Free B2 First (FCE) / C1 Advanced (CAE) mock — four papers, timed 🇬🇧

8 original practice questions written by Myndaq in the Cambridge B2/C1 style. They are not taken from this mock paper or from official past papers. Try each one, then open the answer.

1. Question 1Reading and Use of English - multiple-choice cloze (B2 First)One correct answer

   When Priya Anand opened her small bakery on a quiet side street, few of her neighbours expected it to last. Within a year, however, the queue outside her door had become a familiar sight, and Priya had to (1) ______ on two extra bakers just to keep up with demand.

   Which word best fits gap (1)?

   1. A. set
   2. B. hold
   3. C. take
   4. D. turn
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C

   The phrasal verb 'take on' means to employ someone, so 'take on two extra bakers' fits the idea of hiring staff to cope with more customers.

   'Set on' means to attack (or to be determined), 'hold on' means to wait or keep gripping, and 'turn on' means to switch on or to attack suddenly. None of these can take 'bakers' as an object with the meaning of hiring, so only 'take' is correct.

2. Question 2Reading and Use of English - multiple-choice cloze (C1 Advanced)One correct answer

   Residents of Harwick Lane have been complaining about the state of the old footbridge for almost a decade. Despite repeated warnings from engineers, the council has so far (1) ______ a blind eye to the problem, arguing that repairs would cost more than the bridge is worth.

   Which word best fits gap (1)?

   1. A. shut
   2. B. turned
   3. C. closed
   4. D. put
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B

   The fixed idiom is 'turn a blind eye to something', meaning to deliberately ignore a problem you know about. That matches the council ignoring the engineers' warnings.

   'Shut' and 'closed' are tempting because we shut or close our eyes, but they do not combine with 'a blind eye'. 'Put' does not form this idiom either. Only 'turned' completes the expression.

3. Question 3Reading and Use of English - open cloze (B2 First)One correct answer

   The town's bus company introduced a new timetable last spring. Not only (1) ______ the change reduce waiting times at the busiest stops, but it also cut the company's fuel bill by a noticeable amount.

   Which word correctly fills gap (1)?

   1. A. has
   2. B. was
   3. C. had
   4. D. did
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D

   When a sentence begins with the negative phrase 'Not only', the subject and auxiliary are inverted. The main verb after the subject is the bare infinitive 'reduce', and the event happened last spring, so the past simple auxiliary 'did' is needed: 'Not only did the change reduce...'.

   'Has' and 'had' would need the past participle 'reduced', and 'was' would need 'reducing' or a passive form, so none of them fits the bare verb 'reduce'.

4. Question 4Reading and Use of English - word formation (C1 Advanced)One correct answer

   The detective listened patiently to the witness, but she soon noticed several (1) ______ in his account of the evening. (CONSISTENT)

   Which word, formed from the word in capitals, correctly fills gap (1)?

   1. A. inconsistencies
   2. B. unconsistencies
   3. C. inconsistent
   4. D. consistencies
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A

   After 'several' we need a plural noun, and the linking word 'but' shows that the detective found problems in the account, so the meaning must be negative. The noun from 'consistent' is 'consistency'; its negative form takes the prefix in-, giving 'inconsistency', plural 'inconsistencies'.

   'Unconsistencies' uses the wrong prefix, 'inconsistent' is an adjective and cannot follow 'several' on its own, and 'consistencies' has the wrong (positive) meaning for the contrast introduced by 'but'.

5. Question 5Reading and Use of English - key word transformation (B2 First)One correct answer

   The organisers postponed the concert because of the storm.

   PUT

   The concert ______ because of the storm.

   Which option completes the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first, using the word given?

   1. A. was put out
   2. B. was put off
   3. C. was put down
   4. D. was put across
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B

   'Postpone' means to move an event to a later time, and the phrasal verb with the same meaning is 'put off'. The first sentence is active, but the second starts with 'The concert', so a passive is needed: 'The concert was put off because of the storm.' This uses three words including PUT.

