Subjects:

In a sentence in English there are 2 kinds of words  the content words which are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and the little structural words which are needed to make the sentence grammatically correct.

Part 2 of the FCE reading and use of English exam tests the students ability to identify these structural words.

A piece of text is given from which 8 words have been removed and we have to replace them by looking at the context of the sentence.

Let's look at a typical exam question:

The Sniper
There are many interesting jobs to do in the armed services, but surely, becoming a sniper can't be one (1) )....... them.

A sniper is a marksman or qualified specialist who operates alone, in a pair, or with a sniper team to maintain close visual contact with the enemy. Their objective is to shoot at targets (2) ....... concealed positions or distances exceeding the detection capabilities of enemy personnel.

They spend years training a very repetitive skill, and (3)....... definition the best (4)....... are loners. They are then sent into combat, and more likely than (5)......., will spend long hours sitting motionless waiting for the one moment to do what they have trained for, (6)....... very often does not materialise.

Hollywood has glamourised the role, but in reality it is anything but glamourous. Films like American Sniper and Enemy at the Gates paint a thrilling picture, but anyone with experience (7)....... the real thing will tell you it's an extremely thankless job. That having (8)....... said, the modern army still relies very heavily on being able to use them to deliver that surgical strike.

You can only identify the correct word by looking at what the full sentence means.

There are between 40 to 50 such words and they form part of about 12 groups  prepositions, pronouns, quantifiers, articles, auxilliary verbs, common expressions and collocations, and others.

So what is the best way to do this exercise?

You need to learn to recognise how the most common words in these exercises are used.

An example of this is the relative pronoun which, which appears in nearly every exercise.

This word comes at the beginning of a group of words which describe a noun, and sometimes come after a comma, and sometimes not:

My car, which is a BMW, was stolen yesterday.

My car which is a BMW was stolen yesterday.

Each missing word needs other words to make sense, and these other words can help you identify the missing word. You need to do as many exercises of this type as possible to recognise the patterns.

When you do an exercise, and you make a mistake, look at the sentence carefully to identify the group to which the missing word belongs.

This will help you for the next time you see this word.

1 Read the text with the missing words.

2 Understand what the text is about.

3 Then read each sentence with a space in it.

4 Understand the context by looking at the words on either side of the space.

5 Try to isolate the group to which the missing word belongs.

6 Once you recognise the group, use that to identify the missing word.

Let's apply these ideas to a typical exam question:

The Sniper
There are many interesting jobs to do in the armed services, but surely, becoming a sniper can't be one (1) )....... them.

A sniper is a marksman or qualified specialist who operates alone, in a pair, or with a sniper team to maintain close visual contact with the enemy. Their objective is to shoot at targets (2) ....... concealed positions or distances exceeding the detection capabilities of enemy personnel.

They spend years training a very repetitive skill, and (3)....... definition the best (4)....... are loners. They are then sent into combat, and more likely than (5)......., will spend long hours sitting motionless waiting for the one moment to do what they have trained for, (6)....... very often does not materialise.

Hollywood has glamourised the role, but in reality it is anything but glamourous. Films like American Sniper and Enemy at the Gates paint a thrilling picture, but anyone with experience (7)....... the real thing will tell you it's an extremely thankless job. That having (8)....... said, the modern army still relies very heavily on being able to use them to deliver that surgical strike.

These word groups are widely used in these exercises and in general English, so it is very important that the student learns to recognise them and use them in the speaking and writing work.

In fact, the meaning in most sentences is contained in word groups rather than individual words, so the student would be advised to build up a vocabulary list of commonly used word groups, and these exercises represent a fantastic source for such material.

This is the first sentence with a space:

There are many interesting jobs to do in the armed services, but surely, becoming a sniper can't be one (1)....... them.

The group of words we are looking for is:

one ............them,

and the missing word is OF, to complete the group:

one OF them,

which gives us:

There are many interesting jobs to do in the armed services, but surely, becoming a sniper can't be one (1)...OF... them.

