FCE Exam Class – Reading and Use of English Part 2

What the test involves

In Part 1, you had to choose the answer from four words given but in Part 2 you get no help at all. You have to think of the word yourself. Don’t worry, while there are hundreds of thousands of words in the English language (nobody can tell you exactly how many), the words you need to find are taken from a relatively small group. They are generally:

Prepositions

Pronouns – including relative pronouns

Articles

Modal verbs

Conjunctions

Adverbs – or one of the words in an adverbial phrase

By the way, do you know what all the above are and can you give some examples? You should be able to – if not look them up online now and remind yourself.

Sometimes the answer will be a verb and often the gerund of the verb. Watch for those prepositions – does the verb follow a preposition? It’s a gerund. The verb ‘to be’ in its various forms is also often an answer.

Time you should spend on this test.

Approximately 10 minutes.

What’s being tested

This is a test of your knowledge of English grammar.

How to do the test

1. Read the title

This will give you a general sense of what the piece is about. Good to know.

2. Skim through the text

Before attempting to choose answers, quickly read through the text to understand what the piece says. This will help you find the answers.

3. Work through the text from the top

The first gap (Numbered ‘0’) is an example. Don’t waste time trying to work out why the answer is correct, but read the sentence and move on to Number 1, then 2 and so on to the end.

Is the answer immediately obvious to you? Put it in. If you are not sure of an answer, but have a good guess, put that in. If you really don’t know, leave it blank and move on to the next. You can come back to these when you’ve done the others and again after you finish other parts of the exam. The point is to not get ‘bogged down’ trying to figure out one answer. Better to use your time getting the ones you can. This is a more efficient use of your time.

4. Go through the text once again

Complete any answers you missed and check the answers that you have already put in. Are you happy with them? Again, if you’re stuck on one answer, don’t get too ‘bogged down’ on one answer. It’s more important to move on to the next part of the exam where there are more points to be scored. You can always come back to this test at the end of the exam if you have time.

Answering the questions

Read through the whole sentence, paying particular attention to the words on either side of the gap and then, if the answer is not obvious to you, try these things…

What kind of word is needed to fill the gap – a verb, a preposition, a pronoun, a conjunction, an adverb?

What grammatical structure can you see? Is there a relative clause? Which relative pronoun does it need? Is it a conditional sentence? If so, what word is missing – ‘if’, ‘unless’, ‘would’, ‘could’, or perhaps ‘has’, ‘had’ or ‘have’ to form a perfect or past perfect tense.

Is the missing word at the start of a sentence or a clause? Is it a pronoun – if so, what does it refer to. Is it plural or singular? Or is it a gerund? Perhaps it is the start of a participle clause? (‘Being’ and ‘Having’ are common answers.) On the other hand, could it be a conjunction?

Does the gap come in front of a noun and does that noun need an article?

Does the gap follow a verb; if so, does that verb need a preposition? Which one?

Read the whole sentence with the word that you think is likely. Does it sound right? Then it probably is.

Scoring

You will get one mark for each correct answer.