CELPIP Listening Part 4: Listening to a News Item, format and tips

The part at a glance

What you hear and see

One speaker reads a short local news story: what happened, who it affects and what comes next.

After the recording, all 5 questions appear on one screen as sentences to complete, each with a drop-down menu of answers. One 4-minute timer covers the screen, so you can answer in any order and change an answer before time runs out.

Question types

• The main idea: what the story is mostly about.
• Details: who, where, when and how many.
• Reactions: how someone in the story feels about what happened.

Practise Part 4

A practice set for this part, with its own recordings, is coming soon. Until then, the free Listening & Reading mock has the full Listening section, with every recording played once.

Tips for Part 4

• Listen for the main event in the first sentences: news reports start with it.
• Notice how the people in the story react: a question asks about an attitude.
• Use the whole timer: answer the questions you are sure of first, then come back to the rest.
• Read each sentence to the end before choosing; the words after the menu often decide it.
• Watch for a sentence with a negative, such as "will not be able to": the answer is what the report says cannot or will not happen.

Common mistakes

• Choosing a detail from the story that answers a different question.
• Confusing what someone in the story said with what the reporter said.
• Running out of time on one question while others stay blank.

Questions

How many questions are in CELPIP Listening Part 4?

5, all on one screen after the news report, with 4 minutes for all of them.

How long do you have to answer in CELPIP Listening Part 4?

4 minutes for all 5 questions, which share one screen.

For all six parts and how they are timed, see the CELPIP Listening page.

See every part and task in the CELPIP test format, or how to practise for CELPIP.