Hear a discourse marker and predict what the speaker will do next — the main mechanism for surviving Listening Section 4.
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Six extracts from one lecture, out of order. The signposts tell you the sequence.
These six extracts come from one Section 4 talk. Put them back in order — the signposts tell you where each belongs, so you should not need to understand the science.
Section 4 gives you no second chance. These eight phrases are the speaker announcing their next move before they make it.
Ten questions, one long academic monologue, no break, no repetition. If you lose your place, you lose the rest of the section — and most candidates lose their place not because the vocabulary was hard but because the speaker changed direction and they did not notice.
These eight phrases are the speaker telling you, in advance, exactly what they are about to do.
Restate, reverse, summarise, prioritise — drawn as the signs they are.
The speaker puts the sign up before the turn. You only have to read it.
Each phrase with what it announces and what you should do when you hear it.
The same idea again, in simpler language.
Do: listen harder, not less. The answer is often in the restatement.
Identical job to in other words.
A free second chance at an idea you missed.
Forget the direction I was just going in.
Do: expect the answer to be in what comes NEXT.
Identical to having said that. Equally common.
Do not spend time distinguishing them.
The mirror image of what was just said.
Stronger than a qualification — an actual opposite.
Everything so far, taken together.
Do: last chance to fill a gap in your answers.
Compressing what was just explained at length.
Often the clearest statement in the whole talk.
What comes next matters MORE than what I just said.
✗ Does NOT mean "additionally".
Orange = the speaker is changing direction or raising the stakes. Those are the moments answers are won and lost.
Sort twelve markers by what the speaker is about to do.
Sort each item into the correct category
Five talks stop mid-sentence. Predict the speaker's next move from the signpost alone.
Each extract stops at the signpost. Predict what follows from the marker alone — that is exactly what you have to do in real time in Section 4.
"Early studies suggested a strong link between the two. Having said that…" What comes next?
Three extracts. Name the move, then say what it tells you to do.
One
"The process depends on capillary action. To put it another way…"
The move:
So you should:
Two
"The results were encouraging in the first trial. That said…"
The move:
So you should:
Three
"So the funding was cut, the staff left, and the programme closed. In short…"
The move:
So you should: