Shadowing Practice: IELTS Listening Actual Tests Vol 5 Test 2 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Test 2.
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You will hear a number of different recordings, and you will have to answer questions on what you hear.
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There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions, and you will have a chance to check your work.
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All the recordings will be played once only.
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The test is in four sections.
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At the end of the test, you will be given ten minutes to transfer your answers to an answer sheet.
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Now turn to Section 1.
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Section 1.
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You will hear a conversation between a clerk at the information desk of a transport agency
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and a man asking for travel information.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5.
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You will see that there is an example which has been done for you.
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On this occasion only, the conversation relating to this will be played first.
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Morning.
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Thanks for calling Metro Link.
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Is there anything I can do for you?
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Good morning.
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I would like to go to Harbour City tomorrow before 11am, from Bayswater.
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Well, for Bayswater?
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Oh, no, no, from Bayswater, where I am currently living.
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But Harbour City is my destination.
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Sorry, that means Bayswater to Harbour City.
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Which mode of transport do you prefer, by bus or train?
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The destination is Harbour City.
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So, Harbour City has been written in the space.
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Now we shall begin.
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You should answer the questions as you listen, because you will not hear the recording a second time.
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Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.
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Morning.
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Thanks for calling Metro Link.
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Is there anything I can do for you?
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Good morning.
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I would like to go to Harbour City tomorrow before 11am, er, from Bayswater.
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Well, for Bayswater?
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Oh, no, no. From Bayswater, where I am currently living.
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But Harbour City is my destination.
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Sorry.
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That means Bayswater to Harbour City.
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Which mode of transport do you prefer?
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By bus or train?
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In fact, I have no preference.
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Only if it brought me to Harbour faster.
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Well, if you take an express train, you'll be right in Harbour within an hour from departure.
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Let's see.
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Yes, I recommend you to get on the 9 .30 a .m.
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express.
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Sounds perfect.
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So, at which station should I get on the train?
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Hellandale is the nearest station to you.
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Henlandsvale, did you say that?
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No, Hellandale.
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That's H -E -L -E -N -D -A -L -E.
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Then how can I get there fastest?
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Um, let me see.
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Please wait a minute.
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I need to have a look.
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It says you probably have two options for the routes.
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The first one is the Snow 6 bus from Bayswater Shopping Centre to Central Street.
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There will be another bus that can take you to the train station.
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Or, if you don't mind walking directly to Central Street, like a couple of kilometres, then you can take the bus there, bringing you to the train station.
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Sure, but which bus is that than in Central Street?
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The 702 will take...
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Oh, sorry, it's the 782 that will take you to the station.
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I believe walking will be fine, so option two might seem better to me.
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When should I arrive at Central Street to catch the bus?
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There are two buses that you can catch and get to the station on time.
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One's before nine o 'clock, one right after.
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Yet in the morning it might be better to take the earlier one, just in case of a traffic jam or something like that.
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I'd like to say the 8 .55 one is more reassuring than the 9 .05 one.
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Sure, I don't want to miss the train, so the 5 to 9 one will be better.
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Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.
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You Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.
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One more thing.
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How much would the fares cost?
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Well, the boss is $1 .80 in cash, and the train is $10 each way.
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But do you have a travel link card?
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No, but I may get one before tomorrow.
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All right.
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If you have the card, you can pay considerably less.
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Yes, the bus will cost you $1 .50, and the train to harbour...
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Sorry, wait, it will still cost you $10 because it is during rush hour in the morning, I'm afraid.
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Yet, if you could return at an off -peak time...
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What do you mean by that?
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All right, if you could begin your returning journey before five in the afternoon, or later than 7 .45, a quarter to eight, in the evening.
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In fact, my plan is that I won't start to go back home until 8 o 'clock anyway.
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Then you can save a lot of cash using your Travel Link card.
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You did mention that you were planning to buy one, didn't you?
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Yes, today, maybe later.
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I'll pick one up.
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It means with cash it would cost you $10, but if with your card you will only pay $7 .15 for returning.
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Thank you.
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Is there anything else I can help you with?
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Uh, yes.
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In fact, I would like to know if the Travel Link card supports ferry services.
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If the ferry services is Harbour City ferries that connect the northern and southern banks, then yes.
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They are commuter ferries.
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A one -way trip costs $4 .50, but with the Travel Link card you will enjoy a 20 % discount, and the cost will be $3 .55.
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So, $3 .55 for it.
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What about the tour boats?
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You mean those ferries going upriver on sightseeing tours for tourists?
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No, they do not belong to the Travel Link Company, and they only take cash and credit cards.
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Oh, I see.
