Answer Keys
Part 1
1 A – considered. The best collocation for this context is ‘considered to be’. In the first part of FCE Use of English the context immediate to the gap is almost always the key to the right answer. ‘Regarded’ is more commonly used with ‘as’. Other options do not fit.
2 C – However. We are looking for an introductory word (or phrase) to use for contrast. ‘Although’ is another one that fits, but it requires the contrasting part to be in the second part of the sentence, e.g. ‘Although he wasn’t very successful, he managed to win the lottery several times’.
3 B – symbol. Something that symbolises or manifests a thing, in this case their so-called social status. ‘Logo’ refers to the corporate or business visual representation of their brand. ‘Display’ would work better as a verb here, but grammatically we require a noun.
4 D – only. A very straightforward choice with no caveats or implications.
5 C – on. To take on something or somebody is to try and deal with something, to solve a problem. ‘To take on new challenges’.
6 B – recent. Yet another common collocation, ‘in recent years’ means lately, not so long ago, and might even refer to the current situation.
7 B – fight. If you fight for something, you do not necessarily mean it in a literal way. Here we are talking about making a stand for women’s right not to wear high-heeled shoes. ‘Quarrel’ and ‘conflict’ mean literal, physical confrontations. ‘Dispute’ is more about an active discussion.
8 A – expected. When somebody is expected to do something, then it is the common practice or established order of things there. Saying that women are expected to wear shoes with high heels means that this has become the accepted norm.
Part 2
9 only. The general idea is that Italian cuisine in its popularity goes well beyond the borders of European countries.
10 as. A comparative structure ‘as … as …’ finds a place in this sentence.
11 have. Two tricky things need your attention here – first of all, we have to use Present Perfect to highlight the fact that these dishes are still popular. Secondly, ‘pizza and pasta’ should be grammatically treated as plural, as any other structure with the conjunction ‘and’.
12 be. A rather simple passive voice structure is all we need here. ‘To be adapted’ means to change something to fit certain conditions or preferences.
13 of. A wide range of something means a large selection of it.
14 no. When there is no limit to something, then no restrictions exist. Anything goes, as people like to say.
15 more. As we have used ‘less’ in the first part, it makes perfect sense to complete the structure with ‘more’ in the second one.
16 the. The requirement for the definite article is that we talk about a very particular characteristic (factor). Note that this word is a noun, not an adjective (although it can be in certain contexts).
Part 3
17 creative. Verb to adjective transformation. Here we know that no negative prefix is needed as the first part of the sentence has a positive comparative ‘gentler’.
18 quietly. In a quiet manner, not very audible. This word is a minefield of spelling complications, make sure to get your spelling right here.
19 researchers. The only difficulty here might be failing to use the plural form suggested by the phrase ‘a group of’.
20 musical. An adjective. In FCE Use of English Part 3 they do not expect you to use compound adjectives, so even though ‘music-like’ could work in this context, it should not be given as the answer.
21 pleasure. A feeling of happiness and contentment is implied here, so no negative prefix is needed.
22 communication. Another case where spelling is probably the most difficult part, as the transformation itself poses no real challenge.
23 decisions. There are two things to mind here – make sure to pluralise the word because of the ‘all of the’ structure. Secondly, mind your spelling.
24 fascinating. Nothing to add here, be careful with ‘sc’ as many students tend to get it wrong, spelling them in the wrong order.
Part 4
25 advised me not to go. Be careful to spell ‘advise’ with an ‘s’, because spelling with the letter ‘c’ is for the noun, e.g. ‘a valuable piece of advice’.
26 have my hair cut. This is a common structure to indicate that some service is done to you, to stress the fact that you are not doing it yourself, e.g. ‘I have my car washed at least twice a month’.
27 (been) three years since. ‘Since’ suggests that a Perfect tense is needed here, you are free to add it or leave it out in this case. In general, I advise students to be on the safe side of things and include the Perfect part if the context calls for it and you are within the word limit of 5 words.
28 did not mean to break. If you didn’t mean to do it, it means you did it unintentionally, without intending to.
29 more difficult than. ‘Easy’ from the original sentence turns to ‘difficult’ because we use ‘more than’ comparison.
30 have turned down. To turn something down means to choose not to accept or take it. We have to include Present Perfect here as we can’t simply go like ‘I shouldn’t turned down her offer’.
Part 5
31 D. Martin’s personality seems to be perfect for the job – he is both knowledgeable (as a former university lecturer) and friendly – the two things that make a good tour guide. Nothing is said about him being a colleague to the writer, or having two educational roles. There is no mention of his hobbies either.
32 C. The author points out that Martin somehow manages to avoid the mistakes other guides make so often. This is exactly the reason why he chose to see his performance again.
