cloze test | EnglishFiles.com

Hello by Adele — a listening comprehension exercise

Hello is one of Adele’s greatest hits: it broke the Vevo Record by achieving over 27.7 million views within a 24-hour span and it reached the number one spot in almost every country.

This is a listening comprehension exercise based on the song: watch the video and complete the lyrics by filling the gaps. Feel free to stop the playback whenever you need to. You can also ask for letter hints if you can’t find a word.

The difficulty of this task is around B2 level (upper-intermediate) as the vocabulary is not too difficult and Adele’s singing voice is fairly easy to understand.

A previous exercise on EnglishFiles.com featured another famous Adele song, Someone Like You.

There will be more exercises based on both these songs, including text reconstruction, reading comprehension and vocabulary exercises, so please check back.

And please don’t forget to like our Facebook page to get updates and find other useful links for learners of English.

Space Oddity by David Bowie — fill the gaps: a listening comprehension exercise

David Bowie’s Space Oddity is famous for many reasons: for example, it was recorded before the first Moon landing — which is pretty cool, considering its topic. It is also the song that was used for the first ever music video recorded in space, by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

Your task here is to listen to the song and complete the lyrics; feel free to stop the video whenever you like.

This listening comprehension exercise is below B2 level on the CEFR scale (about intermediate level).

There will be more exercises based on this song, including vocabulary and reading.

Lou Reed: Perfect Day – gapfill listening comprehension exercise #2

Your task is to listen to Perfect Day by Lou Reed and complete the lyrics.

This listening comprehension task is slightly more difficult than a similar one based on this same song as there are more gaps here and some of them are a bit difficult.

The difficulty of this exercise is around B2 level on the CEFR scale.

An easier listening comprehension task based on this song is found here: Lou Reed: Perfect Day – a listening comprehension exercise.

You will find more tasks based on this song here later, including a text reconstruction listening comprehension exercise and vocabulary exercises too.

Lou Reed: Perfect Day – a listening comprehension exercise

The Lou Reed song Perfect Day was recorded in 1972 but became really famous only decades later, when it was featured in the film Trainspotting.

Your task is to listen to the song and complete the lyrics. If you can’t find a word, you can ask for a free letter.

The difficulty of this exercise is below B2 level (intermediate).

You’ll find other tasks based on this song here later.

Vocabulary exercises based on The River by Bruce Springsteen

All the vocabulary exercises in this post are based on the song The River by Bruce Springsteen.

Earlier we posted a number of exercises based on this classic song:

a listening comprehension exercise, where you have to find the missing words
a slightly more difficult listening comprehension exercise
and a reading comprehension exercise on the background of the song

This post offers vocabulary exercises on the words haunt, aisle, curse and vanish.

There will be more vocabulary practice exercises based on this song.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

The soundtrack of this version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow (originally from The Wizard of Oz) was featured in several films, commercials and radio shows, and the video was downloaded over ten million times.

Your task is to listen to the song and complete the text.

There will be more tasks coming later based on this song.

The River by Bruce Springsteen – a listening comprehension cloze test

This is a bit more difficult listening task based on Bruce Springsteen’s classic, The River. You have to add the missing words – and some of them are not very easy.

Other available tasks on EnglishFiles.com based on the same song: a similar, easier gap-fill listening comprehension exercise and a reading comprehension exercise on the background of the song.

Handle with Care – The Traveling Wilburys: a listening comprehension exercise

Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize in literature earlier today and we’re celebrating it with a listening task, what else?

Most Bob Dylan fans will know that he was a member of the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, together with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. The song featured here, Handle with Care, was one of the hits of this short-lived band.

Simon & Garfunkel: The Boxer – a listening comprehension exercise

Once again, a classic: the famous duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel first performed this song in 1969 and it has been popular ever since. The lyrics are not simple: you’ll find some advanced vocabulary items, some of which you might be unfamiliar with.

In this exercise version, only some easier words are left out, and if you still have difficulties, you can ask for hints.

Later you will find more tasks here based on this song, including vocabulary exercises and a pretty difficult text reconstruction task.

Someone Like You by Adele

Listen to the song Someone Like You by Adele and fill the gaps in the lyrics.

Feel free to stop or rewind the video whenever you feel it’s necessary but ideally you should play it once from start to finish and then for the second time only stop it once after every line.

This task is about B2 level on the CEFR scale.

There will be more songs by Adele, and also a different version of this same song: a text reconstruction exercise, where you’ll have to create the whole text yourself.