Fill in the Blanks is quite different than RW Fill in the Blanks because there is more emphasis on informal language, collocation, parts of speech, and abstract meanings, especially metaphors. Parts of speech have to be known by the test-taker since it is the main point of confusion between the answer options. Abstract meanings are never used in RW Fill in the Blanks, but in ‘Fill in the Blanks’ there is usually one word among the answer options that does not fit the context, and this is a clue of its potential metaphorical use. Obviously, I am speaking a great deal about grammar in general, but specific grammatical clues found in the text can lead to only one possible answer as well.

Example 1.

In the text below some words are missing. Drag words from the box below to the appropriate place in the text. To undo an answer choice, drag the word back below the text.

Some cities are calmly industrious, like Dusseldorf or Louisville. Others project an energy that they can hardly 1. _____, like New York or Hong Kong. And then you have Paris or Istanbul, and their patina full of 2. ______. Cities can be seen as living beings. Their space is 3. _______ by main streets and highways. At night these 4.______ look dramatically red and golden. You can see the city’s vascular system performing its 5. _____ function right before your eyes.

contain

vital

reworked

history

arteries

structured

displayed

 

Kabbaj, W. (2016, September). What a driverless world could look like. Retrieved January 21, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/wanis_kabbaj_what_a_driverless_world_could_look_like/transcript

 

• Remember to always read past the ‘blank’ to understand the full context of the sentence.

 

All the part of speech charts on the previous pages were constructed to make the test-taker, you, aware of the possibilities before you in Fill in the blanks in the reading section. When you scan the words at the bottom of the page before you start this exercise notice the possibilities for each word given. ‘contain’ can only be a verb, but can be used with modal verbs can or could or would; vital by its ‘al’ ending/suffix tells you it is a noun or an adjective; the words ‘history’ and ‘arteries’ are also nouns, though the latter is plural; the ‘ed’ ending/suffix for the words reworked, structured, and displayed have many possibilities: they can be a past participle (verb), they can be used with the verb to create passive sentences, they can also be adjectives in the ‘ed’ form.

These possibilities can be winnowed down to correct answers by observing the grammar needed around the blank. At 1., ‘can hardly’ comes right in front of the blank. The ‘can’ is a modal form of verb with an adverb hardly (‘ly’ suffix) that immediately follows; therefore, the main verb is what has to fit in the blank. Since the words with the suffix ‘ed’ do not fit because following a modal verb like ‘can’, like an auxiliary verb, the main verb that follows never has a suffix – ‘I did (auxiliary) like (main verb) the movie ( I did like the movie); you can never add a suffix to the main verb after an auxiliary verb (I did not liked (X -wrong adding suffix –‘ed’ here) the movie). Thus, with this grammatical knowledge ‘contain’ or ‘can hardly contain’ is the correct answer.

• Note the opposing structure of the first sentences as well. The quiet cities vs. the louder cities. Opposing and parallel structures can also be clues that help find correct answers.

Grammar – context

At 2. A test-taker would look for a noun. There are no gerunds or present participles in the answer options, so we have to look for another noun that fits. The obvious answer is ‘history’ as it relates to the context of the old cities Paris and Istanbul, whereas both arteries and vital do make any logical sense in this blank.

Grammar – meaning

At 3., although ‘reworked’ and ‘displayed’ have the same suffix as ‘structured’, structured is the correct answer because it makes the most logical sense, or it is the most familiar answer by way of collocation. Other word possibilities have been used or do not fit by way of meaning or part of speech (suffix).

Grammar and collocation

At 4, only one word can fit in this blank that by context have to be ‘red and golden’ (thinking of time-lapse photography here): arteries. This is an example of an abstract meaning that is frequently used in Fill in the Blanks on the PTE exam. The word ‘arteries’ stands out in the initial scan of words before you start to fill in the blanks because a test-taker would realize the context of the paragraph is about ‘cities’ – ‘arteries’ seems to be a strange word in the context of ‘cities’. Yet, here, it is the only possible answer available, especially after you read the following sentence after the blank – ‘You can see the cities vascular system…’; the words ‘vascular system’ ensure ‘arteries’ is the correct answer.

Abstract word

At 5., the only possible answer is ‘vital’ as an adjective since ‘reworked’ and ‘displayed’ do not fit as context, or meaning.

Grammar – meaning

Example 2.

In the text below some words are missing. Drag words from the box below to the appropriate place in the text. To undo the answer choice, drag the word back below the text.

 

More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities, and another 2.5 billion people are 1. _____ to move to urban areas by 2050. The way we build new cities will be at the 2. _____ of so much that matters, from climate change to economic 3. ______ to our very well-being and sense of connectedness. We need to be planning the cities of the future now, and we need to be  4. ________ for a design that is focused on human interaction.

