CELPIP Listening Part 4 Practice Test: From Empty Lot to Orchard

NARRATOR: A vacant lot in Kingston's north end that sat abandoned for nearly a decade is now home to forty young fruit trees, thanks to a group of neighbourhood volunteers. The property, once the site of a corner store, had become a dumping ground for discarded furniture and old tires. Retired teacher Helen Okoro says she simply got tired of looking at it from her kitchen window. Last spring she knocked on doors, gathered about thirty residents and persuaded the landowner to lend the community the land for ten years without charging a cent. Over several weekends, the group hauled away more than two tonnes of garbage and trucked in fresh soil, after environmental testing showed the original ground was unsuitable for growing food. Apple, pear and plum trees were donated by a local garden centre, and students at a nearby secondary school built wooden benches as a classroom project. The trees won't produce much fruit for another three or four years, but Okoro says that is part of the point. She hopes the children who helped plant them will eventually pick the fruit themselves. Once the harvest begins, anyone may take what they need, although organizers are asking visitors to leave enough for everybody. The group is now collecting donations for a rainwater collection system.