Part two of the CAE, the C1 Advanced use of english paper, the Open Cloze! But Toby! How
can something be open and closed at the same time?! I don't know. I don't know.
I just don't know! But one thing I do know is how to do part two of the CAE, the C1 Advanced use of
english paper! The Open Cloze part! And I'm going to tell you all about it right now! Really!? Yes!
Really! My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here is everything you need to know about
part two of the use of english paper, the Open Cloze part of the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam.
In part two of the C1 Advanced use of english paper you will be given a text but in the text
there will be eight spaces. Oh no! What should you write in these spaces? Well you must look inside
your head and your mind and your brain to figure out what the appropriate word should be. Oh no,
Toby! That sounds really really difficult! Well, it can be difficult... but it's not difficult
if you focus on these three things: the meaning, the function and the form... What does that mean?
First and foremost, when you're reading a text you should be thinking
"what do these words mean?". What meaning is the writer trying to convey?
And this should tell you the idea you are supposed to express with the word in the space.
Next you should think about "what is the writer trying to do?". What is the function
of this space? Is it to express a regret? Is it to talk about an event in the past? Are
we linking two ideas together? Are we talking about the degree to which something is true?
This should help you understand what type of word you need in the space.
And finally once you have understood the meaning and the function you can focus on the grammatical
form and these are the grammatical rules that you need to follow to complete the sentence
correctly. For example if the writer is talking about an imaginary past situation
and using a third conditional to do so, it helps to understand the grammatical rules of the third
conditional to fill in the space. For example "If I hadn't seen this video I wouldn't _____ passed
my C1 Advanced Cambridge exam". Now we know in the third conditional after WOULD in the result
clause we need HAVE before the past participle. So here we write HAVE. Really easy. But if you
didn't know the form then you wouldn't know how to do that and if you hadn't thought of the form
then you wouldn't have got that correct so it's important! Yes? Yes! Meaning. Function. Form.
Let's go through an example part two together. Like friends. We're friends right? Please, please
be my friend! I sat anxiously staring at the digital clock at the top of my computer screen. It
was 9:59 am. The lesson was _____ to start at 10 o'clock sharp but it felt _____ if I'd been frozen
in time. I double checked the email to make sure the zoom credentials I'd entered were correct.
They were. All I had to do _____ wait. I started to panic. Stop being so stupid! I said to myself
as I wiped the sweat trickling down my forehead. _____ anything go wrong I can always leave the
meeting and pretend this never happened. There it was! The meeting was starting! I pinched _____ to
check if I was dreaming but the short sharp pain reminded me that this was real. All too real.
Hello! A magnificent and noble voice shook my laptop speakers and with them my heart.
It was Toby! This _____ well be the best day of my life I thought as my smile spread
from one side of my face to _____ other. I'd _____ across his email address on his youtube
page and decided to ask for private lessons. What followed was the best hour of my life.
It was 9:59 a.m the lesson was _____ to start at 10 o'clock sharp. So let's focus on the meaning.
First what is the sense of the sentence? We're talking about the starting time of the lesson.
When is the lesson going to start? So the function is also very simple. The function is to indicate
that 10 o'clock is the starting time of the lesson. So let's focus on the form. We have to be
followed by something followed by plus to plus infinitive then followed by the time. So what
type of word could we have in this space? Well we have two possible words here. We have DUE to and
SCHEDULED to and both of these are absolutely fine. Some students will say ABOUT to however
I wouldn't say about to coupled with the scheduled start time. That's strange. Instead I would say "I
am about to hit myself". I wouldn't say "I'm about to hit myself in two minutes". That's, that's
weird. "about to" means something is imminent, it's happening within a few seconds. On the other
hand we use "to be due to plus infinitive" and "to be scheduled to plus infinitive" to talk about a
programmed or timetabled event. For example the plane is due to leave in 5 minutes or the train
is scheduled to arrive in 3 hours time. Yes? Yes! And if you want to learn more about DUE
TO and SCHEDULED TO then you should watch this video right here! All about the present simple
because it covers this material! Great! But it felt _____ if I'd been frozen in time.
