Use of English - Multiple Choice
C1
Cambridge English C1 Exam
For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. Click the gaps to type your answer.
Beating Life’s Obstacles
Most people can point to a moment when life seemed to (0) GRIND to a halt: a redundancy notice, a failed exam, or a relationship ending without warning. What matters is not the setback itself, but how you respond once the initial shock has (1) .......... . Some people try to power through, only to realise they are running on empty; others pause, take stock, and begin to (2) .......... a plan that is realistic rather than heroic. A useful starting point is to separate what you can influence from what you can’t. This prevents you from (3) .......... energy on problems that are outside your control. Next, break the challenge into smaller steps. When progress is measurable, motivation is easier to (4) .......... up, even if the overall goal still feels distant. It also helps to reframe obstacles as feedback. If a strategy isn’t working, it may be time to (5) .......... course instead of repeating the same approach and hoping for a different outcome. Crucially, don’t underestimate the value of support: talking things through can (6) .......... the pressure and make solutions more visible. Finally, resilience is rarely a sudden transformation. It is built by showing up consistently, learning from mistakes, and refusing to let one failure (7) .......... your confidence. Over time, you may even find that the very experiences that once held you back become the (8) .......... for your next step forward.
About Use of English Multiple Choice — Cambridge English C1
This is a Cambridge English C1 Use of English Multiple Choice exercise. Read the text and decide which word — A, B, C or D — best fits each of the 8 gaps.
Multiple Choice questions test your vocabulary in context: collocations, phrasal verbs, linking words and words with similar but slightly different meanings. Practising C1 exercises like this builds the instinct to choose the right option quickly in the real exam.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many questions does this C1 Multiple Choice exercise have?
It has 8 gaps, and each gap gives you four options (A–D) to choose from.
What does Cambridge Use of English Multiple Choice test?
It focuses on vocabulary in context — collocations, phrasal verbs, fixed phrases and words that look similar but are not interchangeable.
How can I get better at Multiple Choice?
Read widely, learn words together with the words they combine with, and always read the whole sentence — including the words after the gap — before choosing your answer.
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What to do
In this part, you read a text with eight gaps and choose the best word from four options to fit each gap.
Nothing prepares you for this test better than reading.
Read a lot. Candidates who often read in English (for work, for fun) find this part of the test manageable, while those who never read tend to find it very hard.
If you are 100% sure that two of the 4 choices are completely identical, then neither can be the answer. There is always only one word that fits grammatically and has the right meaning.
Usually the correct option will be part of a fixed phrase or collocation, a phrasal verb, a connector or the only word that fits grammatically in the gap.
Strategy
- Read the title and the whole text quickly to understand its general meaning before you attempt the task.
- Check the words before and after the gap.
- Choose the best option.
- When you have finished, read the text again with the words inserted to check that it makes sense.