IELTS Listening: older people are happier

April 24, 2012

IELTS Listening: older people are happier

Today's video is another one from ted.com. The topic of 'older people' has appeared several times in recent IELTS tests, so hopefully this video will give you some useful bits of vocabulary.

Try this quick gap-fill exercise from the first minute of the video:

People are living longer, and societies are getting ______. We’ve come to accept longer lives with a kind of ______. But longer lives can and will improve ______ ______ ______ at all ages. To put this into perspective: more years were added to average life ______ in the 20th century than all years added across all ______ millennia of human evolution ______. In the ______ of an eye, we nearly ______ the length of time that we’re living.

Comments

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- greater
- complacency
- quality of life
- expectancy
- prior
- combined
- blink
- doubled

Posted by: Nirmal | April 24, 2012 at 17:32

greater
complacency
quitly of live
expectancy
prior
combind
blink
doubled

Posted by: sami | April 24, 2012 at 17:59

-greater or greyer
-complacency
-quality of life
-expectancy
-prior
-combined
-blink
-double

Posted by: Aleksandra Bucholc | April 24, 2012 at 19:02

greyer
complacency
expectancy
prior
combined
blink
double

Posted by: Mahshad | April 24, 2012 at 20:51

greater
complacency
quality of life
expectancy
prior
combined
blink
doubled

Posted by: Hemn Merany | April 24, 2012 at 22:15

greyer
complacency
quality of life
expectancy
prior
combined
blink
doubled

Posted by: Haiqing | April 24, 2012 at 22:49

greater
complacency
quality of life
expectancy
prior
combined
blink
doubled

Posted by: semenchu | April 25, 2012 at 02:35

greater
complacency
quality of life
expectancy
prior
combined
blink
double

Posted by: monson malla | April 25, 2012 at 04:28

- Grayer
- Complacency
- quality of life
- Expectancy
- Prior
- Combined
- Blink
- Double

Posted by: Quy | April 25, 2012 at 07:08

-grayer
-Complacency
-quality of life
-expectancy
-Prior
-Combined
-Blink
-Double

Wangchuk

Posted by: Wangchuk | April 25, 2012 at 07:20

- greyer
- complacency
- quality of life
- expectancy
- prior
- combined
- blink
- double

Posted by: LISP | April 25, 2012 at 09:12

Hi! As a IELTS students I've found that I have a lot of difficulties in the listening 1, expecially to understand the series of number+letters.
So I've developed a little software that maybe can be useful for you guys (and is also an occasion to thanks simon).
This software create a random string of number + character (you can also change WHAT characters, so you can practice with the ones you have more difficult with, for instance for me are AEYUJG).

The strings are pasted in the "outcome.txt" file on the folder. You just copy and paste the set of lines into "google translate" and listen to it with the speaker of google translate. You can try to catch as many letter+number as you can and practice without the need of anyone!
Sorry for my mistake, my writing skill is really bad :\

ENJOY!

download here: http://www.2shared.com/file/DwWmzzhw/Listen_Software.html

Posted by: Valerio | April 25, 2012 at 13:19

this should works: http://www.2shared.com/file/Z5li_pM_/Listen_Software.html

Posted by: Valerio | April 25, 2012 at 14:23

Hi Simon,

I just came across something which confused me in one of the listening practices. If there is a word composed of 2 words (i.e Hong Kong), do we take it as a 1-word or 2-word answer - due to the word limitation?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by: Gulper | April 25, 2012 at 16:17

CORRECT ANSWERS FROM SIMON:

greyer / grayer (British / US spelling)
complacency
quality of life
expectancy
prior
combined
blink
doubled

...

Hi Valerio,

Nice idea! I'll give it a try.

...

Hi Gulper,

If the words are separated, they are counted as 2 words (e.g. Hong Kong), but if they are together they are counted as one (e.g. seafood).

Posted by: Simon | April 25, 2012 at 17:16

This video is really cool, Simon. I have collected some recent ielts essay topics and you're right! A huge proportion are on older populace and this clip is of great help. Thanks.

Posted by: Sharko | April 26, 2012 at 08:05

I'm glad you like it Sharko.

Posted by: Simon | April 26, 2012 at 12:41

Thanks Simon. All the best.

Posted by: Gulper | April 27, 2012 at 17:15

Hi Simon!

I've a doubt. I was working on a listening text and I heard the word door-to-door service. In the answer sheet, I wrote door to door, without the hyphen. Do you think it is a mistake to answer without the hyphen? I have checked in the Oxford dictionary and it is written in both ways.
the exercise was taken from the Listening test of test 1, nº 4, Cambridge IELTS 7.

Thanks a lot for your help,
Domenico!

Posted by: Domenico | April 30, 2012 at 19:01

Both ways are fine Domenico.

Posted by: Simon | May 01, 2012 at 12:03

hello, Mr simon
I've tried to undrestand the meaning of "evolution combined" but i couldn't yet.
please help me
sharareh

Posted by: sharareh | May 04, 2012 at 09:35

Just to share with everyone, here is another article about the elderly: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/building-bridges

Posted by: Martin | May 04, 2012 at 22:42

Hi Sharareh,

It means "all millennia of human evolution added together".

...

Thanks Martin!