IELTS Listening Test 12 (2026) with Answers

Teacher section. Do not give this to learners before they take the test.

Original IELTS-style practice material. Not produced or endorsed by IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

Note: A script alone does not reproduce a timed audio test. In the real test, candidates hear each recording once, at natural speed, with fixed pauses. If you read these scripts aloud, keep to the pause lengths shown and do not repeat anything.

Pause markers: [PAUSE 30s] means 30 seconds of silence. In the actual recording, each pause is silence only.

Answer locations: In this teacher copy, the words that give each answer are marked like this: ⟦Q1⟧. Remove these markers before recording.

PART 1

Speakers: NARRATOR; PIPPA (female, receptionist at a driving school, cheerful and organised, British accent); FINLAY (male, about nineteen, a new pupil, polite and slightly nervous, British accent)

NARRATOR: Part 1. You will hear a young man phoning a driving school to arrange some lessons. First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5.

[PAUSE 30s]

NARRATOR: Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.

PIPPA: Good afternoon, Clearview Driving School. Pippa speaking.

FINLAY: Hi. I'd like to start having driving lessons, and a friend of mine said you were really good.

PIPPA: Oh, that's nice to hear. I can take your details now and get you booked in. What's your name?

FINLAY: It's Finlay Thewlis.

PIPPA: And how do you spell your surname?

FINLAY: It's ⟦Q1⟧ T-H-E-W-L-I-S.

PIPPA: Thank you. And what's your address, Finlay?

FINLAY: It's eighty-five Station Street. Oh, no, sorry. That was my old flat, and I keep giving it to people. I moved last month. It's ⟦Q2⟧ fifty-eight Pelham Road.

PIPPA: Fifty-eight Pelham Road. That's just behind the sports centre, isn't it? Now, I need to check that you've got your provisional licence.

FINLAY: Yes, it arrived last week.

PIPPA: Great. And have you done any driving at all before?

FINLAY: A little bit. My dad was going to teach me, but to be honest, he hasn't got the patience. So ⟦Q3⟧ my uncle took me out a few times instead, on an old airfield near his house, just so I could get the feel of it.

PIPPA: That'll help. Now, we teach in two kinds of car. There's manual, where you change gear yourself, and automatic, where the car does it for you.

FINLAY: My uncle's car is manual, and I found the gears really difficult. And my mum says I'll probably never need to drive a manual car anyway, now that so many cars are electric. So I'd like to learn in an ⟦Q4⟧ automatic.

PIPPA: A lot of people choose that now. Just remember that if you pass your test in an automatic, you won't be allowed to drive a manual car.

FINLAY: That's fine.

PIPPA: And which day of the week would suit you best?

FINLAY: Well, I'm at college all day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and I work in a supermarket at the weekend. I'm free on Tuesday afternoons, but that's when I have football training, so I'd rather not miss it. On ⟦Q5⟧ Fridays, my last class finishes at lunchtime, so Friday afternoon would be perfect.

PIPPA: Friday's a popular day, but we've still got some space.

NARRATOR: Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.

[PAUSE 30s]

NARRATOR: Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.

PIPPA: So, on Fridays, I can offer you a lesson starting at one o'clock or at half past two.

FINLAY: My last class finishes at half past twelve, so one o'clock would be a bit of a rush. Can I have the ⟦Q6⟧ later one, two thirty?

PIPPA: Yes, of course. Most of our pupils are picked up from home. Is that what you'd like?

FINLAY: Actually, would it be possible for the instructor to meet me at ⟦Q7⟧ college? If I go home first, I'll waste half an hour on the bus.

PIPPA: That's no problem at all. The instructor can wait for you at the main entrance. Now, our standard lesson is sixty minutes long, but for complete beginners, we usually suggest something longer. By the time you've got settled and found a quiet road, an hour goes very quickly.

FINLAY: So how long would you recommend?

PIPPA: I'd say ⟦Q8⟧ ninety minutes. Any more than that, and most people get too tired to concentrate.

FINLAY: OK, ninety minutes it is. And how much will that cost?

PIPPA: A single ninety-minute lesson is fifty-four pounds. But if you pay for a block of ten lessons in advance, you get a discount, so instead of five hundred and forty pounds, it's ⟦Q9⟧ four hundred and ninety.

