FCE Use of English Part 4, Test 6

Answers and explanations

1. Provided (that) I study hard. The phrase ‘provided that’ is basically a fancy replacement for ‘if’ – in other words, a way to introduce a conditional sentence. ‘That’ is optional and can be omitted here.
2. Response that we received. The difficulty here might be understanding whether ‘response’ should be a noun or a verb. Stay focused spell ‘received’ correctly – it is one of the most often misspelled words. ‘That we’ should be added to keep the original meaning intact, even though grammatically it is not necessary.
3. Change the subject. To change the topic of conversation, to talk about something else.
4. Would appreciate (it) if we. An unusual transformation where we let go of the adjective and use a verb to convey a similar idea. ‘It’ is optional, given the 5 word limit.
5. What he came up with. A phrasal verb ‘to come up with something’ that means ‘to invent, to create something original’. One wrong answer is ‘what came to his mind’ – it fits the word limit, but it doesn’t say whether he actually created it, he could have just thought about it.
6. Make no sense to me. If something makes no (or little) sense to you, it means you don’t understand it or have difficulty understanding it. Note that if we used ‘little’ it would alter the meaning slightly, taking one of the two possible points for this task.
7. Not to mention your. A structure that can be used to introduce some additional idea, especially one that is negative and reinforces the negative aspect of the situation.
8. Really do with. If you could do with something, it means you want or need it very much. ‘Really’ has to be included to maintain the original meaning and get both points for the task.
9. Am inclined to trust. A very simple synonymisation. If you are inclined to do something, it means you have a tendency to do it.
10. On condition that you. Another structure commonly used in this part of FCE Use of English, ‘on condition that’ does exactly what it says – introduces a condition, e.g. “You will get the money on condition that you promise to spend it wisely”.