CELPIP Speaking Task 3: Describing a Scene

CELPIP Speaking Task 3 Sample Answer: Downtown Crowd Walking Between Buses

This picture shows a crowd of pedestrians walking down the middle of a downtown street with cars, vans and buses behind them. The tricky part is organising a crowd of near-identical walkers, so pick a few people with distinct clothes and move from front to back.

Preparation

30 seconds

Speaking

60 seconds

Picture

A detailed illustration

The question

CELPIP Speaking Task 3 practice picture: Downtown Crowd Walking Between Buses

Describe some things that are happening in the picture below as well as you can. The person with whom you are speaking cannot see the picture.

How to plan your answer

What they want

Describe a downtown street full of pedestrians walking in the road, with cars, vans and two city buses behind them and tall office buildings on both sides.

Plan (60 sec)

Overview: "This is a busy downtown street, and a big crowd of people is walking right down the middle of the road."
Foreground: a man in a white polo shirt looks down; a bald man in a pink shirt has his back to us.
Centre: a man in a teal polo and a woman in a rust-coloured cardigan walk side by side.
Left: a man in a light blue shirt and jeans; right: a woman in a black top and beige pants.
Background: traffic — white vans, silver cars, a red car and two white buses.
Setting: skyscrapers on both sides, a few trees, and a grey, cloudy sky.

Useful vocabulary

pedestrians, downtown, traffic, skyscrapers
crowd, sidewalk, commuters, overcast

Phrases

"Right in front of us,..."
"Behind the crowd,..."
"It seems like..."

Avoid

Saying only "there is traffic"; name the buses, vans and cars.
Describing every walker; choose four or five with clear clothing.

Excellent answer (transcript): around CLB 11–12

This is a busy downtown street, and what's surprising is that a big crowd of pedestrians is walking right down the middle of the road, with the traffic stuck behind them. Closest to us, there's a bald man in a pink shirt with his back to the camera, and just past him, a man in a white polo shirt is glancing down at the pavement. In the centre, a man in a teal polo and a woman in a rust-coloured cardigan are walking side by side, and she's looking straight ahead. Off to the left, a man in a light blue shirt and jeans is striding along, while on the right, a woman in a black blouse and beige pants is heading our way. Further back, the road is packed with white vans, silver cars, a red car and two white city buses. Tall office towers line both sides of the street, and the sky is grey and overcast.

159 words

Why it scores high

Content/Coherence: Pointing out the surprise, people walking "right down the middle of the road, with the traffic stuck behind them," gives the description an interesting focus.
Vocabulary: Precise verbs such as "glancing down at the pavement," "striding along" and "heading our way" show each person's movement clearly.
Listenability: Signposts like "Closest to us," "just past him," "Off to the left" and "Further back" create a smooth front-to-back flow.

Good answer (transcript): around CLB 7–8

This picture shows a busy downtown street with lots of people walking right in the middle of the road. In the front, there's a man in a white polo shirt who's looking down, and a bald man in a pink shirt with his back to us. In the middle, a man in a teal shirt is walking next to a woman wearing a rust-coloured cardigan. On the left, there's a man in a light blue shirt and jeans, and on the right, a woman in a black top and beige pants. Behind the crowd, there's a lot of traffic, including vans, cars and two white buses. Both sides of the street are lined with tall office buildings.

117 words

What works, and what's missing

Content/Coherence: The answer moves logically from "In the front" to "In the middle," the sides and "Behind the crowd," so the listener can follow the layout.
Vocabulary: Accurate clothing words like "teal," "rust-coloured cardigan" and "beige pants" help the listener tell the walkers apart.
Task Fulfillment: The grey, overcast sky is never mentioned; adding the weather would round out an otherwise complete description.

Basic answer (transcript): around CLB 4–5

This picture is a street in the city. There is many people walking in the road. In the front one man wear white shirt and he is looking down. Also there is a man with no hair and pink shirt. In the middle one man have green shirt and one woman have orange sweater. Behind the people there is many cars and two bus. The buildings is very tall. The sky is grey. Maybe the people is going to work.

80 words

What holds it back

Vocabulary: "a man with no hair" replaces 'bald,' and agreement errors like "there is many people," "two bus" and "the buildings is" keep recurring.
Content/Coherence: The traffic is summed up as "many cars and two bus," leaving out the vans, the red car and where the vehicles are.
Listenability: Sentences such as "The sky is grey" stand alone with no linking words, so the description feels like a string of facts.

The CLBs are estimates of the level each sample was written at, not official CELPIP scores. How we estimate CLB