English Practice

Lesson 4 of 6 · Intermediate · Listening · 20 min · +40 XP

Follow directions and keep your position on a map

Track a route through a simple map and distinguish the correct landmark from a distractor.

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Your exam technique

Find the starting point → orient the map → follow each movement → confirm the landmark.

Orient before listening

Locate the entrance, compass direction, and fixed labels. Imagine yourself at the starting point facing the stated direction. If the speaker turns, left and right refer to the traveller's new direction, not permanently to the left and right edges of the page.

Follow relationships in order

Track phrases such as opposite, beyond, on the corner, and just before. Keep following the route even when an answer seems obvious, because a later phrase can distinguish two similar locations. A building named in a route may simply be a landmark you pass.

Review why a tempting location was wrong

After checking, retrace the path while replaying the recording. Name the phrase that eliminated each distractor. Practise again on an unfamiliar map so that success depends on understanding directions rather than remembering a label.

See it in practice

Starting point

The speaker says 'walk past the café to the studio opposite the garden'. → Stop at the café.

Using this skill

Continue beyond the café and identify the studio across from the garden.

Past indicates movement beyond a landmark; opposite identifies the destination by its relationship to another place.

Listening practice

Find two rooms on the campus map

Campus map · North is at the top. Start at the south gate.
WestPathEast
Studio↑ NorthGarden room
CaféCentral pathLibrary
South gate

Read the questions below, then listen once before checking the transcript. Replay afterwards to review a detail you missed.

To practise without audio playback, ask a partner to read the transcript aloud while you listen without looking.

Playback uses your browser's synthetic voice for this original drill. For natural voices and full recordings, use the official IELTS listening samples.

Open the transcript
Begin at the south gate, facing north. Walk along the central path. At the first junction you will see the café on your left and the library on your right. Continue north without turning. The next pair of buildings is the studio on your left and the garden room on your right. Your photography session is in the building opposite the garden room. After the session, return towards the south gate. At the first junction you reach on the way back, turn east into the building where the books are kept. This is where you should return your visitor pass.

01 / Check your understanding

Try the skill

Choose an answer for each question. You can try again after reading the feedback.

1. Where is the photography session?
2. Where should visitors return their passes?

02 / Put it into words

Make it your own

Trace the route from the gate to the session and then to the pass-return point. Explain how facing south on the return route changes which side is east.

Write at least 45 words. Use the checklist and example to review your work; this exercise does not give an automatic IELTS score.

0 / 45 words minimum Save your response with the button below.

Before you finish

  • I used the map's north direction and starting gate.
  • I treated passed buildings as landmarks rather than destinations.
  • I retraced the return route with the changed direction.
Read one possible response

Compare the choices this writer made with your own. Many different responses can work.

From the south gate I travel north past the café and library. The studio is on the west side, opposite the garden room. On the return route I face south, so east is now on my left. At the next junction I turn into the library to return the pass, using the reference to books to confirm the destination.

Earn 40 XP once by answering all questions correctly, reaching the response minimum, and reviewing your work.