听力部分依然主要考查了考生通过收听语言材料获得最基本信息的能力，20个小题中有13个小题用what问句（其中包含一个at what time问句）考查最基本信息，2个小题用where问句考查基本信息，1个小题用how（how long）问句考查信息分析的能力，4个小题用why问句考查信息推理的能力。
不过，15小题的题干（At what time of the school term does the conversation most probably take place?）长达14个词，这是近几年不多见的。而且，这个小题本身是考查学生具体信息的推理能力，具有一定难度。这说明题干长度并不是高考试题的一个硬性指标，该题干是根据试题需要设计出来的。
Robert had a good friend named Henley, who walked around with the 50 of a wooden leg. Robert had always wanted to 51 such a man in a story. 52 Long John Silver the pirate with a wooden leg, was 53 .
此外，试题中还出现了很多所学词汇词义转换的现象。如:在短文A的Then with a huge effort she picked it up in her trunk and tried until she was able to place it on a narrow shelf of rock一段中， shelf就从已学的“（书）架”转义为 a section of rock on a cliff or mountain or underwater that sticks out like a shelf。短文C的it’s hard not to wonder of the disease that comes from foreign animals is homing in on human beings中，home就转义为动词，而且意为aiming at that thing and moving towards it，而不是“居住”之义。
短文C的When monkey-pox, a disease usually found in the African rain forest suddenly, turns up in children in the American Midwest, it’s hard not to wonder if the disease that comes from foreign animals is homing in on human beings一句长达39个词，结构更加复杂:状语从句+插入语+主句+宾语从句+定语从句。我们字考后访谈学生时，学生表示花费了很长时间分析is homing in on human beings的主语是什么，也花了不少时间理解wonder if the disease that comes from foreign animals的结构。
2009年的书面表达具有与2005年的考题非常类似的语境:在国外生活，与英语国家人士进行真实的交往（李华在英国接受英语培训，给房东Mrs Wilson写留言）。很多教师经常对学生进行这类写作训练，但很多练习题往往都没有真实的、明确的write for what这一真实语用目的。
同时，常用词的真实表达也是本题的考查重点。比如参考范文中所使用的say, attend都是学生非常熟悉的词，但学生往往未必达到其要求的运用程度（Tracy called, saying that she couldn’t meet you at Bolton Coffee tomorrow morning as she has something important to attend to.）
