes may transform a spoken comparison or explanation into a different grammatical frame.

Not every IELTS test contains every familiar trap. This one does not require a map or plan, and its first part does not include a name-spelling task. Nor should every contrast be described as a speaker correcting a mistake. A genuine correction, a qualification and two different facts are different listening events. Learn the event that is actually present.

Connected speech matters because familiar words can be harder to recognise inside a phrase than in isolation. Use your recording to practise a short stretch containing the answer, then a longer stretch including its reason or qualification. Pay particular attention to plural endings and to weak grammatical words that identify relationships. Do not assume an ending is absent merely because it is not strongly stressed.

How to review this test properly

First, preserve your original answers and record which correct answers were guesses. A guessed correct answer still needs review. Classify each uncertain response as an information error, an interpretation error, a form error or a loss-of-place error. These categories call for different repairs.

Next, replay the relevant stretch without looking at the transcript. Write what you actually hear and explain the answer in your own words. For multiple choice, state why each tempting alternative fails. If your explanation amounts to hearing the same noun as the option, the review is not finished.

Then use the transcript to locate the precise relationship you missed. Mark only the small stretch that establishes the answer and any nearby qualification. For Question 28, for example, your record should preserve the movement from difficulty to improved understanding. For Question 1, it should preserve the distinction between typical attendance and an upper limit.

Repair the specific weakness. Dictate a difficult word and its ending; practise a phrase containing an unfamiliar pronunciation; rewrite a contrast in simpler English; or reconstruct the lecture's sequence from its signposting. Replaying the whole test repeatedly without identifying the failure can produce familiarity without better listening.

Finally, return to the item later without your correction visible. Explain the answer and the distractor before checking. A review has worked when you can recover the reasoning, not merely recognise the answer key. For broader language work, use the two permanent references below alongside your error record.

Vocabulary: meaning, paraphrase and collocation · Grammar: word forms and sentence relationships