Full video

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hello and welcome my name is ben

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this is to the point english where i

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give you lots of tips

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to help you pass the cambridge english

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exams

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and today we're looking at the listening

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paper

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now whether you're preparing for the fce

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the cae

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or the cpe so the first the advanced or

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the proficiency

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the listening part of the exam for many

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people

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is the most challenging for a number of

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reasons

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so in this video i'm going to give you

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six tips

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in order to help you not only pass but

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get the best score possible

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in this paper okay let's do this

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now the first two tips i'm giving today

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are

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regarding the preparation so what to do

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before the exam

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in order to be as prepared as possible

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and the other four tips

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are regarding what you need to do during

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the exam

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at the moment that you're you're sitting

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in the exam

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center listening to the audio

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so the first tip today is listen

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to boring podcasts and radio programs

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now this kind of goes against all my

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instincts as an english teacher because

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i usually recommend to my students who

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are not preparing for

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exams just to enjoy the process as much

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as possible listen to things that they

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find interesting and fun

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to to motivate themselves but in the

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listening paper of the cambridge exams

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you will have quite long audio extract

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about subjects which you may not find

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particularly interesting

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and it's very important to stay focused

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all through

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the the this part of the exam

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so if your preparation only involves

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listening to things you like

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things you find entertaining then when

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it comes to the exam you're not going to

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be prepared you may

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switch off or get distracted for example

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if you like gardening

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then you can listen to a podcast on

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gardening and you'll be motivated

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to pay attention throughout the podcast

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but but i would recommend that you

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listen to podcasts on

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architecture if you find architecture

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boring or engineering

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or i don't know particular areas of

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medicine

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it's the best way to practice being

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focused for long periods of time

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listening to something you're not really

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interested in because

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as i said if you if you don't do that

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when it's time to sit down in the exam

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and listen

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to these audios you may be surprised and

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find it difficult to concentrate

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so yeah as i said when you finish the

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exams listen to things you enjoy

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just enjoy learning english but to

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prepare for the exam

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listen to boring podcasts and radio

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programs

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and tip number two is listen to

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everything in english

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so of course yeah specifically make the

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effort to listen to boring podcasts and

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radio programs

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but apart from that listen to everything

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in english

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it should be obvious it goes without

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saying but

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put your favorite series in english

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that's very easy now with modern

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technology just change

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change the language with subtitles or

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without without subtitles

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the important thing is just to have

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everything in english every film you

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watch

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every series you watch every podcast you

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listen to every youtube video you watch

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should be in english while you're

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preparing for the exam

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but not only that you have to pay

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attention it's not enough

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just um just having everything in

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english if you don't really pay

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attention

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think about the the vocabulary you're

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hearing think about the

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pronunciation think about the grammar

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and listen for detail

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in the exam you will need to listen for

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detail in some of the

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the parts of the listening so practice

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that

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while you're watching your series just

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pay extra attention

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and listen for detail now the next tip

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is for when you're

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in the exam so on the day of the exam at

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the time

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of the listening um it's to read the

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questions

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carefully now this is important because

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many people forget to do this

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they're so concentrated on listening or

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maybe they're very nervous and a

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stressful situation that they forget to

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really

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read the questions carefully really pay

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attention to what is written

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sometimes the questions can be quite

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confusing

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you have to really work out what exactly

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they're asking and the options if you

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have a multiple choice option

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you need to understand what what they're

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asking for you will have some seconds

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before the audio starts to read the

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questions

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sometimes it's not enough but you know

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get practice that by by trying to read

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quickly and really pay attention really

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focus on what the questions are asking

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of you

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and tip number four is eliminate

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or discard so

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um in some of the listening parts you

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will have multiple choice

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options um so you have four options a

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question and then four

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options the first time you here remember

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remember you always have two

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chances to listen to the audio the first

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time you may have no idea you may be

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completely lost but but stay calm

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because the second time

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usually things start to become clearer

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but sometimes they're not clearer

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sometimes you think i just i have no

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idea

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don't i didn't hear what the answer was

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i i'm completely lost

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and that's where eliminating can can be

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useful

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because you may not know which option is

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correct

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but you may know which options are not

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correct

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of course normally out of four options

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you have a 25

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chance or a one in four chance of

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getting the right answer

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but if you can reduce those odds by

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eliminating

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a couple or maybe three if possible

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three of the options

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that you just think they're just

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definitely

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wrong you could think i definitely

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didn't hear anything about that or maybe

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i heard something but it

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wasn't exactly saying that if you can if

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you just eliminate one then that

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increases your chances of getting the

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answer correct if you can eliminate two

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then you have a 50 50 chance of course

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of getting the answer correct

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and often you can actually eliminate

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three and then

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as i said although you you're not sure

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which option is correct

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if you've eliminated three of the

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options then obviously the one you have

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left

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is probably correct so yeah think about

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eliminating as a strategy

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in this in the multiple choice part of

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the

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listening and tip number five is don't

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be easily

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tricked now the cambridge english exams

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like to try to trick you to fool you to

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lead you into thinking that one answer

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is correct

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when it's actually another answer so

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what you're listening for

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it's very similar to the reading here

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you you're listening for

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synonyms not the same word

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so in in the question and in in the

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multiple choice answers

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you will see some key words you have to

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identify what the key words are

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and you may hear those key words in the

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audio

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but you probably won't you'll probably

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hear a synonym

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but you'll see sometimes the key word in

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the answer

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and that's probably not the right answer

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okay

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let me explain with an example it's

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better so imagine that the speaker says

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this

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in the exam i don't agree with experts

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who repeatedly insist on the theory that

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climate change

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is the most important challenge facing

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the world today

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okay and the question you have is what

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is the speaker's opinion on climate

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change okay

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and let's just look at two options here

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not the four options just so we have a

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clear example

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so option a is it's the most important

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challenge facing the world today

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or b its impact is exaggerated by

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scientists now of course the speaker

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literally said

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climate change is the most important

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challenge facing the world today

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so you could think of that's the answer

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a

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it's the most important challenge facing

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the world today but that's a bit too

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obvious isn't it that if you're just

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repeating exactly the same words you can

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probably eliminate that option

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because what the speaker actually said

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if you go back further

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that i don't agree and that's the those

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are the key words here that's that's

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saying it's the opposite of what he's

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going to say so i don't agree with

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experts who

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repeatedly insist on the theory that the

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climate change

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is the most important challenge facing

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the world today

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that's quite a simple basic example and

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in in the real exam it may be a little

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bit more

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complex and and complicated than that

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but you can see that if you have the

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same words

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in the listening as in the question it's

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probably not the answer

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so be very careful with that don't be

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easily tricked

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and my last tip today tip number six is

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stay

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focused now this is really a tip i give

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for the whole exam

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because it's very important to stay

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focused always

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but it's particularly important in the

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listening

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because if you get distracted if you

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start thinking about

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the football match at the weekend or

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what you're going to have for dinner

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you're going to miss something and

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although you get two chances with the

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audio

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you need to be focused for both of those

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listenings

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if you're not paying attention then

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you're going to get lost

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so it's more important to stay focused

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here in this part of the exam than any

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other part of the exam

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okay and just one bonus tip and it's

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quite obvious really but you should

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practice

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with sample papers so find

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audios on youtube there are many

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examples

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of real exams past exams that

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listening exercises that you can do so

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do as many of those as possible

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maybe you have an exercise book that

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you're using with audio

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it's very important because you need to

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develop a strategy and get used to

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listening for detail listening for the

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general idea

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it's it's practice practice practice

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practice

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okay thank you for joining me i hope you

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found this video useful and i'll see you

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very soon for another one

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take care bye