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
category
caught
cemetery
changeable
chief
colleague
column
coming
committed
concede
congratulate
conscientious
conscious
consensus
controversy
coolly
daiquiri
deceive
definite
definitely
desperate
difference
dilemma
disappoint
disastrous
drunkenness
dumbbell
E-H
embarrass
equipment
exceed
exhilarate
existence
experience
extreme
fascinating
fiery
fluorescent
foreign
friend
fulfil fullfil
gauge
grateful
guarantee
guidance
harass
height
hierarchy
hors d’oeuvres
humorous
hygiene
hypocrisy/hypocrite
I-K
ignorance
imitate
immediately
independent
indispensable
inoculate
intelligence
jewelry (UK: jewellery)
judgment
kernel
L-O
leisure
liaison
library
license lisence (US always license)
lightning
lose loose
maintenance
medieval
memento
millennium
miniature
minuscule
mischievous
misspell
necessary
niece
neighbor, neighbour
noticeable
occasion
occasionally
occurrence
occurred
omission
original
outrageous
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
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