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So, I may believe that you might not know how much they cost for one tour?
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Actually, I do know.
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I took a friend to the trip upriver just last week.
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We decided to go on an afternoon tour, and it cost us $35 each.
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There is also a whole -day option costing $65.
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Thank you.
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You really helped me a lot. With pleasure.
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Enjoy your trip.
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That is the end of Section 1.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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Now, turn to Section 2.
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Section 2.
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You will hear a radio anchor on broadcast speaking to her audience about water conservation
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and some contributions they can make at home.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 16.
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
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Thank you for returning to Action Radio.
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We are here talking about current affairs and global issues.
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I am Jill, and today our focus will be on discussing the very concerning issue of the significance of water conservation
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and how you can make your own contribution at home.
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The most universal wasted energy of all the domestic kinds is heat.
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Yet since my house has well -insulated walls, I'm lucky enough not to need to do anything about this problem.
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Yet, I still found out that a large amount of water was wasted, owing to my way of life.
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I looked into a few approaches online, trying to reduce my water usage as much as possible,
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and have been pleasantly surprised to figure out that there are experts in
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that field who can make some instant changes to my home.
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But the only dark side is this work is so costly that there are no means for me to get financial help.
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Now, if any of you listeners are interested in reducing your energy usage, here are a couple of easy and positive changes you can make immediately.
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A lot of the magazines will recommend that you change your bulbs for those with energy -saving capabilities.
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However, I have found that these make little difference to your electricity bill, and they also severely reduce the light levels in your home.
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Instead, simply switch off all plug sockets and appliances to make an immediate saving on your electricity consumption.
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If this doesn't make enough of a saving for you, you could later turn down the thermostat as well.
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Even though my energy provider gave me a discount on my bills for prompt payments, this doesn't make enough of a saving for my monthly bill,
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considering the amount of energy that I was using.
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So, I felt like switching to another provider.
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Not only could I make a considerable monthly saving, but also get other perks from the new company.
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The bills can now be paid online, for instance, which was a thrill to me, because it saves me from driving to the bank.
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If our contract endures more than one year, they will also provide me with a deduction for all energy -saving appliances I am currently using.
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Now, many of you listeners will have an electricity meter at home, so I'm very sure that all of you will know the problems associated with them.
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These meters can occupy a lot of room in your home, and can be very unsightly if you cannot tuck them away in a cupboard.
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Mine is very large, and it measures both gas and electricity usage.
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But it is nicely hidden in the coat cupboard, and I'm lucky enough to escape from accessing it easily.
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But the cons about this is that, whenever I need to take a meter reading, I'll have to use a torch because it is hidden in darkness,
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and without a flashlight, I can't read the numbers on the screen correctly.
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I recently extended my house with a new room that gives us a bathroom with a low -energy boiler, so I'm able to take long showers guilty -free.
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My walls are nice and thick and well insulated, but disappointingly, the window is a little drafty,
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thus I'm about to make some investments by doing some upgrading.
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Given renewable energy, I initially thought about installing solar panels on the roof to heat the water, rather than applying a new low -energy boiler,
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which was the price -friendly alternative.
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But I finally determined that the panels would make my house ugly on the exterior, in spite of their ease of technical use.
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Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20.
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Now listen and answer questions 17 to 20.
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Now, if you are keen on taking long showers, as I am, switching from baths to showers doesn't change much on your total water usage.
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Instead, some small effective changes can be quite helpful and efficient.
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When making a cup of tea, for instance, before boiling water, measure out the amount that you need during the procedure.
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Also, when brushing teeth, use a cup of water instead of leaving the tap water running.
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I would recommend you not to fill up the washing machine before switching it on, because I found out that the clothes were not thoroughly cleaned.
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Also, call a plumber to fix your dripping taps.
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This will give rise to a great reduction of water being wasted.
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Before finishing today's show, I'd like to address two questions that we often get asked by listeners.
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We had some great feedback about our answer to last week's
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question on how to calculate the price involved in powering domestic appliances.
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So, let's see how we do this week.
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One of the most commonly asked questions this week was, which device is the lowest energy option for watching films?
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The simplest answer is that the smaller the screen, the lower the energy used.
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One of our listeners wrote in with a question that made me chuckle, and the answer is, yes, solar panels only work when the sun is out.
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Now, on a more serious note, a number of you wanted to know what the most efficient temperature is to set the thermostat to.
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The answer is that the closer you set it to room temperature, the lower the energy used.
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Before saying goodbye today, I'll give you one last tip.
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Turn off all the lights when you leave the room.
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That is the end of Section 2.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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Thank you.
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Turn to Section 3.
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Section 3.
