PETS Level 1 Cloze Problem-solving Ideas and Problem-solving Techniques

(1) Propositional Ideas

Cloze is the second section of the third part of the PETS Level 1 written test: Application of English Knowledge. It mainly tests the candidate's ability to identify and understand the language components of the passage. This type of questions often tests some adverbs and conjunctions that mark the turning point of meaning, succession, cause, result, example, sequence, summary, etc. This part accounts for approximately 10% of the total score and takes approximately 10 minutes to answer. The question design is to provide a short article of 90-120 words, leaving 10 blanks in the text, and three alternative answers are provided in each blank. Candidates are required to choose the best answer for each blank, so that the completed essay has a complete structure, reasonable logic, smooth meaning, and coherence. About 6 questions test grammatical structures, and 4 questions test vocabulary and expressions.

This section is designed to require candidates to master the redundancy of the English language. Redundancy means that both spoken and written language contains some information that is not very necessary, but it provides a lot of additional information. Therefore, although there are many gaps in the cloze essay, candidates can still roughly understand the meaning of the essay based on the information provided in the question stem, and complete the essay based on the context and basic grammar and vocabulary knowledge. Let's analyze the idea of ??propositions and the distribution of test points with a specific example.

Classic example

The population problem may be the 1 one of the world today. the world's population is growing 2. two thousand years ago, there were only 250 million people 3 the earth . four hundred years ago, the number was 4 500 million. but at the beginning of the 5 century, the world's population was about 1,700 million. in 1970, this number was 3,600 million. in 1990, the number was five billion. a 6 report says that the world population will 7 six billion by the end of the 20th century. this is just ten 8 after it 9 five billion. people say that by the year 2010, 10 may be seven billion.

1.[a]great [b]greater [c]greatest

2.[a]faster and faster [b]fast and fast [c]fastest and fastest

3. [a]in [b]on [c]at

4.[a]nearly [b]more [c]over

5.[a]twenty [b]twelve [c]twentieth

6.[a]usa [b]un [c]prc

7.[a]past [b]pass [c]passed

　8.[a]weeks [b]months [c]years

　9.[a]get [b]gets [c]reached

10.[a] this [b]it [c]one

Correct answer 1.[c] 2.[a] 3.[b] 4.[c] 5.[c] 6.[b] 7. [b] 8.[c] 9.[c] 10.[b]

Famous teachers will analyze the test points and solution strategies of each small question carefully.

Questions 1 and 2 obviously test the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. This type of questions requires candidates to understand the situations in which comparatives and superlatives are used (1) and some habits that include comparatives and superlatives. Expression (2) Have full understanding and mastery; Question 3 tests the usage of the preposition on, which requires candidates to be proficient in the commonly used prepositions and their usage listed above; Question 4 tests the candidates' analysis of commonly used adverbs. Special attention should be paid to those adverbs with similar meanings (and adjectives with similar meanings); Question 5 is a test of quantifiers (this question is about ordinal numbers), and it is also a test of customary expressions to express century?, which should be paid attention to. Yes, most of the tests on quantifiers focus on some commonly used expressions, such as century, year, time, etc. Candidates should pay enough attention; Question 6 is about the understanding of the passage, especially the context, as well as common sense in English (here is about English (the meaning of abbreviations), candidates should pay attention to the accumulation of English knowledge. The understanding of context is very important for cloze. The biggest difference between cloze and single choice is that the understanding of context is higher. In this sense, the first quick reading of the short text cannot be omitted. ; Question 7 is a test of verbs, specifically the form of pass and the basic knowledge point of modal verbs followed by verb base forms. Candidates for verbs should pay special attention to mastering basic knowledge points. Because there are so many knowledge points for verbs, candidates can easily get stuck in mastering new knowledge points and ignore basic knowledge points. In fact, the focus of the exam is still basic knowledge points. Candidates should not ?Picked the sesame seeds, lost the watermelon?; Question 8 is to test the candidates’ understanding of the entire passage, especially the context; Question 9 is to analyze the usage of the verbs reach and get, which is also the focus of the test; Question 10 is to test the pronouns, Because there are not many commonly used pronouns, it is easy to score points for this type of question if the candidate has a good grasp of each pronoun.

