CELPIP Listening Practice Test 38

MAN: These are done up as tight as they'll go, and my heel still lifts off the bottom whenever I bend forward.

WOMAN: Flex for me again... yeah, that's a lot more travel than you want. What time's your lesson?

MAN: Ten thirty, and it's already ten-fifteen.

WOMAN: Then moulding these liners is off the table. The oven's free, nobody's booked it, but a pair sits in there forty-five minutes and you can't rush it.

MAN: Then bump me up a size.

WOMAN: That's everyone's first instinct, and it usually backfires. Your length is right — this shell's cut wide, so extra room just gives your heel somewhere else to travel. You want narrower, not longer.

MAN: Is there a charge?

WOMAN: Swaps are free. I do need your rental slip for the narrow range, though — it's on a separate code.

MAN: Slip's in my pocket. It's my helmet that's the problem — still down in the locker.

WOMAN: You won't get on the hill without it. Go grab it now. Leave your poles here against the desk, keep those boots on your feet, and I'll have a narrow pair up on the counter.

MAN: Two minutes.

MAN: Helmet. The locker jammed, sorry.

WOMAN: No harm. Your code went through while you were down there. Right, the narrow pair... ah.

MAN: That's not a promising noise.

WOMAN: They're in your size, same rate — and they're on somebody else's feet. One of the instructors took them out for a demo. Back around eleven.

MAN: My lesson's in six minutes.

WOMAN: I know. There's a beginners' group at one.

MAN: My friends are all on the ten thirty.

WOMAN: Then we make the pair you're standing in work. The length's right, your buckles are already on the last notch, and those liners are brand new, so nothing's packed out. How many socks have you got on?

MAN: Two pairs — thick ones.

WOMAN: There's your heel lift. Thick socks squash flat once you move, so you're a size up.

MAN: I put them on for the cold.

WOMAN: One thin pair will be warmer — feet get cold when they're squeezed. I'll slide a wedge in under the liner too.

MAN: Proper fix, or a patch?

WOMAN: For one lesson, proper. For a week, I'd want the narrow shell. Sit down, strip a pair off, buckle from the toes up.

MAN: Night and day. I've been flexing by the bench and my heel stays put.

WOMAN: That's the wedge earning its keep. Fair warning, it can slide out of position.

MAN: So I leave them on at lunch?

WOMAN: Taking them off is fine. It's shoving your foot back in that moves it. Walk them over to me instead — ten seconds and it's seated again.

MAN: Noted. Where did my poles end up?

WOMAN: Behind the desk. They can stay there until you head out.

MAN: And the narrow pair — eleven, you said? Can you set it aside?

WOMAN: I could. Though if these are still behaving at lunch, I'd stay put — changing shells midday means doing the whole fitting over.

MAN: What do I owe for the wedge?

WOMAN: Nothing, it's part of the fit. Where does the group meet?

MAN: No idea. First time up here.

WOMAN: Far door, past the racks, then the orange fencing by the magic carpet. Helmet on before you go through — and don't leave empty-handed. Behind the desk, remember.

MAN: Nearly forgot. Thanks — I thought I'd be missing this.

WOMAN: You'll catch the end of the warm-up. Go on.

WOMAN: Hey Owen, got a second? I want to run something by you.

MAN: Sure, what's up?

WOMAN: So, the numbers I sent to the client yesterday, I think I might have used last quarter's figures instead of this quarter's.

MAN: Oh. Did anyone catch it? I mixed up two invoices last year and caught it myself.

WOMAN: Not yet, as far as I know. I mean, it's probably fine, right? The totals were close either way.

MAN: How close?

WOMAN: Close enough that maybe nobody will notice. I don't know, what do you think, should I even bring it up?

MAN: I think you already know the answer to that.

WOMAN: I do, kind of. I just keep telling myself it's not a big deal.

MAN: Is it a big deal?

WOMAN: I mean, it's not nothing. The client makes decisions based on those numbers.

MAN: Right. So probably worth flagging, sooner rather than later.

WOMAN: Yeah. I guess I was hoping you'd tell me it could wait. Maybe I could just call them instead, so there's nothing in writing if it ever comes up again.

MAN: I get why. An email leaves a record, though, I'd send that instead of calling. Nobody likes saying "actually, that was wrong."

WOMAN: Exactly. It's not even about getting in trouble, it's just... embarrassing.

MAN: For what it's worth, catching it yourself before someone else does really does count for a lot.

WOMAN: I hadn't thought of it that way.

MAN: Send the correction today. Honestly, that'll matter way more than the mistake ever will.

WOMAN: Okay. I'll write the email now, before I talk myself out of it again.

WOMAN: Hi, I'm Grace! Come on in and have a seat. So, what are we doing today?

MAN: Well, I'm hoping you can fix something for me. Let me just take off this toque so you can see.

WOMAN: Oh! Oh, I see. Okay. Do I want to know what happened?

MAN: (laughing) It's a long story. My daughter's ten, and lately she's been watching hair videos online nonstop. Last night she asked if she could practise on me, and she was so excited I didn't have the heart to say no.

WOMAN: Aw, that's sweet of you.

