Answer Keys
Part 1
1 A – pump. Pumping blood is what our heart does. ‘Force’ has a similar meaning but also gives the idea of difficulty and resistance, which is not meant here.
2 C – gain. ‘To gain weight’ is the correct collocation here. ‘To increase weight’ is a technical phrase that can be used in a limited number of contexts. ‘D – put’ could work as a phrasal verb: ‘to put on weight’
3 D – reduce. While we do not want to say ‘to increase or decrease weight’ in a context like this, we can definitely increase or decrease the amount of calories that our body gets through food.
4 B – principle. A principle is the set of basic rules behind a certain system. A method is the only other one that fits contextually, but it refers to a particular approach to a given situation.
5 C – Unfortunately. The general negative idea of diets not working for everyone is introduced through this word.
6 A – key. A key to doing something is the vital part that makes the process successful. Other answers here could work like this: ‘way to LOSE weight’, ‘secret OF losing weight’.
7 B – actually. ‘Actually’ here is used to convey an idea similar to ‘really’, ‘as a fact’ or ‘in reality’.
8 C – make. To make a difference is a set expression that means to change something, to matter enough to introduce a change.
Part 2
9 or. ‘One … or another’ is a structure that shows the range of possible superstitions here.
10 were. A passive structure that has to be in the past for tense consistency. Maintaining the same tense is an important part in FCE Use of English task 2 and 4.
11 of. ‘Two-thirds of someone or something’ shows the fraction of the whole.
12 who. When referring to people make sure to use ‘who’ rather than ‘that’ – a very common mistake that many people make and lose their valuable points.
13 what. ‘What kind of superstitions’.
14 To. ‘To one’s surprise’. If something happens to your surprise, you didn’t expect it to happen.
15 as. ‘To regard as something’ or ‘to regard to be something’ – the second one is grammatically identical, but cannot be used as you will never put more than one word in the gap.
16 It. ‘It appears’ or, in this case, ‘it would appear’ is an impersonal structure that shows a conclusion based on some evidence (here, people are considered ‘lucky’ because they try harder than the ‘unlucky’ ones).
Part 3
17 threatened. ‘Have’ suggests that we need a past participle form of a verb. Thankfully, ‘threaten’ is a regular verb, so its third form is easy to make.
18 willing. If somebody or something is willing to do something, it means they want to do it. We do not need the negative suffix here because the context clearly points at the fact that these animals are eager to attack humans.
19 apparently. An adverb that is used to come to a conclusion when you are not completely certain about it, but rather base it on some evidence.
20 contents. Note the plural form of the word. We use the plural form when we talk about the multiple things that are in some kind of a container, e.g. a bag (or a bin, as in here).
21 possibility. A distinct possibility is something that is very likely to happen (or something that has probably happened already).
22 unexpected. A rare case of double negative structure that results in a positive meaning. If something is not unexpected, then it is actually expected. Such structure is used for emphasis, or dramatic effect.
23 housing. ‘Housing’ is a general term for areas that are dedicated to living, or a collective term for all types of buildings where people live, including flats, detached houses, and others.
24 restrictions. The phrase ‘large number of’ means that we have to use the plural form.
Part 4
25 not as expensive as. A negative comparative structure fits just fine here. We have to use ‘as’ twice for it – remember that the key word has to be included, but that does not mean that you can use it only once.
26 should have told me. The change from the question to statement form (interrogative to affirmative) can be confusing. Remember, that in FCE Use of English Part 4 the meaning of the changed sentence has to be as close to the original as possible.
27 came across the photographs. To come across something means to find something randomly, without planning or meaning to; without searching for it on purpose.
28 were painted by. We have a passive structure here where the agent (the person or thing that has performed the action) gets mentioned.
29 asked him not to stay. The only possibly difficult change here is going to the negative structure (‘not to do something’).
30 do not feel like going. When you do not feel like doing something, it means that you have no desire to do it.
Part 5
31 C. You might be tricked into answering that the writer is surprised to be taking a detour. However, the feeling of surprise refers to the sentence that follows. The ‘mouse’ analogies actually refer to the people living in the city and in the countryside. She is surprised that she is now used to living in London. She would still live there even if she had a choice, so answer D is incorrect.
32 A. ‘Moving’ here means that it arouses a certain emotional response in the author. From the words themselves, you might get the impression that the author was frightened or even deafened by the sounds of swans and their wings. We have to take the paragraph as a whole to understand the key message here, especially the contrast between the loud noise followed by silence.
