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C1 Advanced multiple-choice cloze: Part 1 practice

C1Reading & Use of English40 questionsUpdated

The C1 Advanced multiple-choice cloze gives you four words that often mean almost the same thing, and only one that belongs in the phrase. This page shows how collocation, not definition, decides the answer, and gives you twenty items to practise on.

What this task tests

  • Collocation: which verb, noun or adjective habitually goes with the words around the gap.
  • Fixed and semi-fixed phrases such as ‘on the grounds that’ or ‘go to great lengths’.
  • Phrasal verbs, where the particle after the gap rules out three of the four options.
  • Complementation: whether a word is followed by ‘to’, ‘of’, ‘that’ or a bare infinitive.
  • Shades of meaning between near synonyms such as deny, refuse, reject and decline.
  • Register: whether a word belongs in a report, a review or a piece of informal narrative.
  • Linking words used as single items, where only one of four adverbials fits the logic.
  • Dependent prepositions that come after the gap and quietly eliminate three options.
  • Reading speed, since the paper cannot be finished if Part 1 takes fifteen minutes.

How to do it

  1. Step 1:

    Check the register before the meaning

    A text about a hiking accident and a text about corporate governance take different words for the same idea. If two options survive on meaning, the one that matches the tone of the text around it is almost always the answer.

  2. Step 2:

    Watch for the gap that needs a linker

    One or two items per text test adverbials — ‘nevertheless’, ‘otherwise’, ‘meanwhile’, ‘consequently’. For these, ignore collocation entirely and work out the logical relation between the two sentences instead.

  3. Step 3:

    Do not change an answer without a reason

    First instincts on collocation are usually right, because they come from what you have read. Change an answer only when you can name the clue that makes the new option better, not because the first one now looks too easy.

  4. Step 4:

    Keep a Part 1 notebook organised by pattern

    After each practice text, write the item as a chunk with its grammar: ‘attach weight to something’, ‘go to great lengths to do something’. Reviewing thirty chunks takes four minutes and is worth more than a page of single words.

  5. Step 5:

    Read the title and the whole text first

    Sixty seconds spent on the title and one read-through tells you the topic and the register. Items that looked impossible in isolation often become obvious once you know the text is about, say, a failed expedition rather than a company report.

  6. Step 6:

    Cover the options and predict

    Before you look at A–D, decide what kind of word the gap needs and, if you can, what word you would write. If your prediction is one of the options, you are usually right first time and can move on in seconds.

  7. Step 7:

    Read three or four words past the gap

    The words after the gap do most of the eliminating. ‘On the ___ that’ takes ‘grounds’ and nothing else; ‘bore no ___ to’ takes ‘resemblance’. Check the preposition, the ‘that’, the infinitive.

  8. Step 8:

    Test the survivors in the phrase, not the sentence

    If two options still stand, say each one aloud as a two- or three-word chunk: ‘make progress’, ‘do progress’. Fluent chunks sound right; the distractors sound assembled.

  9. Step 9:

    Answer every item, then move on

    There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave a gap blank. Mark anything you guessed and come back only if you finish the paper with time in hand.

Mistakes that cost marks

  • Not thisThe board gives great weight to punctuality.

    ThisThe board attaches great weight to punctuality.

    ‘Weight’ collocates with ‘attach’ and with ‘carry’, not with ‘give’. Part 1 is built on exactly these pairings.

  • Not thisThe minister refused any knowledge of the payments.

    ThisThe minister denied any knowledge of the payments.

    You refuse an offer or refuse to do something; you deny a fact or knowledge of one. The object after the gap decides which verb belongs.

  • Not thisVery little advance has been made on phase two.

    ThisVery little progress has been made on phase two.

    ‘Make progress’ is fixed. ‘Advance’ is a noun with a similar meaning but it does not sit in this frame.

  • Not thisThe scheme was rejected on the reason that it was costly.

