07/05/2007

Further Listening Practice

Hi students, below you can find a link to different recordings to listen and practise for the listening part of the exam:
LISTENINGS

First Year Students can do the listenings marked with one star.
>

Second Year Students can do those marked with two.
The link to those listenings can be found in a wonderful website from the EOI Zaragoza 2 where you will find more practice for all the skills.
For example, I found this in one of the clozes for practicing reading comprehension:

TIPS ON HOW TO COMPLETE CLOZE TESTS


First, slowly read all the text without filling any of the gaps. Read it two or three times until you have a clear understanding of what the text is about.
• Then only complete the gaps you are absolutely sure of.
• Next try and find out what the missing words in the remaining gaps are. See which
part of speech may fit in each gap (article?, pronoun?, noun?, adverb?, adjective?,
preposition?, conjunction?, verb?) and pay special attention to the grammar around
the words in each gap.
Many of the gaps may include the following:
- preposition following a noun, adjective or verb. (Example: good at languages)
- prepositional phrase. (Example: in spite of)
- adverb. (Example: He moved to Zaragoza two years ago)
- connector. (Example: First, he arrives; then he sits down; finally, he leaves.)
- conjunction. (Example: Although he is five, he can speak five languages.
- auxiliary verb. (Example: He has won 2 matches)
- an article or some other kind of determiner. (Example: I have no time)
- a relative. (Example: Juan, who I met two years ago, is my best friend)
- a pronoun, either subject or object. (Example: it is difficult to know)
- is there a comparative or superlative involved? (Example: she's taller than me)
Some sentences may seem to be complete and contain gaps that appear to be
unnecessary
. If you find gaps like this, you will probably need the following:
- an adverb. (Example: He is always late)
- a modal verb. (Example: They can swim very well)
- a word to change the emphasis of the sentence: She's good enough to be queen;The problems are too difficult
• A few gaps may demand a vocabulary item consistent with the topic of the text; or a
word which is part of an idiomatic expression (example: Good heavens!); or a word
which collocates with another one (example: do a job); or a word which is part of a
phrasal verb (example: I was held up by traffic).
• If after putting into practice the techniques above you still have some gaps left, make a wild guess (adivínalo a ojo). Some teachers may award you a full mark or half a mark if they understand that your suggested word shows a good command of English grammar and vocabulary although the word you wrote in the gap is not the correct one or doesn't fully fit in the overall meaning of the text.
• Never leave a gap blank and never fill in a gap with a word you know for sure is wrong.

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