B1 Business Preliminary (BEC Preliminary)

Reading Part Six – 12 points.

The Task

You have a text with 12 missing words. You have to choose the missing word from three A B C options, only one is correct. You will receive one point for each correct answer.

Warning!

This is not only reading because it is a grammar and vocabulary test! The good news is that it is the only part of the exam that tests grammar.

You can download a sample paper of Reading Part Six here and the answers here.

Procedure.

  • Read the text first. However, don’t just read and forget the missing words. When you read, predict and write in the word you think is missing.

  • The words are usually grammar words like verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, linkers, and pronouns. Sometimes it is better to read the complete sentence before you predict the missing word because the words that come later are significant.

B1 Business Preliminary (BEC Preliminary) Reading Part Six
  • Then read the three options for each space – is your answer there? If it is, then you might be right, but check the other words too. Imagine you wrote “calls” for number one in the example here, and you see that the other options are calling and called. You can use the sentence to help you. Are the other words in the present? If they are, then “calls” is right, but you will notice that “opened” is in the past so “called” is correct.

  • Number two is more difficult, imagine you wrote “some” or ” these”. When you look at the three options, you know these answers are not correct. Sometimes your incorrect ideas will be similar to one of the options, but here it is not the case. Here you need to “try” each word in the sentence if you don’t know.

    So your options are

    1. To offer such events

    2. To offer like events

    3. To offer so events.

    You should be able to see that only “such” works.

  • Repeat the procedure

B1 Business Preliminary (BEC Preliminary)

Reading Part Seven – 5 points

The Task

You have two texts and a form to complete. You need to write a word or phrase to complete the notes with the correct information. You will receive one point for each correct answer.

Guide to the Task

It is the last one! Some students like this one, others hate it! It can look difficult because in the task you have moved around the texts a lot to find the answers. They aren’t in a logical order, and there are distracting words that look like the answer. But I think that this is similar to reading you do in our professional lives, in your first language or in English. Some of the emails you receive require a lot of scrolling up and down to find the information you want don’t they?

You can download a sample paper of Reading Part Seven here and the answers here.

Procedure

• Read the “questions” first. Look at the form title and the information you need to complete. Consider who you are, who is completing the form. In the example here, you are Barbara.

B1 Business Preliminary (BEC Preliminary) Reading Part Seven

• Then read the beginnings of each of the texts. Make sure you understand who wrote each one. In this example, Peter wrote the first text, Martin, the second.

• Usually, there will be two options for the answers. If you need to add a company name, then there will probably be two names in the text. Decide from the context of the form which one is necessary. In the example, there are three names, but only two are from the company making an insurance claim. In the text, Peter writes that the policy is in his name.

• The same applies to people’s names, order numbers, dates, address, prices etc. There are usually two; your job is to find both and chose the right one by understanding the context and reading carefully.

Now that you understand how to maximise your score for the B1 Preliminary Reading Parts 6 & 7, you are now ready to start learning how to prepare to succeed in a different part of the B1 Preliminary exam so go to Writing, Listening, Speaking.