CELPIP Speaking Questions (Test 2)

A friend has just moved to your city and is worried about the cold winter. Give your friend some advice about buying a warm winter coat: what to look for and where to shop.

What it tests: whether your advice is specific enough to act on. "Buy a warm coat" is not advice. A temperature rating, a hood, a sale in November: that is advice.

Talk about a time when you learned to do something new. It could be a sport, a recipe, or a machine you had to figure out. Say what happened and why you still remember it.

What it tests: past narrative under pressure, and the "why it mattered" beat that candidates skip. Sixty seconds is one story, not three.

Describe what is happening in the picture to someone who cannot see it. On this test the picture is a busy community swimming pool: a staff member handing a yellow wristband across the front desk, an instructor holding a kickboard out to a small boy, a lifeguard on a tall chair blowing a whistle at a boy running on wet tiles, a mother crouching with both hands out to a girl who sits on the edge hugging her knees, and an elderly woman in a purple cap climbing the ladder toward a held-open towel.

What it tests: spatial organization and present continuous. Your listener cannot see it, so vague equals wrong.

In this picture, what do you think will most probably happen next? It is the same pool picture you just described.

What it tests: future forms and hedging. The running boy and the whistle answer themselves. The girl on the edge is the harder, better prediction.

You are taking a class at your community centre this fall. Choose: a beginner pottery class, $120 for eight Tuesday evenings with clay, tools and firing included but ten students to one teacher and full by September; or outdoor photography walks, $85 for six Saturday mornings at a different park each week, bring your own camera, cancelled when it rains. Then your friend proposes private guitar lessons at home instead, $55 an hour, teacher comes to you, you pick the time, and you need to find a guitar. Persuade your friend that your choice is better.

What it tests: this is three screens, not one. You do not speak while choosing. The option you reject vanishes, and you argue your pick against the guitar lessons only.

You work part-time at a small bakery. A customer paid for a birthday cake to be ready at noon. The oven broke and the cake will not be done until three. The customer is at the counter now and the party starts at one. Either speak to the customer and offer another solution, or speak to your manager and ask what the bakery can do.

What it tests: tone, and it is scored. The two branches need different registers. Apologising to a customer and briefing your manager are not the same speech.

Do you think that all children should learn to swim at school? Explain your reasons.

What it tests: 90 seconds of argument. Pick a side in the first sentence. Balanced fence-sitting reads as thin content, not as fairness.

You are at a second-hand shop looking for a birthday gift for your sister, and photographs are not allowed. The object is a round glass fishbowl the size of a basketball, half full of water, with a white clock face set into the front like a porthole, two brass bells and a hammer on top, three curved brass legs, and a goldfish swimming past the hands. Call your friend Priya, describe it, and ask her whether you should buy it.

What it tests: circumlocution. The thing has no name, so you build it from common words and comparisons. And you must end by asking Priya. That closing request is scored.