C1 Advanced Gapped Text Practice
C1 Advanced (CAE) · Reading & Use of English Part 7 · 41 free exercises
A text with missing paragraphs or sentences, presented out of order — you decide what goes where, with one extra you won’t need. Gapped text rewards reading for structure: reference words, linkers and how ideas develop across paragraph boundaries.
Gapped Text: The wrong answer is designed to look right.
- 6 — gaps
- 7 — paragraphs — 1 extra
- 2 marks — per gap
- ~15 min — of your paper
Whether you can follow the structure of a text — what pronouns point to, how time moves, what connectors demand. Every removed paragraph is held in place by these small links; the extra one matches the topic but fails them.
What real learners get wrong: C1 learners place 79% of paragraphs correctly, but the errors concentrate: one real trap gap fooled 64% of attempts, and 8 of 9 wrong answers chose the same paragraph — the extra one.
The method
- Read the main text first, straight past the gaps, for the shape of the story.
- At each gap, read the sentence before and after, and say what must happen between them.
- Check every candidate’s first and last line — paragraphs connect at their edges.
- Hunt the connection words and give each an owner: "she" needs a woman, "this idea" needs an idea.
- Always test the sentence after the gap — most wrong answers break coming out. Place the certain ones first.
The traps
- Choosing by topic, not connections: The extra paragraph is about the right subject on purpose. It fails the connection tests.
- Only reading up to the gap: The sentence after the gap is half the evidence — and the half that catches people.
- The cascade: One misplaced paragraph forces a second wrong answer. Check your leftover paragraph at the end.
- Unowned reference words: This, these, such a — if you cannot underline what it points to, the paragraph does not go there.
- Broken timelines: "Then", "after three months" must agree with the order of events in the main text.
All Gapped Text exercises
Advanced Expert Coursebook, Pearson Education
- Heard any good films lately? - Module 3
- The men and women hurtling around the planet - Module 9
- You've been verbed - Module 6
Advanced Expert Student's Resource Book, Pearson Education
- Flight-seeing in Alaska - Module 7
- From selfie to photographic art - Module 3
- Hidden tigers - Practice Exam
C1 Advanced Trainer 2, Cambridge University Press
- Helping Out with Orangutans – A Holiday with a Difference - Test 3
- Rafting Through the Grand Canyon and Beyond - Test 4
- The Country That Loves Bees - Test 2
- Victor Gruen and the Southdale Shopping Mall - Test 5
- What Does a Smile Mean? - Test 6
- Wild Skating in Sweden - Test 1
Cambridge English Advanced 1, Cambridge University Press
- Before Google ... the alternative travel guide to Poland - Test 3
- Secrets of the deep - Test 1
- Stargazing in East Africa - Test 2
- The Story of Grass - Test 4
Cambridge English Advanced 2, Cambridge University Press
- City of Heat - Test 6
- Geothermal Power in Iceland - Test 8
- Impossible Rock - Test 5
- Taking Dinosaurs Apart - Test 7
Cambridge English Advanced 3, Cambridge University Press
- Beavers - Test 1
- Costa Rican holiday - Test 2
- The art of sound in movies - Test 4
- The unbearable hypocrisy of being an environmentalist - Test 3
Cambridge Exam Booster for Advanced, Cambridge University Press
- How the microwave oven was invented - Worksheet 2
- Making profits from sustainable industry - Worksheet 1
- Replacing arts subjects in schools - Worksheet 3
Complete Advanced Workbook, Cambridge University Press
Complete Advanced, Cambridge University Press
- A welcome/unwelcome visit - Unit 9
- Cycle ride - Unit 5
- The Dramatic Life – so far – of Birdgirl - Unit 12
- Young film actors - Unit 7
Ready for C1 Advanced 4th Edition Workbook, Macmillan Education
- 'It’s Like Family': the Swedish Housing Experiment - Unit 10
- Improving Online Market Research through Gamification - Unit 3
- Learning to Live with Face-Blindness - Unit 6
Ready for C1 Advanced 4th Edition, Macmillan Education
- Better People Make Better Students - Ready for Reading
- Magic Out of Mould: Inside the World’s Wildest Restaurant - Unit 11
- Modern Values - Unit 8
- Technology and the brain - Unit 3