33 C. Right off the bat you can discard answers A and B as too simplistic. It is a common trick in this part of FCE Reading to suggest an overly generalised option for the answer. There is nothing mentioned about the need to preserve wildlife or nature here. Instead, we see the reason why the landowner chose to do what he has done.
34 A. The so-called second-homers are now accepted as a part of the local community. It is important to understand who second-homers are – basically, they are people who have some sort of housing in the country, but mostly live in the city.
35 B. Last part of paragraph six talks about how the talks of ‘the boring countryside’ are either exaggerated, outdated, or simply made-up.
36 D. Only the last option fully covers the general idea expressed in the paragraph – the two environments are too different to even compare them.
Part 6
37 F. The sentence that follows the gap refers to the previous thing in plural form with the word ‘some’ – meaning the nine muscles controlling the thumb. Another important thing to note is that the same sentence uses the present tense, that is why we can eliminate choice G and E straight away.
38 D. The double negative structure makes the message of the sentence deliberately more difficult to understand. Basically, they mean that orangutan’s hands are functionally similar to ours. ‘We have to look closer’ in the sentence that follows is contrasted to ‘No one would doubt…’ from sentence D.
39 A. First of all, there can be some confusion between the terms ‘fingers’ and ‘digits’. Digits are a general term that can refer to all ‘fingers’, both on your hands and feet. Fingers, on the other hand, are on your hands except for thumbs, which are usually not referred to as ‘fingers’ because they are opposed to the rest of the hand. Either way, all we care about here is that they act as synonyms. Secondly, the sentence that comes after the gap mentions that ‘the digits later emerged’ – in other words, it naturally continues the idea of sentence A where it talks about how smaller bones ‘eventually’ became fingers.
40 G. The examples of such exotic hands are provided in the sentence that follows. Since this is the opening sentence of a paragraph, it means that it has to make a more general statement that is expanded upon in the later sentences.
41 E. ‘They’ here is a clear connector to the scientists mentioned in sentence E. Picking sentence C would mean ending up with a salad of ‘they’ and ‘them’, adding to the confusion, making the text much more difficult to understand. Remember that the texts you get in FCE are written in an appropriate style that is easy to follow and comprehend.
42 B. Sentence B, with its examples of two completely different species, contrasts with the sentence that comes next, where they say that the variation can be caused by just a slight difference of protein composition.
Part 7
43 A. The last sentence talks about the cycling event that got the school ‘a lot of publicity’ – that means that they got a lot of attention.
44 D. As a part of the project, the school published the measured noise levels on their website.
45 B. An expert on the topic of birds gave a talk about the importance of birds in the food chain. Answer C is wrong as we just have the name of person, not their background, so we don’t know if they are a specialist.
46 A. One thousand pounds was raised to help the World Wild Life organisation through a sponsored walk.
47 D. School pupils were taken to the seaside to study the effects of noise on the sea creatures.
48 C. The school has been following the climatic changes taking place over the past two years.
49 B. Senior students were responsible for reporting on the endangered animal species. Others were busy planting trees and bushes.
50 C. Pollutions and its effect on local buildings was the topic of the speech given by Meredith Summers.
51 C. The speech prompted the pupils to launch a campaign to protect the local square, asking for assistance from the local government.
52 D. The very first sentence mentions that this is an inner-city school – this means, that it is located in the very heart of it.
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
Blood vessels – a general medical term for veins and arteries that help deliver oxygenated blood to organs of your body.
Go off something (phr v) – to stop doing a certain routine or taking some food or medicine. Going off cigarettes can prove too difficult for most people.
Creep back (phr v) – to return so slowly that it is almost unnoticeable. The cat creeped back into the house without anyone hearing or seeing it.
Sensible (adj) – reasonable, with common sense. Taking a loan that you cannot repay is not sensible at all.
Part 2
Superstitious (adj) – believing in supernatural things, signs or omens. For example, a superstitious person would think that breaking a mirror brings bad luck.
Survey (n) – a documented research in which people are asked questions in order to determine what kind of opinion a certain group has on particular matters. Our college held a survey regarding quality of food in the cafeteria.
Part 3, 4
Suburbs (n) – the area outside of the city, where people mostly live in their own houses rather than flats.
Havoc (n) – chaos, unrest. A common collocation is ‘to cause havoc’.
Wander into (phr v) – to come somewhere, especially without meaning to, often because you are lost.
Scattered (adj) – scattered things are usually spread over a large area without any system, just lying around. There was some broken glass scattered over the road.
