IELTS LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 2026 WITH ANSWERS | 19.01.2026

Now look at part one. Part one.

>> You will hear a talk about a museum.

You should answer the questions as you

listen because you will not hear the

recording a second time.

>> First, you have some time to look at

questions 1 to four.

Listen carefully and answer questions

one to four.

>> Welcome to the Museum's UK audio series,

a collection of downloadable audio files

introducing the best of British museums.

My name is Sam Cooper and in this file

I'll be introducing the Asholian Museum

of Art and Archaeology in Oxford with

its fabulous collections of Eastern and

Western art, antiquities, casts, and

coins.

It's one of the oldest public museums in

the world, and it's actually part of

Oxford University, though it's free to

go in whether you're a student or not.

You'll find the main museum in Bowmont

Street near the center of Oxford, close

to both the railway station and the bus

station.

Opening hours for visitors are from

10:00 in the morning till 5:00 in the

evening on Tuesdays to Saturdays, 12 to

5 on Sundays, and 10 to 7 on Thursdays

in the summer months.

It usually closes for 3 days over

Christmas, a couple of days at New Year,

and 3 days for the St. Charles Fair in

early September.

You can take photos in the galleries,

but only with handheld cameras and not

using flash or lights, which can do

serious harm to exhibits.

Also, as long as you follow all the

copyright regulations and you get

permission from the staff on duty, you

can ask for antiquities documents of

less than 100 years in age to be

photocopied at a cost of 5p per A4

sheet.

Before you hear the rest of the

conversation, you have some time to look

at questions 5 to 10.

Now listen and answer questions five to

10.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given its

links with the university, the Asholon

has an education service for schools and

the general public. Activities include

guided group visits, which for adults

last 60 minutes and cost £4 each. This

makes the minimum price per group £28,

as group sizes vary from 7 to 15 people.

Visits by groups of young people take

the same amount of time as the adult

tours, but cost just £2 for university

students. So, with at least seven to a

group, the lowest price is £14. Though,

please note that there's an upper limit

of 14 group members rather than the 15

for adults.

For schools, there are visits to suit

all age groups, and for the most popular

ones, such as those to see the Greek and

Egyptian collections, it's best to book

a term in advance.

Tours last 50 minutes, starting at

10:15, 11:30, and a quart 1 with a

maximum of 13 children per group.

Now, if you're free in the middle of the

day, why not go along to one of the

45minute lunchtime talks? There's a

really wide range of topics.

On the 19th, for example, the subject is

Greek mythology. And on the 20th,

there's celebration of India. Both begin

at 1:15, the usual time for these talks,

and they're held every Tuesday,

Wednesday, and Friday.

Another regular feature on Saturday

mornings through to the afternoons are

the workshops.

If you're interested in developing your

own illustrative and artistic skills,

these are for you. They're aimed at

artists of varying levels of experience

and are always led by practicing

artists. Running for 6 hours from 10:00,

this is wonderful value at just £5,

including basic materials and also a

decent cup of coffee.

That is the end of part one.

>> You now have half a minute to check your

answers.

Now turn to section two.

Section two.

You will hear a man talking on the radio

about dogs which help people with their

work.

First look at questions 11 and 12.

As you listen to the first part of the

talk, answer questions 11 and 12.

Welcome to this week's edition of

Countrywide. And today we're taking a

look at a number of different breeds of

working dogs. And here to report on the

dogs with jobs is Kevin Thornnehill.

Thanks, Joanne. Well, yes, dogs with

jobs is the subject of today's program.

Dogs have earned themselves a reputation

over the centuries for being extremely

loyal. And here's a little story which

illustrates just how loyal they are.

Just outside the country town of Gandai

in Australia is a statue built to

commemorate a dog. A dog which sat

waiting for his owner to return to the

spot where he'd left him. Well, the

story which was immortalized in a song

has it that the poor dog died waiting

for his master 5 miles from Gandai

which is where they built the statue.

Now that's what I call loyalty.

Now look at questions 13 to 20.

Listen

carefully and answer questions

>> 13 to 20.

>> Well, because of their loyalty and also

their ability to learn practical skills,

dogs can be trained to do a number of

very valuable jobs. Perhaps the most

well-known of working dogs is the border

collie sheep dog. Sheep dogs which work

in unison with their masters need to be

smart and obedient with a natural

ability to herd sheep. Some farmers say

that their dogs are so smart that they

not only herd sheep, they can count them

too. Another much loved working dog is

the guide dog trained to work with the

blind.

