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How CELPIP Listening Part 4 works, how the questions change from Part 4 on, and how to take notes in five lines that match the shape of every news story.
In Part 4 you hear one person read a short news report, like a story on the radio or TV news. It plays once, for about a minute and a half. Then five questions appear on the screen.
Part 4 is also where the questions change. In Parts 1 to 3 you heard each question and had 30 seconds for it. From Part 4 on, you read all the questions on one screen, and you choose the order. This lesson covers both: what changes, and what to write while the news plays.
| Speakers | one speaker |
| The audio | one news report, about 1.5 minutes |
| Questions | about 5, after the audio |
| Time | about 5 minutes for the whole part |
| Tone | formal and factual, like a news story on the radio or TV |
Source: CELPIP Listening Pro study pack, 2026.
The news is about everyday life. It might be a local event where something surprising happened, a new kind of technology that helps people, or a story about people meeting animals.
The clip plays one time only, like every Listening clip, and a wrong answer does not lose points.
| Parts 1 to 3 | Parts 4 to 6 | |
|---|---|---|
| The question | you hear it | you read it |
| Its form | a question with 4 answers | half a sentence: you choose the ending from 4 options |
| The screen | one question at a time | all the questions on one screen |
| Time | 30 seconds for each question | one set time for all the questions |
| Order | you must answer in order | you can answer in any order |
Source: CELPIP Listening Pro study pack, 2026. Two things follow from it.
Answer the easy ones first. The study pack advises starting with the questions you are sure about. Then go back to the harder ones with the time that is left, and watch the clock as you work, because one timer covers all five questions together and it does not wait for you.
You cannot see the questions before the news. They only appear after the audio ends. So you need notes that are ready for any question. The next section shows how.
This pattern is ours, not CELPIP's. Most news reports are built this way, and the free practice set in the video follows it exactly:
CELPIP's own advice for news is close to this: listen for who, what, when, where and why. The study pack also says that the questions come in roughly the same order as the answers in the audio. So the first question usually comes from the start of the news, and the last from the end.
This method is ours, not CELPIP's. Before the audio starts, write five labels down the side of your paper:
| Line | What goes on it |
|---|---|
| WHO | every name, with the person's job next to it |
| WHY | why it happened: every because, every cause |
| WHAT HAPPENED | the events and the result, in order |
| WHO SAID | the person who speaks in a quote, and the main idea of their words |
| FEELS | the feeling word they actually used |
A news story gives a person's full name the first time they appear, and after that it uses only their last name, so the same person can sound like someone new if you have not written both names down. The study pack points this out too.
So you hear Laura Bennett once, and after that only Bennett. The question may use her name or her job. Write both together on the WHO line: Bennett = nurse, owner. Then you can match the person whichever way the question names them.
News items have many numbers: years, prices, distances. In the free practice set used in the video, five numbers are said, and none of the five questions asks for one. Write a number only when it belongs to an event, not every number you hear.
🎥 CELPIP Listening Part 4: the five lines on a real practice set (12:02)
The five lines filled in while a free practice news item plays, then all 5 questions answered from the notes, the easiest first.
Jump to: 1:01 the Part 4 format · 1:31 what is new in Part 4 · 2:07 how a news item is built · 3:10 the 5 lines · 4:11 the free practice set · 6:30 the notes · 7:10 questions 3 and 4 · 7:51 questions 5 and 2 · 8:24 question 1 · 9:02 2 tricks · 10:08 recap
We wrote this short example for the page. It has the same shape as a real Part 4 news item, but it is a little shorter.
Introductory statement: You will hear a news item about a lost dog.
| The news report |
|---|
| A family in Riverton was reunited with their dog yesterday, three weeks after he went missing during a storm. Max, a six-year-old golden retriever, ran away from his home on Pine Street when loud thunder frightened him on the night of June 3rd. His owner, nurse Laura Bennett, put up posters across the neighbourhood and shared his photo online. |
| On Tuesday, bus driver Omar Haddad noticed a dog sleeping under a bench at the end of his route, almost 20 kilometres from Riverton. He recognized Max from a photo a passenger had shown him. Haddad gave the dog water and called the number on the poster. |
| Bennett drove out to meet them the same evening. "I had almost stopped hoping," Bennett said. "When I saw him, I just couldn't stop smiling." The local animal shelter says the story is a good reminder for owners to put an ID tag on their pets, and it is offering free tags this month. |
| Line | Notes |
|---|---|
| WHO | Laura Bennett = nurse, owner · Omar Haddad = bus driver · animal shelter |
| WHY | thunder frightened Max (storm) |
| WHAT HAPPENED | missing 3 weeks · posters + photo online · Haddad found him under a bench, end of bus route · called the poster number · shelter: free ID tags this month |
| WHO SAID | Bennett: had almost stopped hoping |
| FEELS | Bennett: "couldn't stop smiling" |
| Sentence start | Options | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Max ran away because ..... | his photo was shared online · he was frightened by a storm · he was looking for food · his family moved house | he was frightened by a storm |
| 2. Laura Bennett works as ..... | a bus driver · a nurse · a shelter worker · a dog trainer | a nurse |
| 3. Omar Haddad found Max ..... | on Pine Street · at the end of his bus route · at the animal shelter · in a passenger's car | at the end of his bus route |
| 4. When Bennett saw Max, she felt ..... | worried about his health · very happy · angry with the bus driver · surprised that he was so far away | very happy |
| 5. The animal shelter is now ..... | looking for Max's owner · offering free ID tags · training bus drivers · closed for the month | offering free ID tags |
The questions follow the order of the news, and each one comes from one line. Questions 2, 3 and 5 are quick, so answer them first. Then use the time left for 1 and 4, where the tricks are.
These two are ours. Both appear in the free practice set used in the video.
| Trick | What it looks like | In the example |
|---|---|---|
| Cause or result? | the option is something that really happened, but it came after the event, so it cannot be the reason | question 1: his photo was shared online is true, but it happened after Max ran away. It is a result, not the cause. |
| A feeling nobody said | the option is a feeling that sounds possible, but the person never said it | question 4: worried and surprised sound natural. But Bennett said I just couldn't stop smiling. That is happy, said in other words. |
For the first trick, ask: did this come before the event in the question, or after it? For the second, check the FEELS line. The answer is the feeling that was said, often in other words, never a feeling you imagine.
1. Five lines only (5 minutes). Play a Part 4 news item and fill the five lines. Then open the questions and count how many your notes answer.
2. Names and jobs (5 minutes). Play a news item and write only the names. Next to each one, write the job and the last name. Check them against the transcript.
3. The full part. Do a complete Part 4 set once, with no pausing and no replay. Answer the questions you are sure of first. For every wrong answer, ask which trick caught you.
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