Let's focus on the meaning then. The speaker is not saying that they were frozen in time because
that is impossible. That is science. Instead they are saying that they had a similar feeling
to being frozen in time. It wasn't happening but that was the feeling that they had so the
function is to create an imaginary analogy where we feel a certain way and we're trying to draw a
comparison between how we feel with an imaginary event that would probably cause us to feel
that way. One way we could do this is with LIKE. "I felt like I'd been frozen in time" but this is
impossible in this situation because we have the word IF. And we cannot say "I felt like if I'd
been frozen in time" Because that is grammatically incorrect. No. The form there would be wrong. Can
you think of a word then that when paired with IF can mean the same thing as like? The answer is
AS! I felt AS if I had been frozen in time. Wonderful. For example: When SMASH English does
not upload a video I feel as if the world were ending. In this example we've used the past simple
to emphasize that this imaginary present situation is unreal. In the exercise "I felt as if I had
been frozen in time". We've used the past perfect to emphasize that this imaginary past situation
is unreal. This is the subjunctive similar to the second and third conditionals and I bet
that right now you feel very confused! But don't worry because I have a video all about using AS IF
in this way! And you can watch it right now! Right here! But don't watch it right now! Watch the rest
of this video and then watch that video... That's the way to enjoy life: sequentially. One thing
after the other. Yes? Yes! I double checked the email to make sure the zoom credentials I'd
entered were correct. They were. All I had to do _____ wait. Number one: what is the meaning? Well
the speaker has to wait.... okay. Number two: what is the function? Well the speaker is using a cleft
sentence and they are doing this for emphasis. And number three: what is the form then of a cleft
sentence? All I had to do ____ wait. So, cleft sentences can start with an all clause plus be
and then plus the emphasized word or phrase. So in this example: "all I had to do" is the all clause
and "wait" is the emphasized word or phrase and this means we are missing BE. So we know that our
missing word is some form of BE. Now "all I had to do", so we're talking about the past situation and
we have used the past simple. So our missing word must be WAS. All I had to do WAS wait. Oh great!
What I love most about cleft sentences is.... Well nothing. That was just another example of a cleft
sentence. All I want for Christmas is you.... Jesus Christ. But that was another example of
a cleft sentence and it's a very very famous one. All I want for Christmas is you. Now I have told
you that you will never forget it and therefore you will never forget the form of cleft sentences.
Thank you Toby. Thank you very very much. Bye-bye! See you later! _____ anything go wrong I can
always leave the meeting and pretend this never happened. Hmm. What is the meaning here then? Well
"anything go wrong" is a condition clause and "I can always leave the meeting" is a result clause.
So we're talking about a possible future situation here. We know we need the first conditional here
because in the result clause we have the word CAN and here CAN is referring to a future
possibility. We are talking about a likely future situation and therefore we need the
first conditional and this means the answer is super super simple right? Because we know
that to introduce the condition clause of a first conditional we need one word and that word is IF!
NO! "If" here is impossible and that is because in our condition clause we have the word GO and
not GOES. Oh dear that's a terrible thing. This is very strange because ANYTHING is a singular object
and normally after a singular object we need to use the third form which usually entails adding an
-S to the end of a verb. However here that is not the case! Why? Why? Because this is an inverted
first conditional. And when we invert the first conditional we replace IF with a modal verb and
after a modal verb we always always always need the infinitive and the infinitive of go is go...
obviously... The question then is when we invert the first conditional what modal verb do we use?
Do we use could? No. Do we use would? No. Do we use must? No. Do we use
should? Yes! Yes! We do! We use SHOULD! This gives us SHOULD anything go wrong
I can always leave the meeting. Yes? Yes! And if you are thinking "Wow I didn't know we could
invert the first conditional with should!" Then that is something you definitely should know!
And should you want to learn it well click the link right here. Yes! Up here! It will tell
you everything you need to know about inverted conditionals for the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam.