Guide dogs, usually Labradors, need to

be confident enough to lead their owner

through traffic and crowds, but they

must also be of a gentle nature. It

costs a great deal of money to train a

dog for this very valuable work. But the

guide dog associations in the UK,

America, and Australia receive no

government assistance, so all the money

comes from donations.

Another common breed of work dog is the

German Shepherd. German Shepherds make

excellent guard dogs and are also very

appropriate as search and rescue dogs

working in disaster zones after

earthquakes and avalanches.

These dogs must be tough and courageous

to cope with the arduous conditions of

their work and so that they can be sent

anywhere in the world to assist in

disaster relief operations. Effective

dogs and their trainers are now listed

on an international database.

When you arrive at an airport here, you

may be greeted in the baggage hall by a

detector dog wearing a little red coat

bearing the words quarantine.

These dogs are trained to sniff out

fresh fruit as well as meat and even

live animals hidden in people's bags. In

order to be effective, a good detector

dog must have an enormous food drive. In

other words, they must really love their

food. At Sydney airport, where there are

10 detector dogs working full-time, they

stop about 80 people a month trying to

bring illegal goods into the country.

And according to their trainers, they

very rarely get it wrong.

Another famous working dog is the husky.

Huskys, which originally came from

Siberia, have been used for decades as a

means of transport on snow, particularly

in Antarctica, where they have played an

important role. Huskys are well adapted

to harsh conditions and they enjoy

working in a team. But the huskys have

all left Antarctica now because the

international treaty prohibits their use

in the territory as they are not native

animals. Many people were sad to see the

dogs leave Antarctica as they had been

vital to the early expeditions and

earned their place in history along with

the explorers.

That is the end of section two. You now

have half a minute to check your

answers.

Now turn to section three.

>> Section three.

In this section, you will hear a

discussion between a tutor, Dr. Lester,

and two students, Greg and Alexandra, at

the end of a talk about music.

In the first part of the discussion,

they are talking about some of the

students favorite instruments and

favorite styles of music.

Complete the table showing the students

opinions.

First, you have some time to look at

questions 21 to 26.

Now listen carefully and answer

questions 21 to 26.

>> I think it's time we looked at the

results of our survey. Uh, what did you

find out, Alexandra?

>> We're a group with very diverse tastes,

Dr. Lester.

>> I'm not surprised. What were the

favorite instruments? Well, Greg loves

drums. He told me he played drums when

he was at primary school, and now he

plays drums with his friends at

weekends. They have a band.

>> Good. Uh, what do you like to play,

Alexandra?

>> My favorites is the guitar. However, I

haven't played for years, so I keep

hoping to start again. Will I go on with

the others?

>> Yes, please.

>> Katya is like Greg. She loves to listen

to drums.

She says she's not a player, just a

listener.

Rachel, as you know, is a violinist. So,

of course, it's natural that she should

favor the violin.

>> So, we have two people who love the

sound of the drum and two who like

strings. The violin for Rachel and the

guitar for Alex. What does Harry like?

>> Harry says the best instrument of them

all is the piano. He claims it's more

versatile than any other instrument.

Amo plays the piano, but her favorite

instrument is the flute.

>> The flute?

>> Yes. Ao plays the flute, too, of course.

>> Thank you, Alexandra. Greg, will you

tell us the students favorite style of

music? We're really very conservative.

My favorite is classical music, and

that's Alexandra's choice, too. Katchcha

claims to like rock. So that's a vote

from Greg, Alexandra, and Katchcha.

Doesn't Rachel prefer classical music?

Rachel made a choice which surprised me.

She plays the violin, so I expected

classical or opera, but Rachel says that

she prefers country music. How

interesting. What's Harry's choice?

Harry likes to listen to opera and loves

to go to see a performance. He says

opera has everything. color and

spectacle and theater and great music.

And Emo, Emo says jazz is her favorite

music. She goes to listen to jazz every

Friday evening. She also likes opera,

heavy metal, classical, but jazz is the

best. Thank you, Greg. I wanted to see

what you all liked so I could understand

your musical tastes more. And I want to

move from this to a discussion of the

physiological effects of music.

In the second part of the discussion,

Dr. Lester will talk about the way music

affects our bodies.

