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The Show Must Go On by Queen: a listening comprehension exercise

This listening comprehension gapfill exercise is based on the famous Queen song The Show Must Go On. You have to enter the missing words while listening to the song. You can stop the video whenever you like (or feel free to rewind it even) if you need more time to find the missing words.

Freddy Mercury recorded the vocals for this song when he was already very ill and he never had the chance to play it live, in front of an audience. The video of the song is a montage of earlier Queen videos, and the fact that no new footage of Freddy Mercury was published added to the speculations about his ill health.

The song’s lyrics also contain various references to impending tragedy and the will to live, using metaphors and other figures of speech – this again further fuelled the rumours that he was probably terminally ill.

The song was released as a single in the UK on 14 October 1991 – Freddy Mercury passed away six weeks later.

The difficulty level of this exercise is above B2 level, maybe even close to C1 since the vocabulary is sometimes pretty advanced.

If you come back in a few days, you will find other tasks based on this same song, including more difficult listening comprehension exercises, a reading comprehension exercise about the background of the song and also vocabulary tasks to practice the vocabulary used in the song.

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

Space Oddity by David Bowie — a listening comprehension exercise

This is another listening comprehension exercise based on the David Bowie song Space Oddity, but the format is different this time: you have to add the missing words within the video itself, not in a separate frame.

You can also stop the playback or even go back if you need to, but you can’t see the whole lyrics on one page. Some of you might find this design easier to work with — I’m interested in your opinion, so please tell me which version you prefer below when you’ve finished the task.

The difficulty of this task is about B2 level (upper-intermediate).

Please click here to share your opinion about the design of this exercise — do you prefer this design or the earlier one?

These are the previous exercises (with a different design — please check them out to compare and vote above) we currently have based on David Bowie’s Space Oddity:

Listening comprehension text reconstruction
B2 level gapfill exercise
Vocabulary exercises based on the words and expressions in the song
A slightly easier gapfill task (the missing words are listed)

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

Hey Jude by The Beatles — a listening comprehension gapfill

The Beatles are considered to be one of the greatest rock bands ever, and their song Hey Jude is certainly one of their most famous pieces.

In this listening comprehension gapfill exercise, you have to listen to the song and enter the missing words. You can also get letter hints if you’re stuck.

If you need more time to enter your answers, feel free to stop the playback or even rewind it.

The difficulty of this exercise is slightly below B2 level (upper-intermediate) since the vocabulary is not very advanced, the song is not very fast and Paul McCartney’s singing is easy to understand.

There will be more tasks based on this song coming soon, including a reading comprehension exercise on its background.

We have another Beatles song to help you improve your English listening comprehension: Eleanor Rigby. This version is a text reconstruction exercise (you need to add all the words) and this one is the well-known listening comprehension gapfill.

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

Space Oddity by David Bowie — fill the gaps: a listening comprehension exercise (2)

This is another listening comprehension exercise based on David Bowie’s song Space Oddity. Your task here is easier: you just have to choose the missing words from a list.

The difficulty of this exercise is not much higher than B1 level (intermediate) on the CEFR scale because the words are already provided and also because the vocabulary level is not very advanced.

You can stop the video whenever you like if you need more time to find the missing words.

We have already published a couple of exercises based on this classic song but there’s more to follow. Here are the currently available ones:

A listening comprehension exercise — similar to this one, but you have to fill the gaps on your own instead of choosing from a list.
A text reconstruction exercise — you need to find all the words.

In the near future there will be more tasks, including reading comprehension and vocabulary exercises.

The Sound of Silence — a listening comprehension exercise

One of the greatest songs ever written, no doubt. This is a live concert version, recorded in 1981 during the famous Concert in the Park, a free event held in Central Park in New York.

Listen to the song and fill the gaps in the lyrics. You can also get a letter hint if you can’t find a word. Feel free to stop playback any time you need.

The difficulty of this task is probably slightly higher than B2 level (upper-intermediate) because the vocabulary is fairly advanced and the imagery of the lyrics is probably not that easy to comprehend.

We have another listening comprehension exercise based on a Simon & Garfunkel song: The Boxer, which is also very famous.

There will be more exercises built around The Sound of Silence, including vocabulary and reading comprehension tasks as well as various difficulty level listening exercises, so please check back.

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

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.

No Ordinary Love — Sade: a listening comprehension exercise

This is a listening comprehension exercise based on Sade’s song, No Ordinary Love. Listen to the song and complete the lyrics by filling the gaps with one word in each gap. Feel free to stop (or even rewind) the video whenever you need to.

The difficulty of this task is about intermediate level (B1 on the CEFR scale).

Earlier we showed another exercise based on this same song: this is a text reconstruction task, where you have enter all the words on your own.

More exercises on this song will be coming later, including vocabulary and reading comprehension tasks, so don’t forget to come back.

And please remember to like our Facebook page to get updates and 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.