PTE Reading Practice – Fill In The Blanks (With Explanations)

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Fill in the Blanks – There is a passage with some missing words. You have a list of words in the box that you can use to fill the gaps in the text. There are more words than gaps so you will not use all the words provided. Choose the one that best matches your predictions.

This is a long answer item type that integrates speaking and reading skills and requires test takers to read a short text aloud, using correct pronunciation and intonation.

If you have any doubts let us know through comments.

 

PTE Reading Practice – Fill In The Blanks 

1. Read the given text and choose words from the box to fill the gaps.

decisions, enhance, affection, different, discover, theorized, alternative

Animals have played a major role in human’s lives throughout history. Today, scientific research is trying to (1)_______ the positive aspects of living with companion animals. Animals have been used as an (2)__________ form of treatment for many years. More recently it has been discovered that owning a pet can help lower people’s blood pressure, (3)_________ the chances of living after a heart attack, keep people more active and provide more satisfaction with life. It is (4)__________ that this happens because pets help people become more social, provide a means to give and receive (5)___________, and help connect us with the natural world.

Show Correct Answer

1. discover   2. alternative   3.enhance  4. theorized  5. affection 

Show Explanation

1. The answer is “discover” because “to” preposition is always followed by Verb’s First Form. Out of the given answers list, only Theorized and Discover are the two Verbs. And, we selected Discover out of the two as it is in Verb’s base form; however, Theorized is the second form.

2. The biggest hint is that there is “an” right before the blank. So, the possible answer should be the one beginning with a vowel. Out of Alternative, Enhance and Affection, we picked Alternative because it means “Substitute.” As per the question’s demand, animals have been used as an alternative (means substitute) form of treatment makes sense.

3. The first clause in the sentence is that pet can help lower people’s blood pressure. It gives an idea that the sentence is about the effect of pets on different phenomena of the body. Enhance means “increases.” Therefore, we have used it as the answer because it gives the meaning that owning a pet can enhance (increase) the chances of living after a heart attack.

4. Theorized is the third form of verb derived from a noun Theory. In this sentence, we are talking about the theory that pets help people become more social…Hence, the verb Theorized has been used after is, which is supposed to be followed by Verb 3rd form.

5. Here, you should be aware of the meaning of the word affection, which means care. The word Affection fits in the sentence as we are trying to say that pets provide a means to give and receive Affection (means care), and help…

Fill In The Blanks Practice Question #2

Read the given text and choose words from the box to fill the gaps.

sorry, forsee, choices, pleasant, direction, both, trail, fork

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is about the (1)_______ that one makes in life. It tells about a man who comes to a (2)_______ in the road he is traveling upon. He feels (3)________ that he cannot travel (4)________ paths as he must choose one. Frost uses this fork in the road to represent a point in the man’s life where he has to choose the (5)_________ he wishes to take in life.

Show Correct Answer

1. choices  2. fork  3. sorry  4. both  5. direction

Show Explanation

1. Here worth-noticing point is that after blank, verb makes has been used, which is a singular verb because it ends with s. Hence, the blank should have a plural noun according to the rule of Simple Present Tense. Out of the options, we have only one plural noun, which is “choices”. And, even when we fit it in the blank space, the sentence becomes that Poem is about choices that one makes in life, which makes complete sense.

2. The first hint is that before blank, there is article a, which is used before a singular countable noun. Hence, our options shorten to sorry, direction, trail, and fork. We picked fork out of the remaining options because fork in the road means a point on the road, where we have to make a decision on the path to choose. Moreover, the next sentences ensure that our answer is correct because it says “paths as he must choose one.” Also, at the end of the passage, Fork in the road has been used already, which is another hint that cannot be missed.

3. He feels should be followed by a feeling. So, we have two options pleasant and sorry. We picked sorry because the latter part of the sentence says that he must choose one, means the person is obliged to choose one out of the given options. Hence, he or she will feel bad of course!

