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CAE R&UoE Part 1

CAE Reading and Use of English Tips

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Cecilia Callirgos
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147 views4 pages

CAE R&UoE Part 1

CAE Reading and Use of English Tips

Uploaded by

Cecilia Callirgos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PART 1

1. Let's Get Started


If you read the introduction to the Reading and Use of English
exam you'll know that we recommend you start by doing part
4. But so that we don't confuse everyone, these tips will be
presented in 'normal' exam sequence. Part 1 is about
vocabulary with some grammar. You are given a text with
some words missing - you must rebuild the text by
choosing the correct word from a choice of 4. To make it even
more fun, the 4 choices are usually quite similar.

2. Tips
 Nothing prepares you for the Reading test better than
reading. Read a lot. Candidates who often read in
English (for work, for fun) find this part of the test
manageable, while those who never read tend to find it
very hard.
 If you are 100% sure that two of the 4 choices are
completely identical, then neither can be the answer.
There is always only one word that fits grammatically
and has the right meaning.
 Remember not to waste time thinking of the answer to
the example! The missing word is shown right above
the headline (in the grey box).
 Double-check every sentence for prepositions that might
link to the missing word. For example: some verbs are
always followed by 'for', others are never followed by
'for'. If the word 'for' is in the sentence, it's likely to be
important. Note that the prepositions sometimes come a
little bit further along the sentence, not just after the
gap.
 It’s possible you might not know the right answer but
you do know that 3 of the answers are wrong. Train
yourself to eliminate wrong answers! If you can only
eliminate 2 wrong answers, you’re still giving yourself a
50-50 chance to get a point. (There are no penalties for
wrong answers.)
 A great book that helps with this part of the exam is CAE
Testbuilder. It has 4 exams inside, but the best part is
that it explains why the right answers are right, and
why the wrong answers are wrong. Very, very useful.

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3. A Part 1 Case Study


Here's the start of an example Reading test 1 from
Cambridge. (In the real exam there's another paragraph and 2
more gaps to fill.)
And here are the first 6 sets of words to choose from.

Here's how a good student (you) should do it:

1) Read the title. It's about black bears. Do you know anything
about black bears? (You probably know a lot about black
beers, but that might not help here.) Maybe you know that
black bears are scary and can climb trees.

2) Quickly read the text. Reading the two paragraphs gives us


an idea of the topic - the biologist likes bears and doesn't
think they are so scary.

3) Look at question 1. Which option collocates with 'trust'?


Maybe you think catch trust and win trust sound good, but
you're not sure which one is right. Just choose one and go to
the next question. This is a part of the test where we don't
want to spend too much time.

4) For question 2 you've decided insight or vision both


sound good. You aren't sure which one... until you read the
sentence again. It says 'into their behaviour'. Into! That links
with insight. 'Insight into their behaviour' - yes, it sounds
good. Let's choose that.

5) Question 3 - You have read a lot of texts in English and the


only one of these words you have ever seen at the start of a
sentence is Contrary. You choose that. Lucky you read all
those BBC articles!

6) You look at space 4 quickly, and think the answer must be


'desire' - but you double-check for prepositions. Good idea - it
says 'for'. You need a verb that precedes 'for'. Well, bother
goes with 'with', not 'for'. Hmm... both 'care for' and 'hope for'
sound good. Why is CAE so haaaard? Wait a minute - do bears
hope for fruit? Of course not, only humans can hope for
things. So care for must be the right answer. Am I right? I
hope so!

7) You read the rest of the sentences twice, three times, but
you can't think of any answers. You don't know these words.
Disaster? Not really - there are lots of other points available in
the Reading and Use of English test. You decide to move on to
part 2 without wasting any more time here. If you manage
your time well, you'll be able to come back here and have
another think. And if not, you can just take a guess at the
answer. Five or six minutes into the exam, your answer paper
looks like this:

3 points you're pretty sure about and one that's 50/50. And
you didn't waste a single second of time. Great!

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