A student gives a presentation on the Céide Fields in the northwest of Ireland, one of the largest Neolithic sites in the world. She explains how a local teacher and his son discovered it under the bog, what it shows about Neolithic farmers, and why farming there declined.
One ten-gap note block, strictly in order, under three headings: Discovery (31-34), Neolithic farmers (35-38) and Reasons for the decline in farming (39-40). There's no pause in a Part 4 talk, so the headings are your checkpoints.
Answer key and self-check
Type what you wrote and hit mark. Hide the key first if you haven't done the part yet. Every question number jumps to its explanation.
How to attack this block: One word only, so a two-word answer is always wrong. The talk tells a story in order: discovery, life on the farms, then decline. Most gaps are nouns, but 35 needs an adjective describing shape, so check the grammar around each gap before the audio starts.
Question 31
Answer: wallsEarly in the talk, when she describes the local teacher, Patrick Caulfield
What had the stones under the bog once been?
they were constantly hitting against what seemed to be rows of stones. He realised that these must be walls
Question says → You hear
realised that stones beneath the bog surface were onceHe realised that these must be walls
Why: 'Realised' is in both the note and the talk. The stones the diggers hit 'must be walls', so walls is what they once were. Keep the plural to match 'stones'.
The trap: 'Rows' is heard first, but it describes how the stones lay, not what they were.
Question 32
Answer: sonWhen she says nothing happened for 40 years
Which relative of the teacher became an archaeologist?
It wasn't until 40 years later, when Patrick Caulfield's son Seamus, who had become an archaeologist by then, began to explore further.
Question says → You hear
His ... became an archaeologistPatrick Caulfield's son Seamus, who had become an archaeologist
Why: The note starts 'His', meaning the teacher's. The talk names Seamus as Patrick Caulfield's son, so the one word is son.
The trap: Seamus is the name, not the relationship, and names don't fit after 'His'. The National Museum also gets a mention, but no one there took him seriously.
Question 33
Answer: fuelWhen she explains how Seamus mapped the stones with iron probes
What did local people traditionally dig the bog for?
a traditional method which local people had always used for finding fuel buried in the bog for thousands of years
Question says → You hear
a traditional method used by local people to dig fora traditional method which local people had always used for finding fuel
Why: The note keeps 'traditional method' and 'local people', and 'finding fuel buried' becomes 'dig for'. The gap is fuel.
The trap: Iron probes are the tool, not the thing being searched for. Stones fit the sentence, but the local people were looking for fuel.
Question 34
Answer: oxygenJust after the carbon dating, still under the Discovery heading. Note: the transcript stored for this test stops here, so no evidence quote is shown for 34-40.
Why do items stay so well preserved in the bog?
Our transcript of this recording is incomplete here, so there's no quote. Replay the end of the recording to hear the answer for yourself.
Why: The note says items are well preserved 'because of a lack of ...'. The answer is oxygen: without it, the bacteria that make things rot can't do their work.
The trap: 'Air' fits the meaning but isn't the word in the key. In note completion, write the word the speaker uses.
Question 35
Answer: rectangularAt the start of the Neolithic farmers section, when she describes the houses
What shape were the Neolithic houses?
Our transcript of this recording is incomplete here, so there's no quote. Replay the end of the recording to hear the answer for yourself.
Why: The answer is rectangular. The gap sits in 'Houses were ... in shape', so it needs an adjective that describes a shape.
The trap: 'Rectangle' is a noun and doesn't fit after 'were'. Check the spelling too: rectangular.
Question 36
Answer: lampsIn the list of Neolithic innovations, after cooking indoors
Apart from storage, what were pots used to make?
Our transcript of this recording is incomplete here, so there's no quote. Replay the end of the recording to hear the answer for yourself.
Why: The answer is lamps. The note already gives one use of the pots, storage; the gap is the second thing they were used to make.
The trap: The note says 'to make ...', so the gap needs something you make, in the plural form the key uses: lamps.
Question 37
Answer: familyWhen she talks about the size of the fields
What was each field big enough to support?
Our transcript of this recording is incomplete here, so there's no quote. Replay the end of the recording to hear the answer for yourself.
Why: The answer is family. The note says each field could support 'a big ...', so the gap is a singular noun after 'a'.
The trap: 'A big' needs a singular noun, so a plural like 'families' doesn't fit the note.
Question 38
Answer: winterWhen she discusses grazing and the lack of animal buildings
When would animals have needed buildings to live in?
Our transcript of this recording is incomplete here, so there's no quote. Replay the end of the recording to hear the answer for yourself.
Why: The answer is winter. The note says there's no evidence of structures to house animals during that season, which suggests the fields controlled grazing instead.
The trap: The gap follows 'during', so it needs a time word such as a season.
Question 39
Answer: soilThe final heading, Reasons for the decline in farming
What declined in quality and hurt farming?
Our transcript of this recording is incomplete here, so there's no quote. Replay the end of the recording to hear the answer for yourself.
Why: The answer is soil. The note asks for something whose quality got worse, and that made farming harder.
The trap: Two reasons come close together at the end. Put each one in the right gap: the decline in quality is 39, the increase is 40.
Question 40
Answer: rainThe very end of the talk, the second reason for the decline
What increased and contributed to the end of farming?
Our transcript of this recording is incomplete here, so there's no quote. Replay the end of the recording to hear the answer for yourself.
Why: The answer is rain. The note asks for something that went up, and wetter conditions are what let a bog spread over farmland.
The trap: 'Rainfall' means the same, but the key gives rain. With one word only, write the word you hear.
The note says the stones 'were once ...'. The teacher realised the rows of stones 'must be walls'. Rows is what people hit, but walls is what the stones once were.
The traditional method was used by local people for 'finding fuel buried in the bog'. Bog and stones are both nearby, but the thing they dug for was fuel.
The gap sits in 'Houses were ... in shape', so it needs an adjective. The key is rectangular; the noun 'rectangle' doesn't fit the grammar.
Words from this recording worth keeping
Neolithic(Introduction)
from the late Stone Age, when farming began
bog(Discovery)
soft, wet ground made of rotting plants
predate(Discovery)
exist earlier than something else
subsequently(Discovery)
later; after that
probes(Discovery)
long thin tools pushed in to explore
formation(Discovery)
the way something is arranged
carbon dating(Discovery)
a scientific way of finding out how old something is
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The full Cambridge 19 Test 1 listening paper with the real audio: all four parts, played once, marked the moment you finish. Already done it? Take it again and listen for the traps this page showed you.
Cambridge IELTS 19, Test 1, Listening Part 4. The recording, transcript and questions belong to Cambridge University Press and are not reproduced here. We quote short extracts of the transcript only as evidence for our own commentary, and the answers are published for self-marking. Get the book for the full material, or sit the test on Langujet.
