CPE Use of English Practice

Practice for the Certificate of Proficiency in English

Cambridge Test, C2 Proficiency

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CPE Use of English Test

Index

Introduction

What is CPE?

Sample Test

Certificate of Proficiency in English

Certificate of Proficiency in English B2 level

A C2 Proficiency qualification shows the world that you have mastered English to an exceptional level. It proves you can communicate with the fluency and sophistication of a highly competent English speaker.

Note: Click on the CC icon to show subtitles

Introduction

Introduction

This brief yet thorough evaluation provides an overview of the linguistic difficulties encountered at advanced proficiency levels. Whether you're preparing for the CPE or honing your language abilities, this assessment offers valuable perspectives. Engage in thoughtfully designed exercises to evaluate your grammar, vocabulary, and language sophistication.

Measure your preparedness with this unique sample test crafted to enhance your language proficiency.

START

Part 1

Decide which words best fit the gaps in this text. Write them into the spaces provided. Click to be redirected to the exercise, and click Finished once you have completed the activity.

FINISHED

ANSWERS

Answers

Note that often more than one answer is possible. If your answer is not here, consult a teacher.

1. factor/theme2. Whilst/Although 3. population 4. sustained 5.formed/constituted 6. center 7. who 8. phenomenon 9. born 10.proportion

11.more12.aspects 13.nature 14.seems/appears 15.Adjusting 16.one 17.what 18.chances 19.spreads/continues 20.without

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Part 2

Look at the pairs of sentences below. Each incomplete sentence must be finished so that the meaning is as close as possible to the sentence before it. Write them into the spaces provided. Click to be redirected to the exercise, and click Finished once you have completed the activity.

FINISHED

ANSWERS

Answers

Your answers might be different but still correct. If you are not sure, consult a teacher. Some alternatives are shown by a forward slash (e.g. this/that)

1. Very good though he is as a player, Ted is better.2. At all costs you must be at the airport by 2 o.clock 3. Going to this film was Joe's suggestion/idea . 4. Without Mike we couldn't have finished the job. 5. No sooner had Sally left the room than James walked in. 6. In my opinion you are being very unreasonable. 7. Bananas were all we had to eat. 8. Despite getting more votes, he did not become president. 9. Cast your mind back to last December. 10.I count myself very lucky to have escaped from that crash.

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Part 3

Look at the sentences below, and put a suitable word or phrase into the gap. Write them into the spaces provided. Click to be redirected to the exercise, click Finished once you have completed the activity

FINISHED

ANSWERS

Answers

Your answer may be different but still correct - if you are not sure, consult a teacher.

1. no means2. me down 3. as a 4. particular order 5. told you 6. the same

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Part 4

Look at the sentences below. You must re-write them so that the meaning is as close as possible to the original sentence. You must use the word given in bold at the end of each sentence without changing the form of that word. Click to be redirected to the exercise, and click Finished once you have completed the activity.

FINISHED

ANSWERS

Answers

Your answers might be different but still correct. If you are not sure, consult a teacher.

1. There's no other way to do it. 2. Fred is driving me around the bend. 3. Sooner or later you'll need one. 4. This is the last time I am going to do this. 5. My going to that party is out of the question. 6. Our team will give the opposition a run for their money. 7. I have to concede defeat. 8. She is over the moon about her new job.

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Part 5

Read the text below and then answer the questions which follow it.

5. Some supermarkets have experimented with the idea of of encouraging impulse buying. In one famous example they put beer next to children's nappies, because they had discovered that husbands were often asked by their wives to buy nappies on their way home from work. All supermarkets put luxury products at eye level to encourage impulse buying. Products which the customer will buy anyway, such as flour or sugar, are to be found on the upper or lower shelves. 6. It has also been discovered that customers will go one or two meters up an aisle before they stop to look for what they want. Therefore the shelves occupying by the first meter are sometimes called "dead space". Another good place to put all the things that customers are prepared to go back and buy. 7. But not everything in a supermarket layout is designed to maximise sales. Designers have to make sure that customers can move around the store easily, so they leave more space in front of areas where people will stand for a long time. They must be sure that the store can be evacuated quickly if there is an emergency, and that security cameras have a clear view of everything inside the store. Finally, the store has to be designed so that a person who wants to buy a packet of cigarettes, or a magazine, does not have to wait in the same queue as ten people who are doing the family shopping for a week. 8. And why is the butter sometimes in a different place? This is because people who shop regularly at a particular store go straight to the things they want without looking at the other products on offer. The supermarkets move the butter so that while you are looking for it, you may see and buy something you that you would not have come across otherwise.

Wher is the beef?

1. If you have ever wandered around your local supermarket trying to find where they have put the butter or the instant mashed potatoes, you might be forgiven for thinking that the shelves are stacked almost at random. In reality, you couldn't be more wrong. Arranging supermarkets is an art, even if the object of this art is simply to extract more money from your wallet. 2. When supermarkets began, their owners really didn't know how to arrange the material. One famous British supermarket simply decided to organise the shelves so that people found the products in the same way that they would do if they were eating a meal. So the soups came before the fish, and they came before the meat and vegetables, and finally there were the desserts. 3. But supermarkets soon found that it was a good idea to put fresh fruit and vegetables near the entrance, since it gave people passing by the impression that the goods in the shop were fresh. Later they developed the idea and changed the colour of the lights near the fruit and vegetables, so that the oranges had an orange light, and green vegetables a green light, which made their colours look more natural and attractive. 4. For the same reason, the bakery area might have the smell of fresh bread blown through the ventilators to interest customers in buying bread, even if the bread itself is inside a plastic bag which smells of nothing at all.

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Part 5

You must answer the questions which follow in your own words. (Use about 12 -20 words unless you are told to do differently in an individual question.). Click to be redirected to the exercise, and click Finished once you have completed the activity.

FINISHED

ANSWERS

Answers

Remember, your answers may be written differently, but they should have the same meaning. These answers are given as examples.

1. To show the point where the shopper's view changes to the viewpoint of the writer of the article.2. The writer suggests that this mistake is one that anybody might make. 3. This is a technique to show that a completely different idea is going to be introduced 4. Because the supermarket hoped that this would give shoppers an idea of where to find things. 5. Because the colors of the vegetables were brought out by the lighting - plain neon makes them look unnatural 6. It means the supermarkets found more ways to increase sales through the customer's instincts. 7. "Might" suggests that only some supermarkets tried this; "have" means that the supermarkets ordered it to be done. 8. "Impulse buying" is when you buy things in a supermarket that you did not go to the shop to get. 9. Because they are visible, the idea of purchasing them follows naturally. 10. The space is "dead" because it is ignored by customers. 11. Because these areas will become more crowded, and other people will still need to get past. 12. The need to get people out of the store quickly if necessary, and to watch what happens inside the store. 13. Family shopping is mentioned because it takes a long time at the till - buying a magazine does not. 14. "Come across" means to find something you were not looking for. 15. Supermarkets maximize sales through layout by making shopping safe - through security - and convenient, by making sure that people can move easily around the store. They can also use lighting and scent to make products seem more attractive and put products that people might not otherwise think of buying in places where they are easily seen. They use places where shoppers do not look instinctively to put products that shoppers will make an effort to find. They also move these products occasionally, so that regular shoppers see more of what is on sale in the store.

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