CELPIP Listening Part 4 Practice Test: Back-to-School Haircuts

NARRATOR: For the third consecutive year, a Sault Ste. Marie barber turned his modest storefront into something resembling a neighbourhood festival on the weekend before classes resumed. Dennis Moreau, who has operated his two-chair shop on the city's east side for nearly two decades, offered complimentary haircuts to any student heading back to school. By closing time on Sunday, he and two volunteer stylists had trimmed one hundred and forty heads, roughly double last year's total, and by mid-morning the lineup stretched past the bakery next door. Moreau says the idea originated in his own childhood. His family struggled financially, and he vividly remembers dreading the first day of grade four because of a lopsided cut his father had attempted at the kitchen table. Parents were never asked to pay, although a jar on the counter collected nearly six hundred dollars, which Moreau intends to donate to a local breakfast program. One mother, who brought three sons, admitted she had been quietly stretching her back-to-school budget for weeks. Moreau insists, however, that the haircut is only half the point. He encourages every child to look in the mirror afterward and name one thing they're looking forward to this year. Next summer, he hopes to recruit enough barbers to run the event in a second location.