ESL Describing People Listening

There are four ESL describing people listening exercise on this page. Listen is often difficult for English learners, so use the tasks on this page to help you practice before going and having a conversation with someone in English.

All of the exercises on this page a based around a recording of the describing people vocabulary being spoken by a native English speaker. By listen to these you will be able to hear the natural pronunciation. You can listen to each recording several times if you need to before doing the task in each exercise. The ESL describing people vocabulary page has a recording of all the words being spoken by a native speaker so you can listen to them and learn what they sound like before doing the tasks on this page.

The four activities are as follows:

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

ESL Cities Listening Exercises

Exercise 1 – Identification of Spoken Word Order

For this ESL describing people listening task you need to listen to the following recording that has groups of spoken words and decide which option (A-D) in each question has the words written in the same order. When you have finished you can use the following get score button to see the correct answers.

ESL Describing People 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) Scar, Excess, Tattoo, Features, Drab
    B) Excess, Features, Tattoo, Scar, Drab
    C) Drab, Tattoo, Features, Excess, Scar
    D) Tattoo, Features, Excess, Scar, Drab

2) Which is the correct order for group of words two?

    A) Obese, Excess, Scruffy, Forehead, Walk
    B) Excess, Forehead, Scruffy, Obese, Walk
    C) Walk, Scruffy, Forehead, Excess, Obese
    D) Scruffy, Forehead, Excess, Obese, Walk

3) Which is the correct order for group of words three?

    A) Black, Mole, Size, Drab, Handsome
    B) Mole, Drab, Size, Black, Handsome
    C) Handsome, Size, Drab, Mole, Black
    D) Size, Drab, Mole, Black, Handsome

4) Which is the correct order for group of words four?

    A) Joints, Obese, Stooped, Mole, Ugly
    B) Obese, Mole, Stooped, Joints, Ugly
    C) Ugly, Stooped, Mole, Obese, Joints
    D) Stooped, Mole, Obese, Joints, Ugly

5) Which is the correct order for group of words five?

    A) Boney, Neck, Thin, Encourage, Ugly
    B) Neck, Encourage, Thin, Boney, Ugly
    C) Ugly, Thin, Encourage, Neck, Boney
    D) Thin, Encourage, Neck, Boney, Ugly

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 2 – Identification of Spoken Definition

Now in this ESL describing people listening exercise you need to listen to the spoken definitions of words in the following recording and decide which option (A-D) in each question has the word that goes with the definition. Again you can use the get score button to see how many you got right.

ESL Describing People 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) European
    B) Smart
    C) White
    D) Straight

2) What is the meaning of the second definition in the recording?

    A) Beautiful
    B) Supple
    C) Mole
    D) Tall

3) What is the meaning of the third definition in the recording?

    A) Scatter-brained
    B) Good-looking
    C) Middle-aged
    D) Generous

4) What is the meaning of the fourth definition in the recording?

    A) Torso
    B) Long
    C) Skinny
    D) Well-dressed

5) What is the meaning of the fifth definition in the recording?

    A) Old
    B) Young
    C) Imprint
    D) Walk

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 3 – Listening Comprehension

For this ESL describing people exercise you need to listen to the following recording of a passage being spoken and then answer the following five questions. You can listen a few times if you need to so you can understand all of the passage. Then you can see your score and the correct answers by clicking the get score button.

At the end of this page there is a link you can click that will show the full text of the passage so you can check to see how well you understood it.

ESL Describing People Listening Comprehension

Listen to the recording of the passage about sescribing people above and answer the following five questions.

1) Why do police require good descriptions of those involved in crime?

    A) To find out where criminals live.
    B) To help them identify those involved.
    C) So the police can trace their relatives.
    D) So they can take finger prints.

2) Why do young children get lost in shopping centres?

    A) Because it can be very crowded.
    B) Because they run off and hide.
    C) The parents stop to chat to friends, the child wanders off.
    D) The child falls over and the parents do not wait for the child to stand up.

3) How are bodies identified in an aircraft disaster?

    A) By finding their luggage.
    B) By finding their passport.
    C) By measuring the length of the body.
    D) By finding identifying marks.

4) How do people change over a 40 or 50 year period?

    A) Their hair thins.
    B) They do not hear well.
    C) The body shape alters.
    D) They have false teeth.

5) In what way do authors of fiction try to make a story interesting?

    A) They paint a picture in words.
    B) They highlight the bad characters.
    C) They describe the places where the characters live.
    D) They do not let the hero die.

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 4 – Dictation

For this last ESL describing people listening task you need to listen to the following recording of a spoken passage and write it down exactly as it is in the recording. The recording has the passage spoken twice: the first time is at a slow speaking speed and the second has pauses after every few words and the punctuation included.

There is another link at the end of the page that you can use to show the full text so you can check your answer and see how much of it you got correct.

Listening Comprehension Passage
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Dictation Passage
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