 

advocating

vitality

heart

end

planned

projected

 

Calthorpe, P. (2017, April). 7 principles for building better cities. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_calthorpe_7_principles_for_building_better_cities

The scan of the words below the text reveals their possibilities as parts of speech to fill in the blanks. ‘Advocating’ as a gerund can be a noun, it can also be used in combination with the verb ‘to be’ to create the present progressive verb tense, or it can be an adjective. ‘Vitality’ by its ‘ity’ suffix is a noun, ‘heart’ is a noun – but seems out of place in the context of ‘cities’. ‘End’ is a noun. ‘Planned’ and projected can be adjectives, past participles to be used in conjunction to create the passive ‘to be’ (is/are planned/projected, has been planned/projected) or as different verb tenses – (has/have planned/projected, etc.).

At 1., either ‘planned’ or ‘projected’ is the right answer as both can be used in this passive fore with ‘are’. However, ‘projected’ is the correct answer because ‘planned’ does logically fit (are planning would be better)

Grammar- meaning

At 2., either ‘heart’ or ‘end’ can fit, but ‘at the end of so much that matters’ does not ring true with ‘at the heart of so much that matters’, so ‘heart’ is the correct answer.

• Notice the metaphoric use of the word heart. As a noun, we think of the organ that pumps blood in the middle of our chest. As a metaphor, it is being used as a ‘central location’ or ‘in the middle’ of ‘so much that matters’.

Abstract word

At 3., the word needed is a noun, because economic is being used as an adjective in front of the blank, so ‘vitality’ is the proper choice as the other words have difficulty making any logical sense in this blank. You can tell ‘vitality’ is a noun by its suffix ‘ity’. You may also notice that ‘economic vitality’ is a fairly common collocation in business pages of newspapers and magazines.

Grammar and collocation

At 4., notice the parallel structure of both clauses in this sentence: ‘we need to be’. Notice in the first clause a gerund ‘planning’ is used, so it logically follows that in this parallel structure a second gerund would be used in the second clause. Thus, ‘advocating’ is the correct answer. It can also be surmised that none of the other answer options would fill this blank.

Grammar & parallel structure

In the text below some words are missing. Drag words from the box below to the appropriate place in the text. To undo an answer choice, drag the word back below the text.

Example 3.

In the text below some words are missing. Drag words from the box below to the appropriate place in the text. To undo an answer choice, drag the word back below the text.

Human speech occurs without breaks. When one word ends and another begins, we don’t actually pause to __________ the transition. When you listen to a recording of a language that you don’t speak, you hear a continuous __________ of sounds that is more a warbling than a string of __________ words. We only learn when one-word stops and the next one starts over time, by __________ of certain verbal cues like inflection and stress patterns.

link

discernible

virtue

signal

sound

stream

 

Konnikova, M. (2014, December 10). Excuse me while I kiss this guy. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/science-misheard-lyrics-mondegreens

The parts of speech possibilities for these answer options are difficult. ‘Link can be a verb or a noun. “Discernible is an adjective as told by its suffix ‘ible’. Virtue is a noun. ‘Signal’ can be a verb, a noun, or an adjective in this form. Sound and stream can be either a noun or a verb.

At 1., ‘signal or link’ can be used to complete this infinitive. ‘Signal’ is the correct choice simply because it sounds better than link, or you can think of ‘link’ as being slightly awkward in this blank. Other answer options, likewise, would sound awkward as well.

• Remember you do not have to do the blanks in the order that they read in the paragraph. It may easier to skip one blank that has multiple possibilities in order to eliminate other words first, only to return and complete that blank at the end.

By sound or collocation

At 2., the adjective ‘continuous’ helps place the word ‘stream’ ‘of sounds’ by way of collocation or abstract/metaphoric usage of the word. This is a fairly common grouping of words often used in linguistics.

An abstract word or collocation or by elimination

At 3., test-takers would notice the blank falls in front of a noun ‘words’; therefore, an adjective is needed in this blank. Between the words ‘signal’ and ‘discernible’, discernible is the correct answer because ‘signal words’ do not logically fit into the blank.

Grammar and logic

At 4., the only logical word to fit in the blank would be the noun ‘virtue’ as all other choices do not logically fit into the blank.

Logic

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Below is a chart that attempts to show some of the differences between RW Fill in the blanks and Fill in the Blanks:

RW Fill in the Blanks	Fill in the Blanks
Formal language science-backed (scientific language)	Generally, more informal (newspaper/magazine articles)
Collocation used from specific fields of science	Collocation of topical subjects for the contemporary audience of readers
Eliminate 2 words, choose the more formal answer	Eliminate by way of parts of speech/grammar
Generally, no gerunds used	Gerunds are prolific
No abstract usage of words	Abstract use of words, usually metaphoric
Meanings of words emphasized through context	Meanings of words based on suffixes, context, and can include parallel structures