CELPIP Listening, Part 4 of 6
Listening to a News Item
Listen to a short news item read by one speaker, then complete 5 statements about it.
- Questions
- 5
- About
- 5 min
Part 4Instructions
You will hear a news item about a family-run restaurant in a small Canadian city.
- The clip plays once and you cannot pause or replay it.
- When it ends, all 5 questions appear together. You have 3 minutes and 30 seconds to answer from the drop-down menus.
- When you finish, you get your score, the answers with explanations, and the transcript.
The audio starts as soon as you press start. Use headphones if you can.
You got 0 of 5 right
Each question below shows the answer and the line in the audio that gives it. You can now replay every clip and read the transcript.
Recording
You will hear a news item about a family-run restaurant in a small Canadian city.
Transcript
Reporter: A lineup formed outside a small Kent Street restaurant on Tuesday afternoon, and nobody in it had come for lunch.
Stanley Yip and his wife have run the New Moon in Charlottetown for thirty years, and last week they announced that they will retire and close the place at the end of December.
Their two children settled in other provinces years ago, Yip explained, and neither of them wanted a restaurant.
The couple had meant to tell their regulars quietly, a few at a time, but word reached the neighbourhood within about two days.
Since Friday, customers have been arriving with flowers and handwritten notes.
Several of them brought back old photographs taken in the dining room, and one woman returned a takeout menu she had kept in a drawer since the nineties.
Yip says the response caught them off guard.
He had expected a quiet December, he told reporters, and maybe a few handshakes at the door.
His wife has since started asking whether they might stay open another year, and Yip said he has not ruled it out.
The suppliers have already been told, though, and for now the December date still stands.
We said December, Yip said, and now everybody keeps asking me which December.
Ask me again in the fall.
Questions 1 to 5
1. The news item is mainly about
- a routine retirement.
- an unexpected response.
- a sudden closure.
- a family disagreement.
2. Yip mentions his children to
- explain the closing.
- praise their careers.
- correct a rumour.
- thank the regulars.
3. The couple had intended to share the news
- at a public event.
- gradually and in private.
- only after December.
- through the local suppliers.
4. Yip says the reaction from customers
- matched what he had expected.
- came mainly from other provinces.
- began before the announcement.
- took the couple by surprise.
5. About staying open another year, Yip
- has refused to consider it.
- has agreed to another year.
- has left the possibility open.
- has asked the suppliers to wait.
How CELPIP Listening Part 4 works
You hear one news report of about 1.5 minutes. Then 5 incomplete statements appear together, and you finish each one from a drop-down menu. The statements stay hidden until the report ends, so your notes are all you have.
- Note who, what, where and when in the first two sentences. The main idea question comes from there.
- A news item reports what people said. Mark who said it and whether it is a fact or an opinion.
- Listen for what is still undecided at the end. News items often close on an open question.