Hello ExamSeekers,
Today I bring you another part of the B1: Preliminary Reading Exam. The former #PET, now B1: Preliminary, contains 6 parts, this is one before the last. So far, I’ve talked about Part 1 – Multiple Choice, Part 2 – Matching, Part 3 – Multiple Choice, and Part 4 – Gapped Text. Today I’m posting about the fifth part: Multiple-Choice Cloze.
You may want to ask me, “What is multiple-choice cloze?”. Well, this is a fair question. According to Cambridge Dictionary:
So far, Part 1 and Part 3 Multiple Choices consisted of choosing one of the options given to explain or summarize the provided texts. When we talk about multiple-choice cloze, Cambridge means that this type of exercise gives you words (or sentences) to fulfill a text, instead of just making a reference to it. Can you see the difference?
Now, let’s focus on Part 5:
PART 5 – Multiple-Choice Cloze
In this part of the exam, you are required to read a shorter text and choose the correct vocabulary items to complete the gaps. As you can see below, there are 6 gaps to be fulfilled, and for each blank space there are 4 choices:
As you can see, the options for each gap are very similar. There are no tricks here, you read the text and choose the best word for it. So you need to have a good range of vocabulary here and a good understanding of how these words connect and fit into the text.
The coconut tree is thought to be one of the most valuable trees in the world. It is mostly found by the sea where there is a hot and wet (21) …………
In this gap, you need to fill it with a word about climate that collocates with hot and wet. We know that “hot” is temperature, but “wet” is not, so you can eliminate alternative A. We also know that “condition” is a state that somebody or something is in, which I don’t believe that fits well here – moreover, this is a false cognate for some languages. Now thinking about “weather and climate”. They are very similar, so you have two options:
- Remember the collocations;
- Use a dictionary.
In a real test, you cannot use the dictionary, but just for you to visualize and increase your vocabulary, let’s check the dictionary first:
- Weather: the temperature or conditions outside. Example: bad/good weather.
- Climate: the weather conditions of an area. Example: a hot, dry climate.
If we go by their meaning, again, they are very similar. But if we remember collocations and see the examples above, we are talking about the “climate” and not about the “weather”, so the correct option is “C”.
This is what I usually do. There is always one that you can eliminate because it doesn’t fit at all, you have just to analyze the options left. Can you try and do the rest? The next one is easier than the first, and you can eliminate almost all the options:
The coconuts often fall into the sea and float on the water until they (22) ………… another beach, where more trees then begin to grow.
22 A reach B go C travel D arrive
You know that “go”, “travel,” and “arrive” are verbs that need a preposition to follow them: “go to”, “travel to”, “arrive at”. So in this case, “they ____ another” asks for a verb without a preposition, so we are left with “reach”, letter A, which is the correct option.
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:
21. C
22. A
23. B
24. A
25. C
26. D