IELTS Video Listening Exercise 1 - Landslides

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Instructions

This challenging video listening quiz will help you to practise your English listening skills and build your vocabulary for one of the topic areas of the IELTS listening test.

Click on the play button in the centre of the screen to watch the video clip. You can pause the video, or rewind it and watch it over again as many times as you feel you need to.

When you have watched the video, scroll down the page and do the quiz to test how much you have understood.

Choose the answer you think is correct for each question.

 

1. What caused the landslide in Portland, Oregon?
   1.   the man-made hill beneath the houses failed
   2.   a storm
   3.   a flood
   4.   the video doesn't say
2. What does the idiom "go head to head" mean?
   1.   to battle with something, or someone
   2.   to give in to something, or someone
   3.   to accept something
   4.   to run away from something, or someone
3. Which of these words has the same meaning to the word "option"?
   1.   choose
   2.   decide
   3.   select
   4.   choice
4. When do landslides often strike, according to the video?
   1.   whenever the soil is loosened by rain
   2.   whenever rocks are loosened by rain
   3.   for no apparent reason, at any time
   4.   only after a Tsunami
5. Which of these words has a different meaning to the other words?
   1.   insignificant
   2.   massive
   3.   enormous
   4.   tremendous
6. On average, how many people are killed by landslides every year?
   1.   More than eight thousand people around the world
   2.   More than eighty thousand people around the world
   3.   A thousand people around the world
   4.   Less than eight thousand people around the world
7. Which of these other natural disasters do landslides sometimes follow?
   1.   wildfires and floods
   2.   floods and earthquakes
   3.   storms and volcanic eruptions
   4.   all of these
8. Which of these places are not obvious areas for landslides?
   1.   plains
   2.   slopes
   3.   places that have been hit by landslides before
   4.   places where people have radically altered the landscape
9. Which of these words is the odd one out?
   1.   destruction
   2.   hazardous
   3.   dangerous
   4.   treacherous
10. What caused the landslide in Southern California?
    1.   the man-made hill beneath the houses failed
    2.   an earthquake
    3.   a volcanic eruption
    4.   none of these
11. Which of these words is the odd one out?
    1.   eroded
    2.   amended
    3.   modified
    4.   changed
12. Which of these words is the odd one out?
    1.   cracked
    2.   plummeted
    3.   fell
    4.   plunged
13. What was the cause of the landslides in Venezuela?
    1.   torrential rain
    2.   an earthquake
    3.   a tsunami
    4.   none of these
14. Which of these words is the odd one out?
    1.   buried
    2.   vanished
    3.   disappeared
    4.   none of them - they all mean the same thing
15. Which of these words is the odd one out?
    1.   debris
    2.   catastrophe
    3.   disaster
    4.   calamity
16. Why were accurate death tolls difficult to establish after the Venezuelan landslides?
    1.   because many people were swept out to sea
    2.   because many people were buried under the mud
    3.   because many people were swept out to sea or buried under mud
    4.   the video doesn't say
17. Which of these words is the odd one out?
    1.   mud
    2.   vegetation
    3.   plants
    4.   foliage
18. Which of these words is the odd one out?
    1.   eruption
    2.   mudflow
    3.   deluge
    4.   flood
19. True or false? Scientists predict that landslides will one day be a thing of the past.
    1.   false
    2.   true
    3.   The video doesn't say
20. Which of these adjectives can be used to describe heavy rainfall?
    1.   torrential
    2.   sparse
    3.   weighty
    4.   intermittent