Science experiment for Year 12 students: listening answers and explanations
Two trainee teachers, Clare and Jake, discuss an experiment for Clare's Year 12 science class. They reject a study of children's diets, settle on testing whether mice control how much sugar they eat, then plan the procedure step by step.
All in order. Questions 21-25 follow the planning discussion, from Clare's problem class to the follow-up idea. The flow chart (26-30) follows the procedure Clare talks through, from choosing the mice to working out the results.
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: Most questions turn on attitude: how Clare feels, how Jake reacts, what they agree on. Both speakers raise several points, so wait for the one they settle on. In 25 three follow-up ideas are mentioned, and Clare picks one.
Question 21
Answer: CAt the start, when Jake asks if the class is hard to control
How does Clare feel about her Year 12 class?
Well, I don't have discipline problems as such. It's just that they don't seem to think that science has anything to do with their lives. It's depressing.
Question says → You hear
frustrated at their lack of interestthey don't seem to think that science has anything to do with their lives. It's depressing / there's no real engagement
Why: The students don't think science matters to them and there's 'no real engagement'. Clare finds that depressing, which is frustration at their lack of interest.
The trap: B is ruled out first: 'I don't have discipline problems'. A fails too, because the test 'results weren't too bad'.
Question 22
Answer: BRight after Clare suggests recording what children eat
What is Jake's reaction to the children's diet idea?
you'd also need to have access to the children's medical records and I don't think people would be happy about that; confidentiality would be an issue.
Question says → You hear
some of the data might be difficult to obtainneed to have access to the children's medical records … it's not going to be easy
Why: The medical records are data, and confidentiality means people won't want to share them. He ends with 'it's not going to be easy'.
The trap: A is the opposite of what he says: 'the conclusions might be significant'. 'Upsetting' (C) comes up later, about animal experiments.
Question 23
Answer: AAfter Jake explains how to get permission
What problem with animal experiments do they agree on?
the same thing wouldn't necessarily be true for people, would it? … No that's true, but the findings for any experiment are going to be limited.
Question says → You hear
results may not apply to humansthe same thing wouldn't necessarily be true for people
Why: Clare raises the problem and Jake agrees: 'that's true'. Results in animals may not apply to people.
The trap: B: Jake says getting permission is 'quite straightforward'. C: Clare wonders if it would upset the children, but Jake says the animals needn't be harmed, and they move on.
Question 24
Answer: AWhen they narrow down the topic from food supplements
What question do they decide the experiment will answer?
In fact, maybe the focus could be on whether mice can control their own diet. … Exactly. Do they eat it or do they decide to leave it?
Question says → You hear
capable of controlling their food intakewhether mice can control their own diet
Why: 'Whether mice can control their own diet' is the question in A. Jake and Clare build on it together.
The trap: C is Clare's first idea, which Jake calls 'rather broad'. B, sugar and health, is Jake's suggestion, but the final focus is whether the mice choose to eat the sugar.
Question 25
Answer: CWhen Jake mentions a follow-up experiment
What other experiment might Clare try?
you could give some of the mice the chance to be more active, running on a wheel or something … But I think your idea would be more interesting, I might think about that some more.
Question says → You hear
varying amounts of exercisethe chance to be more active, running on a wheel
Why: Jake's idea is more activity for some mice and less for others. Clare says his idea 'would be more interesting' and she might think about it.
The trap: B (different genetic structure) is Clare's own idea, and A sounds like 'change the type of food', but she prefers Jake's exercise idea to both.
Flow-chart completion (A-H)
Questions 26-30
How to attack this block: Choose from a box of eight words, so three are left over. The flow chart paraphrases the procedure: 'young ones' becomes an age, 'food colouring' becomes a colour. Some box words (size, water, changes) sound plausible but are never the point.
Question 26
Answer: CWhen Clare asks how many mice she needs
What should all the mice have in common?
I'd say about 12. And all young ones, not a mixture of old and young.
Question says → You hear
all the sameall young ones, not a mixture of old and young
Why: All young, not old and young mixed, means they're the same age: C (age).
The trap: A (size) is tempting because the groups have 'equal sizes', but that's about the number of mice per group, not the mice themselves.
Question 27
Answer: HWhen Clare asks how to tell the groups apart
How will the two groups be told apart?
I suppose I could put some sort of tag on one group … or just mark them in some way? … You could use food colouring, that wouldn't hurt them.
Question says → You hear
each with a differentYou could use food colouring
Why: Marking each group with food colouring gives each a different colour: H (colour).
The trap: A tag is mentioned first, but they choose colouring. 'Food' might pull you to cereal, but that's for feeding group B.
Question 28
Answer: EWhen Jake asks whether they'd give the mice straight sugar
What will group B's sugar be mixed with?
Would you just give them straight sugar? … It might be better to give them something like cereal with it.
Question says → You hear
sugar contained insomething like cereal with it
Why: The sugar is given with cereal rather than on its own: E (cereal).
The trap: D (water) is never mentioned. The dry pellets are the ordinary food both groups get.
Question 29
Answer: BWhen they talk about weighing the mice on an electronic balance
Why do the mice go in a weighing chamber?
So you need something called a weighing chamber to stop the mice from
Question says → You hear
to preventto stop the mice from
Why: The chamber is there to stop the mice running away, and running away is escaping: B (escape).
The trap: A (size) and G (changes) sound like weighing words, but the chamber is about keeping the mice still, not about how they're measured.
Question 30
Answer: FThe end of Clare's procedure, after the plastic box
What is the final step after weighing?
we can work out the average for each group, as well as the standard deviation
Question says → You hear
Do all necessarywork out the average for each group, as well as the standard deviation
Why: Working out averages and standard deviations means doing calculations: F (calculations).
The trap: G (changes) fits 'weight gain', but the step is the maths you do with the results.
Jake says the conclusions 'might be significant', which rules out A. His worry is getting access to medical records, so the data would be hard to obtain.
Clare offers two ideas of her own (different food, different genetic mice) but then says Jake's idea of more or less exercise 'would be more interesting'.
'Two groups of equal sizes' comes up later, which makes 'size' tempting. The rule for choosing the mice is that they're 'all young ones', so they're the same age.
Words from this recording worth keeping
discipline(Clare's class)
control of behaviour in class
engagement(Clare's class)
real interest and involvement
methodology(Diet experiment)
the set of methods used in research
confidentiality(Diet experiment)
keeping information private
inevitable(Animal experiments)
certain to happen
supplements(Choosing a focus)
extra substances added to a diet
variable(Follow-up experiment)
a factor that is changed in an experiment
standard deviation(Procedure)
a measure of how spread out results are
Sit this test on Langujet, then come back
The full Cambridge 19 Test 3 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 3, Listening Part 3. 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.