33 A. Even though answer B is given a mention, it is only a minor point – the anxiety is there for a moment, and then gone. The main point here is that he seems truly happy to see everyone who has chosen to attend his tour. Answer D is not good here because everyone’s command of English is said to be ‘passable’. Moreover, Martin does not seem to make an effort to check that. Making sure that he is understood is mentioned later, when the group gets on the bus – but in question 33 we focus on what he does when he meets the group first.
34 B. Martin wants others to get involved in the conversation, to have them actively asking questions and discussing the topics that he, or other tour attendees, bring up.
35 D. The organisational aspect was quite stressful. The courses themselves were quite enjoyable to him, which he later highlights.
36 C. The last two sentences, in a rather figurative way, imply that all the work that we see performed by the guide tours is preceded by a much greater deal of preparation. It requires a lot of planning as well as research to be done beforehand so that the tours themselves are educational as well as entertaining.
Part 6
37 D. ‘This’ from sentence D refers to the fact that kids of that age want to eat all the time. The only other sentence that might fit is sentence B, but the idea of the garden clashes with the rest of the context here.
38 E. Having experience of cooking in different (and often difficult) environments helps Anna to be more tolerant and understanding. This is why she finds it easy to work with kids. ‘This contrast’ from sentence F looks tempting, but it will find better use later in the text.
39 G. The main theme of the paragraph is introducing kids to various techniques and safety precautions. Knifing skill is one of the things they will inevitably need during the course. You might also be tempted to choose sentence B, but it doesn’t seem to fit well the sentence that comes next – young boys can’t be too excited about seeing ‘various herbs’. However, they can, after being shown how to properly use knives. The paragraph that comes right after talks about chopping – yet another cutting technique, confirming that we have made the right choice.
40 F. Before the gap, the writer highlights the difference in how kids treat cutting. The contrast of sentence F is the approach to kneading dough – they difference in how the girls and the boys do it.
41 C. The idea of tiredness fits well with the preceding context of boys barely getting any sleep. Then, sentence C mentions how careless they are and how they manage to spill some ingredients as a result. ‘Ignoring this’ from the sentence after the gap refers to exactly that.
42 A. Anna’s standards are high – this refers both to her method of treating kids like adults as well as only using high-quality ingredients. There is no financial interest involved, as per sentence A, and she later confirms that by saying that she keeps the payment low to have more kids involved.
Part 7
43 B. One of the authors was busy with their novel while the other was getting ready to get married.
44 A. Last sentence of the paragraph says that they are ready to split their ways if one of them gets a lucrative offer.
45 D. Both refuse ‘to rest on their laurels’ – in other words, they are committed to staying active at making films rather than waiting for the big names to notice them.
46 B. They are mentioned to be engaged in a kind of film-making activity back in their childhood. Please note that answer C isn’t accurate as the choice to enter film-making university is not really an early decision, nor did it lead to film-making as they had already produced a film prior to that.
47 C. Channel Four promised to provide financial aid to help with their next film-making project.
48 B. Both seem to be involved in a variety of activities – writing screenplays, novels, as well as making both short and full-feature films.
49 C. Last sentence mentions that they have seen failings of other directors, which they believe could help them understand what makes a successful film.
50 C. Even though they found themselves at the prestigious Cannes film festival, nobody seemed to know who they were. This didn’t bother them in the least.
51 A. During the first viewing of their own creation, it dawned on them how much they had managed to achieve with it.
52 C. The focus on the theoretical aspects of film-making is what made them feel let down with the course, which eventually made them quit those studies.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary below is meant to help you with the more difficult words. If the word isn’t on the list then you are either supposed to know it or it is too specific to be worth learning and you don’t have to know it to answer the question. Symbols in brackets mean part of speech(see bottom of the list). Sentences in italics give examples of usage for some more complex words and phrases.
And remember — you are not given a vocabulary list(or a dictionary) at your real exam.
Part 1
Heels (n) – (here) the rear part of the shoe sole that is slightly (or much higher, in case of high heels) than the front part (also referred to as ‘toe’). High heels will always be the trendy thing that manifests the idea of style over substance.
Essential (adj) – extremely important, vital, integral.
Impractical (adj) – not convenient, not easy to use. Sports cars can be fun and are very flashy indeed, but most of them are very impractical because of their small trunk and lack of proper rear seats.
Call for something (phr v) – to request or demand that something be done. The situation with high grocery prices calls for drastic action from the authorities.
Part 2
Diverse (adj) – varied, not the same. The shop offers a diverse selection of clothing, both casual and formal.
Adapt (v) – to change something so that it fits the current conditions or requirements better. After working for a bigger company for so many years it took me some time to adapt to the realities of being an employee in a small, family-run business.
Conjure something up (phr v) – (used figuratively here) to create something as if by magic or using supernatural force.
