CPE Use of English Paper Part 1 – Teacher’s notes Description In this activity students complete the gaps in a short paragraph. They analyse the type of words they have used to complete the gaps so that they become aware of the test focus of Use of English, Part 1. They then complete the rest of the text following a suggested strategy.

Time required: 15-20 Minutes

Materials required:

student’s worksheet

Aims: to make sure students know what type of words are commonly tested in Part 1

to encourage students to think about a strategy which could help them successfully complete an open cloze task

Procedure

1. Elict from the class what they have to do in Part 1 – Open Cloze task.

• Part 1 consists of a text in which there are 15 gaps (plus one gap as an example).

• Candidates have to think of a word which will fill the gap correctly.

• The focus of the gapped words is either grammar, or vocabulary.

• The answer will always be a single word. In some cases, there may be more than one possible answer and this is allowed for in the mark scheme.

• The absence or misuse of punctuation is ignored, although spelling, as in all parts of the Use of English paper, must be correct.

Remind students that answers can be written on the question paper but that they have to be transferred to Answer Sheet 1. Answers have to be written in pencil, in capital letters on the Answer Sheet. Each correct answer receives one mark.

2. Give out the worksheet and ask students to answer Exercise 1 questions 1–3. They can work in pairs. Check the answers with the whole class (see key below).

3. Questions 4 and 5 draw students’ attention to the types of words commonly tested in part 1. Make sure that students know what is being tested in Part 1.

• The focus of the gapped words is either grammatical, such as articles, auxiliaries, prepositions, pronouns, verb tenses and forms;

• or lexical, such as phrasal verbs, linkers and words within fixed phrases. • If your students are not familiar with the grammatical terms, you may prefer

not to go into details about grammar e.g. talking about articles, relative pronouns etc.

• Candidates will not be expected to know grammatical terminology in the exam.

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4. Now refer students to Exercise 2, questions 6 and 7. Students should discuss in pairs their suggestions for question 6 and the suggested strategy in pairs. When they have finished they could compare their answers with another pair.

5. Elicit the suggested strategy for doing an open cloze task from the students (see key below). You could write up the points on the board.

Suggested follow-up idea

1. You could give groups students a text and ask them to find 15 grammatical and vocabulary words; verbs, prepositions, conjunctions and determiners; phrasal verbs, parts of fixed phrases, etc. and to blank these words out. The students could then give their text to another group who should complete the text with suitable words.

© UCLES 2008. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. It may not otherwise be altered, photocopied, reproduced, distributed, published, recorded, made available on another website, or otherwise transmitted by any means without the prior written permission of University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations. CPE Use of English Paper Part 1 – Student’s Worksheet www.cambridgeesol.org/teach Page 2 of 4

Use of English Paper Part 1 answer keys

Key to Student’s Worksheet Exercise 1

The paragraph is about a book about food.

1 put vocabulary part of phrasal verb, put forward

2 what grammar relative pronoun

3 become grammar past participle used in past perfect tense

4 make vocabulary collocation make, sense

5 there grammar + vocabulary

impersonal there

Key to Student’s Worksheet Exercise 2

6. Suggested strategy

1. Read the whole text first and ask yourself what it is about. 2. Think about what sort of word fits the gap: a verb etc. 3. Check for vocabulary – look at the text before and after the gap to make sure that

your word fits: is it a collocation, part of a fixed phrase, etc? 4. Check for grammar:

Does the verb agree with the subject (singular or plural needed)? Does the tense fit the other tenses in the text or the development of the

narrative? Do you need a word which suggests a negative? Do you need a relative pronoun to link two parts of a sentence?

5. Fill in some more gaps. 6. Keep re-reading the text to make sure the words you have chosen fit. 7. Make sure that you have completed every gap.

7.

6 Although / Though / While / Whilst vocabulary linker

7 up vocabulary part of phrasal verb, back up

8 those grammar determiner

9 on grammar preposition

10 as vocabulary linker

11 one grammar pronoun

12 view vocabulary part of fixed phrase

13 Irrespective/Regardless vocabulary linker

14 such grammar determiner

15 a grammar indefinite article

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CPE Use of English Paper Part 1 – Student’s Worksheet Exercise 1

1. Read the paragraph below. What is it about? Do not complete any of the gaps yet.

2. Complete the gaps with one word that you think best fits each gap.

3. Check your answers with your teacher.

4. What sort of words are the answers; are they testing your grammar or vocabulary?

5. Do you know which grammatical structure, e.g. articles, auxiliaries, prepositions, pronouns, verb tenses and forms, or aspect of vocabulary, e.g. phrasal verbs, linkers and fixed phrases is being tested in each gap?

Food for a future

Jon Wynne-Tyson was an original thinker (0) …….best-known book ‘Food for a Future’

was published in 1975. In this classic work, a case was (1) …. forward for (2) ….. can

only be described as a more responsible and humane attitude towards the world’s food

resources. It had gradually (3) …. clear to Wynne-Tyson that the economics and ecology

of meat production did not (4) …. sense. What justification was (5) ….., he argued, for

using seven tonnes of cereal to produce one tonne of meat?

Exercise 2

6. Discuss in pairs what you think is a good strategy for doing this task. What should you do first, second and so on?

7. Now, using your strategy, complete the rest of the text

Even today, the book’s succinct style makes it compulsively readable. (6) ….. his approach

is basically an emotional one, Wynne Tyson goes to great lengths to back (7) ….. every

statement with considerable supporting evidence and statistical data. Thus, even (8) ….. of

us who are widely read (9) ….. the subject of vegetarianism will gain fresh insights from this

book. It is generally agreed that his most successful achievement is the slow revelation of

his main thesis (10) ….. the arguments unfold. The book concludes that a move away from

an animal based diet to (11) ….. which is based on plant sources is inevitable in the long

term, in (12) ….. of the fact that there is no sound nutritional, medical or social justification

for meat eating. (13) ….. of whether you agree with (14) a conclusion or not, the book

certainly makes (15) ….. fascinating read.

© UCLES 2008. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. It may not otherwise be altered, photocopied, reproduced, distributed, published, recorded, made available on another website, or otherwise transmitted by any means without the prior written permission of University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations. CPE Use of English Paper Part 1 – Student’s Worksheet www.cambridgeesol.org/teach Page 4 of 4