4. We have picked the answer both because we must pick some answer which signifies a number more than one, because, in the next part of the sentence, the person is supposed to pick one path. Moreover, in the previous blank, we have written sorry. As a matter of fact, one will feel bad only if he is made to pick one out of one than one option.

5. The sentence is about a fork in the road, which means choosing one way out of many. Here, the word which is somewhat synonym of way is “direction.” 

Fill In The Blanks Practice Question #3

Read the given text and choose words from the box to fill the gaps.

peaceful, polluted, cosmopolitan, bustling, facilities, crowded, hospital, sandy

Montego Bay is the second largest city in Jamaica by area and the third by population. It is a lively and (1)_______beach resort and attracts a lot of tourists from many different countries with its (2)__________ beaches and (3)_________ relaxing atmosphere. Many Americans and Europeans, as well as Jamaicans, have summer homes in Montego Bay, so it is a (4)_______ city and becomes more (5)_________ during the holiday seasons. It is most famous for Doctor’s Cave beach, which has clear, turquoise waters.

Show Correct Answer

1. bustling  2. sandy  3.peaceful  4. cosmopolitan  5. crowded

Explanations is given at the end

Fill In The BLanks Practice Question #4

Read the given text and choose words from the box to fill the gaps.

 listen, empathy, determiner, improve, employed, positive, increased

High emotional intelligence can help a manager (1)_______ workplace communication skills, employee motivation and organizational effectiveness. If a manager has high (2)_______ _, a key component of emotional intelligence, he or she will be able to (3)_________ to the concerns of employees and will be more understanding of their needs, wants and concerns. This will most likely translate into (4)_______ motivation and satisfaction of employees and ultimately will have a (5)_________ effect on the effectiveness of the business.

Show Correct Answer

1. improve  2. empathy  3.listen  4. increased   5. positive

Explanations

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The explanation for Answer:3

1. Lively here means somewhere crowded and full of life. After that and conjunction is used, which is used between two similar kind of words. Hence, we used bustling in the blank space as it means a place full of activities. We did not pick crowded because it gives a negative meaning but here we are trying to define the beach in a positive manner.

2. Here there is a blank space before beaches, which is a noun. Hence, in blank space, we are supposed to fill an adjective. Out of the given options, we have peaceful, cosmopolitan, sandy as adjectives. We picked sandy because it defines beach in a better way.

3. Before relaxing atmosphere, we need to fill in an adverb, which adds more meaning to adjective relaxing. Hence, we picked peaceful because it is identical to the word relaxing.

4. Here as well, we are supposed to fill an adjective in the blank space, before the noun city. Hence, we used cosmopolitan because it is an adjective used for city, which means a city which has people of different countries and cultures.

5. We have used crowded here because in the previous blank we have used cosmopolitan, whose definition has been given above. And, we are talking about holiday season. Therefore, crowded makes sense here because most of the people are free during holidays; so, they move onto beaches making them crowded.

The explanation for Answer:4

1. Here, improve makes sense because we are showing that emotional intelligence makes all the following three factors better. Hence, improve is a suitable word choice.

2. Before blank, there is an adjective, which means that in blank space, we need to fill in a noun. Out of the options, only empathy is a noun, which means ability to understand the feelings of others. Moreover, it is a quality that a manager needs to possess in order to have happy staff.

3. Here, there is “to” before the blank space and “to” preposition is always followed by Verb’s First Form. Out of the given answers list, we are only left with one verb, which is listen. Moreover, it is in the base form, which further justifies our requirement. Need not to mention, it clarifies the meaning of the sentence as well.

4. After filling the above three answers, we are left with determiner, employed, positive and increased as options. According to our question requirement, determiner/employed motivation does not make any sense at all. We did not pick positive motivation as the answer because motivation itself means pushing someone towards achieving a goal. Hence, there is no need to put the word positive before it because motivation is always positive.

5. Here, we are supposed to use an adjective for noun effect. And, effect can be either positive or negative. Therefore, we have picked positive from the list.

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