Listening: Paper 1 Section A, and the sound of real Russian

Section A contains four questions on a recording of roughly eight minutes in total, made up of a short news item, an interview and a piece of street vox pop. Two questions are multiple choice, one is open response and one tests summary skills. Build the plan.

1. 01Minutes 0 to 4 — read every question before playing anything

   The questions are in Russian and they tell you what to listen for. Read all four, underline the interrogative word in each — почему, каким образом, что именно, чем отличается — and note which question belongs to which section of the recording. This costs four minutes and buys you the ability to listen selectively for the rest of the hour. Beginning by pressing play is the commonest wasted decision in the whole paper.

2. 02Minutes 4 to 14 — first pass, structure only

   Play everything once without stopping and write nothing but a skeleton: who is speaking, what the question at issue is, and roughly where each examination question is answered. Resist the urge to catch details. The purpose of this pass is orientation, and orientation is what makes the second pass efficient; a candidate who tries to answer during the first pass ends up with three answers and no map.

3. 03Minutes 14 to 32 — second pass, question by question

   Now use the control properly. Go to the part of the recording that answers question one, play it, stop, note in Russian. Then question two. Multiple-choice items usually need one focused replay; the open response usually needs two; the summary question needs the three-pass discipline of its own. Working question by question rather than start to finish is what individual control is for.

4. 04Minutes 32 to 44 — write the answers in full Russian

   Convert notes into complete clauses using your prepared frames. Do this away from the recording: composing and listening at the same time degrades both. Watch case after prepositions and aspect on every verb as you write, because a correction made now costs nothing and a correction made in the final check costs a re-read.

5. 05Minutes 44 to 50 — third pass, targeted

   Return to the recording only for specific doubts: a number, a name, a negation, an attribution. Then run one language check over the written answers. Six minutes, two jobs, and both of them are recovery rather than discovery. If nothing is in doubt, spend all six on the language check; the marks are in the Russian as well as in the comprehension.

Result: План: 4 минуты на чтение вопросов, 10 минут на первое прослушивание (только структура), 18 минут на второе прослушивание по вопросам, 12 минут на запись полных ответов по-русски, 6 минут на точечную проверку. Главный принцип: каждое прослушивание имеет свою отдельную задачу, а ответы пишутся не во время прослушивания, а отдельно от него.

Here is a written sentence: Сегодня в большом городе молодого человека что-то держит, а что именно — он и сам не знает. Predict what a listener will actually hear, and say why each difference occurs.

1. 01Сегодня — the first lie in the spelling

   The г in сегодня is pronounced as в, exactly as in the adjective endings -ого and -его, because the word is historically a genitive form of сей день. So the ear receives севодня. This one word appears in almost every recording about anything, and a listener who has not internalised it loses the first two seconds of the passage while trying to place it.

2. 02в большом городе — reduction and devoicing

   The preposition в before a voiced consonant is barely audible as a separate syllable; it attaches to the following word. In большом the unstressed о before the stress moves towards а. In городе the stress is on the first syllable, so the second о reduces to a short neutral vowel and the final е is weak: the word arrives as something like горъдь. A listener expecting three clear о sounds hears none of them.

3. 03молодого человека — three reductions and one lie

   Молодого has its stress on the third syllable, so the first two о reduce; the ending -ого is pronounced with в. Человека similarly reduces its first two vowels and is very commonly compressed further in fast speech to something like чьлавека. Both words are entirely familiar in writing and both are frequently missed on first hearing, which is why phrase-level training beats word-level training.

4. 04что-то держит — the second lie, plus palatalisation

   Что is pronounced with ш, so что-то arrives as штота. Держит has a soft д before е and a stress on the first syllable, so the second vowel reduces almost to nothing. The whole phrase is three syllables of sound carrying five syllables of spelling — a compression ratio typical of ordinary speech and not at all of a graded recording.

