The C1 Advanced multiple-matching listening task gives you five short monologues on a shared theme and asks two questions about each — typically a reason and a feeling. The options are paraphrases, more options are offered than are needed, and the distractors come from things the speakers genuinely say.
Skim task one and task two together so you know what each is asking — a reason and a feeling behave differently. Trying to read task two later, while the extracts play, is how candidates lose both.
Write a single word beside each option — money, family, boredom, relief. Sixteen long options are unmanageable in real time; sixteen single words are not.
Mark confidently where you can and leave a light pencil mark where you are unsure. The second listening then has only three or four decisions to make, which is what it is designed for.
Speakers usually mention a plausible reason before giving their real one: ‘Everyone assumes it was the money. It wasn’t.’ An early decision catches exactly the distractor the task intends.
‘What it really came down to was…’, ‘If I’m honest…’, ‘Looking back…’. These introduce the answer far more often than anything in the first sentence.
Each option is used at most once within a task. Crossing off narrows the field for the last two speakers, who are always the hardest.
If two speakers seem to need the same option, one of your earlier answers is wrong. Recheck the one you were least sure of rather than forcing the later extract.
There is no penalty for a wrong answer and no time afterwards. A guess from the options you have not yet used is a real chance; a blank is not.
Not thisChoosing an option because the speaker used one of its words.
ThisChoosing the option that paraphrases the speaker’s main point.
Options are deliberately written to echo passing remarks. Word-matching is the trap, not the method.
Not thisDoing task one on the first listening and task two on the second.
ThisAttempting both tasks on the first listening.
Splitting them halves your evidence for each. By the second listening you also lose the fresh impression of the speaker’s tone, which often carries task two.
Not thisTreating the first reason a speaker gives as the answer.
ThisWaiting for the reason the speaker endorses.
Extracts are built around a contrast between an assumed reason and a real one, and the real one comes second.
Not thisUsing the same option twice in one task.
ThisUsing each option at most once and rechecking if a clash appears.
A clash is information: it tells you exactly where your earlier answer went wrong, and ignoring it usually costs two marks rather than one.
Not thisReading the options while an extract is playing.
ThisReading in the pause and listening during the extract.
Reading and listening compete for the same attention. The pause exists so that they do not have to.
Not thisLeaving a speaker unmatched in one of the two tasks.
ThisMarking the least implausible remaining option.
Both tasks are marked, so an unanswered half is a mark given away with certainty.
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2Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
6Complete the sentence.
7Should you attempt both tasks on the first listening or one at a time?
One good answer
Both. Mark firmly where you are sure and put a light pencil mark where you are not, so the second listening has three or four decisions rather than ten. Splitting the tasks also means judging attitude from memory, and tone is far harder to recall than content.
9Complete the sentence.
10Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
16How do you use the pause before this task begins?
One good answer
Read both option lists and reduce each option to a single word written beside it: money, boredom, family, relief. Sixteen long options cannot be held in mind while someone is speaking; sixteen single words can. Then note which task asks about reasons and which about feelings, so you know what you are listening for.
17Complete the sentence.
20Complete the sentence.
22Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
26Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
29You have matched two speakers to the same option. What has gone wrong and what do you do?
One good answer
One of the two is wrong, because an option is used at most once in a task. Go back to whichever of the two you were less sure about, not the more recent one, and look for an option you have not yet used that fits that speaker’s main point. A clash is useful evidence rather than bad luck.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
35Complete the sentence.
39Name three things the two tasks commonly ask about.
One good answer
Why the speaker did something — the motive behind a decision. How the speaker felt about the outcome — relief, disappointment, surprise. And what the speaker learned or now advises. Knowing the three categories means you can sort the options into them in the pause instead of reading sixteen unrelated sentences.
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Skim all of them and reduce each to one word. You will not remember sixteen sentences, but you will remember sixteen labels, and labels are enough to recognise a paraphrase while someone is talking.
Fill the remaining two from the options you have not used, choosing whichever is least contradicted by what you heard. You will often be right by elimination alone, and a blank cannot be.
They share a theme by design, so the vocabulary overlaps and only the speakers’ reasons and attitudes separate them. That is exactly why word-matching fails on this task and listening for the pivot phrase works.
Yes, because the two tasks ask about different things. A speaker can have taken a job for the money in task one and feel disappointed about it in task two. Treat the tasks as independent judgements about one person.
Listen to any set of short personal accounts — radio slots where several people describe the same experience — and after each one write two sentences: why they did it and how they feel now. That is the task, without the answer sheet.