MAN: She started at the back, then tried to even it out, and then tried to even that out...

WOMAN: Yes, I can tell, and there's a really short patch above your left ear.

MAN: That's the part that worries me. On Sunday we're having a big family photo taken for my parents' fiftieth anniversary. Everybody's coming, even my cousins from Halifax, and the picture's going to hang in their living room for the next twenty years.

WOMAN: Oh, wow! Okay, no pressure, then. So here's what I'd suggest. I can't make that short patch any longer, so the only real option is to bring everything else down to match it. I'd take the sides and back quite short with the clippers, and then leave a bit more length on top so it doesn't look too severe. That way the patch just blends in, and nobody will be able to tell where it was.

MAN: Hmm... I've worn my hair the same way since university.

WOMAN: I understand. But it's going to look much more natural in the photo than what you've got now.

MAN: Okay, go ahead... just—not too short on top, please.

WOMAN: Got it. So, what does your daughter think of her work?

MAN: Oh, she loves it! She took pictures from every angle and sent them to her grandmother.

WOMAN: Oh no! So your mother's already seen it?

MAN: She has, and she called first thing this morning to ask if I'd booked an appointment yet.

WOMAN: Well, you can tell her it's being taken care of. This will take about forty minutes. Okay, tilt your head forward a little for me, and let's get started.

MAN: A woodworking class at the Portage la Prairie Men's Shed has spent the past two months building wheelchair ramps for residents who can't afford to hire a contractor. The program normally focuses on smaller projects like birdhouses and garden benches, but organizers say they shifted attention this spring after receiving several requests from families struggling with mobility issues at home. Instructor Isolde Ostergaard said the idea came together quickly once members realized how much material they already had on hand from donated lumber. She estimated that a typical contractor-built ramp in the area costs between two and four thousand dollars, while the group can usually complete one for under three hundred dollars in materials. So far the class has built five ramps, including one for a retired mail carrier who had been using a makeshift plank to get his wheelchair up the front steps. Sable Nazarian, one of the volunteers who helped design the ramps, said the hardest part wasn't the carpentry but figuring out the right slope for each house, since some yards slope more steeply than others. The group meets twice a week in a shed behind the community centre, and most of the volunteers are retirees who took up woodworking after leaving other trades. Ostergaard said the response from the community has been stronger than expected. "We thought we'd get maybe one or two requests a month," she said, "but we're already booked well into the fall."

woman1: We need to decide how to handle sharing a small office before Friday afternoon. The layout has to be confirmed before supplies are ordered.

man1: My first thought is using the cheaper or simpler location. It helps because it would keep the cost and setup effort low, but the space may feel crowded or hard to reach.

woman2: I would also consider choosing the more visible or comfortable setup. It would make the experience easier for most people, though it may cost more than the current budget allows.

woman1: So the issue is not just speed. We need comfort without overspending and a choice people understand.

man1: Exactly. If we rush, a cheap setup can become expensive if people avoid it.

woman2: What if we get two estimates and test the layout on paper? That gives us evidence before we make the final call.

man1: I can support that if we include enough room for people to move safely. Otherwise the trial will only confirm what we already wanted.

woman1: Fair. I will draw the revised layout; one of you can list the space concerns, and the other can ask for the second estimate.

woman2: Then we can review it after lunch tomorrow. If the response is reasonable, we will compare estimates before recommending a setup; if not, we adjust.

MAN: Good evening. The Harrowgate Falls School Board is reviewing how it feeds students at midday. For six years it has run a targeted program: families below a set income line apply once a year and receive a lunch card for each child. Trustees are now being asked to replace it with a universal program that would give every student the same lunch at no charge. A survey of two thousand households in Harrowgate Falls found broad agreement that no child should sit through the afternoon hungry, and no settled view at all about who ought to pay for lunches that families could afford themselves. Pilar Vandenberg chairs the board's finance committee. She puts the yearly cost of the targeted program at about nine hundred thousand dollars and the universal version at roughly two and a half million. Vandenberg does not treat that gap as decisive. The board, she notes, would drop the staff time now spent checking applications, and would stop printing and replacing lost cards. She will not take the money from anywhere but the province, and would vote for universal lunches only if the province committed to the difference for five years. Ilkka Wetherby, who speaks for the Harrowgate Falls teachers' association, sees the problem elsewhere. His members spend hours each September collecting forms, and a school office clerk ends up knowing which children hold cards and which do not. That, he says, is the real complaint about the present arrangement. The food, he adds, is fine; what marks a child out is being identified at the till in front of a line of classmates. Wetherby accepts that the universal plan would cost more, but says the board is comparing the wrong things. Sinead Yelverton, principal of Marrowfield Public School, has run the program in her building since it began. Her figures are the ones critics point to. Of the families her office believes are eligible, fewer than two-thirds return the form. Some miss the deadline, some never read the letter, and some would rather go without than sign a paper saying they cannot afford lunch. Yelverton adds a second number that draws less attention: of the children whose applications are turned down, about one in eight lives in a household sitting just above the line. The compromise before trustees would make lunches universal in schools where more than half the students already qualify, and leave the forms in place elsewhere. Trustees vote in November.