Use of English (Part 4) - Explanation and Strategies - Cambridge First (B2)

Part 4 of the Reading and Use of English exam is easily one of the hardest parts for most students. There are two reasons for this: the first is that, unlike the other parts which involve gap fills and multiple choice, you’ve likely never done an activity that is like this; the second reason is that it demands that you rephrase a sentence using the grammar or vocabulary that it wants. 

There are 6 questions, and you get 2 marks per question, so that’s a mark out of 12. A good score to aim for is 6/12 for this part - it’s very achievable. So let’s take a look.

*Complete the sentence so that it has the same meaning as the first sentence. You must use the given word IN BOLD, and you must not write more than 5 words.*

My father used to invent stories for me when I was a child.

UP

When I was a child, my father would ________________ stories for me.

We need to figure out what words are missing. A useful first step is to cross out all the words that appear in both the first and second sentence.

My father used to invent stories for me when I was a child.

UP

When I was a child, my father would ________________ stories for me.

We’re left with used to invent. Actually, the word 'used to' does appear in the second sentence, but as the word would.

My father used to invent stories for me when I was a child.

UP

When I was a child, my father would ________________ stories for me.

That leaves us with the word invent, so we need to find a way to say invent but also use the word UP.

My father used to invent stories for me when I was a child.

UP

When I was a child, my father would ___MAKE UP___ stories for me.

Make up is a phrasal verb which means invent (for stories and lies). So this question was testing if you knew the phrasal verb make up. This question is worth 2 marks, so how do you get both marks?

The answers are divided into two parts, like this: MAKE | UP. So if you wrote MADE UP, you would get 1 mark, because you only got 1 half of the answer wrong. Let’s look at another example.

“What are you going to study at university?” Sally asked.

WAS

Sally asked me what _______________ at university.

This question is testing if you know the grammar Reported Speech. Let’s cross out all the words that appear in both sentences first.

“What are you going to study at university?” Sally asked.

WAS

Sally asked me what _______________ at university.

In reported speech, we change the ‘you’ to an ‘I’ (usually) and we change the tense to the past.

“What are you going to study at university?” Sally asked.

WAS

Sally asked me what _I WAS GOING TO STUDY___ at university.

The answer is separated into two parts: I WAS GOING | TO STUDY. So if you wrote ARE YOU GOING TO STUDY, you would get 1 mark, because one of those parts is correct.

Once you've eliminated the words that appear in both sentences, it's much easier to to determine what you need to put in that gap. Read the entire sentence, and look for clues of what the grammar they are testing is. For example, non-defining relative clauses are contained with in commas, like this: This test, which is not very easy, can be overcome. You might see one half of a conditional sentence, 'If + verb, will/would/would have + verb', so you know you'll have to complete the other half of the conditional.

The other useful hint is that Cambridge usually give the same grammar points in every test (reported speech, conditionals, comparatives or superlatives, relative clauses). You can see what kind of grammar and vocabulary you'll be tested on here.

It's very important to realise that this is not easy, and you should expect to do badly the first few times you do this. But with lots of practice, you'll be able to recognise patterns and you'll get better at doing them.

*BONUS HINT*

When you learn new words, write down other words that mean the same thing.

SYNONYMS

Write down ________________ that you have learnt.

Click here to find the answer, and other useful tips for Use of English part 4.