C2 Proficiency Listening Multiple Choice (Extracts) Practice
C2 Proficiency (CPE) · Listening Part 1 · 20 free exercises
Short unrelated recordings, each with multiple-choice questions. At C2 Proficiency: three extracts, two questions each. You hear each extract twice, and the speakers’ attitude or purpose matters as often as the facts.
Listening Multiple Choice (Extracts): Short recordings, quick decisions.
- Short — extracts
- A B C — multiple choice
- Heard twice — each recording
- Opinion — and feeling
Quick understanding of feeling, opinion and agreement between speakers — not facts. Topics and speakers change every extract, and the answer is usually said in different words from the question.
What real learners get wrong: In early C2 data, learners average 52% — the extracts are dense and the options fine-grained. Read both questions in the pause.
The method
- Read the questions for each extract before it plays.
- Reset completely at each new extract — new speakers, new topic.
- Listen for attitude words ("to be honest", "I’m not so sure"), not facts.
- First play decides; second play confirms.
- Check which speaker the question is about — the man, the woman, or both.
The traps
- The word you heard: You catch a question’s exact word and pick that option — but the speaker used it to mean the opposite.
- Not resetting between extracts: Focus that lingers on the last extract misses the start of the next.
- Facts over feelings: Most questions ask about opinion or agreement — catching facts but missing attitude gets it wrong.
- Two speakers, one question: Check whose view the question wants before you answer.