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Listening CEFR B2 Topic: Silbo Gomero – the whistled language of La Gomera, Canary Islands

The Island That Talks in Whistles

What this tests: listening for detail, opinion, attitude, purpose and what the speaker implies.

Instructions

Listen to the interview about a unique whistled language. Then choose the correct answer (A, B or C) for each question, based only on what you hear.

🎧 Listen to the instructions

🎧 Listen to the recording, then answer the questions. You can replay it as many times as you need.

1. Who does Elena say most probably started the whistling tradition?

A — North African traders who came to the island after Spanish rule began B — Settlers who arrived from Spain once Spanish rule had begun C — The original islanders, who were living there before Spanish rule began

2. Why did people on the island begin whistling instead of shouting, according to Elena?

A — Shouting echoed confusingly off the valley walls, making messages hard to follow B — The human voice could not carry far enough over the terrain C — Whistling was the only way to warn each other quickly of approaching danger

3. According to Elena, roughly how far can a skilled whistler's signal travel under good conditions?

A — Only a few hundred metres, not much further than a loud shout B — Several kilometres, well beyond what a voice could ever carry C — All the way across the island, reaching the coast on the other side

4. What does Elena say Silbo Gomero actually is?

A — A separate language that developed independently of Spanish B — A whistled rendering of the sounds of ordinary Spanish speech C — A coded signal system similar to Morse code

5. What example does Elena give of an everyday whistled conversation?

A — Giving directions to visiting tourists B — Reporting news from the mainland C — Chatting about neighbours

6. What had happened to Silbo Gomero by the 1980s, according to Elena?

A — It had become more widely used thanks to new roads and telephones B — It had nearly died out, as fewer islanders bothered to learn it C — It had been formally banned by the regional education authorities

7. What specific step did the local government take in 1999, according to Elena?

A — It opened a museum where visitors can watch whistling demonstrations B — It introduced whistling lessons as a required subject in primary schools C — It funded research into the language's North African origins

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🎬 Video walkthrough

This exercise read aloud, sentence by sentence: a pause to answer each question, the hint after the pause, then the answer and why. It gives the answers — try the exercise first.

16 min. All video walkthroughs