CELPIP Listening Practice Test 42

MAN: Do you take catering changes at the counter? I've got a lunch booked for Friday, and five more people just said yes.

WOMAN: Five extra is nothing. I can put those on now.

MAN: I tried it on the website this morning. It wouldn't take.

WOMAN: It wouldn't, no. Anything over twenty-five plates has to come through one of us, because the whole order gets priced again at a higher minimum.

MAN: Priced again? I've only added five.

WOMAN: I know. But the figure you worked out at home will be low.

MAN: Should I cancel it and put a clean one in?

WOMAN: I wouldn't. It's not the paperwork, it's your delivery slot. That sits with the original booking, and Friday mornings booked up weeks ago.

MAN: So amend it, don't start over.

WOMAN: Exactly. Give me ten minutes and I'll have the new total, then you confirm it with me here.

MAN: Is there a rush?

WOMAN: A bit. My order sheet goes in at four, and after that your slot's only provisional.

MAN: Four's fine. I'll come back after my meeting.

WOMAN: Good. I'll email you the amended form once it's through.

WOMAN: Your new total's just come out: twenty-eight plates, and it clears the higher minimum with room to spare. Sign here and it's done.

MAN: Thanks. Now something else has come up, though. Two of the twenty-eight have just told me they're vegetarian.

WOMAN: So the count's right and the mix is wrong.

MAN: That's it. The menu I picked has four vegetarian portions. I need six.

WOMAN: Then we don't touch the count. We switch two of the meat portions over, and everything else stays exactly as it is.

MAN: And that doesn't reopen the pricing?

WOMAN: No. Price follows the plate count, not what's on them, so the total stands. What changes is the notice. Normally you'd have until Thursday to alter a menu, but dietary meals are prepped on a separate line, so they close earlier, tonight.

MAN: Tonight. That's tighter than I'd like, but I can have a final number by five.

WOMAN: One number, please. If they keep coming in, the kitchen reshuffles its prep, and your delivery time moves with it.

MAN: Understood. I'll call the last two people and send you one figure.

WOMAN: Perfect. Then Friday's mix is sorted.

MAN: I sent the six vegetarian through, and the caterer's just called.

WOMAN: I saw. Moving the dietary prep pushed your drop-off back an hour, twelve thirty instead of eleven thirty.

MAN: Which is the part that bothers me. I've told thirty people lunch at eleven thirty.

WOMAN: Then it's either push the lunch back and tell them, or hope the van runs early.

MAN: Could they bring half at eleven thirty and the rest after?

WOMAN: I asked. Two runs, and the driver won't promise either drop-off, so I wouldn't.

MAN: What about something to keep the first half hot?

WOMAN: A chafing dish has to be booked the day before, and we're past that. The van's loaded: your plates, the big coffee urn, and the amended form the driver hands you, so there's nothing for you to print.

MAN: Then I'll take twelve thirty and push the lunch back. Nobody minds a change if they hear it today.

WOMAN: Sensible. Still, Friday's heavy - twelve thirty isn't a promise either.

MAN: Right. I'll get my phone out and tell the group now, before people wander off and make their own plans.

WOMAN: Good idea.

WOMAN: Hi Aaron, the washing machine is making that grinding noise again on the spin cycle, and this time it left my sweater soaking wet.

MAN: I heard it from my room. I still think we should repair it; a new one would wipe out our household budget.

WOMAN: Repairs on a machine this old feel like throwing money away. We've already paid a technician twice this year, and it still rattles loudly.

MAN: True, but the landlord will cover the repair if we report it promptly. It costs us nothing as long as we're quick.

WOMAN: I didn't know that. If the landlord covers it, fixing it once more is easier to accept than buying new.

MAN: Right. I'll email him tonight with a photo of the puddle so there's a clear record of the damage.

WOMAN: Good. Meanwhile, can we agree not to overload it? Three of my sweaters at once probably strained the motor.

MAN: Agreed. I'll pin a small load limit right on the door so guests don't cram it either, like they did last time over the holidays.

WOMAN: Perfect. I'll drop the wet laundry at the place around the corner so we're not stuck without clean clothes.

MAN: Thanks. Keep the receipt; if the landlord is slow this month, we can ask him to cover the wash as well.

WOMAN: Smart. And let's not run it overnight anymore; if it leaks while we sleep, the unit below could end up with water damage.

MAN: Hey, welcome in! What are you thinking of getting done today?

WOMAN: Hi, I'm Priya. I've been wanting a second ear piercing, but I saw two options online, a standard lobe piercing and something called a helix. I'm not sure whether to get another lobe piercing first, or go straight to the helix as my first cartilage piercing.

MAN: Sure, I'm Devon, let's go over both. A second lobe piercing is on soft tissue, so it typically heals in about six to eight weeks for many people and is often lower-maintenance. A helix is cartilage, on the upper ear, and commonly takes four to six months to heal, though individual healing times vary and it may need more careful aftercare.

WOMAN: Why does cartilage take so much longer?

MAN: Cartilage has less blood flow than the soft tissue in your lobe, and less blood flow generally means slower healing, plus it may be more prone to complications like bumps or irritation if aftercare isn't followed carefully.

WOMAN: That's good to know. Given that, would you recommend I start with the lobe piercing first?

MAN: If you'd prefer an easier start, I'd suggest doing the lobe first as practice with aftercare routines, since if you can manage the simpler healing process well, you'll be in a better position for cartilage later, whereas jumping straight to cartilage means learning proper care on a piercing that's less forgiving of mistakes.

WOMAN: That makes sense, I'll start with the lobe then. What does aftercare actually involve?

MAN: General aftercare usually includes cleaning with saline solution twice a day, avoiding touching it with unwashed hands, and not sleeping on that side for the first few weeks, though individual instructions may vary.

WOMAN: I can manage that. How much does the lobe piercing cost?

MAN: Forty dollars, which includes the piercing itself and a starter stud, saline solution is an additional eight dollars if you don't already have some at home.

WOMAN: And how long before I can change out the starter stud?

MAN: For the lobe, wait until it's fully healed, around six to eight weeks, before swapping it, and keep using the saline the whole time.

WOMAN: I don't have any, so let's add that. Can we do it now?

MAN: Yes, I'm free right now, it only takes about five minutes.

MAN: The Woodstock Memorial Pool reopened Saturday morning after sitting empty for two years, and by nine o'clock the parking lot was already full. The pool closed in 2024 when inspectors found the original filtration system, installed in the 1980s, was leaking and beyond repair. The town didn't have the roughly $340,000 needed to replace it, so a group of residents stepped in. Lachlan Colautti, who organized the fundraising committee, said the group held bottle drives, a silent auction, and a series of pancake breakfasts before finally landing a matching grant from a provincial recreation fund last spring. "We were maybe a third of the way there before that grant came through," Colautti said. "After that, things moved fast." Torsten Okonkwo, a plumber who volunteered nearly two hundred hours installing the new system, said the work wasn't glamorous but mattered to him because his own kids learned to swim at that pool. He spent several weekends this summer running pipe and testing pressure valves alongside a licensed contractor. The pool will run on a reduced schedule for now, open only in the afternoons on weekdays, since the town still hasn't hired enough lifeguards to cover full hours. Colautti said the committee plans to keep fundraising, this time for a proper lifeguard training program, so the pool can eventually return to its old summer schedule.

man2: Before we send anything about training the museum assistant to lead tours, I want us to slow down. The session date is close and the materials are not settled.

woman1: The simplest answer is sending a short guide before the session. The advantage is that it would save meeting time and let people prepare.

man1: They might understand it, but some people may skim it without learning enough. That is the part I think people will remember.

man2: The other possibility is running a smaller hands-on practice session. It would let people try the work while questions are fresh, although it could take staff away from regular duties.

woman1: I am open to that, as long as we do not create a process nobody can manage.

man1: Then let us send the guide first and hold one targeted practice block. It keeps the decision practical without hiding the risk.

man2: Good. We should also include examples that match the real tasks, because training fails when it explains rules but not real tasks.

woman1: I can trim the guide to one page today, and you can reserve a short practice slot before the next staff update.

man1: I will do that. Once we compare the results before the notice goes out, we will revise the materials and test one session.

MAN: Good afternoon. Northline Insurance is reviewing its work policy after two years of department-set schedules. At first the disagreement sounds familiar: some want to stay home, others want everyone back. But the interviews suggest the real question is not simply where people sit. It is how the company can get dependable teamwork without taking away useful independence. Priya Shah, a claims analyst, prefers working from home most days. She likes avoiding a crowded train, but the bigger gain is less obvious. At home, she can finish difficult files before messages and casual questions break her concentration. In other words, what she protects is not merely travel time; it is a long, uninterrupted stretch of work. That said, Priya does not support complete freedom. When nobody knows who is available, a quick question can turn into three emails and a meeting. She wants protected focus time, along with planned office days for decisions that need several people. Marcus Lee, who supervises new employees, places more value on the office. New staff, he says, learn important things by hearing how experienced colleagues handle unusual cases. Those lessons rarely appear in training documents. Still, Marcus admits that attendance is weak evidence of contribution: someone can be visible all day and accomplish very little. His second argument for commuting is personal rather than managerial: the ride home gives him time to shift out of work mode before seeing his family. He would not require office attendance for routine reporting, but he does want it when teams need quick back-and-forth discussion. Human resources director Elena Brooks says both extreme policies create problems. A fixed three-day rule is easy to explain, yet it treats every task as though it benefits equally from physical presence. A fully optional system sounds fair, but it may favour employees who can appear whenever senior managers happen to be there. Brooks is proposing a six-month team-based trial. Each department would choose shared office days for planning, training, and difficult handoffs, while keeping remote blocks for concentrated work. Crucially, management would judge the trial by project delays, customer response times, and repeated errors—not by how often employee badges are scanned. So the likely answer is neither a return to daily commuting nor permanent home-based work. The stronger policy would use office time for tasks that gain from quick exchange and remote time for work that needs sustained attention. The location would be a tool, not a reward or a test of loyalty.