CELPIP Listening Part 1 Practice Test: Dry Cleaning

MAN: Right under the collar. The coffee mark's still there, and I picked it up an hour ago.

WOMAN: It's been sitting a while, hasn't it?

MAN: Three days, about. Sunday morning, a full cup.

WOMAN: That's the trouble. Our standard cycle won't lift coffee once it's dried in.

MAN: Could you run it again on something stronger?

WOMAN: I could, but it's not the extra fee that stops me. The label says silk blend, and full-strength solvent lifts the colour straight out of silk.

MAN: I've got a spray at home that's made for stains.

WOMAN: Please don't. Those leave a ring, and then there's nothing left for us to work with.

MAN: Understood. And I need it for a wedding on Saturday.

WOMAN: Then leave it with me. Our stain specialist is in the back until five. She'll test something mild on the inside seam, and if the fabric takes it, she'll do the collar.

MAN: Do you want the hanger and the cover too?

WOMAN: Just the shirt. And keep your receipt. You'll want it if money comes into this.

MAN: All right. Should I check back?

WOMAN: I'll call you by two, either way.

WOMAN: I've only just put the phone down.

MAN: I was two doors away. Did it take?

WOMAN: On the silk, beautifully. The front's come up like new. But she opened the collar, and the coffee had gone through into the interfacing, the stiff layer inside.

MAN: So the outside's clean and the inside isn't.

WOMAN: The only thing that gets it out now is the full-strength solvent, which soaks through both layers at once.

MAN: Can't she treat the inner layer on its own?

WOMAN: It doesn't stay where you put it, and you'd very likely get a pale square on the front.

MAN: Hmm. That's not what I was hoping for.

WOMAN: It's your call. We try it and you carry the risk, or we stop here and I refund part of the cleaning.

MAN: Neither of those is much of a win. Though you've been straight with me all afternoon.

WOMAN: Take an hour, think it over. If it's the strong treatment, though, I need to know before she leaves at five.

MAN: And the refund? Same cut-off?

WOMAN: No, that one keeps. I'm here until we close at six.

MAN: I've been walking around the block on those two options.

WOMAN: You've just caught her. She's here another twenty minutes.

MAN: Then I'll say it now. No solvent. A small mark I can button over beats a faded square I can't hide.

WOMAN: For what it's worth, that's the way I'd go too.

MAN: So it's the refund, then.

WOMAN: She thought of something else. The coffee's in the interfacing, not in the silk itself. She can unpick the collar and set a fresh panel in behind it.

MAN: Same shirt, new insides. Would that be ready for Saturday?

WOMAN: She's back Thursday, so Friday afternoon. Thirty dollars for the panel, but I'd take the twelve I was going to refund straight off that, and you'd settle the rest before you go.

MAN: So I'm paying for the cleaning twice, near enough.

WOMAN: Near enough. I'd rather you left with a shirt than with the money.

MAN: Then let's do that. Sign anywhere?

WOMAN: Just on the line there.

MAN: Thanks. Do I need a new receipt?

WOMAN: Hang on to the one you've got. I'll staple the repair slip to it Friday.