Five Years On, the NPR College Podcast Challenge’s First Winner Reflects on Journalism’s Lasting Reach

Study the questions and tasks

Work through the material below, or start the interactive practice above to complete an attempt. Try the exercises before opening any answer or transcript sections, then use them to review your work.

Practice level

C2. Try this level if you can follow the instructions and understand most of the language; choose an earlier level if you need more support.

Question formats

Single choice

How to approach this practice

Read the questions, then listen before opening the transcript. Notice names, numbers and any corrections the speaker makes.

1. Question 1 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What preceded the participants’ reflections on their later paths?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. NPR announced a second competition
   2. The winner revisited her early journalism
   3. The participants received another prize
   4. The feature compared different institutions
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The winner revisited her early journalism

   The narration first states that the winner revisited her early journalism.

   The winner revisits her early journalism and speaks with other participants about where their stories have taken them.

2. Question 2 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does the recording say can happen to an initial piece of work?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. It can acquire new meaning
   2. It must be replaced by later work
   3. It becomes irrelevant to its creators
   4. It determines a single professional outcome
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   It can acquire new meaning

   It may gain significance as its creators continue developing.

   Their reflections place the challenge within a longer trajectory, one in which an initial piece of work can acquire new meaning as its creators move forward.

3. Question 3 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What do participants reconsider besides what they originally produced?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. The competition’s financial structure
   2. Their audience’s demographic profile
   3. Their stories’ connection to later paths
   4. Their eligibility for future awards
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Their stories’ connection to later paths

   They also reconsider how those stories connect with later paths.

   Looking back allows the participants to consider not only what they produced at the time, but also how those stories have remained connected to their later paths.

4. Question 4 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What broader group does the winner’s return acknowledge?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. The broader community formed by the challenge
   2. A network of professional editors
   3. The organizers of a later competition
   4. The audiences for international reporting
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The broader community formed by the challenge

   Her return recognizes the community created through the challenge.

   Her return to the work offers a way to examine the beginnings of her journalism while also acknowledging the broader community formed by the challenge.

5. Question 5 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does NPR’s account avoid doing with later developments?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Connecting early work with later lives
   2. Describing the original competition
   3. Reducing later developments to one outcome
   4. Mentioning the participants’ reflections
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Reducing later developments to one outcome

   It avoids interpreting varied lives as one predetermined result.

   It links an early creative and journalistic effort with the lives of the people who made it, without reducing those later developments to one fixed outcome.

6. Question 6 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does the recording say the feature provides?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. A celebratory account of institutional expansion
   2. A measured portrait of stories’ continuing influence
   3. A technical explanation of audio production
   4. A definitive ranking of participants’ careers
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   A measured portrait of stories’ continuing influence

   The conclusion characterizes it as a careful account of continuing influence.

   Their reflections provide a measured portrait of how stories can continue to shape the people who tell them, long after the original challenge has ended.

7. Question 7 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What has ended by the recording’s conclusion?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. The participants’ journalistic careers
   2. The challenge itself
   3. The stories’ relevance
   4. NPR’s coverage of journalism
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The challenge itself

   The original challenge is over, although its effects persist.

   Their reflections provide a measured portrait of how stories can continue to shape the people who tell them, long after the original challenge has ended.

8. Question 8 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What are the participants doing five years later?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Revising the competition’s original rules
   2. Revisiting beginnings and assessing subsequent journeys
   3. Launching a replacement journalism program
   4. Defending one shared professional trajectory
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Revisiting beginnings and assessing subsequent journeys

   They revisit their beginnings and evaluate the journeys that followed.

   Five years on, the challenge’s first winner and other participants are revisiting their beginnings and assessing the journeys that followed.

What to review next

Listen again to difficult sections, then open the transcript to check what you heard. Repeat a useful phrase aloud and try the recording once more without the text.

A focused practice result shows how you did on these tasks. Use several activities across skills to decide what to study next; one practice score does not certify an overall CEFR level.

Before you practise: a worked example

Listen for the final information, especially when a speaker corrects or changes an earlier statement.

Example transcript: “Let’s meet at five — actually, half past five would be better.” What is the final suggested time?

The final suggested time is 5:30. Actually signals a correction; the first time is replaced by the later suggestion.

This teaching example is separate from the scored questions. After your test, compare any mistakes with the explanation and revisit the topic before trying again.