CELPIP Listening Practice Test 37

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.

MAN: Hi Marisol, the shelter emailed about Saturday’s adoption event. Are we still going?

WOMAN: Hey Theo. To look, yes. I am not ready to bring home an animal before checking our building rules. We'll be tempted there. I'd rather settle the questions before meeting a dog.

MAN: The lease allows one pet with written approval. I can ask the manager today. I'll explain that we're asking about a temporary placement too, so there isn't confusion about what permission covers.

WOMAN: Approval is only one issue. A puppy would be alone during our long workdays, and neither of us can manage midnight training.

MAN: The shelter has adult dogs too. Their profile for a quiet seven-year-old says she is comfortable alone for several hours. We can ask the staff how they know that, and whether her usual routine would fit the hours we're away.

WOMAN: That sounds more realistic. I first considered a cat, but your allergy became worse at your sister’s apartment.

MAN: True. The shelter also offers weekend fostering. We could learn the routine without pretending two days proves everything.

WOMAN: I like that, provided we aren't holding up a family that's ready to adopt. The weekend should help us decide responsibly, not reserve a dog while we take our time.

MAN: Fostering is part of the shelter’s placement process, and they match only dogs needing a temporary home.

WOMAN: Then let us request the older dog for one weekend after the manager approves.

MAN: We should also price a weekday walker. Being comfortable alone does not mean staying inside from morning until evening. I can cover the evening walks, but that doesn't fill the long stretch in the middle of the day.

WOMAN: Agreed. If regular care exceeds our budget, we stop before adoption rather than hoping it works out.

MAN: I will contact the manager and shelter. You compare walking services near our building.

WOMAN: Good. If approval comes through, Saturday can begin a trial instead of an immediate adoption. Even if we both like the dog straight away, we'll still go home and think it through.

WOMAN: Hi, I'm hoping to book the studio for this Saturday — a product shoot. What's included in the rental? I've never used your space before, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect from a booking like this.

MAN: Sure, glad to explain how it all works. How many hours are you thinking? The standard block is three hours and comes with two softbox lights and one backdrop stand.

WOMAN: I'll probably need closer to six hours for everything I'm shooting. Is there more equipment available at that length? I've got quite a few products to get through in one session.

MAN: At six hours you get access to the full lighting kit, though any seamless paper backdrop beyond the plain white one costs extra per roll. Most clients find the plain white one is plenty for product work anyway, honestly.

WOMAN: That's fine. Does setup time count as part of those six hours, or is it kept separate? I want to plan my whole day around it properly.

MAN: It counts — a lot of people assume setup is extra, but here both setup and teardown come out of your booked block, so it's worth planning around. It catches first-time renters off guard fairly often.

WOMAN: Good to know, I'll arrive right at the start time then to be safe. What about the deposit?

MAN: It's two hundred dollars, refundable — actually, sorry, that rate changed in January, it's two hundred and fifty now, refunded within five business days if there's no damage. We update the website but not everyone sees the change right away.

WOMAN: Is there any way to get that waived? It's a decent chunk of money for a single afternoon.

MAN: Only if you book one of our seasonal packages that bundle several sessions together. A single booking like this one always requires the deposit. It protects the equipment for everyone who books after you too.

WOMAN: I'm only doing this one shoot for now, so I'll just pay it. Maybe I'll look into the package next time.

MAN: That works. One more thing — arriving early doesn't stretch your session, the next client's slot still starts right on schedule. We do try to be flexible when we can, though.

WOMAN: Understood, that all makes sense, I'll book ten to four on Saturday and send the deposit over today, along with my full contact details.