FINLAY: I'll take the block of ten, then. Is there anything I need to bring to my first lesson?

PIPPA: Your provisional licence, of course. Do you wear glasses?

FINLAY: Yes, for seeing things far away. I don't always wear them, though.

PIPPA: Well, at the start of the first lesson, the instructor will check your eyesight by asking you to read a car number plate from about twenty metres. So make sure you bring your ⟦Q10⟧ glasses.

FINLAY: Right. Do I need my passport as well, to prove who I am?

PIPPA: No, your licence has your photo on it, so that's enough. Now, could I take your card details?

NARRATOR: That is the end of Part 1. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[PAUSE 30s]

PART 2

Speakers: NARRATOR; GORDON (male, general manager of a theatre, friendly and enthusiastic, British accent)

NARRATOR: Part 2. You will hear the manager of a theatre talking to a group of visitors at the start of a tour of the building. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15.

[PAUSE 30s]

NARRATOR: Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15.

GORDON: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Corran Theatre. My name's Gordon, and I'm the general manager. Thank you all for coming along on our open day. Before we set off, I'd like to tell you a little about the history of the building.

Most people assume that this has always been a theatre. In fact, ⟦Q11⟧ when it opened in eighteen ninety-one, it was a circus. There was a ring where the front rows of seats are now, and horses and acrobats performed here twice a day. It was turned into a theatre in nineteen-oh-four, and for about thirty years, from the nineteen-fifties, it was used as the town's main cinema. When the cinema closed, the building stood empty for a long time.

By two thousand and three, it was in such poor condition that the town council was planning to knock it down and build a car park on the site. ⟦Q12⟧ That's when a group of people who lived in the surrounding streets started a campaign to save it. They collected thousands of signatures and raised money with concerts and sponsored walks, and in the end, the council changed its mind. People sometimes tell me that the theatre was saved by a famous actor who grew up in Hasbury. He did give us a donation, and we're very grateful, but it paid for only a small part of the work. Restoration started in two thousand and six, and the theatre reopened four years later.

When we go into the auditorium, you'll see the seats, which are covered in red velvet. Visitors often think that they're the original seats, but those were all removed when the building became a cinema. We thought about having new ones made at the furniture factory here in town, but it was far too expensive. ⟦Q13⟧ In the end, we bought these from a theatre in Glasgow that was being demolished.

Now, a few requests before we start. You're welcome to take photographs anywhere on the tour, even in the dressing rooms, as the actors aren't here this morning. And please don't worry if you've brought a bottle of water with you. That's absolutely fine. However, ⟦Q14/15⟧ we're putting on a show tonight, and the scenery has just been painted, so please don't touch any of it. You'll also have the chance to walk across the stage, which is always a highlight. But backstage, there are steep stairs and trapdoors in the floor, so ⟦Q14/15⟧ it's very important that everyone stays with the group at all times.

NARRATOR: Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20.

[PAUSE 30s]

NARRATOR: Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.

GORDON: Right, let me tell you about the places we'll visit. We'll start here in the foyer. During the restoration, experts scraped away tiny areas of paint to find out how the walls had looked in nineteen-oh-four. Underneath about twelve layers of cinema paint, they found dark green and gold, and ⟦Q16⟧ that's exactly how the walls of the foyer look again today.

After that, we'll go backstage to the green room, which is where the actors relax before a performance. It's a comfortable room now, with sofas and a little kitchen, but ⟦Q17⟧ in the days of the circus, this was where the horses were kept. There are still metal rings on one wall where they were tied up.

From there, we'll come back past the orchestra pit, which is the space in front of the stage where the musicians sit. ⟦Q18⟧ During the restoration, we made it larger, so that it can hold a full orchestra of forty players, which means we can now put on opera.

Next, we'll go up to the wardrobe department, where all our costumes are made and repaired. It's a busy place, and ⟦Q19⟧ on Saturday mornings, it's used for costume-making classes for students from local schools. Some of them have gone on to work in theatres in London.

