Academic IELTS · B2/C1 · Listening · Reading · Writing Tasks 1 & 2 · Speaking Parts 1, 2 & 3
You will hear part of a university lecture about wayfinding — the art of finding direction without instruments. Listen and answer questions 1–8. The transcript is hidden by default — your teacher will read it aloud while you write your answers. Look at the transcript only after you have finished.
Before you listen, read all the questions first. Predict the type of word each gap needs — a number, a noun, a verb. In IELTS Listening, spelling counts, so write carefully.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
1. The Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti without using a chart or a .
2. Wayfinding is described by the speaker as a layered of perception.
3. London taxi drivers must learn an extraordinary mental map known as .
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
The Polynesian star compass
4. Approximately rising and setting points on the horizon.
5. By day, navigators use the angle of the .
6. Some seabirds returning to land at night act as a kind of .
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
7. According to the speaker, the main purpose of the 1976 voyage was to:
8. The speaker says the case for "navigational fitness" rests on the idea that:
1. compass
2. system
3. the Knowledge (or simply "Knowledge")
4. 220 (or "two hundred and twenty")
5. sun
6. arrow
7. B — the speaker explicitly says the voyage was "designed to prove that the great Pacific migrations were the product of skill rather than accident."
8. B — "a faculty which is never exercised cannot be reliably called upon."
Good afternoon. Today I'd like to talk about what is sometimes called the lost art of wayfinding — the system of perception by which our ancestors navigated long before any instrument was invented.
The story really begins, for most people, in 1976, with a voyage made by a traditional Polynesian canoe called the Hōkūleʻa. The vessel sailed two thousand five hundred miles from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti without a chart or a compass. Its master navigator, Mau Piailug, used only the stars, the patterns of the ocean swell, and the behaviour of seabirds. The voyage was, in part, a deliberate experiment, designed to prove that the great Pacific migrations were the product of skill rather than accident.
Now, what is interesting is that this kind of navigation isn't a single trick. It is a layered system of perception. The night sky provides a fixed framework — Polynesian navigators memorised what they called a star compass of around two hundred and twenty rising and setting points. By day, the angle of the sun gives bearings. The direction and frequency of the ocean swell carries information about distant land that the eye alone cannot see. Even the behaviour of certain seabirds — those that return to land at night — can be read as a kind of arrow.
Compare this to what most of us now do. A small device in our pocket tells us where we are, and a second one tells us where to go next. Neither asks us to remember the route or attend to landmarks. Research carried out on London taxi drivers — who, you may know, learn an extraordinary mental map of the city called the Knowledge — has shown measurable changes in the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for spatial memory. When the work is taken over by a satellite, that region appears, conversely, to shrink.
What follows from this — and here, of course, opinions divide — is what some commentators now call the case for navigational fitness. They argue that a faculty which is never exercised cannot be reliably called upon, even in emergencies. Whether this is a serious concern or simply nostalgia for an older world is a matter we will return to in the seminar.
Read the passage and then answer the questions that follow. In a real IELTS test you would have about 20 minutes for this length of passage.
A On a bright morning in May 1976, a traditionally built Polynesian canoe known as the Hōkūleʻa set sail from Hawaiʻi for Tahiti. The journey would cover 2,500 miles of open ocean. There was no chart on board, no compass, no GPS. The vessel's navigator, a Micronesian master named Mau Piailug, had agreed to make the voyage using only the techniques his people had used for over a thousand years: reading the sky, the swell of the sea, and the flight of birds. To the surprise of many academic observers, the canoe arrived precisely where it had intended to go.
B The voyage was not, primarily, a feat of endurance. It was an argument. For most of the twentieth century, Western scholarship had tended to dismiss the great Pacific migrations as a string of lucky accidents — windblown survivors drifting between islands rather than purposeful travel. Piailug's success forced that view to be reconsidered. Wayfinding, it turned out, was real, learnable and astonishingly precise.
C The system itself is a layered one. The night sky provides the most stable element: Polynesian navigators memorise what they call a "star compass" of around 220 rising and setting points around the horizon. By day, the angle of the sun gives bearings. Wind direction and the long ocean swell each contribute another layer; even the behaviour of certain seabirds — those that fly out to fish at dawn and return to land at dusk — can be read as a kind of directional arrow. No element on its own is conclusive. The navigator's skill lies in weighing all of them at once, accepting that they sometimes disagree, and forming a judgement.
