B1 Preliminary Reading Part 5 is a short text with single-word gaps and four options each. The options usually share a meaning, so the decision is made by something small: the preposition that follows, the word that normally goes with it, or whether the verb takes an object. This is a vocabulary test disguised as a reading task.
One quick pass tells you the topic and the register. Several gaps only make sense once you know whether the text is about a holiday or a job.
The decision is nearly always local. Read three words before and three after the gap out loud in your head before you even look at the options.
Do not choose by meaning alone. Put all four in and listen for the one that sounds like something people actually say.
If the next word is ‘to’, ‘on’, ‘for’ or ‘about’, the answer is the verb or adjective that takes that preposition. This single check decides a large share of the items.
If two options survive, choose the more common pairing and move on. Wrong answers cost nothing more than blank ones.
Look at the gap and decide whether a verb, a noun, an adjective or a linker is needed. Sometimes all four options are the same class, but when they are not, the grammar of the sentence removes half of them instantly.
If the noun after the gap is uncountable — information, advice, money, furniture — then ‘many’ and ‘a few’ are gone before you read them properly.
When a gap is followed by an -ing form or a ‘to’ infinitive, check which of the options takes that pattern: ‘enjoy doing’, ‘decide to do’, ‘avoid doing’, ‘manage to do’.
Once you have chosen, read the whole sentence with your word in it. Your ear catches a broken collocation faster than your memory recalls a rule.
Do the gaps you know in a first sweep, then return to the two or three that resisted. With the surrounding gaps filled, the text usually makes the stubborn ones obvious.
Not thisHe made me a favour.
ThisHe did me a favour.
‘Do’ goes with favour, homework, shopping and the washing-up; ‘make’ goes with decisions, mistakes and noise. Cloze items test exactly this split.
Not thisShe said me that the train was late.
ThisShe told me that the train was late.
‘Tell’ takes a person as its object; ‘say’ does not, unless you add ‘to’: she said to me.
Not thisCan you borrow me ten pounds?
ThisCan you lend me ten pounds?
You borrow from someone and lend to someone. The direction is opposite, and both appear as options.
Not thisWe arrived to the airport at six.
ThisWe arrived at the airport at six.
‘Arrive’ takes ‘at’ for places and buildings and ‘in’ for towns and countries — never ‘to’.
Not thisI didn’t have many time to finish.
ThisI didn’t have much time to finish.
‘Time’ is uncountable here, so it takes ‘much’ and ‘a little’, not ‘many’ and ‘a few’.
Not thisShe enjoys to swim in the sea.
ThisShe enjoys swimming in the sea.
‘Enjoy’ is followed by the -ing form. Cloze options regularly pair an -ing verb with three verbs that take the infinitive.
Not thisHe plays tennis very good.
ThisHe plays tennis very well.
‘Good’ describes a noun; ‘well’ describes how something is done. The adverb is irregular, so it has to be learned rather than worked out.
Not thisWe had a very nice travel to Italy.
ThisWe had a very nice trip to Italy.
‘Travel’ is uncountable and general; a single journey is a trip or a journey. All three appear as options together.
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.
2Complete with one verb in the present simple, third person.
3Complete with one verb in the past simple.
6Complete with one verb.
8Complete with one adjective.
9Explain in one sentence why checking the word immediately after the gap is so useful in Part 5.
One good answer
If the next word is a preposition like ‘on’, ‘at’ or ‘about’, only one of the four options normally takes it, so the preposition chooses the answer for you without any thinking about meaning.
11Complete with one verb in the past simple.
13Complete with one noun.
15Complete with one verb in the past simple.
17Complete with one word.
19Two options both fit the meaning of a gap and you have thirty seconds left. Say in one sentence what you should do.
One good answer
Choose the pairing you have seen more often — the one that sounds like something people say — mark it, and move on, because a blank gap scores nothing while a guess might score a mark.
21Complete with one word used before an uncountable noun.
23Complete with one adverb.
26Complete with one preposition.
28Complete with the past simple of one verb.
29The gap is followed by ‘to find’. Two options are ‘managed’ and ‘succeeded’. Write one sentence explaining which one fits and why.
One good answer
‘Managed’ fits, because ‘manage’ is followed by a ‘to’ infinitive, while ‘succeed’ needs ‘in’ plus an -ing form — you succeed in finding something, but you manage to find it.
31Complete with the past simple of one verb.
33Complete with one preposition.
35Complete with one adjective used before ‘about’.
37You have ten seconds left and two options both sound possible. Write one sentence saying what to do.
One good answer
I mark the option I have seen more often in real sentences, because a guess can score a mark and an empty gap never can.
38Complete with one preposition.
Note
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Learn words in pairs, not alone: not ‘decision’ but ‘make a decision’, not ‘interested’ but ‘interested in’. A list of single words will not help you choose between four synonyms.
Yes, but only the common B1 ones. Look after, find out, give up, put off, turn on, take off and get on with cover a large share of what appears.
Never. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so put in the option that sounds most natural and spend your remaining time rechecking an earlier part.
Six or seven minutes. It is the shortest part of the paper, so if you find yourself spending fifteen minutes on it you are taking time from the long text, where the reading is harder.
Because the task is testing which word the language actually uses in that position, not whether you know the meaning. That is why reading the words either side of the gap matters more than translating.
Vocabulary decides most of them, but grammar decides them faster. Checking the word class, the preposition and the verb pattern removes options in seconds; the remaining choice is then a vocabulary one.