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