A2 Key · Parts 4–5: the cloze
A2 Key و B1 Preliminary (KET, PET) · Cambridge English · A2 Key (KET) الموضوع 2 3:43 سرد باللغة الإنجليزية · ترجمة مدمجة بالإنجليزية + الصينية
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Parts four and five are the cloze: a short text with gaps. Part four gives three word choices per gap and tests vocabulary. Part five gives six gaps in a short email, no choices at all, and tests the small grammar words. The memory hook: part four is a shop, choose from the shelf; part five is a kitchen, cook the word yourself from whatever the sentence gives you.
Part four is the shelf, and collocation is king. We had a great time: have a great time is the fixed pair, and made and took are fine words at the wrong party. Read the whole sentence, not just the gap: she is very fond of cats, and the answer hides three words later. If two options feel right, one is collocating with a neighbour word you are ignoring; re-read the gap's neighbours on both sides.
Pause and choose. Fond of. The shelf only sells the pair, and fond at and fond with are shoes in the wrong size. When two prepositions feel possible, the collocation decides.
Part five has no options, and the menu is predictable: articles, prepositions, pronouns, modals and auxiliaries, linkers. The grammar from A1 and A2 is the answer key. I have lived here since twenty nineteen; do you like tea; there is a bank. One word per gap, and the answer is always a small common word. If your answer is serendipity, the gap wanted so.
Pause and choose. Have you ever been to Shanghai? Ever been is the present perfect, so have. Do hires the wrong helper, and did to is two words and zero marks. One word, correctly spelled: whent gets no mark and no sympathy.
The cloze rhythm. First, read the whole text without writing anything; know the story. Then fill the gaps one by one, reading the full sentence each time. Finally, re-read the finished text; if a sentence sounds wrong in your head, it is wrong. The first read is the map, the gaps are the roads, and the re-read is the drive.
The traps. Article gaps feel invisible to Chinese speakers, because Chinese has no articles; they are free marks wearing camouflage, so hunt them. A gap at the start of a sentence needs a capital: There, not there. One word per gap: in the is two words and zero marks. And spelling counts; a right word spelled wrong is a wrong word.
Try it. Last summer, I went to the beach with my family. We stayed in a small hotel near the sea. The weather was perfect, so we swam every day. I have never had such a good holiday. With, in, was, such: four small common words, and such a good holiday is the collocation shelf again. So would need so good a holiday, and nobody has time for that.
Pause for four checks. We had a great time: the collocation decides. I have lived here since twenty nineteen: a start line from A2. Part five takes one small grammar word, spelled right. And never fill gaps before the first full read: the map comes first. Next topic: the twenty-five word message, the smallest writing task with the clearest rules.