Start with a clear message
Choose a familiar topic. Listen for the main idea before trying to write every word.
Focused listening library
Turn familiar vocabulary into reliable listening through connected sentences and progressive support.
You can practise B1 English listening on MicroEnglish, which has more than 270 B1 lessons. These short, listening-first lessons cover idioms, phrasal verbs, words, grammar points, advice and word focus. They use British English, with one lesson using multiple accents. Practice turns familiar vocabulary into reliable listening through connected sentences and progressive support. Each lesson teaches one idiom, phrasal verb, word or grammar point and ends with dictation practice.
Take off, take over and take up share one short verb but describe very different actions. Grouping them by idea makes the expressions easier to retrieve than learning a random list.
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A manager says your work is moving in the right direction, then identifies one weakness. Is the overall message positive or negative?
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Not everything unwanted can go to a charity shop. Which clothes are donated, repaired or sent for textile recycling?
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A traveller likes the idea of living at sea for a year, but the headline price does not cover everything. Which practical questions remain unanswered?
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A colleague says the receipts add up, but the explanation does not. The same two words describe two very different judgements.
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The speaker has remembered one sentence for years, but no longer understands it in the same way. What changed?
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A manager changes a policy after staff challenge it. She does not move backwards, but people say she backed down.
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A colleague backs you up, research backs up a claim, and software backs up a file. What changes when the object changes?
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A performance blows the audience away while a gust blows the programmes away. Emotion and wind create different meanings with the same form.
Start listeningWhat you will find here
You may recognise a word on paper but miss it in a sentence. B1 practice gives you short recordings to work through with support.
Listen for the message, then check the words around the part you missed.
Your level route
Choose a familiar topic. Listen for the main idea before trying to write every word.
Replay, ask for a hint, and listen again. Open the transcript when another replay is no longer helping.
Use Test after Practice. You can replay in Test, but hints stay off until the exercise is over.