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You will hear two students, called Tim and Jenny, discussing their geography assessment they are going to take next week.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.
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Now listen carefully, and answer questions 21 to 25.
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Morning, Jenny.
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Hi, Tim.
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How's everything going on?
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Not bad, but I'm really nervous about our geography assessment next week.
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Have you done any work on it yet?
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I've just gone over some of the slides where there are a few difficult terms, but I think it would be helpful if I could discuss it together with someone else.
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Would you like to talk about it with me?
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That sounds great.
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Have you got any information about the requirements for the assessment?
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For our test last semester, all of us tried our best to collect raw data to meet the requirements, so as to achieve a pass.
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But according to what the tutor has said, this term there won't be any need for us to do so.
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I read through the notes, and they said that we are all going to be given a set of instructions
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that we can choose to follow if we wish, but it's not mandatory, and we can complete the exam as we wish.
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I don't think that it will be hard for us to pass the assessment.
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As long as we don't copy the answers from anyone else's exam paper, I think we'll be sure to pass.
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Definitely, I agree.
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Should we put on a slideshow presentation with the information on all kinds of volcanoes?
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I think it will really help us to revise the recognition.
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OK, great.
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First, let's look at Pompeii, which is regarded as the most famous one among all the volcanoes.
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Therefore, we might find it much easier to find a large amount of information about it on the net.
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I think we should exclude some of the pictures in the presentation, since many people were killed, and some of them can be quite disturbing.
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It is so lucky that there is going to be a double free break today, so we will have a bit of time to modify this together.
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Well, the next one to mention is Mount Faygo.
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This is an ancient, mythical volcano whose site is still ambiguous.
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In Mexico, as well as the USA, there are mountainous regions, both of which are rumoured to be the location of this volcano.
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It's not that reasonable to list two unrelated locations for one volcano, but since no one has been capable of figuring out which is the correct one,
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we have no choice.
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It's amazing that we cannot find any other example of a volcano in existence today that is haunted by so much mystery.
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Definitely yes.
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I suggest we'd better search online for some information about Mount Etna in Sicily, which is well known for the stunning panoramas that one can appreciate from its peak.
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According to Google, it's a relatively new volcano compared to the others in the nearby region.
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That's the reason why it has very few of the features found in older volcanoes.
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Oh, interesting.
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Might we present any information on Mount Hurton?
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Because I don't think that any of the other students have carried out much of a survey into it, even though it has several unique traits.
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Well, then I think we can just ignore it, since it's a man -made volcano and not that closely linked to our spas, and probably won't be tested in the exam questions.
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Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.
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Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.
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Have you got feedback from your tutor on your presentation last week?
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Yes, but I don't think he was satisfied with the work.
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He was impressed by the amount of research that I'd carried out before I started,
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but he criticized me that I was just mostly writing a summary of the facts instead of giving my own opinion.
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Oh, that's a pity.
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It was depressing that my work is not appreciated, but in the end I learned a lot from my tutor's feedback.
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He suggested to me that next time I should present my work as a short documentary film, which he thinks will help me to strengthen my arguments.
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What topic was your presentation based on?
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I opted to discuss about the lack of knowledge that most people have about volcanoes, and the awareness that they look at them in such a negative way.
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During documentaries and lectures, the scientific experts often neglect to mention the positive features that volcanoes possess.
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That sounds really interesting.
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Well done.
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I think everyone had a really good time, but I was really nervous about speaking in front of the audience.
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Also, I felt very underprepared, since I didn't complete the presentation until the night before, and therefore there had been no time for rehearsal.
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I'm sure it was great.
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Is there any other information that you think we should include in our slideshow for revision?
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Yes, I think it's important that we list all of the differences between active and extinct volcanoes, as there will definitely be a question on this topic.
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There are no documentaries on the subject, but there's a very informative website that discusses the geological structure of each volcano type.
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OK.
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Well, I'll continue collecting images, and you can carry on with the online research.
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That is the end of Section 3.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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Now, turn to Section 4.
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Section 4.
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You will hear part of a lecture in a zoology course talking about New Zealand birds and their protection.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
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Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
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In this session, we're going to talk about birds indigenous to New Zealand, delving into the facts and analysing methods of protecting these species from extinction.
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It may be a surprise to you to know that there are thousands of bird species that are endemic to New Zealand.
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In other words, they are rarely found anywhere else throughout the world.
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Because quite a large number of these birds make a living on a diet of freshly caught fish, they often nest alongside the coastline or follow the neighboring river,
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if necessary, to track freshwater fish.
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Once they have mated, the female will collect twigs
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and pieces of debris to build nests where she can hatch her eggs under safe circumstances, out of the reach of predators.
