IELTS Listening Practice Test 142
4 parts · 40 questions · about 29 minutes of audio. Below are all the questions. Take the test in your free dashboard to play the recordings, answer as you listen, and get your band score with the transcript of every answer.
Part 1: Questions 1–10
You will hear a podcast interview with a man about his upbringing and the steps he took towards a professional career.
Questions 1–10
Complete the notes below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Background and training
Early life
- Length of childhood stay in an eastern US state: years
- Father's occupation:
- Early inspiration: science fiction combined with real
Education and first attempt
- Time when the national programme chose its first astronauts: during
- Missing requirement in first application: a
Professional path
- First role after joining the national agency:
- Initial project: the H2 programme
- Later position in the office: astronaut
Selection
- Year of successful application:
- Size of selected cohort: people
Part 2: Questions 11–20
You will hear a radio programme about English expressions for life's changing fortunes.
Questions 11–15
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Questions 16–20
Complete the table below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Conversation and Song Details
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
Source of the second speaker's bad news | a they had been working on |
Difficult period mentioned by the first speaker | referred to as a |
Grandmother's advice about adversity | do not allow a minor to discourage you |
Second speaker's response to the advice | expressed |
Message of the band's song | favourable periods are |
Part 3: Questions 21–30
You will hear three specialists discussing engineering proposals presented at a symposium.
Questions 21–26
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Questions 27–28
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Questions 29–30
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Part 4: Questions 31–40
You will hear an engineer talking about his career and the development priorities of a large engineering programme.
Questions 31–35
Complete the sentences below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Questions 36–40
Complete the notes below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
Development Priorities
Long-term capability
- Craft designed to over time
- Financial strategy: manage to keep exploration affordable
Crew interaction
- New approaches to displays, controls and
- Operating principle: dependence on automated systems and
External collaboration
- State-of-the-art advances developed with
About this listening test
| Part | Recording | Questions | Question types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Childhood Ambitions and Career Training | 1–10 | Note completion |
| 2 | Expressions for Changing Fortunes | 11–20 | Multiple choice, Table completion |
| 3 | Evaluating Emerging Engineering Concepts | 21–30 | Multiple choice, Multiple choice (choose more than one) |
| 4 | Managing Long-Term Engineering Projects | 31–40 | Sentence completion, Note completion |
How to use it
- Open the test in your dashboard. Each part has its own track with the spoken instructions and the time to read the questions, as in the real exam.
- For exam practice, play each part once at 1× speed. To train your ear, slow it down or replay sections.
- Select words in a question to highlight the keywords you are listening for.
- After submitting, use “Show in transcript” to see exactly where each answer was said.
Audio sources
The recordings are real, copyright-free audio. The questions are written by Sprechify, and the spoken instructions use a synthetic voice.
- Part 1: Gateway: Japan in Deep Space (NASA Houston We Have a Podcast). NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston We Have a Podcast (NASA audio is generally not subject to copyright in the US)
- Part 2: Are You the Windshield or the Bug?. VOA Learning English (learningenglish.voanews.com), public domain
- Part 3: Advancing Technologies (NASA Houston We Have a Podcast). NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston We Have a Podcast (NASA audio is generally not subject to copyright in the US)
- Part 4: Orion Today (NASA Houston We Have a Podcast). NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston We Have a Podcast (NASA audio is generally not subject to copyright in the US)