The meeting was starting. I pinched _____ to check if I was dreaming but the short sharp
pain reminded me that this was real. Firstly the meaning. If you understand what the verb
TO PINCH means then you will have no problems here. However, maybe you don't know what the
verb TO PINCH means and if you don't well it's not a problem! Let's go ahead anyway and we can figure
it out together! We know that PINCH is a verb and we know that doing this verb resulted in "a short
sharp pain". So we know that the verb to PINCH is a violent action and violence is terrible please
don't be violent. "To check" is an infinitive of purpose so to check describes why the speaker
pinched. This means that our space must be an object "I pinched _____ to check". Well, what or
who did the speaker pinch? That is the question. Well we can assume that the speaker pinched the
speaker and that's because the speaker felt the short sharp pain. It's impossible to experience
the pain of other people. It's impossible to even experience your consciousness. I don't even know
if you really exist. You could be a robot or you could just be in my head and maybe I have
lots and lots of imaginary acquaintances because I haven't got any friends. God! Let's hope they're
not imaginary. At least if they were imaginary they would be my friends right? Surely... What
am I talking about? I don't, I don't know... I don't know anymore... But yes the speaker
pinched the speaker and this means we need the reflexive pronoun of the subject "I". I pinched
myself. Yeah... I pinched myself. That's the answer. Oh and if you still don't know what
pinch means it's this: ow ow. Am I dreaming? Ow! No I'm not. It's that. This ____ well be the best
day of my life. So what is the meaning? This was a very good day. Was it the best day? Well
it probably wasn't the best day because if it were the best day the speaker would have said
"this was the best day of my life". However we know it was definitely a very very good day.
What will confuse students here is the word WELL so let's ignore the word WELL for the time being.
This _____ be the best day of my life. Now it seems a lot simpler because BE is the infinitive
and this suggests that we need a modal verb after this. This + modal verb + be the best day
of my life. So then we have four possibilities: must, may, might, or could. However we cannot say
must and this is because we have WELL. We use WELL after COULD, MAY or MIGHT to emphasize that
something is slightly more probable. If something MUST BE then it cannot get any more probable than
MUST and so there's no need to add WELL because it's already very probable. So why do we say very
very very very probable? It makes no sense. And I could well make a video about that in the future.
That means it's very probable that I will but I must make a video about that. No... no, it's not
an obligation. But I could well make a video about that in the future. It's highly probable and you
might well watch it. Yes, yeah. So for this one we have three possible answers MIGHT, MAY and COULD.
All of them are correct. My smile spread from one side of my face to _____ other. And finally
we have a nice and easy one. Let's focus on the meaning. When you smile it starts here
and finishes here. This is my smile. It starts on one side of the face and finishes
on this side of the face. How many others could we be talking about then? Well obviously only one
because OTHER is singular here and we know exactly which other we are talking about because on one
face there is one side and there is only one other and because we know exactly which other side we
are talking about we need a definite article. So I smiled from one side to THE other. The answer is
THE and if you're confused about articles and when you should use THE
or A or AN or no article at all then of course I've got a video about it! Right, obviously... Um
it's there. Yay! I'd _____ across his email address on his youtube page and decided to
ask for private lessons. Firstly let's look at the meaning. What is the sense of the sentence?
It looks like we wanted to say FOUND. The speaker FOUND Toby's email address. Next,
what is this 'D? Is this WOULD or is this HAD? Well we know that this 'D must be HAD. It's part
of the past perfect. How do we know this? Because we have DECIDED and after WOULD we always need an
infinitive because would is a modal verb... obviously. So I HAD _____ across. Of course
ACROSS is a preposition. So we need to create a phrasal verb that means FIND. to find. And
of course the verb here needs to be in the past participle because before it we have HAD: part
of the past perfect. So can you think of a phrasal verb with ACROSS that means to find? Three, two,
one... COME across. To COME across. If you find something accidentally it means you
COME ACROSS it. Oh! I wasn't expecting to find that! I just came across it! Wonderful! And i know
you really love COME! COME is your favorite word ever! And you're thinking "Toby! If only I knew
every single phrasal verb with COME!?" Well, don't worry because right here's a video about every
single phrasal verb that you need to know with the word COME! GREAT! And with that we are finished!
Now you know everything you need to know about doing part two of the C1 Advanced Use of English
paper, the Open Cloze part of the exam, and boy did we have fun together! It was great! If
you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't already,
leave a comment down below! My name is Toby and this was SMASH English...