Sentences or whole paragraphs have been taken out of a text and mixed up, with one or more extra that do not belong. You put them back. It tests how a text holds together, which is why vocabulary alone will not solve it.
| Exam | Paper and part | Questions | Marks | Counts towards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 Preliminary | Reading, Part 4 | Q16-20 | 5 × 1 | Reading |
| B2 First | Reading and Use of English, Part 6 | Q37-42 | 6 × 2 | Reading |
| C1 Advanced | Reading and Use of English, Part 7 | Q41-46 | 6 × 2 | Reading |
| C2 Proficiency | Reading and Use of English, Part 6 | Q37-43 | 7 × 2 | Reading |
| Exam | Part | Removed | Gaps | Options |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 Preliminary | Part 4 | Sentences | 5 | 8 (3 extra) |
| B2 First | Part 6 | Sentences | 6 | 7 (1 extra) |
| C1 Advanced | Part 7 | Paragraphs | 6 | 7 (1 extra) |
| C2 Proficiency | Part 6 | Paragraphs | 7 | 8 (1 extra) |
Each option can be used only once. From B2 First upwards each gap is worth two marks, so a gapped text is worth as much as a long multiple-choice text.
A complete gapped text task at B2 First level. Work it with the answers closed, then open the key.
You are going to read a magazine article about a man who researches forgotten footpaths. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
The man who finds lost footpaths
When Graham Pike retired after forty years as a postman, his family assumed he would spend his time in the garden. Instead, he can usually be found in the county records office, studying maps that are more than two hundred years old. (37) Many of these routes have disappeared from modern maps altogether, and unless someone can prove they exist, the public could lose the right to use them for ever.
England has a remarkable network of public footpaths, some of which have been walked for centuries. However, thousands of old paths were never officially recorded when the current maps were drawn up in the middle of the last century. Walkers tend to assume that any path they use is theirs to keep, but that is not always the case. (38) Graham is one of several hundred volunteers around the country who are trying to find them before that happens.
His interest began almost by chance. Walking his dog one morning, he noticed an old stone step built into a wall, leading nowhere. (39) ‘It was obviously put there for a reason,’ he says. ‘People had climbed over it thousands of times. I wanted to know who they were, and where they were going.’
Finding the answer took him nearly a year. Old maps, he explains, are not always reliable, because mapmakers sometimes copied from one another and repeated each other’s mistakes. (40) In the case of the stone step, the proof came from a letter written in 1820, in which a farmer complained that villagers were walking across his land on their way to church.
The work can be slow and frustrating. Documents are often handwritten, faded or incomplete, and it may take weeks to find a single useful reference. (41) Of the eleven paths Graham has researched so far, only four have been officially added to the map, and he is still waiting for decisions on the rest. ‘Patience is essential,’ he says. ‘If you want quick results, this is the wrong hobby.’
Not everyone is pleased by what he does. Some landowners worry that reopened paths will bring walkers, dogs and litter onto their property, and Graham understands their concerns. (42) ‘Most of the time, we find a solution that works for everyone,’ he says. ‘A path can often be moved a few metres to the edge of a field, for example.’
For Graham, the reward comes on the day he can finally walk a route that has been forgotten for generations. ‘You’re following in the footsteps of people who lived here long before us,’ he says. ‘It’s like having a conversation with the past.’ He has already started on his twelfth path, an old route that once linked two villages on opposite sides of a river valley.
Answer key
37. B — The sentence explains why he studies old maps, and ‘paths that local people once used’ is picked up by ‘Many of these routes’ in the next sentence.
38. G — The threat that unrecorded paths ‘may be closed’ is what ‘before that happens’ refers to in the following sentence, and ‘the official record’ links back to paths that were never officially recorded.
39. E — ‘It’ refers to the stone step, and the empty field on both sides explains why it seemed to lead nowhere and why he wondered who had used it.
40. A — ‘Therefore’ follows from the point that old maps are unreliable, and ‘several different sources’ prepares for the example of the letter from 1820 that provided the proof.
41. F — ‘Even when the evidence is strong’ adds a second difficulty to the slow search for documents, and ‘several years’ explains why he is still waiting for decisions on seven of the paths. D does not fit because it contradicts the point that it may take weeks to find a single reference.
42. C — ‘Them’ refers to the landowners, and talking to them in person is the reason ‘we find a solution that works for everyone’.
The same task type at other levels: B1 Preliminary, C1 Advanced, C2 Proficiency.
More practice at every level is on the Cambridge Reading samples page. The whole section in context is on the Cambridge Reading page, and how it is marked is on the scoring page.
Written by Kirill O'Nayd
English test expert and educator at TestSucceed. He has spent years preparing candidates for Cambridge English Qualifications from A2 Key to C2 Proficiency, and taking apart how each paper awards its marks. See all TestSucceed preparation materials.