Reading and Use of English (RUE) Part 1
What you will find in this guide:
Introduction
The Reading and Use of English (RUE) has 8 parts, and takes 90 minutes. You will need to answer questions using your knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary, and answer various reading questions. Here’s a complete overview of the different parts of the RUE paper.
- Part 1 – Multiple-choice cloze
- Part 2 – Open cloze
- Part 3 – Word formation
- Part 4 – Key word transformations
- Part 5 – text with multiple-choice questions
- Part 6 – Cross-text multiple matching
- Part 7 – text with paragraphs missing
- Part 8 – Multiple matching
Part 1 consists of a text in which there are eight gaps. Each gap represents a missing word or phrase. There are four options to choose from. The options corresponding to each gap will appear when you click on the gap in the digital test. They will be to the right of the text in the paper-based test.
Candidates have to choose which one of the four words or phrases fills the gap correctly.
Candidates are required to draw on their lexical knowledge and understanding of the text in order to fill the gaps. Some questions test at a phrasal level, such as collocations and set phrases. Other questions test meaning at sentence level or beyond, with more processing of the text required. A lexico-grammatical element may be involved, such as when candidates have to choose the option which fits correctly with a following preposition or verb form.
Sample Question
Guide to Part 1
Part 1, the cloze test, tests your ability to use English vocabulary effectively. So, please consider the following:
Step 1:
Make sure to understand what the sentence containing the blank means and tries to imply. This is vital because you need to complete the idea expressed in that sentence.
Step 2:
Read the answer choices to see what options you have.
Step 3:
Identify the meaning of the options and try to find slight differences among the options you have. You usually get similar words that slightly differ in meaning. So, you should know how the meaning of the sentences changes based on the word (options) you choose.
Step 4:
Remove two answer choices that you think do not match the meaning of the sentence you are reading. Removing two options that clearly don’t match the sentence increase your chance of getting the answer correct by 50%.
Step 5:
Use your knowledge, logic, and reasoning skills to chose the correct option from the two remaining answer choices.
Step 6:
Read the next sentence to see if the two ideas complement each other, and that to see if they match with the word you used in the sentence.
Important tips
- Study English vocabulary as much as possible. Since this part tests your vocabulary knowledge, your job actually starts before you take the test, so you need to focus on studying a range of common and uncommon words and being able to distinguish fine differences among words with similar meaning.
- Pay close attention to collocations, meaning if the word used in the text collocates with the option you have in the answer sheet.
- Pay close attention to different shades of meaning within sets of similar words. Words often have different meanings so you need to be careful.
- Pay close attention to the right part of speech.
- Pay close attention to complementation (e.g. whether words are followed by a certain preposition, or by a gerund or an infinitive, etc.).
- Make sure to consider all the options carefully before deciding on an answer. Some of the options may be very tempting, but only one will be semantically and grammatically correct.
Use the Guide
Use the guide to practice RUE part 1 using the following sample test.
Three theories about sleep
People spend about one-third of their lives asleep. It seems certain ,therefore, that sleep has a (O) VITAL function. However, what that function might be is still in (1) ……………….. Scientists are far from being in agreement about (2) ……………….. why so much of our precious time is given over to sleep. There seem to be three main theories. The most popular states that the functions and (3) .. of sleep are primarily physiological. It claims that we sleep in order to (4) ……………….. the health of our body. In other words, biological processes work hard as we sleep to repair any damage done during the day and to restore ourselves to (5) ……………….. efficiency. However, a second theory places more emphasis on the learning benefits of sleep. This theory holds that sleep allows us to process the information that we (6) ……………….. during the day, and asserts that , without sleep, learning would not take place. A third popular theory is (7) ……………….. on ideas about energy, saying that we need (8) ……………….. of sleep in order to, in a sense, recharge our batteries and so have an adequate supply of energy for the coming day.
- A) discussion B) dispute C) argument D) debate
- A) correctly B) absolutely C) actually D) precisely
- A) purposes B) targets C) intentions D) points
- A) take B) maintain C) stay D) keep
- A) strong B) utter C) full D) entire
- A) achieve B) complete C) reach D) acquire
- A) rooted B) supported C) based D) developed
- A) periods B) eras C) moments D) episodes
How was your experience?
Describe your experience taking RUE part 1 in the comment section below.
My experience was good because I was able to understand better some aspects of the part 1.
The first exercise it was so hard to understand. However, after read all the steps and advices from the guide, the second exercise it was easier than the first.