Listening 1–3 Listening to a dialogue and choosing the picture or graph

Listening · Easy

Must secure. Scan the four pictures before the audio starts.

You listen to a short dialogue (items 1–2) or a description of statistics (item 3) and choose the picture or graph that matches the situation or the data. For 1–2 you hear two people talking briefly and pick 'where they are and what they are doing' from four pictures; for item 3 you hear a short passage describing how numbers changed and pick the graph that matches that movement. The dialogues use only everyday vocabulary and are short, which makes this the easiest spot in the whole TOPIK II Listening section.

Listening to a dialogue and choosing the picture or graph

• 장소 어휘 — 가게·기관 — Each place comes with its own fixed verb-and-noun pairings: a hair salon (cut, perm), a laundry (drop off, pick up), a post office (parcel, send), a pharmacy (medicine, prescription), a bank (account, transfer).
• 요청·제안 표현 — '~좀 봐 주세요', '~해 주실 수 있어요?' and '~할까요?' are signals that the speaker is asking someone to do something or making a suggestion.
• 위치·순서 어휘 — In picture items, position and order words — front/back/beside/above/below, first/second — are what separate the right answer from the wrong ones.
• 그래프 방향 표현 — Expressions such as increase, decrease, stay level, jump sharply, and rise gently determine the shape of the graph.
• 비교·순위 표현 — Phrases like 'the highest', 'followed by' and 'more than ~' tell you the order of the items in the graph.
• 수량·단위 어휘 — Counter and unit words that appear alongside numbers — quantity, price, time — narrow the picture down.
• 이동·교통 어휘 — Learn the pairings of movement verbs (get on, get off, transfer) with transport nouns (bus, subway, taxi).
• 감정·반응 표현 — Short reaction words such as '정말요?', '아이고' and '잘됐네요' tell you the mood of the conversation — surprise, relief, or regret.
• 안내방송 정형 표현 — Public announcements repeat formal endings such as -오니 and -시기 바랍니다.
• 비교 그래프 어휘 — Comparison phrases — the most/the least, compared with ~, more than twice — tell you the relative size of the items in the graph.

• The noun that tells you the place (type of shop, name of a facility)
• The verb that tells you the action (choose, carry, wait, and so on)
• In graph items, the phrases that mark a change of direction ('~다가', '잠시', '다시')

• Before the audio starts, work out how the four pictures differ (place, action, number of people)
• Catch the place and the situation from the first line of the dialogue
• Confirm the actual action from the line that follows
• In graph items, do not miss the point where a direction-change expression appears

• Picking a picture where the place is right but the action is different
• In graph items, hearing only 'kept increasing' and missing the plateau or dip in the middle

These are the three easiest items, so a mistake here is hard to make up for later. Lock them down without exception.