In this A2 Key reading task you get a short text with gaps and a list of words to choose from. Three words often mean something similar, so the decision is made by grammar — the word before the gap, the preposition after it — rather than by meaning alone. This page trains you to read around the gap before you choose.
Learn what the text is about before you fill anything. A word that fits one sentence may contradict the next.
Noun, verb, adjective or preposition? Look at the word immediately before the gap: ‘a ___’ wants a noun, ‘very ___’ wants an adjective, ‘to ___’ wants a base verb.
Many answers are decided by what follows: ‘___ for the bus’ wants wait, ‘___ after my sister’ wants look. The preposition is the clue, not the meaning.
Fill everything you are sure about and cross those words off the list. The remaining gaps get easier as the list gets shorter.
Before you start, put a small v, n or adj next to each word in the list. Half the list is then already excluded for each gap.
If there are two gaps and two words, try each pair both ways and read the sentences in your head. One version will sound wrong.
Some tasks give more words than gaps. A leftover word is normal; do not force it in and break a sentence that already works.
Spend the last thirty seconds reading the whole text with your answers in it. Mistakes with similar words are obvious on a second reading.
Not thisI listen music every morning.
ThisI listen to music every morning.
Listen always takes to before the thing you hear. Gap tasks test these fixed pairs constantly.
Not thisShe made her homework before dinner.
ThisShe did her homework before dinner.
We do homework, work and exercises; we make cakes, plans and mistakes. Learn these two verbs as lists, not rules.
Not thisWe arrived to the station at six.
ThisWe arrived at the station at six.
Arrive takes at for a place in a town and in for a city or country; it never takes to.
Not thisChoosing a word because it means the right thing, without checking the form.
ThisChecking that the word fits the grammar as well as the meaning.
At A2 the distractors are usually the right meaning in the wrong form or with the wrong preposition.
Not thisI am very interesting in history.
ThisI am very interested in history.
-ed describes how a person feels; -ing describes the thing that causes the feeling.
Not thisHe said me the answer.
ThisHe told me the answer.
Tell takes a person straight after it; say does not. Say something to someone, tell someone something.
Not thisUsing a word twice because it fits both gaps.
ThisUsing each word once unless the instructions say otherwise.
If a word seems right in two places, one of those gaps needs a different word from the list.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
1Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
4Complete the sentence.
7Complete the sentence.
9Complete the sentence.
10Explain in one sentence how the word before a gap helps you choose.
One good answer
It tells me what kind of word I need: after ‘a’ I need a singular noun, after ‘very’ an adjective, and after ‘to’ the base form of a verb.
11Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
16Complete the sentence.
18Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
20Write one sentence explaining why you should read the whole text before filling any gap.
One good answer
A word can fit one sentence and still be wrong, because the rest of the text shows who the people are and when things happened.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
25Complete the sentence.
27Complete the sentence.
29Complete the sentence.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
34Complete the sentence.
36Complete the sentence.
39Complete the sentence.
40Explain in one or two sentences how you use the list of words itself to work faster.
One good answer
Before I start I mark each word as a verb, noun or adjective, so when a gap needs a noun I only have to look at three or four words instead of the whole list.
Note
Pick Two Activity is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the British Council, IDP, ETS, Duolingo or any other exam board. Exam names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to describe the exam you are preparing for. Every question on this page is original practice written by us: we do not provide, copy or reproduce official exam papers.
Not always — some tasks give you more words than gaps. Never force a leftover word into a gap that already sounds right.
Keep a page for verb plus preposition — listen to, wait for, look after, depend on — and add one every lesson. These pairs come up in every gap task.
Read the whole sentence in your head with each word. If they still both fit, check whether one of them is needed for a later gap.
Rarely. At A2 the words are everyday ones; the difficulty is choosing between three words you already know, not understanding a new one.
Only in that the text must make sense as a whole. Answer the gaps you are sure about first, in any order, and the hard ones become easier.