A2 English Listening Practice Answers

Here are the answers to the three English Listening Practices.

You can jump directly to Practice 2 or to Listening Practice 3

English Listening Practice 1: Hope for Personal Change

1. A ‘growth mindset’ means understanding that

>>>A. we can develop our abilities and intelligence; they are not set forever at a certain level.  

2. In one high school, when students did not pass a test they received a grade of “not yet” instead of ‘F.’ The speaker likes this, because it helps students understand that

>>>D. they can keep studying and pass it next time. 

3. (Choose all the answers that are true.) Students with a ‘fixed mindset’ were more likely to

>>>A. believe if they failed at something they would never be good at it.

>>>C. avoid difficult tasks because they feared looking like ‘failures.’ 

>>>D. look for others who did worse than they did so they could at least feel superior to them. 

4. When researchers taught students that learning difficult new things helped them make more connections in their brains, and get smarter over time,

>>>C. students were more willing to keep trying, and their grades went up.

Back to English Listening Practice.

Practice 2: Education: Taking Risks for a Better Future 

1. While visiting in the refugee camps, what did the speaker decide was the best way she could help in Afghanistan, and why?

>>>C. By opening schools for girls she could give her people confidence and a way to support their families and move forward. 

2. Once 19 young men with rifles stopped Sakena Yacoobi’s car. What did they want?

>>>D. They wanted her to educate them too. 

3. What did she do about it?

>>>B. With the help of donors she started classes for young men too.

4. What has happened to those young men since then?

>>>B. They got educated and have become her supporters and protectors. 

Back to English Listening Practice.

Practice 3: Hope from Not Giving Up

1. What made the Red Cross decide that helping disabled people was a priority, even when there was fighting nearby?

>>>C. They saw the risks disabled people were willing to take to get help.

2. What did Mahmoud and other disabled Afghan men ask for? They wanted dignity and

>>>A. a chance to work to support themselves. 

3. Why did the factory making prostheses—artificial limbs—start practicing “positive discrimination,” hiring disabled people whenever possible?

(A. They learned that even people with major disabilities could manage to do their jobs well.

C. Seeing that other disabled people could work was a source of hope to the people who came to get prostheses.)

>>>D. Both A and C. 

Back to English Listening Practice.

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