Use of English - Multiple Choice
C2
Cambridge English C2 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.
A Pop Career
Few contemporary artists have shaped popular music as decisively as Taylor Swift. What began as a teenage venture into country songwriting soon (0) BLOSSOMED into a career of unusual range and durability. From the outset, Swift showed a remarkable ability to turn personal experience into lyrics that (1) .......... a wide audience, while also maintaining a level of narrative detail rare in mainstream pop. Her transition from country to pop was not merely a commercial calculation; it also reflected a willingness to (2) .......... artistic risks at moments when public expectations might easily have confined her. Over time, she has built a body of work distinguished not only by chart success but also by critical (3) .......... . Albums have been praised for their craftsmanship, and her live performances have helped (4) .......... her reputation as a disciplined and highly strategic performer. Equally significant has been her business acumen. By re-recording earlier albums, she sought to regain control of her catalogue, a move widely seen as a direct (5) .......... to industry practices long considered unfavourable to artists. Whether one admires her music or not, it is difficult to deny the (6) .......... of her cultural influence. She has managed to remain commercially dominant without appearing artistically (7) .........., and that balance has allowed her career to (8) .......... passing trends rather than be defined by them.
About Use of English Multiple Choice — Cambridge English C2
This is a Cambridge English C2 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 C2 exercises like this builds the instinct to choose the right option quickly in the real exam.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many questions does this C2 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.