CELPIP reading Part 4 practice test
Start when you have 13 quiet minutes, this part’s time on test day. Choose an answer from every drop-down menu, then check: you will see whether you are right, plus a short explanation and the sentence that proves it.
Reading Part 4 · Reading for Viewpoints
10 questionsCabins or Campsites? Plan for Lower Loop Divides Ridgeback Lake Regulars
Every summer weekend, the 48 tent sites in the Lower Loop at Ridgeback Lake Provincial Park are booked within minutes of reservations opening. Next spring, 20 of those sites could disappear. Under a plan released last month, the park would replace them with 12 heated camping cabins, each with bunk beds, a small deck and electricity, but no running water. Public comments will be accepted until October 15.
Park superintendent Adaeze Okafor says the change is about who gets to enjoy the park. “A lot of people would love to spend a night here, but they don't own a tent, a stove or sleeping bags, and they don't know where to start,” she explained. “A cabin removes that barrier.” She added that the cabins could be rented from April to November, when tent camping is too cold for most visitors, and that the extra income would help pay for trail repairs.
Not everyone is convinced. Gordon Lachance has camped in the Lower Loop with his family for twenty-two years. He worries that the cabins will push out the people who can least afford them. A tent site costs $31 a night; the cabins are expected to cost around $95. “You're taking away cheap spots and replacing them with expensive ones,” he said. “That's not more access. That's different access.” He is also concerned about noise from heaters and from the larger groups that cabins tend to attract.
Priya Venkataraman, who runs a gear rental business in the nearby town of Coldwater Bend, sees both sides. Rentals of tents and stoves have grown every year since she opened, which she says shows that people are willing to try traditional camping if the equipment is easy to get. “Cabins are fine, but I'd hate to see the park assume that beginners can't handle a tent,” she said. She suggested the park keep all 48 tent sites and build the cabins on an unused field near the main gate instead.
Okafor said that option was considered but rejected for now because running power lines to the field would cost nearly twice as much. However, she did not rule it out. “If enough people tell us the field is worth the extra cost, we'll look at it again,” she said.
For his part, Lachance plans to submit a comment before the deadline, and he is encouraging other regulars to do the same. “If you care about this place, now's the time to say so,” he said.
1.The article is mainly about .
2.According to Adaeze Okafor, one benefit of the cabins is that .
3.Gordon Lachance believes the plan .
4.Priya Venkataraman mentions the growth of her rental business to show that .
5.It can be inferred that the field near the main gate .
Reader comment
Last July I camped in the Lower Loop for the first time, and I'll admit I was nervous. I had never set up a tent before. I borrowed one from a neighbour and rented a stove in , and by the second night I felt like an expert. I understand why the superintendent likes the cabins, especially since they could be rented . But at around a night, a cabin would cost about three times as much as a tent site, which is a lot for families like mine. I also agree with the gear shop owner that the cabins should go on instead of on sites people already love. Yes, that option costs more, but I think it's worth it. Anyone who feels the same should send the park a comment before .
— Marisol T.
This article and its reader’s comment come from our free mock test, written by our team as original practice material.
How Reading Part 4 works
Part 4 is the last of 4 reading parts. It has 10 of 38 reading questions on its own 13-minute timer, longer than any other reading timer. Reading parts are timed separately, so minutes saved earlier do not carry over to this one.
You answer by choosing a word or phrase from a drop-down menu. Within a part you can move between questions freely, answering them in any order or changing an answer until time runs out.
In our sets the material comes in two pieces: a news-style article that sets out an issue and quotes people on different sides, then a short reader’s comment with gaps to fill. Sentences to complete come first; gaps in that comment then draw on what you understood from the article.
A whole reading section takes 43–56 minutes, and Part 4 comes after Parts 1, 2 and 3. Your eyes and focus are not fresh by then, so practise it late in a reading session as well as on its own.
What Part 4 questions usually ask
Most ask about a person’s view or an article’s purpose. They usually fall into five kinds:
- Main idea
What is this article mainly about?
An issue plus a disagreement about it, not one person’s argument. An option naming only one side’s concern is too narrow.
