Luisteren: tegenargument
A question about an objection in the fragment — what the objection is, and how the speaker answers it.
31 of our 626 B2 listening items. Two kinds of question: what is the objection ("Wat is het bezwaar van Prins?"), and how does the speaker deal with it ("Hoe antwoordt de docent op de tegenwerping dat een wereldtaal het begrip bevordert?", "Hoe reageert Bakker op het bezwaar over de zorg en het onderwijs?"). At B2 a speaker rarely just says no. The usual pattern is: name the objection, grant part of it (inderdaad, dat ontken ik niet, daar zit een kern van waarheid in), and then answer with maar or toch. The answer can deny the conclusion, turn the objection around, or show that the problem only moves somewhere else.
How the exam tests this
Luisteren II: about 40 multiple-choice questions over five or more fragments in 90 minutes, computer-marked, and each fragment plays once. In our bank, 5 of the 31 counter-argument items are the last question on their fragment, and none is the first — an objection needs a position to object to. Debates and panel discussions supply many of them, with two or more voices. The wrong options read the concession as surrender, ignore the concession and make the reply a flat denial, or give the reply to the wrong person.
What is wrong with this sentence?
Zij bestrijdt dat handhaving in de praktijk een probleem zou zijn
Most candidates write it exactly like this and lose the mark without knowing why.
The rest of this lesson
The rule, the worked examples, the exceptions and what to do in the exam room open with Mastery, together with every other lesson for this exam.
See plans