5. 05а что именно — он и сам не знает

   Что again with ш. Именно has stress on the first syllable and the following vowels reduce. The particle и after он is unstressed and will be heard as part of the preceding word. Не знает: the negative particle is unstressed and leans on the verb, and знает in ordinary speech contracts towards знаит. The useful conclusion is that word boundaries are not audible in Russian; what is audible is the stressed syllable of each phonetic word, and that is what to listen for.

Result: На слух эта фраза звучит примерно так: «севодня в бальшом горъдь мъладова чьлавека штота дьержыт, а што именна — он и сам ни знаит». Ни одно слово здесь не изменено: изменилось только написание, которое передаёт звучание, а не морфемный состав. Все различия объясняются четырьмя процессами: редукцией безударных гласных, подвижным ударением, смягчением и оглушением согласных и несколькими написаниями, которые не совпадают с произношением.

A vox-pop speaker in a recording says, in ordinary fast Russian: «Ну, я щас в Мурине живу, а работаю-то в центре. Кстати, электричка ходит нормально, это не проблема. На самом деле проблема в другом — я, короче, часа два в день в дороге, вот и всё.» Reconstruct the standard written form, then render it in English.

1. 01Strip and classify the fillers first

   Ну opens the turn. Кстати introduces a relevant aside. Короче is a filler meaning in short, extremely common in speech and never in writing. Вот и всё closes. Removing them leaves the propositional content, and noticing what each one framed tells you the structure: an opening, an aside, a correction, a close. The correction is signalled by на самом деле and is where the speaker's real point lives — which is exactly where a comprehension question will be aimed.

2. 02Expand the contractions

   Щас is сейчас. Работаю-то carries the emphatic particle -то, which has no English equivalent and is best rendered by stress or by whereas. Мурине is the prepositional of Мурино, the dense suburb north of Saint Petersburg, so the speaker is placing themselves geographically — and the topic on the changing Russian city has already given you the reference.

3. 03Note what the aspect and the motion verb are doing

   Живу and работаю are imperfective presents describing states. Электричка ходит is the multidirectional verb used of a scheduled service running, so the trains run normally: this is the point where the grammar topic pays off directly in listening. Ходит, not едет, and the difference is the difference between the service and one train.

4. 04Write out the standard form

   Я сейчас живу в Мурине, а работаю в центре. Электричка ходит нормально, это не проблема. Проблема в другом: я провожу в дороге около двух часов в день. Note that reconstructing into writing means supplying a verb where speech elided one — я провожу in place of the bare я … часа два — and moving the elements into a written order.

5. 05Render it in English

   The English needs to keep the correction, because that is the content: I live in Murino at the moment, but I work in the centre. The train service is fine, actually — that is not the problem. The problem is something else: I spend about two hours a day travelling. Note что problem is repeated deliberately in both languages; the repetition is the rhetorical structure of the utterance and flattening it would lose the point.

Result: Стандартная форма: «Я сейчас живу в Мурине, а работаю в центре. Электричка ходит нормально, это не проблема. Проблема в другом: я провожу в дороге около двух часов в день.» Перевод: I live in Murino at the moment, but I work in the centre. The train service is fine — that is not the problem. The problem is something else: I spend about two hours a day travelling.

You have heard an interview in which a teacher says that her school introduced an electronic register three years ago; that parents like it because they can see marks immediately; that she herself finds it useful but says it has made the working day longer, since messages arrive at any hour. The question is: «Как учительница относится к электронному журналу и почему?» Build the answer.

1. 01Read what the question actually asks

   Two things: her attitude, and the reason for it. An answer that reports only what the electronic register does answers neither. Как она относится needs an evaluative statement; и почему needs a cause. Note that относиться к takes the dative, so if you reuse the question's own verb you must write она относится к электронному журналу.

2. 02Locate the attitude and note that it is mixed

   She finds it useful and she finds it costly. A mixed attitude must be reported as mixed; flattening it to она довольна or она недовольна would be a comprehension error rather than a stylistic one. In Russian the natural shape is двойственно or неоднозначно: она относится к нему двойственно.

