Hello ExamSeekers,
The past few weeks I’ve been talking about the B1: Preliminary Reading Exam. I’ve explained the reading parts showing you some mocks and giving you tips on how to get the right answers. So far, I’ve talked about Part 1 – Multiple Choice, Part 2 – Matching, Part 3 – Multiple Choice, Part 4 – Gapped Text, and Part 5 – Multiple-Choice Cloze. Check them out before reading part 6, which is the last part of the exam.
As you can see, the B1 Reading Exams are somewhat short, at least more concise than the #B2, #C1 and #C2 exams, and longer than the others that come before. There are 32 questions, between 5-6 alternatives to choose from/gaps to complete for each part, and you shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes to finish it. That is, you have more than 1 minute to answer all the questions, so it shouldn’t take that long in each part. However, you should organize the way you answer them.
When I say you should organize the way you answer the parts, what I mean is, choose the easier exercises to be done first – which will demand less than a minute for each gap – and leave the most difficult last, for you to use the extra minutes. For example, tasks like Part 1 – Multiple Choice and Part 6 – Open Cloze – that we are going to talk today – shouldn’t be a big problem, and it should be answered quickly, while Part 2 – Matching and Part 4 – Gapped Text, will demand much more from you and will take all the minutes you have. Therefore, take the practice to adjust the time you will need when actually sitting for the exams.
Now, let’s talk about today’s topic:
PART 6 – Open Cloze
In this part of the exam, candidates are required to read a shorter text and complete six gaps using one word for each gap.
Do you remember what “cloze” is? If you don’t here you go:
So in Part 5 – Multiple-Choice Cloze, the candidates had options to fill in the blanks, now in Open Cloze, there are no alternatives. Candidates should read and guess the correct words. Let’s check:
Here, it is essential for you to know dependant prepositions, collocations, compound nouns, and all the tricks involving word connection. Like in the first paragraph:
This is one of my favourite places to visit. I’ve learned a huge amount about animals and plants (27) ………… time I’ve visited. I’ve even seen bits of rock from the moon!
What can come before the word “time” in this context? I would say “the last time I’ve visited,” which makes a lot of sense, however, you should complete this task with only ONE option… So I need to think of words that would make sense when talking about time and that fits the idea os present-past presented with the present perfect (I’ve learned… I’ve visited). Can you guess? If you guessed the words “each” or “every”, your guess is correct: “each time I’ve visited” or “every time I’ve visited”.
Try and do the others before checking the answer below! 🙂
This was the last of the Reading series, and I hope I have helped, but if you still have questions, please comment in the comment session below so that I can help you 🙂. If by any chance you want more samples, just ask me, and I’ll check my data bank and provide you with some more examples.
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Have a great week,
Patricia Moura
PS: All samples are provided by Cambridge. And here are the answers:
27. each/every
28. if
29. to
30. so
31. of
32. your