Reading and Use of English
How the paper is built
Reading and Use of English is a single 90-minute paper of eight parts, and the marks are not evenly spread: the six Key Word Transformations in Part 4 carry two marks each, so they weigh as much as the whole of Part 3.
Parts 1–4 test language systems. Part 1 is a multiple-choice cloze where collocation, fixed phrases and phrasal verbs decide the answer rather than grammar alone. Part 2 is an open cloze: exactly one word per gap, usually a grammar word such as an auxiliary, preposition, pronoun, article or conjunction. Part 3 is word formation - you change the stem into the form the sentence needs, which may require a negative prefix, a suffix change or an internal spelling shift (deep → depth). Part 4 asks you to rewrite a sentence with a given word, keeping the meaning identical and writing three to six words including that word.
Parts 5–8 test reading. Part 5 uses multiple choice on one long text and hinges on separating the writer's opinion from a plausible-sounding distractor. Part 6 asks you to match four short texts by opinion: each question names a writer and you find who holds that view. Part 7 is a gapped text rebuilt from cohesion - pronouns, reference words, lexical chains, linkers - never from topic alone. Part 8 is multiple matching against several short sections.
Traps
Options that are true of the text but do not answer the question. In Part 7, a sentence that fits thematically often breaks a pronoun reference in the next line.
Rule of thumb
In Part 4, first decide what grammar the gapped sentence demands - passive, conditional, reported speech, inversion, comparative - then fit the given word to it: It is said that he… → He is said to….