3. 03Give the positive side with its reason

   С одной стороны, она считает журнал полезным: родители сразу видят оценки. Считать takes an accusative object and an instrumental complement, полезным. Сразу видят is an imperfective present for a repeated possibility. The parental benefit is her reason, not merely an additional fact, so it belongs in the same sentence as the evaluation.

4. 04Give the negative side with its mechanism

   С другой стороны, из-за него рабочий день стал длиннее, потому что сообщения приходят в любое время. Из-за plus the genitive is because of, with a negative colouring that fits here. Стал длиннее is стать plus a comparative. Приходят is the prefixed verb of motion used of messages arriving, which is the idiomatic verb and is worth preferring to получаются.

5. 05Close with a one-clause summary and check the language

   То есть она признаёт пользу, но видит и цену. Then the check: relative and prepositional cases (к журналу dative, из-за него genitive, в любое время accusative), aspect (считает, видят, приходят all imperfective and correct for repeated states), and completeness. Four clauses, both halves of the question answered, and every element reformulated rather than lifted.

Result: Учительница относится к электронному журналу двойственно. С одной стороны, она считает его полезным: родители сразу видят оценки. С другой стороны, из-за него рабочий день стал длиннее, потому что сообщения приходят в любое время. То есть она признаёт пользу, но видит и цену.

On the second pass you hear a speaker say something like: «… по данным … далеко не все … согласны с этим, хотя официально … поддерживают.» Several elements are unclear. Show the recovery routine.

1. 01Do not replay the phrase yet

   The instinct is to replay the same five seconds. Resist it: if the phrase was unclear once it will very likely be unclear again, and each attempt costs the same time as a wider replay that carries more information. Instead, note the shape of what you did hear as a template with gaps, using the grammar you can already see: по данным plus a genitive, далеко не все plus a plural, согласны с этим, хотя plus a concession, официально plus a verb.

2. 02Replay the surrounding thirty seconds instead

   Unscripted Russian repeats and reformulates. The source named after по данным is very likely to be named again — speakers say по данным опроса and then, a sentence later, опрос показал. The recovery rate from the surrounding context is far higher than from a fourth attempt at the same five seconds, and the replay costs half a minute.

3. 03Reconstruct grammatically what cannot be heard

   По данным governs the genitive, so the missing word is a genitive noun and is almost certainly опроса, исследования, министерства or издания — four candidates, and the context will usually decide between them. Далеко не все takes a plural noun, and the plural is the group under discussion. Согласны is a short-form adjective agreeing with that plural. Хотя introduces a concession, so the second half of the sentence will contradict the first: if not everyone agrees, then officially they support it. The grammar alone reconstructs the shape of the whole sentence.

4. 04Weigh the negation carefully, because it is the content

   Далеко не все is emphatic: it means very far from everyone, not merely not everyone. If your answer says that most people agree, you have reversed the passage. This is precisely the class of error the third pass exists to catch, and it is worth checking even when everything else is confident, because a single unstressed syllable is doing the work.

5. 05Write the answer with the uncertainty contained

   Write what you are sure of, keep the attribution and the negation, and leave the unconfirmed noun general: по данным исследования, далеко не все с этим согласны, хотя официально эту позицию поддерживают. If the source turns out to be an опрос rather than an исследование, the answer still shows the comprehension the question is testing. Contain the uncertainty rather than guessing wildly or leaving a blank.

Result: Восстановленный смысл: «По данным исследования, далеко не все с этим согласны, хотя официально эту позицию поддерживают». Метод: не переслушивать одну и ту же фразу, а прослушать тридцать секунд вокруг неё; восстановить недостающее по грамматике (родительный падеж после «по данным», множественное число после «далеко не все», уступка после «хотя»); особенно проверить отрицание, потому что именно оно несёт смысл.