Use of English (Part 2) - Cambridge First (B2)

For most students, the Use of English part of the Cambridge exam is the most difficult, as it requires you to know the nuances of hundreds of words, and some of the tasks you’ve never done before (*ahem* sentence transformations). Here are some things you can do to practice, practice, practice for Part 2 of the Reading and Use of English exam.

*Before we start, here is an example of the Use of English part 2 test. Try to fill in the gaps. You can only use 1 word. You do not need to know anything about the subject of the text in order to know what the answers are. The answers will be at the bottom of the page.*

The Raven
Ravens are magnificent black birds that 1_______ found all over Europe and North America. They are a member 2_______ the corvid family, which includes crows, primarily found in Asia and Australia, rooks, and jackdaws. Ravens are omnivorous, and will eat basically anything 3_______ it can fit in its beak. 
Ravens have a cultural significance in 4_______ parts of the world. Ravens are a common symbol in Norse mythology. In America, Scarecrows, which are men made of straw that are placed in the middle of a field, were created to scare ravens and crows 5_______.  In a 6_______ North American Indian myths, a raven helps humans by spreading plants, animals, and rivers across the world. In the UK, ravens take residence in the Tower of London, and there is a legend that 7_______ protect the Crown. If they leave, then the Royal family will fall, and so will Britain.
One of the world's 8_______ famous poems is called The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. It is 9_______ a man who is experiencing grief over the death of a woman named Lenore and a raven appears in his room, saying the same word over and over, 'Nevermore'. The word 'nevermore' means, 'at no future time, never again' and is a reminder that the man will never stop 10_______ about the love of his life.

What you will be tested on:
Collocations
Collocations, simply put, are words that are friends. They appear together frequently enough, that English speakers are able to predict them, for example, 'Our diet plan is so effective it guarantees rapid weight _______.' Every native English speaker knows that the missing word is 'loss'. You, as a Cambridge student, need to know what is missing in the gap. 
For a more complete explanation of collocations, click here!

Prepositions
Prepositions are words that indicate time, place, movement, and agent (He was struck by lightning). The most simple prepositions that you might be tested on are things like knowing which preposition goes with which form of transport or time word, for example, on foot, at the station, on time, in July. Other examples of easy answers might be using over or under to mean 'more/less than', or the word about to mean 'almost, close to'. But only one or two of the answers will be that easy. The more difficult prepositions will be dependent prepositions and phrasal verbs.

Dependent prepositions
Some words require a preposition, without them it sounds weird. You can read all about them here, but basically if you say I am listening music, He is interested cars, She's waiting a friend, it sounds wrong, because the dependent prepositions are missing. You should say I am listening to music, He is interested in cars, She's waiting for a friend. You will be tested on whether you know the dependent prepositions of different verbs, nouns, and adjectives.

Phrasal verbs
Again, read more about phrasal verbs here, but these are verbs that when you add a preposition, it creates a new meaning. For example, give + up  means 'quit'. There is no logic or rule that will help you learn phrasal verbs - quit doesn't have anything to do with 'give' or 'up'. But you will be tested on whether you know these phrasal verbs. 

Pronouns
Pronouns are words which can replace nouns or make something more specific. There are a few different types you need to know.
Personal/Possessive/Reflexive pronouns

Personal	Possessive	Reflexive	Person pronouns have a 'subject' and 'object' form. They told us that she gave the money to him.
I, me	My, mine	Myself
You	Your, yours	Yourself, Yourselves	Possessive pronouns My/Your/Her/etc. + noun My sister lent me her jacket. To be + Mine/Yours/etc. Is that jacket yours? No, it’s hers.
He, him	His, his	Himself
She, her	Her, hers	Herself
It	Its, -	Itself
We, us	Our, ours	Ourselves	Reflexive pronouns They match with the subject, e.g. I - Myself, You - Yourself (or Yourselves if the you is plural), etc. He burned himself while cooking. You are only responsible for yourself.
They, them	Their, theirs	Themselves

Demonstrative pronouns

Singular	Plural
This	These
That	Those

Relative Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

That

Which

Who

Whose

Where

(Whom) Rarely used

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns

Who

What

Why

When

Where

How

Which

Articles

You may be tested on whether you can use a, an, or the correctly. 

Quantifiers

Quantifiers are words that tell you how much or how little of something there is. They are words like some, many, much, few, a lot, every, each, and many more. This website gives a good overview of how to use them, but one of the most important things you need to know is that they are different depending on whether the noun is countable or uncountable.

