IELTS Life Skills B1 practice test 4
Talk about food and a journey you remember, listen to two messages about a gym class and an eye test, and plan how a friend can get fit.
How to use this test. The real test is taken with an examiner and one other candidate, and it lasts up to 22 minutes. Practise with a friend if you can: one of you is the partner. If you are alone, speak your answers out loud and use the buttons to hear the examiner and your partner. The listening task is marked for you. The speaking tasks are not marked, so compare yourself with the example answers.
Questions with your partner
3 minutesThe examiner first asks each of you your name, where you come from and how long you have lived here. Then you and your partner ask each other questions for two minutes.
The examiner says
Find out from each other about the food you like to cook or eat.
If you stop talking, the examiner may ask
- Who usually cooks in your home?
- What did you eat yesterday evening?
- Is the food here different from the food in your country? How?
- Is there a dish you would like to learn to cook?
See an example conversation
- YouWhat kind of food do you like to cook?
- PartnerI like cooking soup, because it is cheap and healthy, and I can make enough for three days. Do you cook much?
- YouNot during the week, because I finish work late. At the weekend I make dishes from my country.
- PartnerIs it easy to find the ingredients here?
- YouMost of them, yes. There is a small shop near the station that sells the spices I need.
Talk for one and a half minutes
7 minutesYou get a topic and one minute to prepare. You then talk for about a minute and a half while your partner listens, and your partner asks you three questions. After that you swap: you listen to your partner and ask three questions.
Your topic
Tell your partner about a journey you remember well.
You could talk about: where you went and why, how you travelled, what happened on the way, why you remember it.
Then your partner asks you three questions
A real partner asks about what you said. These are the kind of questions to expect. Answer each one out loud.
- What did you do while the train was stopped?
- Did you keep in touch with the woman who helped you?
- Would you make the same journey by train again?
See an example answer for your topic
I'm going to tell you about a train journey I made three years ago, when I travelled to Scotland for a friend's wedding. I left home very early, at about six in the morning, because the journey takes nearly five hours. Everything was fine at first. I had a seat by the window, and I enjoyed looking at the countryside. But after two hours the train stopped between two stations, and we waited for more than an hour because of a problem with the signals. I was very worried that I would miss the wedding. A woman sitting opposite me saw that I was nervous. She gave me a cup of tea and told me there was a faster bus from the next station. In the end I arrived only ten minutes before the wedding started. I remember that journey because a stranger was so kind to me.
Now you listen and ask three questions
Your partner tells you about a skill they learned as an adult. Listen without reading, then ask three questions about what you heard.
See what your partner said and three example questions
I'd like to tell you about learning to swim. I never learned as a child, because there was no swimming pool in my town. Two years ago, when I was thirty-four, I decided to try, because my children were having lessons and I wanted to go in the water with them. I joined a beginners' class for adults on Monday evenings. At first I was afraid to put my face in the water, and I felt a little embarrassed. The teacher was very patient, and after about three months I could swim one length of the pool. Now I go every week with my family.
- What was the hardest part of learning to swim?
- How did your children feel when you started lessons?
- Is there another skill you would like to learn?
Listen to two messages
5 minutesYou hear two short recordings. First you say what each one is about, choosing from three options. Then you hear both again and answer two questions about one of them. Here you answer the questions on both.
You hear two messages about health and fitness.
Listen to both recordings. Where is each message from? A gym, an optician or a pharmacy?
Plan together, then discuss
7 minutesFirst you and your partner plan something together for two minutes. Then you talk together about a related topic for about four minutes. The examiner only joins in if the conversation stops.
The planning task
A friend wants to get fitter, but he does not have much free time or money.
Which activity should he try?
- swimming
- walking
- cycling
Plan and decide
- when he could do it
- what he will need
- how to stay interested
See an example conversation
- YouWhich activity do you think is best for him? I'd say walking, because it's free and he can start tomorrow.
- PartnerI agree it's the cheapest. Swimming is very good exercise, but he would have to pay every time.
- YouExactly. He could walk to work instead of taking the bus, so he doesn't need extra time.
- PartnerGood idea. He only needs comfortable shoes and a raincoat. But how will he stay interested?
- YouHe could walk with a friend, or count his steps on his phone. So we've chosen walking, on the way to work, with a friend.
Then talk together
Talk to each other about what you do to stay healthy.
If you stop talking, the examiner may ask
- What kind of exercise do you enjoy?
- Do you think people today are healthier than in the past? Why?
- What do you do when you feel stressed?
- Is it expensive to eat healthy food where you live?
Check yourself
You get a pass or a fail, not a band. Ask yourself whether you did these things:
- I asked my partner questions, and did not only answer.
- I kept talking for the full minute and a half on my topic.
- I gave reasons for my opinions, with words like because and so.
- I talked about the past and the future, not only the present.
- I listened to my partner and replied to what they said.
- I understood the main point and the details of both messages.