Our last stop will be the fly tower. That's the tall space above the stage where scenery is lifted up out of sight of the audience. Most of the technical equipment in the theatre is brand new, but ⟦Q20⟧ up there, we still use some of the ropes and wooden wheels that were put in when the building became a theatre, and they're the oldest working equipment we have.

Some of you may have heard that the upper circle is haunted. I've worked here for eleven years and I've never seen anything, I'm afraid. And we won't be going down to the basement under the stage, as it's not normally open to visitors. Right, if you'd like to follow me...

NARRATOR: That is the end of Part 2. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[PAUSE 30s]

PART 3

Speakers: NARRATOR; ZARA (female, psychology student, organised and confident, British accent); EWAN (male, psychology student, curious and relaxed, Scottish accent)

NARRATOR: Part 3. You will hear two psychology students, Zara and Ewan, discussing an experiment they carried out on how the colour of a plate affects the taste of food. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.

[PAUSE 30s]

NARRATOR: Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.

EWAN: So, Zara, we need to finish the report by the end of next week. Shall we go through it section by section?

ZARA: Yes, good idea. Actually, I was thinking about how we started this. Do you remember why we chose plates in the first place?

EWAN: Wasn't it that cookery programme? The chef who said food always tastes better on a white plate?

ZARA: Well, I'd seen that, but I didn't take it seriously. ⟦Q21⟧ What really got me interested was a magazine article about the original study, the one where people tasted the same dessert on white and black plates. After that, I talked to Dr Carver about it, and she said we could use it for our project.

EWAN: That's right. And we used the same dessert as they did, a strawberry mousse.

ZARA: Yes, though we did think about changing it. I wanted to use something cheaper, like yoghurt.

EWAN: But ⟦Q22⟧ we decided that if we wanted to compare our results with the original study, we had to use the same food. And it turned out that everyone liked the mousse, which was a bonus.

ZARA: OK. What about the participants? We wanted forty, and we got forty-six volunteers, which was great.

EWAN: But then we had a problem. ⟦Q23⟧ Nine of them told us on the day that they didn't eat dairy products, so we couldn't include them. That left us with thirty-seven.

ZARA: And none of them had any idea what we were testing, which was important. We just told them it was a study about desserts.

EWAN: Yes. So, the results. In the original study, people rated the mousse on the white plate as about ten per cent sweeter than the mousse on the black plate.

ZARA: And we found the same pattern. The white plate was rated sweeter. ⟦Q24⟧ But in our case, the difference was only about five per cent, so it was smaller.

EWAN: Do you think that's a problem?

ZARA: Not really. With fewer than forty people, you'd expect the figures to be a bit different. What surprised me more was the number of people who said they preferred the black plate.

EWAN: Was it that many? I didn't think it was much more than a handful. ⟦Q25⟧ What I found really surprising was that several participants thought they'd been given two completely different desserts, made from different recipes. One woman even said the second one had more fruit in it!

ZARA: Yes, that was funny. It shows how strong the effect can be.

NARRATOR: Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.

[PAUSE 30s]

NARRATOR: Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.

EWAN: Right, let's go through the report. The introduction's fairly short at the moment.

ZARA: That's OK. Dr Carver said the length was fine. ⟦Q26⟧ What she said was missing was other research. At the moment, we only discuss the original study, so we need to refer to more studies on colour and taste.

EWAN: I can do that. I found some papers about the colour of cups and drinks. What about the method?

ZARA: I think it's too vague. Someone reading it wouldn't be able to repeat our experiment. ⟦Q27⟧ We need to explain exactly how the mousse was served, the room temperature, the lighting, that kind of thing.

EWAN: OK, I'll expand that part. Then the results. At the moment, they're just a long list of numbers.

ZARA: I know. It's really hard to follow. ⟦Q28⟧ Let's put the average sweetness ratings for the two plates into a graph, so that the reader can see the difference at a glance.

EWAN: Good idea. And then the discussion. That's the section I'm least happy with.

ZARA: Why? I thought it was well written. I wondered whether we should make the language more formal, but I don't think that's necessary.

EWAN: No, the style is fine. But it repeats a lot of the results. ⟦Q29⟧ I think we could cut it by about a third.

