Rule four shelves before it starts
The recording hasn't begun, and your notes already have a shape: four lines down the pad, in the order news is built. When something goes by, you'll know where it belongs.
CELPIP GymListening courseLesson 4 · Listening Part 4, news item
News runs in a fixed order
A news item is short, plays once and shows you no questions until it's over. But reporters build the news in a dependable order, so you can rule your notes before the first word. Four moves turn that order into marks.
6 minutes to read
1
The headline is question one
News tells you what happened in its first sentence or two, then spends the rest adding to it. Before it starts, rule four shelves on your pad: what happened, who said what, the numbers, what's next. Get the headline onto the top shelf in five words, whatever else you miss. If it opens with a catchy line, the news is in the next sentence. Scroll to fill the shelves from one report.
Why it scores. "Mainly about" and "what happened" are answered by the opening lines, and later details only make sense hung from them. Shelves also show you where to look when the questions arrive.
Wins the main-point question
First sentence, top shelf
The headline goes by once. Five words, no more. It answers the question you can count on, and it's the one thing you can't afford to lose.
Names land on the second shelf
Now the report brings in people. Each one goes on this shelf with what they said. You've stopped deciding what to write, and started filing.
Numbers land on the third
Figures arrive in a cluster. Keep each with its unit, even if you have to drop a word somewhere else.
The tail says what's next
Reports tend to end on what happens now. It sounds like a sign-off, so it's easy to let go. One line at the narrow end of the pad.
One screen, and the top shelf answers first
The questions appear together as sentences to complete. Question one's answer is on your top shelf, in different words. Every other stem points to a shelf too.
- Library lends snowshoes
- Okafor: families asked for years
Renaud: will cost him rentals - 60 pairs · $12k grant · 7 days
- Board may add skis
Before it plays Rule the four shelves. Nothing has been said yet.
The Ardley Public Library will begin lending snowshoes this winter, the first program of its kind in the county.
Head librarian Mina Okafor says families who can't afford gear have been asking for years. Local outfitter Paul Renaud worries it will cost him rentals.
Sixty pairs arrive in December, paid for by a twelve-thousand-dollar provincial grant, with loans limited to seven days.
If demand holds, the library board will consider adding cross-country skis next fall.
- The report is mainly about a library that will lend out winter gear
- Paul Renaud is concerned that the program could Select
- The money for the program comes from Select
- Each loan can last for up to Select
- Next fall, the library board may Select
2
Name and claim, in pairs
A short report packs in several named people. Never write a name alone or a claim alone: surname, colon, three words. Add a word for the job as well, because a question may say "the outfitter" where the report said "Renaud".
Why it scores. Part 4's choices are often claims really made in the report, given to the wrong person. A pair on your pad can't come apart.
Beats the wrong-speaker trap
- Okaforlibrarianfamilies asked for years
- Renaudoutfitterwill cost him rentals
- Talliscouncillorinsurance isn't settled
According to the councillor, the program
- could take business from a local shopRenaud's claim, wrong name
- still has a question over its insuranceThe pair on your pad
3
Numbers with their units
A bare number on your pad is useless. Sixty what? Twelve thousand of what? Write the unit with the number every time, and the thing it counts: 60 pairs, $12k grant, 7 days. Figures are easy to catch and easy to mix up.
Why it scores. A wrong choice can use a real number from the report with the wrong thing attached. A number with its unit shows that at once.
Beats the right-number, wrong-thing trap
60 pairs of snowshoes
$12,000 grant
7 days
Each loan can last for up to
- sixty daysA real number, the wrong thing
- seven daysNumber and unit together
4
One screen: sure ones first
From Part 4 on, the questions are sentences to complete, all on one screen, in any order, against one clock for the screen. So don't work from the top down. Take every answer your shelves give you in one pass, then go back to the hard ones with the time that's left, and make a guess before it runs out.
Why it scores. A sure question is worth the same as a hard one. Working in order can spend the clock on one stem and leave easy marks unanswered.
Marks you'd otherwise run out of time for
Top to bottom
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4Blank
- 5Blank
Sure ones first
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Both know the same answers. Only one of them got to all five.
The clock, spent well
One clock for all five questionsFirst passFinish every sentence your shelves answer outright.
Second passGo back to the ones you skipped, shelf by shelf.
The last secondsPut a guess in any menu still empty.
Quick hacks for Part 4
Smaller than a move, and just as easy to forget on the day.
- ClockIt's the shortest recording of the six
A news item has no slow start. Your pencil should be moving within the first five seconds.
- ScreenThe sentence starts, and you finish it
Each question is the first half of a sentence. Finish it in your head before you open the menu, then look for your ending.
- PadOne letter for the subject
A report repeats its subject all the way through. Give it a letter at the top of the pad and never write it out again.
- If it slipsMissed the headline? Build it from the rest
Three people making claims about one thing tell you what the report is mainly about. Work back from your second shelf.
Take this into the test
- 1Four shelves before it plays: what, who, numbers, next.
- 2Surname with claim, and number with unit.
- 3On the screen, take the sure ones first, then come back.