Listening choices and matches: follow the final decision · ⁨听力选择与配对：跟住最终决定⁩

A volunteered duty can change before agreement

• Someone may offer to collect forms and later agree to book a room instead. Listen for the final decision, not only the first familiar task word.

• IELTS Listening uses multiple choice and matching. A multiple-choice item may ask for one answer or several; the instruction tells you how many. Matching asks you to connect people or items with options from a list.

• Underline the question's target: first idea, reason, final choice, or current duty. A speaker may mention all four. Hearing a word from an option does not make that option correct. Use the pause before the recording to compare options. Ask what would distinguish them, then listen for that decision rather than every word.

A distractor is a plan that arrived early and left before the meeting ended.

An original conversation to inspect

This dialogue is written strategy practice, not a voiced Listening set. In the real test you hear the recording once and do not receive the script.

Maya: For Saturday's library creative day, we need one workshop in the main room. Last year people enjoyed pottery, so I wrote that first.

Leo: But the kiln is being repaired until next month. Could we do robotics?

Maya: We have only six robot kits and expect about thirty visitors. Printmaking would work: we have enough materials.

Leo: Agreed. Let's choose printmaking.

Priya: When does the demonstration begin?

Maya: The first flyer said ten o'clock, but the doors open at half past nine and the safety briefing needs more time. The demonstration now starts at quarter past ten.

Leo: Am I still greeting arrivals?

Maya: No. Please set out the workshop materials. I will handle registration. Priya, can you lead the safety briefing?

Priya: Yes, I can do that.

Multiple choice: proposal, rejection, decision

1. Which workshop did the group finally choose? A Pottery · B Robotics · C Printmaking.

• C is correct. Pottery was an early suggestion, rejected because the kiln is unavailable. Robotics was then suggested, but there are too few kits. Agreed. Let's choose printmaking settles the question.
• If the question had asked which workshop was popular last year, A would be right. The target words finally choose are doing real work.

2. When does the demonstration now begin? A 9:30 · B 10:00 · C 10:15.

• C is correct. 9:30 is when the doors open; 10:00 is the old flyer; quarter past ten is the new demonstration time.
• Write a quick note such as old 10 → new 10:15. That arrow is more useful than copying every number you hear.

Matching: update each person's duty

Choose a final duty for each person. Options: registration · workshop materials · safety briefing · photography. One option is unused.

• Leo's earlier question about greeting arrivals is not his final assignment. Photography is an unused option, never assigned in the dialogue.
• An option may be mentioned and rejected, or it may never be said at all. Match the relationship, not merely a familiar word.

A one-play method for the actual test

1. Read whether the task asks for one option, more than one, or a match. Mark the target word in each question.
2. As you listen, note a change with a small symbol: pottery ✗; robotics ✗; printmaking ✓. This is a memory aid, not a second transcript.
3. If you miss a decision, move to the next question while the recording continues. Use any checking time to review the evidence you wrote; avoid changing answers merely because an earlier option sounded familiar.
4. Practise first with the printed dialogue above, then use a genuine audio sample. The printed exercise checks reasoning, not one-play listening ability.

• Source checked on 24 September 2026: official IELTS Listening format for multiple choice and matching. The conversation, choices and keys here are original teaching material.

A final decision replaces an earlier proposal