C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading and Use of English Practice Tests

Part 1 — Reading & Use of English Part 1 — Multiple-choice cloze

Read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.

1. (1) (A) incurred (B) withstood (C) conceded (D) undergone
2. (2) (A) aim (B) gesture (C) point (D) direct
3. (3) (A) grows (B) enlarges (C) amplifies (D) heightens
4. (4) (A) inactivity (B) disuse (C) idleness (D) misuse
5. (5) (A) counts (B) totals (C) sums (D) amounts
6. (6) (A) rate (B) toll (C) tariff (D) fare
7. (7) (A) vastly (B) acutely (C) supremely (D) utterly
8. (8) (A) reserve (B) resort (C) respite (D) retreat

Part 2 — Reading & Use of English Part 2 — Open cloze

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only ONE word in each gap.

The Case for Doing Nothing

There was a time (0) ___ an afternoon spent doing nothing in particular was considered perfectly respectable. (1) ___ might be expected of a culture that prizes productivity above almost everything else, idleness has since acquired a thoroughly bad name. Yet neuroscientists have identified a mechanism (2) ___ the apparently resting brain consolidates memory and quietly incubates ideas, (3) ___ only when attention is permitted to drift. (4) ___ is striking is how reluctant we remain to allow this: in one notorious study, many participants would sooner administer themselves mild electric shocks (5) ___ sit alone with their thoughts for fifteen minutes. (6) ___ the benefits of mental drift more widely publicised, employers might think twice before scheduling every minute of the working day. This is not to say that daydreaming should replace effort, (7) ___ that the relentless pursuit of focus may prove self-defeating: creativity, it turns out, depends on precisely the wandering we take (8) ___ pains to eliminate.

1. (1) ___
2. (2) ___
3. (3) ___
4. (4) ___
5. (5) ___
6. (6) ___
7. (7) ___
8. (8) ___

Part 3 — Reading & Use of English Part 3 — Word formation

Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of each line to form a word that fits in the gap.

Part 4 — Reading & Use of English Part 4 — Key word transformations

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first, using the word given. Do not change the word given. Use between three and six words.

Part 5 — Reading & Use of English Part 5 — Reading multiple choice

Read the text and answer the questions. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best.

1. In the first paragraph, the writer suggests that the current enthusiasm for solitude (A) is confined to a small group of columnists. (B) has had little real effect on people's habits. (C) has been manufactured cynically by publishers. (D) overlooks the circumstances that make it pleasurable.
2. The writer uses the phrase “groan under” to emphasise (A) the weight readers attach to expert advice. (B) the poor quality of most writing about solitude. (C) how reluctantly bookshops stock such titles. (D) the sheer quantity of books on the subject.
3. The writer cites the widower in the second paragraph to show that (A) chosen solitude eventually becomes harmful if prolonged. (B) technology could do more to relieve unwanted isolation. (C) older people suffer more from isolation than researchers assumed. (D) identical circumstances can be experienced in radically different ways.
4. What does the writer describe as “almost perverse”? (A) Publishing celebrations of aloneness for profit. (B) Conducting physiological studies on lonely people. (C) Applying one term to two profoundly different states. (D) Charging money for experiences of silence.
5. What does the writer predict will happen to the current interest in solitude? (A) It will be replaced by an equally shallow fashion. (B) It will grow as more people abandon social media. (C) It will lead to greater public concern about loneliness. (D) It will fade, leaving one lasting lesson behind.
6. Which best describes the writer's overall attitude to the solitude boom? (A) Indifferent, since fashions of this kind change nothing. (B) Enthusiastic about extending it to a wider audience. (C) Wholly dismissive of both its claims and its evidence. (D) Sympathetic to its core insight but critical of its blind spots.

Part 6 — Reading & Use of English Part 6 — Cross-text multiple matching

Read four extracts from articles in which academics discuss hybrid working. For each question, choose from the experts A-D. The experts may be chosen more than once.

1. Which expert takes a different view from the others on the trustworthiness of the research into hybrid working?
2. Which expert shares Expert A's opinion about the long-term importance of the office?
3. Which expert takes a different view from the others on whether employers are justified in compelling attendance?
4. Which expert shares Expert B's view of the future of the physical workplace?

Part 7 — Reading & Use of English Part 7 — Gapped text

You are going to read a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been removed. Choose from paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph you do not need.

Part 8 — Reading & Use of English Part 8 — Multiple matching

You are going to read about five people who changed career in mid-life. For each question, choose from the people A-E. The people may be chosen more than once.

1. Who says an ability to stay calm in a crisis is what their clients most value?
2. Who is better paid now than in their previous career?
3. Who compares dealing with a difficult new audience to their former work?
4. Who advises observing the new profession at first hand before committing?
5. Who was made more determined by other people's reservations?
6. Who regrets that their work no longer brings public recognition?
7. Who found the bureaucratic demands of the new job the greatest shock?
8. Who found it humbling to be corrected by people much younger than themselves?
9. Who found returning to formal study more daunting than the job itself?
10. Who misses the social bonds of their old profession rather than the work?