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When the first immigrants landed on New Zealand roughly seven centuries ago, Rats were carried on the ships with them.
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The rats flourished in the warm climate and gradually became a threat to the native bird populations, particularly to the flightless species.
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In 1984, researchers discovered that just three pairs of flightless bird species remained in existence and that even these faced severe pressure.
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Now, New Zealand is a global pioneer in facilitating the recovery of severely endangered species from the brink of extinction.
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Every year, researchers conduct certain surveys aimed at monitoring the fluctuation in the levels of bird numbers
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and species living in New Zealand.
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Owing to migration patterns of a few bird species, it is far from easy to accurately estimate the bird numbers,
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since many may have flown to other regions in search of mates and warmer climates, and thus may not be included in the investigation.
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Probably, there is a sensitive link between bird numbers and environmental influences.
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especially those closely linked to human activities.
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Routine activities such as farming or building houses can have a massive impact on the local populations.
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Forests
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that play a role of a habitat for thousands of birds can be entirely eradicated to produce fields for cropping
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or to provide wood for construction, which has a catastrophic impact.
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It is not only the activities of humans that threaten the living conditions of bird species, but the population of many predatory animal species has dramatically risen in New Zealand.
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One of these predators is the Mantani snake, which was introduced from Australia and has decimated the population of Kildear birds.
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These birds nest on the ground and often return to find their eggs have been devoured by the egg -eating snakes.
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One cannot dismiss, of course, the disadvantages that nature itself imposes on the survival of many bird species.
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Natural disasters such as storms can be devastating, tearing apart forests and leaving thousands of destroyed nests in their wake.
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Monsoons flood the rivers and often drown many of the flightless bird species that are unable to escape.
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Unfortunately, illegal hunting, which is the greatest threat to bird species in New Zealand, is nearly impossible to prohibit.
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Several bird species, which are going to be extinct, now appear on display at the National Zoo,
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and there is such a cruel need that urgent policies are adopted to protect them.
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The zoo recently employed an expert in bird protection who strongly suggested
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that a guard should be employed to protect their birds from poachers.
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The expert also lays much stress on the fact
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that the birds can be haunted by quite a stressed situation where the public can approach them too closely,
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suggesting that the administration install a fence network to keep the public a safe distance away from the birds.
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In spite of this threat to birds in captivity, it is the freely roaming birds that are most at risk.
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Many efforts are being made to educate the public in terms
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of how they can contribute towards protecting birds living in the wild.
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Finally, research has indicated
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that one of the most feasible measures of keeping the public
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notified about the significance of protecting the bird population is through the media.
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I advise you all to read the related articles in specialist journals, and also do some research on the Internet.
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Everyone can make your own contribution if you put your mind to it.
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That is the end of Section 4.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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That is the end of the listening test.
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In the IELTS test, you will now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.
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Why Practice Speaking with This IELTS Listening Video?
Practicing with real IELTS listening materials like this video is a goldmine for english speaking practice and IELTS speaking practice. The dialogue between the clerk and the traveler mirrors everyday communication—think asking for directions, clarifying details, and making plans. By engaging with this context, you’ll learn to respond naturally in similar real-life situations, while also sharpening your ability to follow conversational flow—key for both IELTS success and confident speaking. Plus, it’s a great way to learn english with videos by combining listening and speaking skills.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
The conversation is packed with practical structures to notice. First, the traveler uses "I would like to go to..." to state a goal—polite and direct, perfect for requests. Then, "Only if it brought me to Harbour faster" uses a conditional to prioritize needs, a common way to compare options. Notice how the clerk clarifies with "That means Bayswater to Harbour City?"—a simple but effective way to avoid misunderstandings. Finally, "I recommend you to get on the 9.30 a.m. express" shows how to give advice clearly. These phrases aren’t just for IELTS; they’re essential for daily interactions.
Common Pronunciation Traps
Pay close attention to pronunciation in this video to improve english pronunciation. The traveler mishears "Hellandale" as "Henlandsvale"—a classic example of how similar-sounding consonants (like "d" vs. "v") can trip you up. Practice saying "Hellandale" slowly, stressing the "dal" sound. Also, the phrase "express train" has a soft "s" in "express" and a clear "t" in "train"—don’t rush these sounds. For shadowing technique practice, repeat the clerk’s questions ("Which mode of transport do you prefer?") immediately after hearing them, mimicking the rhythm and intonation. This will help you sound more natural in fast-paced conversations.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you take an express train, you'll be · if with your card you will only |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has been done · has been written · have been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | will be played · will be given · has been done |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | example which has · instance, which was · Pompeii, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.