Part 3, 4
Foods (n) – one thing to note about this food is the rather unusual plural form of the word ‘food’. Foods means different types of food that is different in nature, e.g. fruit, vegetables, meat, grains, and so on. Similar to plural ‘peoples’, when we talk about different nations, e.g. ‘peoples of Africa’.
To shed light – (figurative) to explain something, to make something easier to understand. The two year long investigation failed to shed light on the incident.
Part 5
Explore (v) – (here) to go around a place in order to find out more about it.
Courteous (adj) – respectful and caring about how other people feel. The waiter was courteous, but not very experienced, which didn’t stop us from tipping him generously.
Former (adj) – relating to something that was true in the past, but not anymore. A former engineer, he found it naturally easy to work both on cars and pieces of electronic equipment.
Virtues (n) – (figurative here) positive or desirable traits. Patience is a vital virtue for any teacher, especially one dealing with younger students.
Accustomed (adj) – used to something. It took us a while to get accustomed to the hot climate of the region.
Arrogant (adj) – thinking of oneself as superior to others and acting in an appropriate manner. University professors sometimes get arrogant because they usually deal with people of much lower academic qualifications.
Bossy (adj) – having a tendency to, or enjoying ordering people around.
Passable (adj) – just good enough for a particular purpose. The car was in passable condition to drive us to the other end of the country.
Dazzled (adj) – (here) amazed, pleasantly surprised.
A touch of something – (figurative) a bit of, slightly. There was a touch of arrogance in his voice, although it was hardly noticeable.
Genuine (adj) – real, not fake or artificial. We could hear genuine excitement as he was presenting his plan to the management.
Showpiece (n) – something that attracts attention because of how outstanding it is. The showpiece of the exhibition was a series of works by Dali.
Chunks (n) – larger pieces. Used figuratively here to mean large areas of London.
Re-emerge (v) – to emerge (come again) later. The question of budget allocation re-emerged several times during the meeting.
Subsequent (adj) – coming after something else. The rise and subsequent fall of the Roman Empire.
Coaching (n) – a practice of teaching people something, especially the practical side and in very approachable, less academic way.
Crop (n) – the type of plant grown for food, e.g. corn or rye.
Stretch of road – the general meaning of the entire phrase is that the much larger part of working as a guide is doing your researching and doing all the necessary preparations.
Part 6
Keen on something – enthusiastic about something, having interest in it. Not many people of her age are keen on gardening.
To be all smiles – to be extremely happy.
Lightheartedly (adv) – not too serious or without trying to offend somebody’s feelings. Joe would sometimes joke lightheartedly about my unsuccessful romantic life.
Neat (adj) – careful, caring about order and cleanliness. Sarah is quite neat with her homework – she always tries her best to avoid any mistakes or corrections.
Knead the dough – dough is the white substance you get when you mix flour with water – the base ingredient in baking. Kneading the dough means compressing and rolling it to reach a certain level of consistency.
Stumble (v) – to move awkwardly, without certainty, as if one were blind.
Persuade (v) – to convince somebody, to make somebody change their mind.
Reluctant (adj) – not willing to do something, having little desire to do it. Most students are reluctant to get back to studying after the long summer break.
Fee (n) – the amount of money you pay for a service. Parking fees went up almost 100% last year.
Concerned by something – to be worried about it, to see it as a problem or something that should be addressed.
Part 7
Arthouse (adj) – having niche rather than mainstream appeal, it is more likely to be interesting to people with particular (often refined) tastes in films.
Feature film – a term for a film of regular length, usually between 90 and 120 minutes long.
Eve (n) – the time or period right before the event. New Year’s Eve is often associated with family, gifts, and expectations that something magical is about to happen.
To dawn on somebody – used to talk about a thought or an idea that comes to one’s mind, especially an obvious also very important one.
To miss out on something – not to get or be a part of something, especially something desirable. I regret missing out on college romances as I was too busy studying at the time.
Presently (adv) – at the moment, currently. We are presently working to introduce a new car renting service for out clients.
Goings-on – (infromal) events happening right now. Please give me an update on the goings-on at the company as soon as you can.
Takes (n) – (about films) a take is an isolated session of filming a scene in a film. It took the actor several takes to get the monologue the way the director wanted him to.
Cast (n) – all the actors who take part in a movie.
Screenplay (n) – a detailed description of the plot, dialogues and the way all should be done in a film.
To fund something (v) – to provide funds (money, financial help) for something. The director was desperate to find someone who would fund his film.
Disenchanted with something (adj) – upset about something because they believed it was better or had a higher opinion or expectations of it. I quickly grew disenchanted with teaching because it had none of the glamour shown in the movies.
Precede (v) – to come before something else. The class would normally be preceded by a short introductory speech by our professor.