Feast (v) – to eat something, especially if you eat a lot of it and with great joy. Used ironically here.
Predicted (adj) – talked about before it actually happened. The predicted financial crisis happened two months later than expected.
Uninhabited (adj) – if an area is uninhabited, then nobody lives there.
Part 5
Short cut (also spelled as one word sometimes, shortcut) (n) – an alternative route or road you take to get somewhere sooner because you have to cover a shorter distance.
Envy (v) – to feel bad about what other people have that you don’t. I have always envied Marie’s talent in music because I am personally completely hopeless when it comes to playing the piano.
Divert (v) – to change the direction of something, can be used both literally and figuratively. We diverted some of the profits towards our new project.
Haunting (adj) – enjoyable in a sad, hard-to-describe way. A haunting melody came on the radio as we were driving through the forest.
Splashdown (n) – (here) the splashing sound the swans made as they landed onto the water surface.
Whereby (adv) – in which, by which. We made a system whereby people who work the hardest get paid the most.
Preserve (v) – to save something, to keep it alive. We try our best to preserve the family tradition of meeting at least once each year.
Disturb (v) – to bother somebody, to upset somebody’s peace or rest. Please do not disturb the zoo animals.
Vital (adj) – extremely important, essential. A vital part of this business is keeping in touch with your old clients.
Work towards something (phr v) – to work on something, especially something that takes a long time to achieve.
Dizzying (adj) – confusing, too fast to be enjoyable.
Drop in on somebody – to visit somebody without informing them in advance, making a casual visit.
Admirable (adj) – good enough to be approved or deserve respect. Your efforts in the family business are truly admirable.
Deafening (adj) – something that is so loud that it makes you lose your ability to hear.
Adjust to something (v) – to get used to something, either by changing your life or your views. It took me two weeks to adjust to living on my own.
Part 6
Steer (v) – to control something, especially something manmade, such as a car or a plane.
Open-ended (adj) – without limits or boundaries. The movie was open-ended and left many viewers speculating about its actual message.
To think up (phr v) – to invent, to think of. I thought up a business plan during my lunch break.
Within (prep) – inside. The secrets within a book.
Fine (adj) – (here) carefully measured.
Underneath (adv) – a more formal and old-fashioned version of the adverb ‘under’.
Wrist (n) – the part of your arm between your hand and your elbow.
Cluster (n) – a group of something. This scientific center was effectively a large cluster of laboratories working on top secret projects.
Dig something up (phr v) – to find something underground by digging towards it. I dug up some old pieces of metal in my backyard.
Fossil (n) – an extremely old remnant of a dead thing that turned into stone after having spent hundreds of thousands of years in the ground.
Fin (n) – the flat part of a fish or a sea creature like shark or dolphin. It helps the creature change direction underwater.
Extinct (adj) – (about an animal) no longer existing because it has died out of natural or manmade causes (such as hunting). Dodo is an example of an extinct bird.
Chunky (adj) – relatively large.
Clamber (v) – to climb or crawl through something with difficulty, using your hands and feet.
Vertebrates (n, plural) – a class of animals that have a spine.
Retain (v) – to keep something. Even after the crushing defeat, the team still retained its leadership in the championship.
Outward (adj) – appearing on the outside. The opposite is ‘inward’. Outward hostility can often be caused by fear.
Subtle (adj) – difficult to notice because it is not as bright or prominent. The differences between the two models are very subtle – they are pretty much identical.
(Common) ancestor – an ancestor is a relative that lived before you.
Part 7
Carry out (phr v) – to perform or do some sort of work or activity. After careful preparation, the surgery has been carried out successfully.
Arrange (v) – to plan something or to help something happen. They arranged a sightseeing tour for us so that we would have something to do during our stay in London.
Threat (n) – something that poses danger. This bird has many threats in nature, such as predators and loss of habitat.
Congestion (n) – a traffic congestion is a situation when there are too many cars on the roads, causing air and noise pollution.
Hand out something (phr v) – to distribute something for free, usually something like leaflets or brochures, in order to spread some sort of information among people.
Turn out (phr v) – to become something, especially if it hasn’t been planned to be it. George turned out to be the best runner in our competition, even though nobody even expected him to come to the event.
Monitor (v) – to watch something in order to control the process. The teacher closely monitored each student during the final exam.
Marine (adj) – referring to or connected to the sea. Marine life is much more varied than that of lakes and rivers.
Mammals (n) – a group of animals that feed their young with milk.
Medieval (adj) – related to the Middle Ages.
Marshes (n) – another term for swamps.