Listening: Fill in the Blanks · Part 3: Listening

Traffic Jam

125 students marked "I sat this"Added 13 Jul 2019Question #150009

Type the missing words.

Audio question

Transcript with gaps

For the first time, Japanese researchers have conducted a real-life experiment that shows how some traffic jams appear for no apparent reason. They placed the 22 vehicles on a 1 track, and asked the drivers to cruise around at a 2 speed of 30 kilometers an hour. At first, traffic moves smoothly, but soon, the distance between cars started to 3 and vehicles clumped together at one point on the track, but the jams 4 backward around the track, like a shockwave at a rate of about 20 kilometers an hour. Real-life jams move backward at about the same speed.

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Listening: Fill in the Blanks format (Pearson)

Pearson's name: Fill in the Blanks (Type In)

PromptRecording of 30–60 seconds
Time to answerNot set per question (Part 3 lasts 31–39 minutes)
Skills assessedListening

How it is scored

  • Each correct word, spelled correctly, scores 1 point.
  • The recording plays only once.

Source: Pearson, PTE Academic & UKVI test format, Part 3: Listening, checked 9 October 2026.