Part 2: open cloze

B2 First: Use of English part 2 (open cloze)

In this part of the exam you complete a gapped text. Most of the missing words have a grammatical function, but there are also some words which form collocations and fixed expressions.

Auxiliary Verbs

You will need to know how to make the different tenses in English using auxiliary verbs (be, is, are, was, were, been, have, has, had) and modal verbs (must, might, may, can, could, will, would, should). Make sure you also know the passives for the different tenses.

  1. They had playing football for 10 minutes when the accident happened.
  2. Hundreds of jobs will lost if the government continues its plans.
  3. Scientists discovered thousands of new species in the last 10 years.
  4. The jewellery is specially made for the event by a local company.

Determiners, adverbs and pronouns

There are lots of little grammatical words which often appear here - for example determiners (e.g. a / the / any / little), pronouns (e.g. which / who / them / it) and adverbs (e.g. so / only / how).

  1. No one knew long the journey would take.
  2. Thieves stole a painting by Monet, was found a week later in a school.
  3. This book claims to teach you how to solve almost problem.
  4. In theory, our planet should be able to provide food for everyone.

Linking expressions and prepositions

Linkers (e.g. 'because' and 'unless') and many fixed expressions using prepositions (e.g. 'instead of' and 'in search of') appear in this part of the test. There may also be one or two phrasal verbs.

  1. Over 35,000 people took part the 2012 London Marathon.
  2. You must understand the risks before you set your own company.
  3. In addition starring in the film, he sang on the soundtrack.
  4. The climbers were forced to stop of the bad weather.