Before you hear the rest of the talk,

you have some time to look at questions

27 to 30.

Now listen and answer questions 27 to

30.

For the purposes of uh this discussion,

I'm going to divide music roughly into

two types. Music which stimulates us and

music which calms us. It seems that

music which stimulates us gives rise to

actual changes in our bodies. We listen

to exciting music and our hearts beat

faster. Our blood pressure rises and our

blood flows more quickly. In short,

we're stimulated.

Soothing music, however, has the

opposite effect. We relax and let the

world go by. Our heart beats more

gently. Our blood pressure drops and we

feel calm. Um Alexandra, can you think

of things which help us to relax?

um gentle rhythms.

>> Yes, in part the melodies which help us

to relax are smooth flowing and often

have repeated rhythms. And these rhythms

are constant and dynamic, a little like

the crash of the sea on the beach. Their

very predictability is sedating,

relaxing. By contrast, very loud,

discordanted music with unpredictable

rhythms and structures excites and

stimulates us. These two generalizations

about the differences between music

which stimulates and music which soothes

are true as far as they go, but they are

far from conclusive. We still have a lot

of research to do to find out what uh

for instance people of different

cultures hear and feel when they listen

to music. This department is taking part

in a continuing study on the influence

of culture on musical perception and

we'll talk about that more next week.

That is the end of section three. You

will now have some time to check your

answers.

doctrines to part four.

Part four,

>> you are going to hear a lecture on life

at work which is being given as part of

a series of lectures on productivity and

work practices.

First look at questions 31 to 35. Five.

Now listen carefully and answer

questions 31 to35.

Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Charles

Butt and I shall be giving you a series

of lectures on productivity and work

practices over the coming weeks.

There will be 10 lectures in the

mornings as part of this course and in

addition there will be three lectures in

the evenings from 6 to 8 which will be

given by outside speakers.

I would like first to look at a recent

report on life at work. The report shows

that the average British worker takes

less than half an hour for lunch, 27

minutes to be precise, and that sick

leave is on the increase. The drop in

the length of time spent on lunch was 9

minutes when compared to last year, down

from 36 minutes. According to the

report, this is the first time that the

average lunch break has fallen below

half an hour. As regards sick leave, you

can see that the average figure is 10

days per year. That's up by one day in

2002 compared to 2001.

While physical illness was given as the

most common reason for absence in the

case of non-manual workers, stress was

the most common cause of long-term

absence.

It's worth noting here that nine out of

10 workers claim that stress is a

problem in their organization and that

eight out of 10 bosses are feeling more

stressed than ever before. I would just

like to say here that we will be looking

at the stress in work and study at a

later date and we'll be looking

particularly at ways of dealing with it

in studying particularly for exams. You

can see from the calendar that professor

Appleard will be giving a lecture on

this topic the week after next.

The report also says that just below 50%

of workers claim that they were taking

less time off for holidays than they

were entitled to. I'm not sure that this

will be believed by the employers.

Previous surveys have suggested that

about onethird of days that have been

taken by workers as days off sick were

regarded by bosses as not being the

result of genuine illness. Some more

hard data is required to corroborate

both these claims.

Before the speaker continues, look at

questions 36 to 40.

As you listen, answer questions 36 to

40.

All this suggests that employers are

driving their workers too hard. The

effects of overwork mean that workers

are now being stretched beyond their

limits both physically and mentally.

This is borne out by the increase in

sick leave. However, looked at from the

employer's point of view, the picture

may not be the same. Employers say that

workers protest too much. But bearing in

mind the data about the number of bosses

feeling much more stressed than before,

we need to think about this carefully.

It's interesting to note that

productivity has gone up in many areas

of industry. In 2001, the local car

plant had one of the sharpest increases

in average productivity with the number

of vehicles per employee rising by over

30% a year. A new assembly line came

into operation at the beginning of 2002

affecting productivity which increased

to the 100 vehicles per worker mark by

the end of the year. This is a stunning

achievement for an industry which was

not long ago considered to be

collapsing.

It would be interesting to do a survey

of the work life at the plant. Those of

you who have opted to do the project and

reduce the number of essays you have to

do may want to look into this. Please

see me at the end of the lecture. Right

now let us move on to something else

which I think you

>> that is the end of part four.

>> You now have half a minute to check your

answers.

Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.

Heat.

Heat.

Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.