If you REALLY want to test your skill with hard/soft л and р, there's always this скороговорка:

Пароль, орёл.

Note that you've got a hard ръ, then soft ль, then soft рь, then hard лъ -- try saying it five times, fast! (And by the way, it literally translates to "Password, eagle.")

Also, I wanted to repost this image that I found on Wikipedia:



As an exercise for learning how to distinguish the hard and soft Л sounds in Russian, start with the кончик язычка (tip of the tongue, 16/17 in the diagram) against the bottom edge of your upper teeth (position 3). With your tongue there, make an "L" sound. There, that's the "hard Л"! Now continue to make that sound as you gradually slide the front of your tongue (16) from (3) to (4), through (5) and (6), all the way to (7). Do you hear how the sound changes? By the time you get to (7) -- at which point, you might be using the (15) area of the tongue rather than (16) -- you'll be pronouncing a "soft Л"!