Why is Listening Part 4 harder than the conversations?

It is more formal and information-dense, like a real news bulletin. The reporting vocabulary below is what makes that density manageable.

What kind of vocabulary appears in a news item?

Words for events, causes, effects, statistics and official statements. The entries below focus on exactly this reporting language.

Listening Part 4: News Item

Listening Part 4: News Item is part of the Listening section of the CELPIP General test. You get 5 questions and 3 minutes. It is scored by the number of correct answers.

Questions: 5
Time: 3 minutes
Prompts here: 25 published

The three-move news listen

1
Catch the event in the first sentence
News items front-load. The opening line is the summary the rest expands.
2
Hold who, where, when and how many
Detail is thirty-four of every sixty tagged questions in our items.
3
Separate what happened from what is only planned
Announcements, proposals and completed events sit side by side in the same sixty seconds.

In a news item, separate what happened from what is only proposed.

The most common wrong answer reports a plan as a fact.

Recognise the news and current-affairs vocabulary that appears in the broadcast-style audio of CELPIP Listening Part 4.

Part 4 is a short news report. News writing uses its own vocabulary for events, statistics and consequences, so recognising it helps you follow a denser, more formal text.

Listening · Part 4

Downtown Bike-Lane Network Opens

One of 25 published prompts · free, no account

You will hear the recording once. Listen carefully, then answer the questions.

Instructions

The audio plays once.
Choose the best answer for each question.

Audio transcript

In the real test you hear this once and cannot replay it.

Marcus: Good evening. Our top local story tonight: after nearly two years of construction, the city officially opened its new downtown bike-lane network this morning. The network adds twelve kilometres of protected lanes, connecting the waterfront to the university district and linking six neighbourhoods that previously had no safe cycling route into the core. Marcus: Mayor Diane Fortier cut the ribbon at Riverside Park just after nine o'clock, calling the project the largest active-transportation investment in the city's history. The nineteen-million-dollar network was funded jointly, with the province covering roughly sixty per cent and the municipality paying the rest. City engineers say the lanes are separated from traffic by raised concrete curbs rather than painted lines, a design chosen after several collisions on the old painted routes last winter. Marcus: Not everyone is celebrating. Some downtown business owners worry that the project removed nearly two hundred on-street parking spaces along Wellington Street, and they fear customers will shop elsewhere. In response, the city points to a new underground parkade on Cedar Avenue, which opened last month and offers four hundred spaces, with the first ninety minutes free. Marcus: Transportation officials expect the network to carry about eight thousand riders on a typical weekday once commuters adjust, roughly triple the current downtown cycling traffic. To encourage residents to try it, the transit authority is offering free bike-share memberships for the first three months, and free helmet fittings at pop-up stations every Saturday through the end of September. Marcus: Crews will spend the coming weeks adding wayfinding signs and green pavement markings at intersections. City staff remind drivers that turning across a bike lane now requires yielding to cyclists, and that fines for blocking a lane have doubled to two hundred dollars. For Maple News, I'm Marcus Bell.

Questions & answer key5 questions

Listening is scored by the number of correct answers. The audio plays once, so the skill being tested is holding detail while the next sentence arrives.

1This news report is mainly about ___.
1. Aa council debate over doubling traffic fines
2. Ba city proposal to build bike lanes over the next two years
3. ✓the opening of a new downtown network of protected bike lanes
4. Dthe launch of a new underground parkade downtown
Answer
C
The report opens by saying the city 'officially opened its new downtown bike-lane network this morning.' The proposal option is wrong scope/tense (it has already opened, not planned); the parkade and the doubled fines are mentioned only as supporting details, not the main story.
2The new lanes are separated from car traffic ___.
1. Aby rows of parked cars
2. Bby metal railings
3. ✓by raised concrete curbs
4. Dby painted lines
Answer
C
The engineers say the lanes are 'separated from traffic by raised concrete curbs rather than painted lines.' Painted lines is the mentioned-but-wrong trap: that describes the OLD routes where collisions happened; parked cars and metal railings are never mentioned.
3Some downtown business owners are concerned about the project because ___.
1. Athe construction dragged on for nearly two years
2. Bthe new parkade charges very high hourly fees
3. ✓it removed nearly two hundred on-street parking spaces
4. Dcyclists must now pay higher fines
Answer
C
The report states owners 'worry that the project removed nearly two hundred on-street parking spaces along Wellington Street.' The two-year construction is a real detail attached to the wrong question; the parkade actually offers the first ninety minutes free (contradiction); and the doubled fines apply to drivers blocking a lane, not to cyclists.
4Officials expect the network to carry ___ riders on a typical weekday.
1. Aabout two hundred
2. ✓about eight thousand
3. Cabout four hundred
4. Dabout ninety
Answer
B
Officials 'expect the network to carry about eight thousand riders on a typical weekday.' The other numbers are real figures from the script attached to the wrong item: two hundred is the lost parking spaces, four hundred is the parkade's capacity, and ninety refers to the free parking minutes.
5The city most likely chose raised concrete curbs for the lanes ___.
1. Abecause the province required that specific design
2. Bbecause concrete curbs were the cheapest available option
3. Cto free up additional space for on-street parking
4. ✓to make cycling safer after crashes on the old painted routes
Answer
D
The design was 'chosen after several collisions on the old painted routes last winter,' which implies a safety motive. Cost is never mentioned; the province funded about sixty per cent but is not said to have dictated the design; and the curbs took away parking rather than adding it, so the parking option contradicts the script.

Three mistakes that cost points heremost common first

1Reporting a proposal as something already done.
2Attributing a quote to the reporter rather than the person quoted.
3Missing a figure because it arrived inside a subordinate clause.

Now do it yourself and find out where you land

You can check right and wrong on this page. What a page cannot do is tell you which question types you keep losing, under real timing.

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Questions people ask

Why is Listening Part 4 harder than the conversations?: It is more formal and information-dense, like a real news bulletin. The reporting vocabulary below is what makes that density manageable.
What kind of vocabulary appears in a news item?: Words for events, causes, effects, statistics and official statements. The entries below focus on exactly this reporting language.

The other 24 News Item prompts1 free

·This Year's Wildfire Season
·Ongoing Ferry Service Disruptions
·Record Snowfall Buries Corner Brook
·Virtual Reality in Senior Care Centres
·Driving Rules in British Columbia
·The Annual Flu Vaccination Campaign
·Smart Glasses and Privacy
·The Growing Use of Drones in Canada
·Graffiti in Canadian Cities
·Food Waste in Canadian Communities
·Tipping Practices in Canada
·Flu Shots in Canada
·Bullying in Canadian Schools
·Changing Gender Roles in Canada
·A Public-Sector Strike
·Classrooms of the Future
·The Return of the Riverside Summer Folk Festival
·Riverbend General Hospital Announces Emergency-Wing Expansion
·Water-Main Break Disrupts Riverdale Neighbourhood
·Rescue of a Stranded Young Whale in Nova Scotia
·Riverbend School Board Approves Yearly Budget
·Riverbend Bridge Reopens After Three-Year Closure
·Regional Heat-Wave Advisory Bulletin
·Kingston Launches Curbside Compost Program

← All free practice News Item lesson →News Item vocabulary →CELPIP Listening format →Full mock exams →