by Adam Skimins 27th August 2023

Exercises

Practice Test: Reading – Part 7 (Gapped Text) | C1 Advanced (CAE)

Level: C1

Part 7 consists of one long gapped text from which six paragraphs of equal length have been removed and placed in jumbled order after the text, together with a seventh paragraph which does not fit in any of the gaps. The text is usually from a non-fiction source (including journalism). This part tests comprehension of text structure, cohesion, coherence and global meaning.

Candidates are required to decide from where in the text each paragraph has been removed. Each paragraph may be used only once, and there is one paragraph that candidates do not need to use.

Candidates need to read the gapped text first in order to gain an overall idea of the structure and the meaning of the text, and to notice carefully the information and ideas before and after each gap as well as throughout the whole of the gapped text. They should then decide which paragraphs fit the gaps, remembering that each letter may only be used once and that there is one paragraph which they will not need to use.

C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading – Part 7 : Example Test

For each gap choose the correct sentence.
There is one extra sentence that you do not need to use.

The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree

High in a tree, veiled in a freezing mist, a woodsman inspects a colossal spruce in the name of Anglo-Norwegian relations. Deep in the depths of Oslomarka, which is a network of coniferous forests on the edge of Oslo, every year since 1947, a tree has been felled to be shipped to London and presented as the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree.

Select

Oslo is surrounded by natural beauty; edged with woodland and a fjord, it is often described as ‘the blue, the green and the city in between.’ It feels truly wild, populated with moose, lynx, roe deer and even the odd wolf. ‘Two wolves live out here now,’ says Oslo mayor, Marianne Borgen. ‘They are not hunted, they are welcome.’

Select

Or try out a range of other winter activities, like hiking the many trails, mountain biking, ice skating, fishing, picnicking and, of course, skiing and tobogganing the timeworn runs. If you don’t want to head straight back to Oslo, you can stay in municipal sports cabins, very reasonably priced, and scattered throughout the woods from where the British tree will come.

Select

For Christiansen’s foresters, the challenge is to manage this terrain in a way that pleases the public. Visitors want a scar-free and diverse landscape, with trees of all ages and all sizes at the same spot, rather than the uniform vistas created by commercial forests.

Select

The following morning, the sky is cobalt blue and the air is sharp. The Holmenkollen ski jump looms dramatically behind the hotel, with its launch platform 200ft above the ground and delivers a knee-trembling panorama, from the crystal waters of the fjord to the rolling green woodland.

Select

Leaving Holmenkollen on a two-mile ramble takes you to Frognerseteren, which was once a mountain dairy farm and is now a popular restaurant. This is where the forest really takes over. Decent walking boots and thick socks are essential. The few hikers I encounter are sporting some serious kit, and the silence is deafening, except for the occasional tinkle of nearby streams.

Select

There is constant pressure from property developers to impinge on these woods but Mayor Borgen is determined it won’t happen. The people don’t want them to build – they like things just as they are, and want them to stay like that, and she feels the same way.

From the city the T-bane train goes north. It’s like getting from the Strand to the Cairngorms in 10 tube stops, and in no time you arrive at the Holmenkollen Park Hotel, which is north-west of Oslo and the unofficial gatehouse to the forest.Locals love the proximity of the countryside. ‘In the winter, you can take your skis, get on the tram and be on the slopes in 20 minutes, and be back easily for city life in the evening,’says Borgen, as we warm ourselves with cups of Norwegian coffee. ‘You can walk around for hours without meeting anyone.’Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway. The city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to many companies within the maritime sector.There it will stand, decorated in traditional Norwegian style, until 6 January. The ‘Queen of the Forest’ (as locals call it) is given in gratitude for Britain’s assistance during the second world war. This year’s chosen one is 27 metres tall, weighs some 4 tonnes and is 95 years old.Beneath the jump is the Ski Museum, which provides a good introduction to Norway’s national sport. There are skis made in 600AD, examples of trugers (snow shoes for ponies) that look like giant bagels, and a wind-force machine which can simulate the effect of a downhill slalom.Head forester Jon Christiansen and his team scour the area, talent-spotting trees for London, and the chosen few are then groomed like X Factor hopefuls, to encourage a strong and symmetrical growth. They then mark them and tend to them through the years by clearing the space around, so they get light from all angles.Then a 20-minute trip back into the city, brings familiar sounds of people and cars. The National Gallery holds familiar compositions of mossy boulders and sopping wet firs in the pen and watercolour works of 19th-century romantics Johan Christian Dahl and August Cappelen.

FCE, CAE, CPE

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C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading – Part 7 : Tips & Strategy

Tips:

Tip 1: Be careful…

Sometimes there won’t be a clue in the sentence immediately before or after the gap.

You really do need to read the whole text to get its meaning – sometimes the ‘clue’ is the entire paragraph.

Tip 2: Underline reference words…

Underline the names of people, organisations or places. Also, underline reference words such as ‘this’, ‘it’, ‘there’, etc. They will help you see connections between sentences and paragraphs.

Strategy

Read the main text through first to get an idea of what it is about and how the writer develops his or her subject matter.
Use clues in the paragraphs before and after the gaps to help you choose the ones that fit.
Clues may lie in the grammar, punctuation and/or vocabulary.
Try to guess the sort of information that might be missing.
Check any phrases/short sentences which you have not used to see if they could fit in the gap.
When you have finished the task, read through the completed text to make sure it makes sense

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