Looking at the next sentence with a space in it:

Their objective is to shoot at targets (2)..........concealed positions or distances exceeding the detection capabilities of enemy personnel.

The group we are interested in is:

shoot at targets.............concealed positions,

which is the verb shoot and the prepositions which usually go with it like at or from:

shoot at birds

shoot from the house

Here the correct word is from because at has already been used.

So the completed group becomes:

shoot at targets.......FROM......concealed positions.

and the completed sentence is:

Their objective is to shoot at targets (2)...FROM.......concealed positions or distances exceeding the detection capabilities of enemy personnel.

They spend years training a very repetitive skill, and (3) ..........definition the best (4)................are loners.

The word definition appears with only a few other words, like the definition, or by definition, which is the case here.

So the correct answer for space 3 is BY definition.

The group for space 4 is:

the best ...............are loners,

which could be people, soldiers, or the pronoun one or ones, which is the correct answer because we need a plural word which is followed by are.

The correct answer then is:

the best ....ONES ......are loners.

And the completed sentence is:

They spend years training a very repetitive skill, and (3) ...BY.......definition the best (4)......ONES..........are loners.

Looking at the next sentence with a space in it:

They are then sent into combat, and more likely than (5) ..............., will spend long hours sitting motionless waiting for the one moment to do what they have trained for, (6) ..................very often does not materialise.

The words of interest are:

more likely than ...............,

which form the group:

more likely than NOT.

The word for space 6, which comes after a comma, is part of a group of words which describe the noun phrase

what they have trained for

so it could be the relative pronoun which, and is, to give the completed sentence:

They are then sent into combat, and more likely than (5) .....NOT...., will spend long hours sitting motionless waiting for the one moment to do what they have trained for, (6) ....WHICH......very often does not materialise.

Looking at the next sentence:

Hollywood has glamourised the role, but in reality it is anything but glamourous. Films like American Sniper and Enemy at the Gates paint a thrilling picture, but anyone with experience (7) ..................... the real thing will tell you it's an extremely thankless job.

The group of interest is:

anyone with experience ................... the real thing,

and the correct answer is OF, to give the completed group:

anyone with experience .....OF.... the real thing.

giving the completed sentence:

Hollywood has glamourised the role, but in reality it is anything but glamourous. Films like American Sniper and Enemy at the Gates paint a thrilling picture, but anyone with experience (7) ....OF... the real thing will tell you it's an extremely thankless job.

Looking at the final sentence:

That having (8) ....................said, the modern army still relies very heavily on being able to use them to deliver that surgical strike.

The group:

That having (8) ....................said,

Is a present perfect expression that is widely used, so the missing word is BEEN,

and the completed sentence is:

That having (8) .....BEEN.....said, the modern army still relies very heavily on being able to use them to deliver that surgical strike.

The completed text then is:

The Sniper
There are many interesting jobs to do in the armed services, but surely, becoming a sniper can't be one (1) .......OF.........them.

A sniper is a marksman or qualified specialist who operates alone, in a pair, or with a sniper team to maintain close visual contact with the enemy. Their objective is to shoot at targets (2) .......FROM..........concealed positions or distances exceeding the detection capabilities of enemy personnel.

They spend years training a very repetitive skill, and (3).........BY.......definition the best (4) ......ONES.......are loners. They are then sent into combat, and more likely than (5) ......NOT......., will spend long hours sitting motionless waiting for the one moment to do what they have trained for, (6) .....WHICH......very often does not materialise.

Hollywood has glamourised the role, but in reality it is anything but glamourous. Films like American Sniper and Enemy at the Gates paint a thrilling picture, but anyone with experience (7) ......OF...........the real thing will tell you it's an extremely thankless job. That having (8) .......BEEN..........said, the modern army still relies very heavily on being able to use them to deliver that surgical strike.