Fill in the Blanks:

• Remember: This is a high-scoring task; there is a maximum of 21 marks.

• There is negative marking, so you get 1 mark for a correct answer, but you lose 1 mark for each incorrect answer.

• The results affect both listening and writing scores.

Fill in the Blanks asks you to fill in the blanks in the text as you listen to a recording. You have to type the missing words into each blank. Therefore, skim the text and place your computer cursor at the start of the text. You can write down the word if you like on the paper provided first if you want to fill in the blank after the recording. You should check to see if you have written the word in the correct form or used the correct suffix ending (check part of speech – see Reading section). Finally, check your spelling.

The recordings for this task are 30-60 seconds long, and you will get 2 or 3 of them on the exam. Also, there can be up to as many 7 blanks to fill in.

For example:

(place cursor (^) here to start)

→     ^ So, I want you to _______ a market economy that’s 400 million years old, one

that’s so ubiquitous that it operates in almost every ________ of the world, so

huge that it can ________ millions of traders ___________, and so

persistent that it _________ mass extinctions.

Answers: (you would listen and type these words in the blanks)

So, I want you to imagine a market economy that’s 400 million years old, one

that’s so ubiquitous that it operates in almost every ecosystem of the world, so

huge that it can connect millions of traders simultaneously, and so

persistent that it survived mass extinctions.