Lecture: Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution

IELTS Listening PracticePart 4medium

Recording

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You can replay the recording as many times as you like while practising. In the real exam you hear it once only.

Questions

Questions 1–3

Gutenberg and earlier printing

Complete the notes below. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Gutenberg developed the printing press in the city of ______.(max 1 word)

In China, people had long printed using carved wooden ______.(max 1 word)

Block printing was very slow because each page had to be ______ by hand.(max 1 word)

Questions 4–7

Gutenberg's innovations

Complete the summary below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

His key breakthrough was ______ type, with each letter cast separately in metal.(max 1 word)

The letters could be taken apart and ______ for the next page.(max 1 word)

Because normal ink would not stick to metal, he made a new ______ ink.(max 2 words)

To press the paper, he adapted a machine used for crushing grapes: the ______ press.(max 1 word)

Question 8

The Gutenberg Bible

Complete the sentence below. Write A NUMBER.

About ______ copies of the Gutenberg Bible were produced.(max 1 word)

Questions 9–10

Answer the questions below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

As printed books became cheap, what spread rapidly among ordinary people?(max 3 words)

Which religious upheaval did the printing press help make possible?(max 3 words)

0 / 10 answered

About this Listening test

“Lecture: Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution” is an original IELTS Listening practice test in the style of Part 4 with 10 questions (Note Completion, Summary Completion, Sentence Completion and Short Answer). Play the recording, answer as you listen, then submit to have every answer marked instantly and read the transcript.

Part 4 is a university-style lecture: one speaker, an academic subject, 10 questions — almost always note completion with a one-word limit — and, uniquely, no break in the middle. You succeed by using the printed notes as a map of the lecture and never losing your place.

How to approach it

Spend the whole preparation time on the notes: the headings tell you the lecture’s sections, and each gap’s surrounding words tell you the grammar and meaning of its answer.
Predict the word class for every gap — noun, adjective, number — and any obvious semantic field (a material, an animal, a place).
Common trap: Losing your position mid-lecture and missing a run of answers — the single biggest cause of Part 4 disasters.

Read the full Listening Part 4 strategy guide · How we write and check our tests

Build consistency with another Listening practice item.