Lecture: Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution: Listening Answers & Explanations
IELTS Listening practice test · 10 questionsPart 4medium
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About this recording
The recording opens: “Today I'd like to examine a single invention that arguably did more to change the world than any other before the industrial age — the printing press, developed by Johannes Gutenberg in the German city of Mainz around the year fourteen fifty.”
- Transcript length: about 488 words
- Questions: 10
- Question types: Note Completion, Summary Completion, Sentence Completion, Short Answer
“Lecture: Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution” is an original IELTS-style practice recording written by IELTS-Bank. It is not taken from an official IELTS or Cambridge test, so these answers only apply to our version.
Answer key at a glance
Lecture: Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution answers with explanations
Questions 1–3: Note Completion
Gutenberg and earlier printing
Complete the notes below. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
- 1
Gutenberg developed the printing press in the city of ______.(max 1 word)
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Answer: mainz
Why: The answer is found at the beginning of the passage, where it states that Johannes Gutenberg developed the printing press in the German city of Mainz around the year 1450.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 1 “Today I'd like to examine a single invention that arguably did more to change the world than any other before the industrial age — the printing press, developed by Johannes Gutenberg in the German city of Mainz around the year fourteen fifty.”
- 2
In China, people had long printed using carved wooden ______.(max 1 word)
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Answer: blocks (also accepted: block)
Why: The answer is found in the passage where it mentions that in China, printing was done using carved wooden blocks for many centuries.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 2 “In China, people had been printing from carved wooden blocks for centuries.”
- 3
Block printing was very slow because each page had to be ______ by hand.(max 1 word)
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Answer: carved
Why: The answer is found in the passage where it explains that block printing was slow because each page required a craftsman to carve it entirely by hand.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 2 “But block printing was painfully slow, because a craftsman had to carve an entire page by hand, and if you wanted to print a different page, you had to carve a whole new block from scratch.”
Questions 4–7: Summary Completion
Gutenberg's innovations
Complete the summary below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
- 4
His key breakthrough was ______ type, with each letter cast separately in metal.(max 1 word)
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Answer: movable (also accepted: moveable)
Why: The answer is found where the passage explains that Gutenberg's key innovation was "movable type," which involved casting each letter individually as a small metal block for rearrangement and reuse.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 3 “Gutenberg's breakthrough was quite different, and it rested on one brilliant idea: movable type.”
- 5
The letters could be taken apart and ______ for the next page.(max 1 word)
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Answer: reused
Why: The answer is found in the passage where it explains that after printing, the letters were disassembled and could be used again for subsequent pages, highlighting the efficiency of Gutenberg's movable type system.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 3 “And here's the clever part — once you had finished, you simply took the letters apart and reused them for the next page.”
- 6
Because normal ink would not stick to metal, he made a new ______ ink.(max 2 words)
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Answer: oil-based (also accepted: oil based)
Why: The answer is found in the passage where it explains that Gutenberg developed a new type of ink that adhered properly to metal, specifically stating it was an oil-based ink, because ordinary ink would not stick.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 4 “So he developed a new oil-based ink that clung to the metal properly.”
- 7
To press the paper, he adapted a machine used for crushing grapes: the ______ press.(max 1 word)
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Answer: wine
Why: The answer is found in the part of the passage where it explains that Gutenberg modified a machine originally used for crushing grapes, which was a wine press, to press paper evenly against the type.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 4 “For this he adapted a machine already used for crushing grapes — the wine press.”
Question 8: Sentence Completion
The Gutenberg Bible
Complete the sentence below. Write A NUMBER .
- 8
About ______ copies of the Gutenberg Bible were produced.(max 1 word)
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Answer: 180 (also accepted: one hundred and eighty)
Why: The passage states that approximately one hundred and eighty copies of the Gutenberg Bible were produced, highlighting this as the most famous product of Gutenberg's workshop.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 5 “The most famous product of his workshop was, of course, the Gutenberg Bible, printed around fourteen fifty-five.”
Questions 9–10: Short Answer
Answer the questions below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
- 9
As printed books became cheap, what spread rapidly among ordinary people?(max 3 words)
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Answer: literacy (also accepted: reading)
Why: The answer comes from the part of the passage that states, "As books became cheap, more ordinary people learned to read, so literacy spread rapidly.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 7 “As books became cheap, more ordinary people learned to read, so literacy spread rapidly.”
- 10
Which religious upheaval did the printing press help make possible?(max 3 words)
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Answer: the reformation (also accepted: reformation)
Why: The answer is found in the passage where it states that the printing press enabled the spread of the religious movement known as the Reformation.
What you hear · Transcript, paragraph 7 “Historians generally agree that the printing press made possible two of the great upheavals that followed: the religious movement we call the Reformation, and the explosion of enquiry we call the Scientific Revolution.”
Estimated band score for this test
Your raw score out of 10 scaled to the 40-question IELTS Listening conversion table. This is the same estimate the practice page shows after you submit. A single recording is a small sample, so treat it as a guide.
| Correct answers | Estimated band |
|---|---|
| 10 / 10 | 9.0 |
| 9 / 10 | 8.0 |
| 8 / 10 | 7.5 |
| 7 / 10 | 6.5 |
| 6 / 10 | 6.0 |
| 5 / 10 | 5.5 |
| 4 / 10 | 5.0 |
| 3 / 10 | 4.0 |
| 2 / 10 | 3.5 |
| 1 / 10 | 2.5 |
| 0 / 10 | 0.0 |
Full-test score? Use the IELTS band calculator.
Tips for the question types in this test
Listening Part 4
- 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.
Full Listening Part 4 strategyPractise “Lecture: Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution” under exam conditions
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