ZARA: Fair enough. And finally, there's the section with all the comments the participants made, like the woman who thought there was more fruit.

EWAN: I love that section. I don't want to lose it.

ZARA: We don't have to lose it. But it's quite long, and it interrupts the report. ⟦Q30⟧ Why don't we move it to an appendix at the end? Then anyone who's interested can still read it.

EWAN: Perfect. So, shall we divide up the work?

NARRATOR: That is the end of Part 3. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[PAUSE 30s]

PART 4

Speakers: NARRATOR; LECTURER (female, university lecturer in plant science, clear and engaging, British accent)

NARRATOR: Part 4. You will hear a lecturer giving a talk about cork. First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

[PAUSE 45s]

NARRATOR: Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

LECTURER: Good morning, everyone. Today, I'd like to talk about a material that most of you have handled many times without thinking about it at all. That's cork. Cork is the bark of a particular tree, the cork oak, which grows in the western Mediterranean, mainly in Portugal, Spain and North Africa. Portugal alone produces about half of the world's cork.

Cork has an important place in the history of science. In sixteen sixty-five, the English scientist Robert Hooke looked at a thin slice of cork under one of the first microscopes. He saw that it was made up of thousands of tiny empty spaces, which reminded him of a honeycomb. ⟦Q31⟧ So he called them "cells", and that's the word biologists have used ever since.

It's these cells that give cork its unusual properties. There are around forty million of them in every cubic centimetre, and ⟦Q32⟧ each one is filled with air. This is why cork is so light, and why it floats. The cell walls contain a waxy substance, so everyone knows that cork keeps out water. What's less well known is that ⟦Q33⟧ cork is also very resistant to fire. It burns slowly, and in the wild, the thick bark helps to protect the living tree underneath it from forest fires.

So how is cork obtained? The remarkable thing is that it can be taken without cutting the tree down. The bark is stripped from the trunk in large pieces, and this is skilled work, which on most farms is still done by hand. ⟦Q34⟧ Traditionally, the workers use an axe to make careful cuts in the bark, and then lever it away from the trunk. If they cut too deep, they can damage the tree, so they're among the best-paid farm workers in Europe. A tree is about twenty-five years old when it's first harvested, and after that, the bark slowly grows back. ⟦Q35⟧ In Portugal, there must normally be a gap of at least nine years between one harvest and the next. And so that everyone knows when a tree was last stripped, ⟦Q36⟧ on many farms, the final number of the year is written on the trunk in white paint.

Cork oaks can live for more than two hundred years, so a single tree may be harvested fifteen times or more. But not all of the bark is the same quality. ⟦Q37⟧ The bark from the first harvest is too rough to make bottle stoppers, so it's ground up and used for things like floor tiles and insulation. It's usually only from the third harvest that the cork is good enough for stoppers.

Most people think of cork only in connection with wine, and stoppers are still the most valuable product. But cork is used in all kinds of places. It's found inside cricket balls and on the handles of fishing rods. And because it's such a good insulator, ⟦Q38⟧ it's even used to protect spacecraft from the heat when they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

In the nineteen-nineties, though, the cork industry faced a serious threat. A small proportion of wine bottles were affected by something called "cork taint". This is caused by a chemical which can form in the cork, and ⟦Q39⟧ it gives the wine an unpleasant smell, rather like a damp cellar. Many wine producers began to use screw caps or plastic stoppers instead, and for a time, the future of the industry looked uncertain. Since then, producers have developed new methods of testing and cleaning the cork, and cork taint has become much less common.

Why does this matter? Well, the cork forests aren't just a source of income. They're among the richest habitats for wildlife in Europe, home to hundreds of species of plants and animals. These include the Spanish imperial eagle and ⟦Q40⟧ the Iberian lynx, which is one of the rarest wild cats in the world. If demand for cork falls, landowners may replace the cork oaks with faster-growing trees, or with crops. So when you open a bottle with a cork stopper, you may be helping to protect a forest.

In the next lecture, we'll look at some other materials that come from trees...

NARRATOR: That is the end of Part 4. You now have one minute to check your answers.

[PAUSE 60s]

NARRATOR: That is the end of the Listening test. In the IELTS test, you would now have ten minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.