FCE reading and use of english Skills and Use of English 1

FCE Course Lesson 19 – FCE reading and use of English Skills

In this lesson you can listen to a professor talks about the FCE Reading and Use of English with FCE tips to help you prepare for the exam. To be successful in the Use of English it is important to avoid misspelling commonly misspelled words. Here is the first half of some of the most common words that are misspelled, in both American and British English.

Dialogue 19: FCE reading and use of english parts

Emma is coming to grips with Use of English which is part of the Reading section. It is yet another part of the exam she feels ill-prepared for as it covers elements such as vocabulary, collocations, shades of meaning, phrasal verbs, and idioms – also called fixed phrases through different types of texts such as newspapers, fiction, and magazines.

EMMA: From what I’ve read about the Use of English, I think it’s going to be the part I’ll struggle with most in the exam.

GORDON: Ok don’t worry Emma, why don’t you tell us what you already know, then we can all discuss tips for tackling this section?

EMMA: Basically, I know there are 7 parts. The first part is ‘multiple-choice cloze’, then there is a part called ‘open cloze’, the third part is ‘word formation’, the fourth part is “sentence transformation”, the fifth is Multiple choice text, the sixth is gapped texts with missing paragraphs, and the seventh is called Multiple matching where you have to find where information is located in a text.

TERRY: Yeah that’s it. So, can you tell us what the different parts involve?

EMMA: Um, yeah. So in multiple-choice cloze, you have to fill in gaps, for each of these gaps, you choose one answer from four. Open cloze is similar, but with this there are no multiple-choice answers so you have to completely rely on your own resourcefulness which means it is more difficult. For word formation, you have to take a stem word and form this to create another word, for example changing an adjective to an adverb by adding the suffix ‘-ly’ or something like that. Then, for sentence transformation, you have a sentence, which is followed by a second sentence containing a gap. You need to use between two to five words to fill in this gap, being sure to use the keyword which will be provided in capitals. Essentially, you are changing the structure of the first sentence but putting across the same meaning.

GORDON: Excellent knowledge of four of the seven sections, Emma. You can study parts five to seven at home. Tell me, how have you been revising so far?

EMMA: Well, I’ve been making sure I’m familiar with lots of linking words and prepositions.

GORDON: Ok, well now we can talk more about specific revision techniques so you know how to revise for all parts.

Vocabulary Reading Skills and Use of English

ENGLISH	SYNONYM or DEFINITION
to come to grips with	to tackle, to deal with, to grasp
ill-prepared	inexperienced, inexpert
to struggle	to find something difficult, to have difficulty doing something
a tip	a piece of advice
to tackle	to deal with something, to get to work on, set one’s hands on
a cloze	a test in which one is asked to supply words that have been removed from a passage in order to measure one’s ability to comprehend text; a “fill in the blanks” type text
to rely on	to depend on
resourcefulness	initiative, inventiveness, self-motivation, creativity
a stem word	root, main part, origin
to put across	to communicate, to convey, to make clear
to handle	to deal with, to take care of, to attend to, to sort out
a prefix	an element placed at the beginning of a word to adjust or quality its meaning
a suffix	an element placed at the end of a word to adjust or qualify its meaning
an idiom	an expression, a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words

Exam tips Reading Skills and Use of English 1

EXAM TIP FOR First Reading Skills and Use of English 1

Commonly misspelled words. Here is the first half of some of the most commonly misspelled words in American and British English.

A-B

absence

acceptable

accidentally

accommodate

achieve

acknowledge

acquaintance

acquire

acquit

acreage

address

adultery

advisable

affect

aggression

aggressive

allegiance

almost

a lot

amateur

annually

apparent

arctic

argument

atheist

awful

because

becoming

beginning

believe

bellwether

buoy/buoyant

business

C-D

calendar

camouflage

capitol capital (both words exist)

Caribbean

Grammar and Vocabulary recommended Videos for fce reading and use of English.

Exercises First Reading Skills and Use of English 1

Vocabulary Exercise

Comprehension Exercise

Grammar Exercise

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Previous lesson: FCE Lesson 18: Example of a Report & How to write a letter or email requesting information, giving information, or requesting permission

Next lesson: FCE Lesson 20: Grammar components of the Reading and Use of English exams & Commonly misspelled words to avoid

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