MAN: A modest gift shop on Hollowmere's Bridge Street, owned by Aditi Sharma, has drawn crowds far beyond what its shelves would suggest. Sharma sells stationery and small ceramics found in similar shops across the region; what has changed, tourism officials say, is the front window, which Sharma redesigns every few weeks using only objects already stocked inside, once assembling a lighthouse from stacked teacups and folded napkins. The shift began quietly last winter, during a stretch of slow trade when, Sharma recalled, she had more time than customers and rearranged the window mainly to keep herself occupied. A visitor's photograph of one display, showing a miniature harbour built from buttons and glass beads, circulated online before Sharma had taken it down, and within weeks coach operators added her storefront to routes that had stopped only at the town's restored lighthouse. Marcus Whitfield, who runs a bakery two doors down, said weekend foot traffic past his counter has climbed noticeably since the buses began arriving, though he admits he cannot explain to puzzled tourists why a window, rather than a shop, is the actual attraction. Sharma herself seems ambivalent about the notice; asked whether she would keep redesigning the display every few weeks, she said only that she was still working out what people respond to. Tourism board member Naomi Reid called the trend promising but cautioned that nothing about it has been formally planned or guaranteed to continue.

woman1: Honestly, Aurelio, this dress code review feels overdue. Casual clothing would make summer afternoons actually bearable.

man1: Comfort matters, Theadora, but I'd argue formal dress quietly reinforces how seriously we take our work and our clients.

woman2: I'd actually suggest casual Fridays only, since blanket relaxation often slides into weekend wear within a month.

woman1: Iolana, that's a tidy compromise, although it still leaves four oppressive days a week of layered fabric in July.

woman2: Granted, summer is uncomfortable, yet seasonal exceptions strike me as a cleaner fix than permanent casual everything.

man1: It's the client perception piece that concerns me. We host external visitors twice weekly, and first impressions linger.

woman1: Clients increasingly arrive in jeans themselves, Aurelio. Matching a stiffer standard than the people we serve feels almost backward.

man1: There's something to that, although industries vary enormously. Our older clients absolutely notice the difference and judge accordingly.

woman2: Judgment is real, but the employees who wear formal clothing because they want to should be free to continue, regardless of policy.

man1: Fair, yet a relaxed code without minimum standards eventually produces ambiguity that nobody enjoys policing.

woman1: Ambiguity already exists, Aurelio. Half the team interprets business casual differently anyway.

woman2: Which is precisely why specific guidance matters more than the overall direction. "Casual" without examples means nothing.

man1: I could accept casual Fridays, provided we publish concrete examples and reinforce them visually with photos.

woman1: Casual Fridays alone won't satisfy me, although it's better than the current code, so I'll accept it temporarily.

woman2: Temporary acceptance can quietly become permanent, which is fine if everyone's productivity holds up over the next quarter.

man1: Fine, you have me convinced. Theadora, would you draft examples for the staff handbook before our policy meeting?

MAN: Pelmont city council has been asked to change a zoning rule that has shaped the Quarry Hollow neighbourhood for more than forty years. The rule allows only one household in each house, so owners there cannot legally rent out a basement or a converted upper floor. A residents' group submitted a formal request last week asking council to remove that limit across the neighbourhood. Thandiwe Mabaso, who speaks for the group behind the request, argues that the change would add homes without any new building. She pictures a neighbourhood whose houses look exactly as they do now while quietly holding more people, and she told council that no street in Quarry Hollow would need to change its appearance. Under the plan, each suite would have its own entrance, and owners would not have to provide an off-street parking space for a suite under fifty square metres; anything larger would still need one space. Her group estimates that about forty houses could add a suite within the next five years. Roland Kirchner, president of the Quarry Hollow Homeowners' Association, does not dispute that estimate, and he accepts that the region is short of rental housing. He has no objection to suites in principle. His worry is the streets themselves: forty more households would mean cars parked along both curbs, and he expects snow clearing to slow and fire trucks to struggle. Kirchner's own daughter and her children live in his basement, an arrangement he describes as family rather than a rental. On the parking, Mabaso replies that the city can withhold overnight permits on any street where clearing slows. City planners have pointed to a review of suites registered since 2021, which found that only about one household in three owned a car. The review covered only suites within a ten-minute walk of the Ferndale rail line, and most of Quarry Hollow lies well beyond it. Councillor Bianca Szalay says the review has not persuaded her, and she would like to see it repeated locally. She will vote for the change, she adds, only on the condition that it begins as a two-year trial open to owners who live in their own houses, with the rules returning to council at the end. Council is expected to vote next month. If the change passes, owners could begin applying in the spring, though only under the terms of the trial.