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the questions cover various grammatical aspects (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, quantifiers, verbs, pronouns, etc.), contextual understanding and customary expressions, with the focus on verbs (2 questions), context understanding (2 questions) and customary expressions (2 questions). In fact, this kind of analysis is not very scientific, because various knowledge points are related and sometimes even overlap. However, doing this kind of analysis will help candidates fully understand the requirements and examination methods of the exam. Candidates can also do some analysis on the questions they have done.

(2) Problem-solving skills

Cloze pays more attention to the examination of the context of the text, rather than simply testing grammar and vocabulary knowledge in isolation. To prepare for cloze questions, candidates should pay attention to grasping the paragraphs and context, and be good at capturing the information provided in the text. Several problem-solving methods mentioned in the single-item fill-in-the-blank are also applicable to the cloze-fill in the blank. Candidates should comprehensively use various problem-solving methods based on a deep understanding. Here we propose the "three-pass reading method" to solve the problem. Through the first reading, you can quickly browse and grasp the general meaning of the passage based on the incomplete sentences. You can know what the article is talking about without getting entangled in details. Due to time constraints, this reading should be done quickly, and the meaning of the passage should be fully understood as much as possible during fast reading. The second pass is analysis and selection. Based on the first pass, carefully analyze each blank and select the best answer for each blank based on the context, grammar, lexicon and other basic language knowledge. The second reading requires candidates to be as careful as possible and analyze every detail of the passage. The third time, substitute the selected choices into the article and read through it to check for any omissions or errors. This time is generally required to be completed quickly. It is actually a review and verification of your work in the previous two times. If you can complete the above three readings carefully, you should be able to get good results by filling in the blanks. Some candidates feel that three times is very time-consuming at the beginning. They have to make a choice after reading the first sentence after getting the question. In fact, this is a bad practice. Haste makes waste, and there is no first reading. Without understanding the general meaning of the passage, it is difficult to make a choice quickly and accurately.

Classic example 1

Read the following passage and choose from the three options [a], [b] and [c] given at the end of the passage to fill in the corresponding blanks. best option.

The big ben (Big Ben) is located in the tower in london. it is very famous 1 the world, but nobody knows why it is 2 big ben. there are two stories 3 this. some people say that it was named 4 benjamin caunt, a boxer. people called 5 big ben. but more people believe it was called after welshman, sir benjamin hall. he was in 6 of this work in 1859. a story was told that during a 7 in a meeting on what 8 the bell, sir benjamin was going to give his ideas an officer behind him shouted 9 , ?let?s call it big ben!? from 10 on it was named big ben.

1. [a] throughout [b] over [c] at

2. [a] say [b]call [c]called

3. [a] of [ b] for [c]about

　4. [a] because [b] after [c] of

　5. [a] they [b] it [c] him < /p>

　6. [a] change [b] charge [c] believe

　7. [a] discussion [b]decision [c] fighting

　8. [a] calls [b] to call [c] is called

9. [a] quick [b] sudden [c] suddenly

10. [a] now [b ] that [c] then

Correct answer 1.[a] 2.[c] 3.[c] 4.[b] 5.[c] 6.[b] 7.[a] 8.[b] 9.[c] 10.[c]

　　Through the first quick read, we roughly understand that this short article is mainly about the United Kingdom The origin of the name Big Ben. Among the three options of 1, “throughout the world” should be used to indicate the civilization of the whole world. This is also a common usage. 2 is an examination of the voice. When ? is called ?, you need to use the passive voice. Neither the [a] nor [b] voice is correct. There are two stories about naming, so 3 choices are about. 4 is to test the customary collocation of verbs, name after means "named after". Therefore, the correct answer is after. If the examinee does not master this phrase, he can also choose the correct answer through the context, because the next sentence has a synonymous phrase call after. 5 is also a test of the examinee's grasp of the context. People call benjamin caunt big ben, so When referring to benjamin caunt, it should be him. 6 Examination of habitual collocation, in charge of means responsible, presiding over (work). 7 means that everyone is discussing and discussing the naming of the bell, so it should be discussion, decision means decision, and fighting means quarreling, which means neither is appropriate. 8 It is easy to get the correct answer by using the elimination method. [a] and [c] are easier to eliminate because the tense is obviously wrong, so the correct answer is [b]. Through analysis, we know that position 9 should be an adverbial. The general part of speech used as an adverbial is an adverb rather than an adjective, so the correct answer is suddenly. 10 Examine the commonly used phrases, from then on, from now on means from now on, there is generally no saying of from that on.