Hello ExamSeekers,
The last few Tuesdays I’ve been posting about the B1: Preliminary Reading Exam, and so far, I’ve talked about Part 1 – Multiple Choice, Part 2 – Matching, and Part 3 – Multiple Choice. Today I’m posting about the fourth part: Gapped text.
PART 4 – Gapped Text
In this part of the exam, you are supposed to read a longer text from which five sentences have been removed, and you have to insert them back. This is the kind of text you have to show understanding of how a coherent and well-structured text is formed since you have to correctly put the removed sentences into closed paragraphs as shown in the picture below:
For me, this is the most challenging part of the exam, mainly because they remove 5 sentences, but offer us 8 to put back!!! So it’s not only placing the sentences into correct spots, you have to choose from the 8 and then place it in the right spot. As you can see, there are two tasks involved, which makes it a bit harder to solve.
There are though a few tricks to help you through this exercise. I, for instance, when I am taking an exam, I leave this one last, because it usually takes me longer than the other parts.
(Just let me leave a little reminder here: for the B1: Preliminary, you have to deal with sentences, for higher examinations, you have to deal with whole texts to insert in the correct places… It’s hard!)
So here are the removed sentences and the extra ones:
- A That’s why I knew it was a terrible plan.
- B I had trained in icy water in the UK so the crystal clear warm water felt amazing.
- C They always ask lots of questions.
- D I work far harder than I used to.
- E I began joking to friends about sending in an application.
- F Afterwards, some people were surprised by my decision but I wasn’t too worried.
- G I decided I needed a break.
- H I needed to explain that first.
In this case, it doesn’t make much sense to read the sentences beforehand, because there are only sentences without the context. So you have to go after these contexts only to read the sentences. So here is how I do it:
- First, read the first paragraph and pay close attention to its ending.
- Then, read the second paragraph paying close attention to its beginning.
- Now, look for the sentences that would connect both sentences.
It wasn’t a bad job and I really liked my students, but I began to feel tired of doing the same thing every day. (Here, the person mentions his/her routine and how unsatisfied he/she is.)
I’d always loved travelling, so one weekend I typed ‘international volunteering’ into an internet search engine. (The speaker here mentions enjoying traveling, and a wants a change in the routine.)
So how can you connect the sentence about routine, with something different from her routine? The sentence to connect these two paragraphs must show a need to change the routine. The only option is G I decided I needed a break. Because this is clear evidence to stop doing what has been done and accept the possibility to deal with something new.
Sometimes you might get confused between options, then, in this case, try to go through a process of elimination, see the possible choices and write them down, when you finish the other alternatives, go back and try to see if one fits better than the other.
Well, that’s your turn to try now. Look for the clues and read carefully, okay?
I hope I have helped, but if you still have questions, please comment in the comment session below, and I can help you 🙂
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Have a great week,
Patricia Moura
PS: All samples are provided by Cambridge. And here are the answers:
16. G
17. E
18. F
19. B
20. D