Reading and Use of English: Seven Parts, Two Skill Sets
Reading and Use of English is Paper 1 of B2 First for Schools. It lasts 1 hour 15 minutes, contains 52 questions in seven parts and is worth 40% of the total score. Parts 1–4 test language systems in short contexts; Parts 5–7 test comprehension of longer texts. The for-schools version uses familiar school and teenage contexts, but the task types and marking are the same as the standard B2 First paper.
What each part rewards
- Part 1: eight multiple-choice cloze gaps. The answer usually depends on collocation, a phrasal verb, a fixed phrase or register, not just on dictionary meaning.
- Part 2: eight open cloze gaps. Write exactly one word per gap, normally a grammatical word such as an article, preposition, auxiliary, pronoun or conjunction.
- Part 3: eight word-formation gaps. Build the missing word from the stem and watch prefixes, suffixes and internal spelling changes.
- Part 4: six key word transformations. Write 2–5 words, keep the given keyword unchanged and preserve the original meaning.
- Parts 5–7: multiple choice, gapped text and multiple matching. Every answer must be supported by the text, not by general knowledge.
Worked example
Prompt: The film was so boring that I fell asleep. Complete the second sentence so it means the same, using the word SUCH in 2–5 words: It was ______ that I fell asleep.
Answer: such a boring film.
Reasoning: SUCH introduces a result clause with a noun phrase: such + (a/an) + adjective + noun + that. So boring cannot stay because SO is not the given word; such boring is wrong because film is countable singular and needs a. Count only the inserted words: such / a / boring / film = 4, inside the limit. The result clause that I fell asleep is unchanged, so the meaning is preserved.
Traps that cost marks
- Part 2: writing two words, or a contraction, which is marked wrong. Read the whole sentence for grammatical fit.
- Part 3: choosing the right part of speech but misspelling the suffix, for example writing responsible where responsibility is needed.
- Part 4: changing the keyword, writing six words, or producing a grammatical sentence that shifts the original meaning.
- Parts 6–7: matching a word in the question to a word in the text without checking the surrounding argument.