About the 5 papers of the CAE International Examination.

Paper 1: Reading

Do lots of Reading before your examination. According to some authors, reading is probably the best way to improve your grammar and vocabulary.

Paper 2: Writing

Practise writing regularly in English.

Use new vocabulary or expressions that you have learned from your reading.

Paper 3: Use of English

Control your grammar and vocabulary to do well.

Paper 4: Listening

There are lots of materials you can listen to on television, radio, or internet.

Paper 5: Speaking

Make the effort to practice speaking English whenever you can.

Get together with friends and agree that you will speak only English for half an hour, for instance.

Make sure you can talk about yourself, give opinions, ask someone to repeat or explain, agree or disagree. You may need to do all these things in the exam.

 

 

TIPS FOR ANSWERING THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF EXERCISES.

Paper 1: Reading. 1 hour 15 minutes

Reading. Part 1: Multiple choice.

Tip: you won’t always be asked to find the answer to a complete question. You may instead be asked to choose the best option to complete the sentence about the text.

Example: Here is an extract from a part 1 text about companies developing new products, and one of the questions.

 

Business nowadays are faced with bigger problems than ever before. For a relatively low cost, consumers can have all the technological and aesthetic features they want on their products. This has made it difficult for companies to differentiate themselves on product features in the way they used to. They need to produce something that no one else has, or has even thought of, and which others cannot copy because of its patent, its legal protection.

 

QUESTION: The reason the writer gives for the difficulties experienced by many companies is that

A. their products are sold too cheaply.

B. their customers are not loyal to their products.

C. their products possess no unique advantage.

D. their products are copied by rival business.

Explanation: the underlined words in the text show that C is the answer. It gives answer to the beginning of the sentence ‘the reason the writer gives…’

 

Reading. Part 1: Multiple choice.

Tip: Some questions may focus on the opinions, attitudes and feelings that are being expressed. The more you read, the more you’ll learn to discover these elements expressed by authors.

Example: extract about developing products with one of the questions.

 

I recently visited an inventors’ exhibition. There they were, ploughing their own specialist furrows, living in hope that someone might approach them and like their ideas. Not to put too fine a point on it, the exhibitors look and sounded like a bunch of amateurs. What a waste of effort! Even if they had come up with a good idea, they would be more than likely to find that industry was not interested, quite simply because the timing was wrong. In other words, there was very little market awareness deployed in the process.

QUESTION: When visiting the inventors’ exhibition, the writer felt

A. bored by the event.

B. sympathetic by the exhibition organisers.

C. discourage by what he saw.

D. optimistic about the future.

Explanation: The tone of the author is rather a negative one, so the highlighted words answer the question.

 

Reading. Part 2: Gapped Text.

Tip: Look for clues that indicate there is a link between the paragraph that you think is the answer, and the paragraphs before and after it. This will involve reading more carefully than just matching similar words and phrases.

Example: Check this extract about climbing in Spain.

 

‘You’re going up there, without crampons and an ice axe?’ asked the farmer incredulously. He was pointing to the upper reaches of the 3,300 m Sierra Nevada, the highest peak in the Spanish mainland. I shrugged. I had my trekking pole. And after the previous day’s snowstorm, the sky was a faultless blue. It looked like a perfect summit day.

I kicked at the ground. Eighty centimeters of snow had fallen during the previous twenty-four weeks. ‘Well, at least the slope isn’t slippery,’ I retorted.

The farmer raised his face to the sun. ‘Not yet, but it’s still early’. It was. As the sun rose, my eyes narrowed into slits. There was a dull throb behind my eyes. ‘I should have brought sunglasses’. I mumbled. Then I left both farmer and the tree line behind and began my ascent.

Explanation: The missing paragraph is inserted in the text. The word ‘retorted’ shows that the speaker is responding to someone else, possibly offering a contrasting view. In the rest of the text, the speaker has no other contact with people, which further confirms that the paragraph is correct.

 

Reading. Part 2: Gapped Text.

Tip: If you are not sure which is the correct paragraph to fit in the gap, try eliminating the ones you haven’t used so far.

Example: Text about 'climbing in Spain'.

Before I knew what was happening, one foot failed to gain a hold. My water bottles ripped free of the rucksack and tumbled downwards before disappearing. I lay motionless, trying to regain control of my thoughts.

When I had finally calmed down, it became obvious to me, as it would have to anyone with real mountain experience, that it was madness to try and reach the peak.

So instead I began to descend slowly…

Explanation: The missing paragraph is inserted in the text. The highlighted words show the links across paragraphs which indicate that this paragraph is the correct answer. Look at the beginnings of the other paragraphs from the task to see why they were not suitable:

-Finally, disoriented by all this, I lay still. ‘I lay still’ is a repetition of ‘I lay motionless’ which is unnecessary.

-I rolled sideways as I fell. Several metres passed. This doesn’t fit the order of the events, as the speaker has already fallen and landed, lying ‘motionless’.

-Yet every step took me further from my rational mind. I went up rapidly… In the previous paragraph the speaker was ‘motionless’, and in the one after he was descending, not ascending.

 

Reading. Part 3: Multiple Choice

Tip: In multiple-choice questions the option you choose must always be supported by information in the text. You may find it useful underline the part of the text containing the answer, to check you are correct.

Example: Extract about Inventions.

As with any other area of business, you need to start with a clear brief. It could be streamlining a food processor or re-branding a service; there is the outline of the client’s demands, the thought and development process and finally a solution. For instance, one of the of the country’s leading bicycle manufactures wanted to improve sales of its brake blocks. Cyclists were not replacing them because they didn’t know when they were worn out. We managed to devise the world’s first brake block that signaled when it was wearing out. My company delivered on paper the final design in just for weeks from the original business request. The product soon became the country’s number one brake block, far outstripping sales by competitors.

QUESTION: Why was the brake block designed by the writer’s company so successful?

A. it was such a s straightforward design.

B. It wore out less quickly than the others.

C. It performed more effectively than the others.

D. It was obvious when it needed replacing.