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Talking about Sports

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B2 First Listening Part 1,talking about sportWelcome to our free open resource for B2 First Listening Part 1 talking about sports to give you practice so you feel confident when the B2 First exam day arrives.

About 10 minutesStrengthening listening comprehensionCambridge English B2 First Exam

B2 First Listening Part 1 (Talking about Sports)

In this activity, we will practise our listening skills about sports.
ExerciseTranscriptWord List

1 You hear two friends talking about sport.
Female: Do you fancy doing something after school? We’re having a game of basketball in the park.
Male: OK, but I have to warn you that I’m a hopeless player.
Female: You can’t be that bad! I heard you were quite good, actually.
Male: Well, I might have been once. I did play for my local team a couple of years ago, but I haven’t played for ages.
Female: Well, don’t worry. It’s not a proper match. It’s just a bit of fun with a few friends. Anyway, who knows? You might get back to your old form.
Male: OK, why not?

2 You hear a professional tennis player talking on the radio.
All people ever ask me is whether I’ll be ready to play at Wimbledon this year. It’s the one championship event I don’t want to miss. Any player would feel the same. I also feel that I’m ready for the challenge of Wimbledon – and I’m confident that I can match the level of the top players. But I might not have the chance. Whether I’ll even get onto the courts or not really depends on my injured wrist. If I have to miss the event to get back to 100% form, then that’s what I’ll have to do. But it’s such a tough decision to make.

3 You hear a man talking about football.
What I really enjoy is the incredible atmosphere during a match. You can feel it in the crowd as they watch the players on the pitch. It’s hard not to get excited along with the fans when someone scores, but I have to be professional and just describe what’s happening. I must say that I like to think I can be quite impressive on the pitch myself if I have the chance of a game with my mates. But it’s great to see someone with such professional skill that they can use it to entertain others.

4 You hear a mother talking to a friend.
Mother: If you ask me, the whole thing’s designed to get young people to spend their money – or even worse, their parents’ money.
Male friend: Well, every time my son disappears into a shop selling sports clothes with designer labels my heart sinks. Everything’s so expensive and I can’t see that the clothes and trainers are that much different from what you can buy without the label.
Mother: You’re right. Everything falls to pieces sooner or later anyway. Must be the way it’s designed, I’m sure.
Male friend: I blame advertising. If it wasn’t for those advertisements, you wouldn’t even know what you’re supposed to be wearing.

5 You hear an advert for a canoeing holiday.
If you don’t like lying on a beach doing nothing, then Swedish Canoeing holidays might be for you. You don’t need to be an expert canoeist, although it might be easier if you’ve done a bit of canoeing before. With young people of a similar age, you can canoe round the numerous islands which surround Sweden. You can spend as long as you like exploring and camping. And they have such stunning scenery and wildlife. So if you’re the outdoor type and fancy something out of the ordinary, ring for a brochure now.

6 You hear a woman talking about a new sports stadium.
This was quite a nice area until they built this huge stadium. We never had to worry about parking. Now every weekend, and even during the week too, there’s nowhere to park and it can get very noisy – especially if there’s a late-night event. I know these places are necessary, and they do have all kinds of different events there – not just sport. But the benefits for the local people aren’t great. It’s so difficult to get tickets for anything – and they’re expensive. They ought to give local people priority, but no. So we have all the inconvenience and no advantages.

7 You hear a man talking about motorbikes.
I’d always wanted a motorbike, so when my parents bought a large farm, we bought one. I thought it might be great for travelling round and fun to ride. But I didn’t realise the ground was quite so hilly in places. And I didn’t feel very confident about using it on steep slopes. They say the bikes are safe, but they shouldn’t make statements like that. Motorbikes are different from cars – they respond quickly. Anyway, one day I was riding up a difficult hill when it suddenly tipped over. Luckily, I wasn’t badly hurt, but I might easily have been killed. I sold the bike quite soon after that and I’ve never been on one since!

8 You hear a teacher talking about sport.
I’m a great believer that all young people should do sports. It’s great physical exercise but that’s not the only point, in my opinion. A lot of people object to the sport because they think it’s too competitive. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just has to be managed properly. I think it’s one of the few things that helps young people to work together and rely on each other rather than just on themselves. This can be such a useful thing in adult life, and often the people who aren’t successful in life are those who didn’t enjoy sports when they were younger.

Here are the keywords and phrases covered in talking about sports.

  • canoeing
  • challenge 
  • championship event
  • competitive
  • hopeless player
  • incredible atmosphere
  • professional tennis player
  • proper match
  • physical exercise
  • sports clothes
  • top players
Extra Free Exercises for B2 First Listening Part 1.

B2 First Listening and Speaking Section

Requires being able to follow and understand a range of familiar spoken materials, such as news programmes, public announcements and other sources, but targeted at the interests of the learners.

In this part you talk to the examiner about yourself and your life, e.g. your name, school, interests and future plans.

In this part, you talk about two photos on your own which you have to compare for about 1 minute. After you have finished, your partner will be asked a short question about your photo. When your partner has spoken about their photos for about 1 minute, you will be asked a question about their photos.

In this part you express ideas with your partner by looking at a discussion point that the examiner gives you.

This will be available soon.

In this part, you focus on general aspects of a topic with the examiner or you may involve your partner.

This will be available soon.

In this part, you will hear people talking in eight different situations.

In this part, you will hear five people talking about different things.

In this part, you will hear an interview.

B2 First Use of English and Reading Section

You need to be able to understand a range of texts, including how they are organised and the opinions and attitudes expressed in them. The texts will be from sources familiar to you such as magazines, articles, fiction and advertisements, but targeted at the interests of students. Students’ use of English will be tested by tasks which show how well they can control their grammar and vocabulary.

For this part, you practice how to understand the details of a text, including opinions and attitudes.

For this part, you practice how to understand the structure and follow the development of a text.

For this part, you practice how to find specific information in a text or texts.

B2 First Writing Section

You are required to produce two pieces of writing. The first piece is compulsory and will be an essay of 140-190 words. For the second, you can choose from an article, email/letter, essay, review or report (B2 First for schools the report is replaced with a story) of 140-190 words.

Especially helpful are exercises that are focussed on a theme or topic as these provide word retention practise so you can be confident to read, write, speak and listen successfully. We have many activities to get your English up to speed in no time.

Customs and Traditions explores how we celebrate our cultural identity across the globe.

Entertainment and Leisure explores how we spent our free time.

Environment and Nature explores the way humans and animals live, adapt and change on our planet.

Exploring how different societies create roles for people to develop their skills and knowledge.

Exploring how we learn and adjust to the world around us. .

Exploring how we experience the world through our life journeys

The more words you encounter and understand, the broader your day-to-day vocabulary will become. Our word games and puzzles such as our films word search are an excellent way to help to reinforce spellings in your mind.
Level Links:
This free material for students at an Upper Intermediate Level of English. This will probably be suitable for students in their third or fourth year of English studies. We add exercises on grammar and vocabulary as well as whole text activities on a regular basis. In addition, we provide test practice activity for students who are preparing for the C1 Advanced which is part of the Cambridge Assessment English Main Suite as well as the English Language B for the IB Diploma. The material will also support students studying for the Cambridge Advanced courses and IELTS examinations.

We also provide free resources across the full range of levels to provide the tools to communicate in English well.

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