For individual lessons across all four skills, visit the learning library, including Reading, Listening and vocabulary in context.
Learn from a revision
Compare two responses to the same original situation. Notice what is worth keeping and how specific changes make the response clearer.
AI-authored original examples; independent human teaching review is not yet verified. These are unrated learning examples, not official responses or predictions of your result.
Study help: S6 criteria and worked example
S6: Dealing with a difficult situation — review guide
Explain a difficult decision tactfully to the person you address.
Original learning criteria, not official rating descriptors or an assessment of your response. Use your own evidence before deciding what to revise.
Identify whom you are addressing and state your decision clearly.
Acknowledge the effect on that person and explain your reason.
Offer a realistic next step or alternative where the situation permits one, without undoing your decision.
Connect evidence to a revision
Ideas and organization
The listener can follow a clear main message supported by relevant details.
Find evidence: Find the sentence that states your main message and the detail that makes it concrete.
Try a revision: Reorder or add a detail so the listener does not have to guess how it supports your message.
Vocabulary
Words describe the situation accurately and communicate the intended meaning.
Find evidence: Choose one general word in your transcript and identify the precise person, action or quality it refers to.
Try a revision: Try a more specific phrase, then say the sentence naturally rather than memorizing unfamiliar wording.
Listenability
A listener can hear the words and follow the phrasing without avoidable effort.
Find evidence: Replay your own recording and note the time of a phrase that is difficult to follow. Text alone cannot establish pronunciation, pauses or intonation.
Try a revision: Record that phrase again, grouping words by meaning and making the important words clear; compare the two recordings yourself.
Task fulfillment
The response serves the requested purpose, audience and situation.
Find evidence: Match what you said to each instruction, using the recording or transcript rather than your intended answer.
Try a revision: Add or adjust the missing communicative action, then practise within the task's response window.
The audio reads these original texts using a synthetic voice. Compare the wording and organization; these clips are not human performances or ratings of pronunciation, fluency or test level.
Example task
You promised to help your neighbour move on Saturday, but your employer now requires you to attend training that morning. Call your neighbour, explain your decision and offer a practical alternative.
Situation and reference facts
Training is compulsory from 9 to 12 on Saturday.
You can help after 1 and have access to a car.
Do not claim someone else has agreed to help unless you arrange that first.
Needs revision
I cannot come. Work is important so you need another person. I will maybe help later. My friend can do it instead. It is not my fault, so please understand.
Listen to the response needing revision
Synthetic neural voice reading this original example. This is not a human performance, an official sample or a rated delivery model. Listen for how the ideas connect; a fluent synthetic reading does not establish the response’s proficiency level.
Revised response
Hi Sam, I am sorry to change our Saturday plan at short notice. My employer has scheduled compulsory training from nine until noon, so I cannot help with the morning part of your move. I know you were counting on me, especially for carrying the heavier boxes. I can come at one and stay for the afternoon. I will also have the car, so I could transport smaller items while you finish with the moving van. If the heavy lifting has to happen before noon, I can ask a friend whether they are available, but I cannot promise their help yet. Would the afternoon arrangement still be useful?
Listen to the revised response
Synthetic neural voice reading this original example. This is not a human performance, an official sample or a rated delivery model. Listen for how the ideas connect; a fluent synthetic reading does not establish the response’s proficiency level.
Keep this strength
I cannot come.
The decision is communicated, but the original needs a clear time boundary and consideration for its effect.
What changed and why
Consider the listener or reader
Before
It is not my fault
After
I know you were counting on me
The revision acknowledges the neighbour’s inconvenience rather than focusing only on blame.
Try it: Name the effect on the listener before offering a solution.
Add useful detail
Before
I will maybe help later.
After
I can come at one and stay for the afternoon.
A definite available time makes the alternative usable.
Try it: Give one alternative with a time and a concrete contribution.
Check your own response: Have you offered help you can actually provide without making commitments for someone else?
Study collection: original-contrasts-v1. These examples use their own situations and are not model answers to a saved test attempt.
