English: Choose the Best Word

In these questions, you get a short story with numbered gaps. Each gap has five options in boxes, from A to E, and the sentence carries on after them.

Your job is to choose the best word, or group of words, for each gap. The instructions give you two tests: it must make sense, and it must be written in correct English.

In GL's papers the gaps test grammar, not vocabulary: the options are forms of one word, or small joining words. The video above and the worked example below work through the same question, with the options in the same order.

The method

Four steps: read to the full stop, find what the gap needs, cross out bad English, choose what makes sense.

Steps 3 and 4 are the two tests from the instructions: correct English first, then makes sense.

Worked example

Which word, or group of words, best fills gap 1?

Snow Day: When Ali opened his curtains on Thursday morning, he gasped. Snow (1) ___ all night, and the whole street was buried under a thick white blanket.

A. had fallen B. had fell C. has fallen D. falls E. falling

1. Read to the full stop. Don't stop at the boxes, because the clue is often after the gap. Snow, blank, all night, and the whole street was buried under a thick white blanket. The clues come after the gap: all night, and was buried.
2. Find what the gap needs. Ask: when? Who? What do the words either side need? Is it part of a fixed phrase? Here, two of them decide it. When? The street was buried, so the story is in the past. And the snow fell all night, before Ali looked out. An earlier event in the past takes had. And the words either side: snow comes just before the gap, so the gap must say what the snow did. It needs a full verb.
3. Cross out bad English. Try each option in the gap. Option A: Snow had fallen all night. That's correct English, so keep it. Option B: Snow had fell. Fell never comes straight after had. That's an everyday form: people say it, but it isn't correct English. So B is out. Option C: Snow has fallen. Has is the present tense, but the street was buried, in the past. So C is out. Option D: Snow falls is the present tense too, so D is out. Option E: Snow falling, all night. Falling isn't a full verb on its own, so the sentence breaks. So E is out.
4. Choose what makes sense. Of the options left, choose the best fit, then read the sentence back with it. Only A is left. Snow had fallen all night, and the whole street was buried under a thick white blanket. The snow fell first, then Ali saw it. That makes sense. So the answer is A.

Answer: A — had fallen (the snow fell before Ali looked out)

Things to watch out for

1. Read past the gap, to the full stop. In We ___ along happily when, halfway there, Keisha's front tyre suddenly went flat., are cycling sounds fine if you stop at the gap. But read on. The sentence ends with went flat, so it's in the past. It has to be were cycling.
2. Keep the story's tense. In By the time they reached the trunk, the wind ___ it even further up., the story is told in the past, so has blown and will blow are out. When one past event comes before another, the earlier one takes had. The wind blew the kite higher before they reached the trunk, so it's had blown.
3. Sounds right isn't always right. Tail and tale sound the same, so only the meaning can choose. In It was shaped like a dragon, with a long red ___ that rippled in the breeze., a kite's tail can ripple in the breeze. A tale is a story, and a story can't. Everyday forms can sound right too. Must of run sounds just like must have run, but only must have is correct English.
4. Two can be correct English. Then choose the one that makes sense. In They whizzed down the slope again and again ___ their toes were numb with cold., every option (until, unless, because, if, or) is correct English, so think about what each one means. Because would mean their cold toes made them sledge. Until means they kept going, up to the moment their toes went numb. Only until makes sense.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• English: Word Classes — the job a word does on its line
• English: Spelling — find the group with the mistake, or choose N
• English: Words in Context — what a word means where it sits

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