A countable noun is one that you can count. A simple test is, can you put a number in front of it? 3 pears. 20 students. 2 days.

Notice that you can't do this with uncountable nouns. 3 destructions. 4 rices. 16 moneys. This is important, as it affects what quantifiers you can use with which nouns. The most common ones are much/little and many/few (also how much and how many). 

Much/Little + uncountable nouns: How much time do we have? She has very little money. My bedroom doesn't have much space. There's only a little rice left in the cupboard.

Many/Few + countable nouns: How many people are coming to the party? Very few politicians tell the truth. We haven't come up with many ideas. There are a few apples in the kitchen.

Passive voice

For comparison, the active voice is any time a subject does something to an object. For example, The dog bit the man. Bit is in the active voice.

But we can hide the subject by making the verb into the passive voice and putting the object at the beginning of the sentence. The man was bitten. Was bitten is the past simple passive of the verb 'bite'.

If you want to say who/what did the action, you can add the word by and the subject. The man was bitten by the dog.

To create the passive, you take a form of the verb 'to be' and add the past participle, also known as verb 3 (Verb 1 = eat, Verb 2 = ate, Verb 3 = eaten), of the verb. 

I am loved. The watch was stolen. The illness has been cured. He was being watched. The show will be broadcast all over the world. She had been hired three weeks ago.

Gerunds vs Infinitives

A gerund is a verb that has been turned into a noun by adding -ing to the infinitive, like swimming.

The infinitive is the most original form of a verb, like to swim.

Some verbs only take a gerund, e.g. I enjoy watching films, NOT I enjoy to swim.

Some verbs only take an infinitive, e.g. He needs to leave, NOT He needs leaving.

Some verbs can take either a gerund or an infinitive and the meaning is exactly the same, e.g. She loves painting AND She loves to paint.

Some verbs can take either a gerund or an infinitive, however it changes the meaning depending on which one you use. For example, I stopped smoking means 'I quit smoking, I stopped doing something'. But, I stopped to smoke means that you stopped what you were doing, and started smoking.

When you learn a new verb, you can check if it takes a gerund or an infinitive by looking it up in a dictionary. Write it down, and practice using it. It's a good idea to seperate the verbs into the categories above (gerund, infinitive, both, both different meaning).

Answers

1. are - birds (plural) that are found - present simple passive. We use present simple to give facts.

2. of - dependent preposition. You are a member of something, like a club or a family.

3. that/which - relative pronoun. It eats anything that/which it can fit in its mouth. We used that/which for objects/animals.

4. many/several/some - quantifier - countable noun. Many/several/some parts of the world.

5. away - phrasal verb - scare away. To frighten someone or something into making them leave or stay away.

6. few - quantifier for the countable noun myth. We know it isn't some, many, several, etc. because there is the word 'a' before the gap.

7. they - pronoun. Refers back to 'ravens' earlier in the sentence.

8. most - one of the most + adjective + plural noun. This is a common way that we use superlatives (most difficult, easiest, simplest, etc.).

9. about - preposition. The poem is about... and then you say what the story/poem/movie/book involves (the characters, the setting, what happens, etc).

10. thinking - think about - verb with dependent preposition - thinking because the word 'stop' needs a gerund. The hints to find what verb goes in there was 'about' and logic. Many verbs go with 'about', cry, worry, talk, dream, but 'think' is the most logical. 

The Raven
Ravens are magnificent black birds that 1 are found all over Europe and North America. They are a member 2 of the corvid family, which includes crows, primarily found in Asia and Australia, rooks, and jackdaws. Ravens are omnivorous, and will eat basically anything 3 that it can fit in its beak. 
Ravens have a cultural significance in 4 many/several parts of the world. Ravens are a common symbol in Norse mythology. In America, Scarecrows, which are men made of straw that is placed in the middle of a field, were created to scare ravens and crows 5 away. In a 6 few North American Indian myths, a raven helps humans by spreading plants, animals, and rivers across the world. In the UK, Ravens take residence in the Tower of London, and there is a legend that 7 they protect the Crown, and if they leave, then the Royal family will fall, and so will Britain.
One of the world's 8 most famous poems is called The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. It is 9 about a man who is experiencing grief over the death of a woman named Lenore and a raven appears in his room, saying the same word over and over, 'Nevermore'. The word 'nevermore' means, 'at no future time, never again' and is a reminder that the man will never stop 10 thinking about the love of his life.