   'Put out' means to extinguish (a fire) or to inconvenience someone, 'put down' means to suppress or criticise, and 'put across' means to communicate an idea clearly. None of these means postpone.

6. Question 6Reading and Use of English - key word transformation (C1 Advanced)One correct answer

   Lena's decision to leave the band surprised everyone.

   CAME

   Lena's decision to leave the band ______ everyone.

   Which option completes the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first, using the word given?

   1. A. came to a surprise for
   2. B. came in for a surprise from
   3. C. came as a surprise to
   4. D. came as surprised to
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C

   The fixed expression is 'come as a surprise to someone', which means the same as 'surprise someone'. The past tense gives 'Lena's decision to leave the band came as a surprise to everyone', five words including CAME.

   'Came to a surprise for' uses the wrong preposition pattern, 'came in for' is used with criticism or praise that someone receives and does not fit a decision, and 'came as surprised to' uses an adjective describing a person's feeling where a noun is required.

7. Question 7Reading and Use of English - reading multiple choice (B2 First)One correct answer

   When I signed up to help at the Fenwick Road community garden, I pictured myself planting sunflowers in the sunshine. The reality, during my first month, was rather different. Most Saturdays it rained, and my main job was carrying bags of compost from the car park to the far end of the site, which is further than it looks.

   What kept me going was not the gardening itself but the people. Eileen, who has run the garden for eleven years, has a way of making every task sound important, even sweeping the path. By the end of the summer I could tell a weed from a seedling, which my family found hilarious, but I also knew the names of thirty neighbours I had walked past for years without a word.

   I still can't grow tomatoes. But I no longer think of my street as just a place where I happen to live.

   What does the writer suggest was the main benefit of volunteering at the garden?

   1. A. She became much more skilled at growing vegetables.
   2. B. She discovered that she enjoyed hard physical work.
   3. C. She was given more responsibility as the summer went on.
   4. D. She got to know people who lived in her area.
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D

   The writer says that what kept her going was 'not the gardening itself but the people', that she learned the names of thirty neighbours, and that she now sees her street differently. The main benefit is the connection with local people.

   A is contradicted by 'I still can't grow tomatoes'; she only learned to tell a weed from a seedling. B is wrong because carrying compost in the rain is presented as the unexpected, unappealing reality. C is not mentioned: Eileen makes tasks sound important, but the writer is never given extra responsibility.

8. Question 8Reading and Use of English - reading multiple choice (C1 Advanced)One correct answer

   When the regional archive announced that it would scan its entire collection of parish records, the news was greeted almost universally as a triumph. Researchers who had once travelled hundreds of miles to consult a single register would now be able to do so from their kitchen tables. It is hard to object to that, and I do not intend to.

   What troubles me is the assumption, rarely stated but widely shared, that a scanned page is simply the original made more convenient. It is not. The scan preserves the words but discards much of what an experienced reader learns from the object itself: the change of ink halfway down a page that hints an entry was added later, the water stain that explains a missing name, the heavier paper that marks a volume rebound in a later century. These details are not decoration. They are, quite often, the evidence.

   None of this is an argument for keeping the originals from the public, still less for abandoning the project. It is an argument for keeping the reading rooms open, and for resisting the temptation, once the scanning is finished, to treat them as an expense that can quietly be cut.

   What is the writer's main concern about the scanning project?

   1. A. Access to the original documents may come to be regarded as unnecessary.
   2. B. The scans will be of too poor a quality for serious research.
   3. C. Fewer researchers will make the journey to the archive in person.
   4. D. The original records may be damaged while they are being scanned.
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A

   The writer is troubled by the assumption that a scan is 'simply the original made more convenient' and warns against treating the reading rooms as 'an expense that can quietly be cut'. The concern is that people will decide the physical originals no longer need to be consulted.

   B misreads the second paragraph: the lost details (ink, stains, paper) are lost from any scan, however good, so the point is not image quality. C describes something the writer welcomes ('It is hard to object to that'). D is never mentioned in the text.