FCE Reading and Use of English
Hi, in today's lesson we are going to learn how to do part 1 of the Cambridge First Certificate
Reading and Use of English exam. The reading and use of English exam has 7
parts and you have 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete the paper.
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Part 1 of the RUE is a multiple choice cloze. You are given a short text of 150-160 words,
in which there are 8 gaps (plus one gap as an example). You have to choose the answer
from one of 4 choices, A, B, C or D. Each correct answer receives 1 point.
The main focus of this part of the exam is on vocabulary, for instance idioms, collocations,
fixed phrases, and phrasal verbs and semantic precision, this is a fancy way of saying the
precision in the meaning of words within a text. . It tests your understanding of which
words go naturally with which words. So How do you do RUE part 1 ?
Read the title first to get a general idea of what it's about.
Deal with the gaps one by one. Read carefully the words and sentences before
and after each gap. The words to choose from will be similar in meaning, but only one will
fit correctly into the gap. Check the word fits into the sentence grammatically
by looking at prepositions and other grammatical structures.
Lets look at an example: The text is called "captain of a team" and discusses being a
captain of a sports team. The sentence reads:
The players....... on the captain to motivate them.
The options are A trust B believe C hope D rely
After having read the complete text to understand the meaning of the complete text. Read the
words immediately before and after the gap. The missing word is a verb and the word immediately
following the gap is a preposition. So which verb goes with the preposition "on"?
Firstly if you don't know the answer right away. Eliminate the ones you know it is not.
Trust on No, you put your trust in someone, not on . So you can eliminate this answer.
Believe again you believe in something so you can eliminate this answer.
Hope you don't hope on someone, you hope for something.
So that only leaves rely on and this is the correct answer as the preposition that goes
with rely is ON. If you want a list of the prepositions going
with verbs, check out my website oxfordenglishnow.com or follow the link down below.
Let's look at an example: In the same text, captain of a team we have
this sentence: Can you take..... of a group of people, even
when they are tired and frustrated? The options are
A: direction B order C responsibility D charge So look carefully at the words before and
after the gap. This is testing your knowledge of phrasal verbs.
Take blank of a group of people. Now put each option in the gap and check that it works
with both the words before and after. take direction of a group? No you direct a group
but don't take direction of a group. Take order of a group? again, this does not
work. you can order a group around, order them to do something but take order of a group
is not correct. The third option is take responsibility, now
this sounds better.... you do take responsibility, these 2 words go together, but hold on remember
to check the word after the gap too, and here there is a problem. take responsibility OF?
no this is wrong, it is take responsibility FOR something. see why you must check the
words both BEFORE and after the gap. So, it must be option D
Take charge OF, yes this is the only option that works.
Let's look at an example of collocations, that is words that go together in authentic
English. For this, the choices all mean the same but only one option is right as it is
the collocation that is used in native English, it just fits... the other option would be
understood but not precise at the level of English tested at the FCE.
Here is the sentence.... Statistics have proved that, due to the …. safety
requirements, it is one of the safest of all youth sports.
The options are A: harsh B strict, C firm D strong
So try each option in the gap Harsh safety requirements
Strict safety requirements Firm safety requirements
Strong safety requirements This is a test of your knowledge of collocations
and both the words before and after the gap don't help you. So how can you improve your
knowledge of collocations? Unfortunately this is the one area that there is no easy formula
to improve, this is where your overall knowledge of English is tested. I can only encourage
you to expose yourself to English as much as possible, films in English, the news in
English, read newspapers in English do as much as possible in English.
So here only strict safety requirements works. Lets see an example testing your semantic
precision. …..... they may not win every match, they
will do everything they can to make the captain proud of them.
The options are: A However, B Despite, C Although D even
So again try the each of the options in the gap.
However they may not win Despite they may not win
Although they may not win Even they may not win.
Lets look at them one by one. The idea of the sentence is contrasting 2 ideas. Not winning
but still doing everything they can to make their captain proud. all these words are used
to link 2 ideas. But which ones contrast? However is an adverb and contrasts ideas.
But it contrasts ideas with a previously raised subject, in the previous sentence whereas
this is contrasting two clauses within the same sentence. So it is not correct. This
is why it is also important to reread the sentence before and after the gap carefully
too. Despite again is used to contrast, which is
done here but the grammatical structure of the sentence does not work. Despite is followed
by either the noun or a gerund form of the verb. so it would be despite the loss, or
despite not winning. and not despite with a subject and verb. So we can eliminate this
one. Although works... it contrasts the first clause
with the second. The first clause depends on the second and cannot exist on its own.
This is the correct answer. But still check remaining options to be sure
of eliminating the wrong answers. Even on its own doesn't work, to contrast
ideas we say "even though... " we have the though missing, so this can be eliminated
too. So, to summarize here are my tips for FCE
RZE part 1 Read the title and the complete text quickly
to get an idea of what the text is about. Deal with the gaps one by one.
Read carefully before and after each gap. Check the word fits into the sentence grammatically
by looking at prepositions and other grammatical structures.
If you are not sure which option is correct, reject the options you think are wrong and
choose from the others. If you still don't know guess as you will
not be penalised for wrong answers and you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting it right.
When you have finished, read the whole text quickly again to check your answers.
So you now know how to do rue part 1. click here for how to do part 2
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FCE Reading and Use of English