- Opinion
What does a named person believe?
Find that person’s paragraph and read what they say. Wrong options are often someone else’s belief.
- Purpose
Why does someone mention a detail?
Questions such as “She mentions her own shop to show that…” ask for a point a detail supports, not for that detail itself.
- Inference
What can be inferred?
Something an article implies without saying. If you have to add assumptions of your own to make an option true, it is not your answer.
- Comment gaps
Which phrase fits a reader’s comment?
Several options fit a sentence’s grammar; only one fits what was reported. Treat every gap as a question about that article.
CELPIP reading Part 4 tips: a 13-minute plan
A good plan splits 13 minutes so you never reach the end in a rush. Start with this one, adjusting it after a few sets.
- Before
See which names come up
Before reading, glance at your first few questions for people’s names. You then read knowing whose views matter most.
- 3 min
Read for a map, not details
Read through once at a steady pace. For every person quoted, decide their side and one reason. Skip hard words unless they sit in a sentence about someone’s opinion.
- 5 min
Answer article questions
Find whichever person or idea a question names, reread only that paragraph, then choose. A question about one person rarely needs a whole article.
- 4 min
Fill gaps in the comment
Read all of it first, so you know whether its writer agrees with people quoted earlier or argues with them. Then fill every gap with an option that fits both its sentence and the article.
- 1 min
Check and commit
Make sure every menu has an answer. Your level depends only on correct answers, so a reasoned choice beats an empty menu.
- After
Review with proof sentences
For every miss, read its proof sentence and name why you missed it: wrong person, wrong side, or an option stronger than its source. Keep a tally across sets; your most common reason is your next focus.
Common traps in Reading Part 4, and a fix for each
Wrong answers here tend to come from a few traps. The first to watch is a borrowed opinion. Suppose an article says: “The city’s planner expects the new market to bring visitors downtown. Bakery owner Dana Kim is less sure: most of her Saturday customers, she says, already live within walking distance.” A question asks what Dana Kim believes.
It may not bring many new visitors.
It will bring more visitors downtown.
- Someone else’s opinion. An option is a view someone in the article holds, but not that person’s. Fix: find that name in the text, reading two or three sentences around it before choosing.
- True but not asked. An option is a true fact that does not answer your question. Fix: reread your question, checking that an option completes it rather than merely being true.
- Grammar-only gaps. In a reader’s comment, three options can fit a sentence. Fix: choose by meaning, asking which option agrees with what was reported.
- Too strong or too weak. “Completely against” when a person only had doubts. Fix: match how strongly they put it: hopes, doubts, insists, refuses.
- Reading every word. Slow, careful reading of a whole article leaves no time to answer. Fix: follow your time plan, rereading only what a question needs.
- A headline effect. A title can frame an issue as a fight when an article is more balanced. Fix: answer main-idea questions from an article’s body, not its title.
After this set: from your count to a reading level
Count your correct answers out of 10. That number shows how you handle viewpoints, but 10 questions are too few for a level: reading score charts work on a whole section of 38 questions.
When our practice results read a single set, they scale your count up to a section, then widen its range by one level on each side. A score of 8 of 10 becomes about 30 of 38: a practice estimate of level 7–10 for Part 4 alone, against 8–9 if you kept that rate across a whole section. These are practice estimates, not official scores.
For a level you can plan around, do all 4 reading parts: online in our free mock test, or on paper with our free CELPIP practice test PDF, which has a full reading set with an answer key. Then enter your count out of 38 on our CELPIP reading score chart.
More practice: listening parts on viewpoints and facts
Reading Part 4 shares its thinking with listening Parts 5 and 6: who believes what, and why. Practising both makes each one easier.
- Listening Part 6, viewpoints: a spoken version of this task, with several opinions on one issue (6 questions).
- Listening Part 5, discussion: people work toward a decision while you follow every speaker’s position (8 questions).
- Listening Part 4, news item: a news report full of facts, good training for a news-style article (5 questions).
For timers of all 4 reading parts side by side, see our CELPIP test format guide.