    ThisThe scheme was rejected on the grounds that it was costly.

    ‘Reason’ needs ‘for’ and a noun phrase. Only ‘grounds’ takes ‘that’ in this structure.

  • Not thisHe went to great distances to make us welcome.

    ThisHe went to great lengths to make us welcome.

    ‘Lengths’ is fixed in this idiom. Distractors in Part 1 are often the literal near-synonym of the right word, which is why translating the idea rarely helps.

  • Not thisIt never happened to me that she might refuse.

    ThisIt never occurred to me that she might refuse.

    ‘Occur to someone’ means an idea came to mind; ‘happen to someone’ means an event affected them. The pronoun after the gap does not distinguish them, so the meaning must.

  • Not thisThe two accounts bear no reflection to each other.

    ThisThe two accounts bear no resemblance to each other.

    ‘Bear a resemblance to’ is a three-part chunk. Learning it as three parts, including the ‘to’, makes the wrong options audible rather than merely arguable.

Language this task keeps reusing

cast doubt on
make something seem less certain or less believable
bear a resemblance to
look or seem similar to
on the grounds that
for the stated reason that
go to great lengths
make a lot of effort to achieve something
come into force
start to apply, of a law or rule
take pride in
feel satisfaction about something you do well
come under criticism
be criticised, often publicly
lead someone to believe
make someone think something, often wrongly
make progress
move forward towards a goal
it occurred to me
the idea came into my mind
bring something to light
make a hidden fact known
at short notice
with little warning or time to prepare
run the risk of
put yourself in danger of something unwanted
give rise to
cause something, usually a problem or a question
bear in mind
remember and take into account
a matter of course
something done routinely, without a special decision

Practice: multiple-choice cloze

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.

The findings cast seriouson the whole methodology.
Complete: The board ___ great weight to the opinion of the outgoing chair.

3Complete the sentence.

She bears a strikingto her grandmother at the same age.
Complete: After hours of argument the two sides finally ___ a compromise.
Decide whether each statement about Part 1 is true or false.
  • The four options are often close in meaning, so collocation rather than definition usually decides the answer.
  • Reading the whole text once before answering is worth the time it costs.
  • An option can be correct even if it does not fit the grammar that follows the gap.
3 to go

6Complete the sentence.

The proposal was rejected on thethat it would cost too much to run.
Complete: The advertisement ___ us to believe that delivery was free.

8Complete the sentence.

Nothing in her training had prepared herthe scale of the disaster.

9Explain why the words after a Part 1 gap matter when four options all mean roughly the same, and give an example.

Complete: The minister flatly ___ any knowledge of the payments.

Keep going

30 more questions on this page

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Note

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Frequently asked questions

How long should Part 1 take in the exam?

About eight minutes, including the read-through. The reading parts later in the paper need far more time, so anything over ten minutes here is borrowing from where you can least afford it.

Is it worth learning lists of collocations for Part 1?

Lists help only if you learn them in chunks with their grammar attached: not ‘lengths’ but ‘go to great lengths to do something’. Record new items that way from anything you read and they will come back automatically.

What if two options both seem to work?

Read four words past the gap again. Nine times out of ten one option clashes with a preposition, a ‘that’ or an infinitive. If they genuinely both work, choose the more common chunk — the answer is never the rarer phrase.

Does reading novels help with Part 1?

It helps more than any exercise book, provided you read enough of it. Collocation is learned by repeated exposure, and a candidate who has read a few hundred pages of well-written English hears the right chunk without being able to explain why.

Are phrasal verbs common in this part?

Common enough to be worth a focused fortnight. Learn them by particle groups — up as completion, off as separation, out as removal — and always with the object pattern, because Part 1 often tests whether you know what can follow.

Should I answer Part 1 items in order?

Yes, but do not stop on one. The gaps often share a topic field, so an item you cannot do now may become obvious two gaps later. Mark it, carry on, and return at the end of the part rather than at the end of the paper.