IELTS Practice Listening Test: Astrophysics and Urban Science

Welcome to this IELTS Practice Listening Test.

This test is designed to help you prepare for the IELTS Listening exam.

You will hear a TED Talk about an astrophysicist’s work and its applications in urban science.

The test consists of 7 multiple choice questions.

Remember to read the questions carefully before listening, and answer them as you hear the relevant information.

You’ll have time at the end to check your answers.

Good luck!

Play the recordingFederica Bianco How We Use Astrophysics To Study Earthbound ProblemsThe video loads from TED when you press play. TED may set cookies.

Questions#

Circle the correct letter A, B, or C.

1. The speaker describes herself as:

A) An urban scientist

B) An astrophysicist

C) A policy maker

2. According to the speaker, astrophysicists gain knowledge about the universe by:

A) Conducting experiments in laboratories

B) Analyzing images of the sky

C) Traveling to space

3. At the Urban Observatory, the speaker and her colleagues:

A) Study celestial bodies

B) Examine city infrastructure

C) Develop new camera technologies

4. By analyzing city lights, the Urban Observatory team aims to:

A) Improve street lighting

B) Reduce light pollution

C) Predict energy consumption

5. The speaker mentions that in New York City:

A) 75% of greenhouse gases come from vehicles

B) A million air quality sensors are used

C) Most pollution comes from buildings burning oil for heat

6. The team’s work with a California district attorney involved:

A) Prosecuting environmental crimes

B) Analyzing court case data

C) Improving jail conditions

7. The speaker’s interdisciplinary approach has:

A) Limited her career options

B) Improved her astrophysics research

C) Led to a new job in urban planning

Check your answers

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Answer key with explanationsShowHide

1. 1B“I am an astrophysicist. I research stellar explosions across the universe.”
2. 2B“Everything we know about the universe … we figured out studying images of the sky.”
3. 3BThey “take pictures of the city at night”, track pollution plumes and help “build a resilient grid” — i.e. they study the city itself.
4. 4C“we can measure and predict how much energy the city needs and consumes”
5. 5C“Seventy-five percent of greenhouse gases in New York City come from a building like this one, burning oil for heat.”
6. 6BThey analysed a “massive data set” to “understand prosecutorial delays” in court cases.
7. 7B“I bring what I learn in urban science back to astrophysics” — adapting plume models “to detect light echoes”.

For more listening practice tests, you can visit Sustainability in Business topic.