Listening about places in the city

ESL Cities Listening

This ESL cities listening page has a range of listening exercise so you can practice listening to spoken cities vocabulary. It is often difficult to listen to spoken English, so it is useful if you can practice listening to and understand spoken English before you have to have a conversation with someone.

Listening about places in the city

To let you practice your listening skills this page has several exercises for you to do. In each of the exercises you will need to listen to a recording of a native English speaker and then answer some questions or do a writing task. If you do not understand any of the vocabulary when it is being spoken you can go to the ESL cities vocabulary page that has a recording of the words being spoken by a native English speaker so you can hear the correct pronunciation.

The four exercises on this page are as follows:

  • Identify spoken word order.
  • Identify spoken definition.
  • Listening comprehension.
  • Dictation passage.

ESL Cities Listening Exercises

Exercise 1 Identification of Spoken Word Order

In this ESL cities listening task you need to decide which option (A-D) in each question has the words listed in the same order as they are spoken in the recording. When you have answered all the questions you can use the get score button to see the correct answers.



ESL Cities Identification of Spoken Word Order


Listen to the recording of the five groups of five words each given above and decide which option (A-D) in the five questions in this test has the correct order.

1) Which is the correct order for group of words one?
    A) Crowded, Funeral home, Outskirts, Luxurious, Congested
    B) Outskirts, Congested, Luxurious, Crowded, Funeral home
    C) Funeral home, Luxurious, Outskirts, Congested, Crowded
    D) Luxurious, Outskirts, Crowded, Congested, Funeral home
2) Which is the correct order for group of words two?
    A) Overpopulation, School building, Movie theater, Florists, Residential building
    B) Movie theater, Residential building, Florists, Overpopulation, School building
    C) School building, Florists, Movie theater, Residential building, Overpopulation
    D) Florists, Movie theater, Overpopulation, Residential building, School building
3) Which is the correct order for group of words three?
    A) Outskirts, Residential building, Bookstore, Skyscraper, Brasserie
    B) Bookstore, Brasserie, Skyscraper, Outskirts, Residential building
    C) Residential building, Skyscraper, Bookstore, Brasserie, Outskirts
    D) Skyscraper, Bookstore, Outskirts, Brasserie, Residential building
4) Which is the correct order for group of words four?
    A) Industrial zone, Bowling alley, District, Bookstore, Travel agent
    B) District, Travel agent, Bookstore, Industrial zone, Bowling alley
    C) Bowling alley, Bookstore, District, Travel agent, Industrial zone
    D) Bookstore, District, Industrial zone, Travel agent, Bowling alley
5) Which is the correct order for group of words five?
    A) Congested, Highway, Newsstand, Movie theater, Bakery
    B) Newsstand, Bakery, Movie theater, Congested, Highway
    C) Highway, Movie theater, Newsstand, Bakery, Congested
    D) Movie theater, Newsstand, Congested, Bakery, Highway

Score =

Correct answers:

Listening about places in the city

Exercise 2 Identification of Spoken Definition

In the next ESL cities listening activity you need to listen to the recording of several spoken definitions and then decide which option (A-D) in each question has the word that matches the definition. When you have finished you can see the correct answers by using the get score button.



ESL Cities Listening Identification of Vocabulary Meaning


Listen to the recording of the meanings of the five vocabulary words given above and decide which word out of the options (A-D) in each question matches the meaning.

1) What is the meaning of the first definition in the recording?
    A) Airport
    B) Sidewalk
    C) Bowling alley
    D) Main street
2) What is the meaning of the second definition in the recording?
    A) Drive-through
    B) Hospital
    C) Bus shelter
    D) Department store
3) What is the meaning of the third definition in the recording?
    A) Nursery
    B) Sidewalk
    C) Modern
    D) Stationery store
4) What is the meaning of the fourth definition in the recording?
    A) Rush hour
    B) Neighborhood
    C) Pollution
    D) Multi-story car park
5) What is the meaning of the fifth definition in the recording?
    A) Campus
    B) District
    C) Amusement park
    D) High-rise

Score =

Correct answers: