A Professor Give A Lecture On Louisa May Alcott - IELTS Listening Sample Answer

IELTS Listening section consists of four sections that examine a candidate’s listening proficiency. Candidates are required to listen to the audio, then answer the IELTS listening questions. This topic - A professor gives a lecture on Louisa May Alcott in part 4. The following IELTS listening question types need to be answered:

• Table completion

Audio Transcript:

You will have a professor give a lecture on Louisa May Alcott. First, you have some time to look at the questions 31 to 40.

Now listen carefully and complete the timeline in questions 31 to 40.

Good afternoon. Today, I'd like to continue our discussion of the lives of prominent American writers by talking about Louisa May Alcott. One of the best-known 19th century writers. Alcott is known for her moralistic girls novels, but she was a much more serious individual than those novels might want to believe.

She was born In 1832. The daughter of Bronson Alcott, who was one of the founders of the transcendentalist movement. Bronson Alcott was a philosopher but not a provider and the family lived close to poverty. From an early age, Louisa was determined to find a way to improve her family's economic situation. As a teenager, she worked to support her family by taking on a variety of low-paying jobs, including teacher, seamstress and household servant. Alcott also started writing when she was young. She wrote her first novel when she was just 17 years old. Although it wasn't published until many years after her death. It was called “The Inheritance”. In 1861, the civil war broke out and Alcott worked as a volunteer sewing uniforms and bandages for soldiers. The following year, she enlisted as an army nurse. She spent the war years in Washington nursing wounded soldiers at a military hospital. While working at the hospital, she wrote many letters to her family at home in Massachusetts. After the war, she turned the letters into a book which was published under the title “Hospital Sketches”. She also wrote numerous romantic stories when she sold to magazines. Around this same time, she was offered the opportunity to travel to Europe as the companion to an invalid.

When she returned home from Europe in 1866, she found her family still in financial difficulty and in need of money. So she went back to writing. Her big break came in 1868 with the publication of her first novel for girls “Little Women”. The novel achieved instant success and the public wanted more. From then on, Alcott supported herself and her family by writing novels for girls. It wasn’t that writing she’d dreamed of doing but it earned her a good income. Alcott took care of her family for the rest of her life. In 1878, her younger sister, May, got married. A year later, May died after giving birth to a daughter. Louisa Alcott raised her sister's orphan child. In 1882, Bronson Alcott suffered a stroke. Soon after that, Louise Alcott set up a house for him, her niece, her sister Ana and Ana’s two sons in Boston. Her mother was no longer living by this time. Alcott was still writing novels for girls including two sequels to “Little Women”, “Little Men” and “Jo's boys”. The latter was published in 1886. Louise Alcott was itself at poor health ever since she contracted typhoid fever while working as a war nurse. She died in March of 1888 at the age of 55. She was buried in Concord, Massachusetts.

Section 4

Questions 31-40

Complete the timeline below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Question 31:

Answer: Alcott was born.

Explanation: Louisa May Alcott was born in the year 1832.

Also check:

Question 32:

Answer: support her family

Explanation: Alcott’s family was poor, and she worked in her teenage years at low-paying jobs as teacher, seamstress, and household servant to support her family.

Question 33:

Answer: her first novel

Explanation: She wrote her first novel named ‘Inheritance’ at the age of 17 which got published after she died.

Question 34:

Answer: 1862

Explanation: In the year 1862, Alcott enrolled herself as an army nurse as her family was suffering from poverty.

Question 35:

Answer: after the war

Explanation: During the time Alcott was working as an army nurse she wrote a lot of letters to her parents, and then she made it into a book named Hospital Sketches.

Question 36:

Answer: 1866

Explanation: Alcott got a work of accompanying an invalid in Europe from which she returned in 1866.

Question 37:

Answer: 1868

Explanation: After returning from Europe, Alcott still found her family to be in poverty and it is then she again started writing. In 1868, Alcott published Little Women which became an instant success.

Question 38:

Answer: May

Explanation: Alcott’s sister May died in the year 1879 when she was giving birth to her daughter.

Question 39:

Answer: 1882

Explanation: In the year 1882, Alcott built a house for her family.

Question 40:

Answer: Alcott died.

Explanation: In 1888, Alcott died as she was suffering from typhoid since she was serving the army officers being a nurse.