CELPIP Listening Part 6 · Viewpoints · set 6 of 10

Should Cooking Classes Be Mandatory in High School?

A CELPIP Listening Part 6 practice set (Viewpoints): the transcript, 6 questions and the answer key with an explanation for each answer. No sign-up needed. This page prints the transcript and has no audio; on the real test you hear the recording once and cannot replay it.

The task

You will hear a school trustee at a school board meeting give her view on making cooking classes mandatory. Listen once, then answer the questions.

You hear the audio only once.
The speaker presents a point of view: follow the argument and the position, not only the facts.

Questions: 6
Time: 4 minutes
Practice set: 6 of 10

Transcript

The test plays this once, as audio. For real practice, answer the questions first, then check the transcript.

I'm here tonight to support the proposal that every student in our district take one semester of food and cooking before they graduate. I know some of you have doubts, so I want to address them directly. The biggest objection I've heard is about time. Our students already have a full timetable, and adding a required course could push out an elective like music or a second language. That's a real cost. I've also heard that cooking should be taught at home, not at school, and that a kitchen classroom is expensive. Equipping one properly costs about sixty thousand dollars. I take all of that seriously. But consider what's changed. Many of our students are growing up in homes where both parents work long hours, and dinner often comes from a box or a delivery app. When our district surveyed grade twelve students last year, forty-two percent said they couldn't cook a basic meal without following a video step by step. Some said they'd never used a sharp knife. In a year or two, many of these young people will be living on their own, in residence or in a first apartment, on a tight budget. Knowing how to make a pot of soup or a stir-fry for a few dollars is not a hobby. It's a life skill, in the same way that knowing how to read a lease is. There are other benefits, too. Cooking classes use math when students scale a recipe, and science when they learn why bread rises. And teachers who already run the cooking elective at Northview Secondary tell me that some of their quietest students, the ones who struggle in regular classes, are the ones who shine in the kitchen. About the cost: I'm not suggesting we build new kitchens everywhere. Five of our seven high schools already have one that's used only part of the day. The other two could share, with students taking a bus once a week. And about timing, I'd propose fitting the course into grade ten, where the timetable is a little lighter, so that we don't squeeze out the arts. No course can replace what families teach. But we can make sure that no student leaves our schools unable to feed themselves.

Questions and answer key

1What does the speaker want the school board to do?
1. AReplace music classes with cooking classes
2. BBuild new kitchens in every high school
3. COffer cooking as an optional after-school club
4. ✓Require all students to take a cooking course
Answer: D
She supports the proposal that 'every student in our district take one semester of food and cooking before they graduate.' Replacing music is wrong because she wants to avoid having to 'squeeze out the arts.'
2What did the district's survey of grade twelve students find?
1. AMost of the students said they regularly cooked dinner for their families.
2. BStudents preferred delivery apps to school meals.
3. ✓Over forty percent could not cook a basic meal without a video.
4. DForty-two students had never used a sharp knife.
Answer: C
'Forty-two percent said they couldn't cook a basic meal without following a video.' The number forty-two was a percentage, not a count of students who hadn't used a knife.
3Why does the speaker compare cooking to reading a lease?
1. ATo suggest that students should also learn about renting
2. ✓To present cooking as a practical skill for living independently
3. CTo argue that both should be taught at home
4. DTo show that cooking is more important than reading
Answer: B
She calls cooking 'a life skill, in the same way that knowing how to read a lease is', meaning both matter once students live on their own. She is not proposing a lesson on renting.
4What can be inferred about the cooking elective at Northview Secondary?
1. ✓It helps some students who find other classes difficult.
2. BIt is the most popular course offered at Northview Secondary this year.
3. CIt will be cancelled if the proposal passes.
4. DIt is taught mainly by science teachers.
Answer: A
Teachers say students 'who struggle in regular classes' are 'the ones who shine in the kitchen.' Science is mentioned only as something students learn in cooking, not as the teachers' subject.
5How does the speaker suggest dealing with the cost?
1. AAsking parents to pay a course fee
2. BSpending about sixty thousand dollars to build a new kitchen at each school
3. CWaiting until new funding becomes available
4. ✓Using existing kitchens and sharing them between schools
Answer: D
'Five of our seven high schools already have one', and 'the other two could share'. Sixty thousand dollars is the cost of equipping a kitchen, which she says she is not proposing at every school.
6Why does the speaker suggest placing the course in grade ten?
1. AGrade ten students are old enough to use knives safely.
2. BMost students leave home after grade ten.
3. ✓The grade ten timetable has more room, which protects the arts.
4. DThe school kitchens are only available during the hours of grade ten classes.
Answer: C
Grade ten is 'where the timetable is a little lighter, so that we don't squeeze out the arts.' Living on their own is linked to students a year or two after grade twelve, not after grade ten.

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