D Compare this to the way most people in industrialised societies now find their way. A device in the pocket says where we are; another in the car says where we should go. Neither asks the user to attend to landmarks, remember sequences of turns, or keep an internal sense of north. The skill of wayfinding has not died, exactly. It has been quietly handed over to satellites.
E Whether this handover has come at a cost is contested. Research carried out on London taxi drivers, who must learn an enormous mental map of the city's 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks before they are licensed, has produced striking findings. Using brain imaging, scientists have shown that the hippocampus — the region responsible for spatial memory — is measurably enlarged in experienced taxi drivers. Some studies have suggested that the reverse is also true: where spatial work is taken over by external aids, the relevant brain regions shrink. The findings remain disputed in detail, but the broad pattern is consistent.
F In recent years, a small but determined movement has begun to make the case for what its supporters call "navigational fitness". Its proponents are not technophobes. They use modern tools, but argue that a faculty which is never exercised eventually cannot be relied on, even when external systems fail. Their argument is essentially one of resilience: that the same logic which leads us to keep paper maps on board ocean-going vessels should lead us to keep some of the perceptual skills alive in everyday life.
G None of this means that GPS is a mistake. It is, in most respects, a remarkable tool: cheap, fast, and accurate to within metres. But like any tool, its benefits are paid for by the capacities it replaces. The interesting question, in the end, is not whether to use the new technology, but how to remain, in its absence, capable of finding the way ourselves.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B–F from the list of headings below. There are more headings than paragraphs, so two will not be used.
Paragraph B: i — "forced that view to be reconsidered" matches "a challenge to academic assumptions."
Paragraph C: iv — the whole paragraph lists multiple cues (stars, sun, swell, birds) and how the navigator combines them.
Paragraph D: vii — "the skill of wayfinding has… been quietly handed over to satellites."
Paragraph E: vi — brain imaging, hippocampus, taxi drivers — the brain responding measurably to navigation.
Paragraph F: ii — the "navigational fitness" movement is exactly an argument for preserving an older skill.
Unused: iii and v. "Hidden costs" is not the argument in the passage (paragraph G actually defends GPS). "A simple decision to switch tools" is too thin and doesn't capture any paragraph.
Do the statements agree with the information in the passage? Choose TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information about it.
| Statement | Answer |
|---|---|
| 6. The Hōkūleʻa carried a compass for emergency use. | |
| 7. Before 1976, most Western scholars believed Pacific islanders had reached new lands by chance. | |
| 8. Mau Piailug had sailed the Hawaiʻi–Tahiti route several times before 1976. | |
| 9. The hippocampus of experienced London taxi drivers can be shown to be larger than average. | |
| 10. Supporters of "navigational fitness" want people to stop using GPS altogether. |
6. FALSE — Paragraph A says explicitly "no compass" on board.
7. TRUE — Paragraph B: "Western scholarship had tended to dismiss the great Pacific migrations as a string of lucky accidents."
8. NOT GIVEN — the passage tells us Piailug made the 1976 voyage but says nothing about whether he had done it before.
9. TRUE — Paragraph E: "the hippocampus… is measurably enlarged in experienced taxi drivers."
10. FALSE — Paragraph F: "Its proponents are not technophobes. They use modern tools."
Complete the sentences below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
11. Polynesian navigators must learn a system known as the .
12. The Hōkūleʻa's voyage covered a distance of .
13. Certain seabirds can act as a kind of directional .
14. Supporters of "navigational fitness" argue from the principle of .
11. star compass
12. 2,500 miles — the rubric allows "two words and/or a number", so "2,500" (the number) + "miles" (one word) fits within the limit. The passage gives the figure in digits.
13. arrow
14. resilience
The diagram below shows how a traditional Polynesian navigator combines several natural signals to determine direction at sea.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
Some people argue that traditional practical skills such as map-reading, mental arithmetic and handwriting should still be taught in schools, even though digital tools now perform these tasks more efficiently.
Others argue that schools should focus only on the skills that students will actually use in their future lives.
Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
Write at least 250 words.
Short, personal questions. Keep answers natural — two or three sentences each. Don't memorise; just speak clearly.
You should say: