CELPIP Reading Practice Test 51

Dear Gary,

I am afraid we cannot have the November 12 meeting at my place after all. The contractors start on my kitchen cabinets on Monday, and they say there will be three weeks of dust and no working sink. It's a real shame, since I'd already planned the whole menu!

Instead, I've booked the ground-floor lounge in my building from 7 to 9 p.m. The superintendent charges $20 for the room, and the club fund will pay for it. The book is settled too. Winter Ferry won the vote, mostly because people wanted something quick after last season's giant, which took most of us two months to get through. I read the first few chapters on the plane out here, and the ferry in the story is the old one to Prince Edward Island that we used to take as kids, so I'm already hooked. The only thing still missing is someone to lead the discussion, and you did such a good job with the last one that I am hoping you will do it again.

I also need a favour. The lounge only has ten chairs, and with Doug and Marion back from their year in Ottawa there will be 14 of us, so could you bring the folding chairs from your garage? I'd pick them up myself, but I am flying back from my cousin Lily's place in Halifax that afternoon and my plane does not land until almost six. If my connection in Toronto is late, I won't make it in time to unlock the room, and the superintendent goes home at five. The spare key is with Irene Kowalski down the hall from me, and she's almost always in.

I'm actually writing this at Lily's kitchen table while the baby sleeps in the next room. He's three weeks old now and has a full head of black hair, just like his dad, and they have named him after our grandfather, which made my mother cry on the phone. This meeting is also our second anniversary. Two years already! The club fund is paying for a cake and coffee, so nobody needs to bake anything. Anyways, let me know about the chairs when you get a chance, and if you can't do it, I'll just ask one of the others.

See you on the 12th!

Karen

Dear Karen,

What a pain about your kitchen. I know you were 7. Choose…tired ofreally looking forward toa bit nervous aboutnot keen on having us all at your place. The lounge will do just fine, though, and I'm 8. Choose…not sure thatannoyed thatsorry to hear thatflattered that you liked the last discussion. I'll gladly lead this one too. I'm only on chapter three of Winter Ferry, but it's nice that the club picked 9. Choose…something longersomething much shortera book by a local writera more serious book this time. We've been busy here. Emily's hockey team won the city final on Sunday, and she hasn't taken her medal off since! I have six folding chairs, and I'll bring them all. If you're held up in Toronto, I'll 10. Choose…get the key from Irenepick you up at the airportask the superintendent to open upwait for you in the lobby and set the chairs out myself. Please give my 11. Choose…congratulationssympathyapologiesthanks to Lily.

See you on the 12th,

Gary

Hi Jordan!

I finally worked through the leaflet from the front desk. We can't manage anything in August, and I refuse to pay on top of the ticket, which leaves 12. Choose…Holiday LightsHarvest FestivalFamily Nature DaySpring Bulb Walk. That still feels like a decent afternoon out. My plan is mid-November, when the gardens shut at 13. Choose…8:00 PM4:00 PM6:00 PM5:00 PM, which means setting off after lunch. The membership question needs sorting on the day, and that has to happen at 14. Choose…the Garden Shopthe Visitor Centerthe Garden Cafethe Conservatory. It's the class on attracting bees and butterflies my niece wants, which falls on 15. Choose…May 4Oct 12Jun 8Jul 6, though I can't tell whether she qualifies for 16. Choose…the youth ratethe senior ratethe student ratethe child rate at twelve, with her birthday not until next year. Also, the number on the back rang out three times this morning. No idea whether the line is down, but you might have better luck by email!

Maya

Paragraph A

In April 1980, Terry Fox, a 21-year-old cancer survivor from British Columbia, dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland, and began running west across Canada. His goal was to raise one dollar from every Canadian for cancer research, a target inspired by his own experience losing part of his right leg to the disease three years earlier. Fox called his run the Marathon of Hope, and he initially expected relatively little public attention, running an average of a marathon's distance nearly every day. He had trained for more than a year beforehand, testing several prosthetic designs to find one that could withstand the daily strain of the run. That boundary is important to the larger account.

Paragraph B

Fox's run drew little national attention during its early weeks, and he struggled at times to secure even basic media coverage in the small communities he passed through. Public interest grew steadily as he crossed into Ontario, where large crowds and growing donations began to reflect the scale of what he was attempting. After 143 days and more than 5,000 kilometres, Fox was forced to stop running just outside Thunder Bay when doctors discovered that his cancer had returned and spread to his lungs. He died the following June, having never been able to complete the run he had planned. The interruption came from illness, not fading public support. This context helps connect the separate observations in the paragraph.

Paragraph C

Although Fox did not finish the run himself, the cause he had started outlived him. The first Terry Fox Run was held in 1981, the year he died, and the Terry Fox Foundation was formally established in 1988 to coordinate fundraising and support cancer research. Unlike many charitable campaigns tied to a single event, the annual Terry Fox Run has continued for more than four decades without interruption, adapting to virtual formats when large gatherings were not possible and gradually expanding to dozens of other countries. By early 2026, fundraising inspired by Fox had passed the one-billion-dollar mark, many times over the modest one-dollar-per-Canadian goal he first set. This framing connects the immediate facts without erasing the distinctions among them.

Paragraph D

Fox has since been commemorated extensively across Canada, including a mountain in British Columbia and a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near where his run was forced to end. A commemorative coin has carried his image, and his name marks schools, roads, and community buildings in many parts of the country, keeping him present in everyday surroundings. Every September, schools across the country continue to hold dedicated fundraising runs in his name, introducing each new generation of students to his story. Through these permanent memorials and the yearly school runs together, his example is renewed each year rather than left to fade after a single occasion. Taken together, these observations define both the pattern and the boundary of the claim.

Paragraph E

Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

A cancelled basketball session reveals why governance matters more than a large inventory. Thirty families arrived to locked doors, and neither the school board nor the city accepted responsibility for notifying them. The incident has shifted debate away from whether residents value school facilities. The harder question is which institution can promise reliable public access without diverting staff from education. A calendar listing many rooms is not meaningful when no named operator owns the duty to open them, resolve conflicts, and communicate cancellations.

Opening a school after classes requires three separate decisions: who protects educational space, who schedules community users, and who is accountable when a door stays locked. Westhaven blurred them. Trustee Maren Holt wants principals to approve community bookings individually. She says local administrators know when clubs need priority and which rooms contain sensitive work. Her approach preserves school authority, but it would produce different rules across neighbourhoods and make evening access depend on an administrator's spare time. Holt concedes that a principal should not manage keys or collect fees; the city, she says, could perform those tasks once a booking is approved.

Recreation coordinator Joel Price would instead have the city rent a fixed list of rooms for a year and run one booking system. Predictable reservations could help custodians plan shifts, but the budget has a weak foundation. However, Price's cost estimate assumes the city would use every reserved room regularly. A lightly used kitchen would therefore consume the same rental allocation as a crowded gym, and the estimate excludes repairs caused by community use. Price has therefore assumed activity rather than measuring it. Administrative clarity would be purchased before the city knew which spaces warranted commitment.

A coalition of school councils offers a narrower answer: each district would select one community hub with an evening supervisor paid jointly by the city and board. Other buildings could still host occasional principal-approved events. This model sacrifices universal neighbourhood access, yet it creates a clear duty to open, close, and report damage at the facilities most likely to be used.

Westhaven should adopt the hub model, not an annual lease of every suitable room. Concentrated access is less convenient for some residents, but it is more credible than advertising availability that no institution is actually equipped to deliver.

Holt keeps booking approval with principals because their local knowledge identifies 34. Choose…room-specific educational constraintsannual lease pricescitywide demand totalscustodial wage schedules before a community event is authorized. Holt assigns approval to principals, but dependence on each administrator's time makes the resulting access 35. Choose…centrally leased and uniformlocally controlled but unevenfully municipal and predictableautomatic after every request across neighbourhoods. Although an annual lease is rejected, fixed reservations could still give custodians 36. Choose…lower repair billsequal room demandpredictable staffing schedulesroutine school approval. That operational advantage does not establish that lightly used rooms justify equal commitments. Under the coalition's model, each district's evening supervisor is financed through 37. Choose…annual user feesprincipal-controlled rentalsprivate club membershipa city-board partnership, rather than being charged entirely to school operations or municipal recreation. Westhaven adopts staffed hubs for routine access, while principal-approved events elsewhere remain 38. Choose…the governing citywide entitlementa second annual leasean occasional supplementthe mandatory district standard rather than an alternative universal booking system. It widens access selectively without pretending that every school now offers the same service.