Reading & Use of English: A Guide to the B2 First (FCE)
Philo and Sophia work through every part of the Reading and Use of English paper together
1The Seven Parts, at a Glance
Parts 1–3 test vocabulary and grammar directly; Parts 5–7 test reading comprehension over longer texts. Part 4 sits in between — it needs both grammar and a good vocabulary range.
2Part 1: Multiple-Choice Cloze
A text has eight gaps, each with four similar-looking word options. This part tests vocabulary in context — idioms, collocations, and fixed phrases.
1.
"take an interest in" is the fixed collocation — the other verbs don't combine naturally with "interest" this way.
3Part 2: Open Cloze
Another eight-gap text, but with no options this time — grammar words only: articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs.
Answer: until
"It was not until... that" is a fixed emphatic structure — a common Part 2 pattern at this level.
4Part 3: Word Formation
A text has eight gaps. Beside each gap is a "stem" word in capitals, which you must change into the correct form to fit the sentence — often by adding a prefix or suffix.
Answer: variety
The gap needs a noun ("its ____"), so VARY becomes "variety" — watch for whether the sentence needs a noun, adjective, adverb, or negative form.
5Part 4: Key Word Transformation
You're given a sentence, a "key word," and the start of a second sentence. You complete the second sentence so it means the same as the first — using between two and five words, one of which must be the key word.
Strategy
Identify the grammar being tested first (passive voice, reported speech, comparatives, conditionals are common) — the key word is usually the clue to which structure is needed.
TIME
It's (1) ____________ Philo visited the harbour.
Answer: a long time since
"It's a long time since..." is the standard transformation for "hasn't ... since he was a child" — five words including the key word TIME.
6Part 5: Multiple Choice — Long Text
One longer text — an article, report, or piece of fiction — with six four-option questions on detail, opinion, attitude, tone, purpose, or the main idea.
What is the writer's purpose in this paragraph?
"It would be easy to romanticise... In truth..." signals the writer is complicating a simple, idealised picture — B — not condemning the Library (A) or ranking it against rivals (C).
7Part 6: Gapped Text
A longer text has six sentences removed, with seven options given (one is never used). This tests how well you track a text's logical and grammatical thread across paragraphs — a bigger-scale version of PET's Part 4.
Strategy
Read the whole base text first for the general argument, then work gap by gap, checking each candidate sentence against both what comes before and after it — cohesion clues run in both directions.
8Part 7: Multiple Matching
Either several short texts, or one text divided into sections, are matched against ten statements about detail, opinion, specific information, or implication.
Why this part feels different
Unlike Part 2's matching at PET level, the statements here often paraphrase the text closely rather than repeat its wording exactly — you're matching meaning, not vocabulary.
Read the statement fully before scanning — a half-read statement often matches the wrong section.
9How Reading and Use of English Is Scored
8 marks
8 marks
8 marks
12 marks (2 per question)
12 marks (2 per question)
12 marks (2 per question)
10 marks
That's 70 marks in total from 52 questions — notice that Parts 4 to 6 carry double weight per question, so accuracy there matters more than in Parts 1–3 or 7.