Answer the questions the way the real test asks them: read the text, pick an answer, press Check. Want to raise your score? Open 📈 Strategy to Raise your Scores for the method, or 📈 Walk me through this one under any question to go through it step by step. Those are extras: use them as much or as little as you like. When you are ready, try the quiz under test conditions.
📈 Strategy to Raise your Scores
Open this if you want to get faster and more accurate. Under every question there is also a 📈 Walk me through this one panel that takes you through the moves for that question.
- Easiest gaps first — Start with gaps that have a strong pin like "This…" or "For example…"
- Bracket the gap — Read the sentence before AND the sentence after
- Pins both ways — The right sentence links to one side and clashes with neither
- The extra is on topic — The left-over sentence is about the same subject — only pins count
- Check the last gap — Test the last two sentences — don't fill by elimination alone
Rocks hidden just below the surface could tear open a wooden hull in seconds, and a ship could sink before anyone saw the shore. To warn ships of the danger, people began to build lights along the coast. The first lighthouses were simply bonfires burning on hilltops. People who lived nearby kept them alight all night, piling on wood or coal until morning.
2. Read the sentence AFTER gap 1. What does it start talking about? → The first lighthouses
3. Which sentence bridges 'danger from rocks' to 'the first lighthouses'? → D To warn ships of the danger…
- Wrong place — It talks about a tall tower, but the next sentence says the first lighthouses were just bonfires. Towers come later, in paragraph 2.
- Word match — It is about seeing lighthouses, but in the daytime. 'This meant… more time to change course' needs something about seeing the light from far away.
📖 Keepers of the Light
For thousands of years, sailors have feared rocky coastlines at night. Rocks hidden just below the surface could tear open a wooden hull in seconds, and a ship could sink before anyone saw the shore. (1) ______ The first lighthouses were simply bonfires burning on hilltops. People who lived nearby kept them alight all night, piling on wood or coal until morning.
Later, tall stone towers were built to lift the light higher. The higher a light is, the further away it can be seen, because the curve of the Earth hides low lights from distant ships. (2) ______ This meant that a ship's crew had more time to change course before reaching the rocks. Some towers were even built on tiny islands far out to sea, where waves crashed against their walls.
Every lighthouse needed a keeper. (3) ______ They trimmed the wicks, polished the great glass lenses and wound the clockwork that turned the lamp. Many kept a logbook, writing down the weather and every ship that passed. It was lonely work. Supplies arrived by boat, and in bad weather the boat might not come for weeks. During a storm, a keeper might not sleep at all.
Lighthouses also had to be told apart. A sailor who spotted a light in the dark needed to know exactly which lighthouse it was, so that the crew could work out where the ship was. (4) ______ For example, one light might flash twice every ten seconds, while its neighbour further along the coast flashed red once every five seconds.
In the twentieth century, electric lamps and automatic switches arrived. (5) ______ One by one, lighthouses began to run themselves. By the end of the century, most keepers had packed up and left, and the cottages beside the towers stood empty. Some have since been turned into holiday homes.
Today, ships find their way using satellites and computer maps. (6) ______ Many old towers still shine, however, as a back-up in case the electronics fail. Others have become museums, where visitors can climb the winding stairs and imagine life as a keeper on a stormy night.
Practice questions
Show worked solution
D is right. The sentence before describes a danger (hidden rocks sinking ships). D points back to it with 'the danger' and leads forward to 'the first lighthouses' with 'lights along the coast'.
🔎 Proof: To warn ships of the danger
The traps:
- G — Wrong place: It talks about a tall tower, but the next sentence says the first lighthouses were just bonfires. Towers come later, in paragraph 2.
📈 Walk me through this one
🧭 Move: Bracket the gap — Read the sentence before AND the sentence after
Rocks hidden just below the surface could tear open a wooden hull in seconds, and a ship could sink before anyone saw the shore. (1) The first lighthouses were simply bonfires burning on hilltops. People who lived nearby kept them alight all night, piling on wood or coal until morning.
Show worked solution
G is right. The sentence before says higher lights can be seen further away. G gives the result, seen more than twenty kilometres out, and 'This meant… more time' follows on from it.
🔎 Proof: This meant that a ship's crew had more time
The traps:
- C — Word match: It is about seeing lighthouses, but in the daytime. 'This meant… more time to change course' needs something about seeing the light from far away.
📈 Walk me through this one
🧭 Move: Pins both ways — The right sentence links to one side and clashes with neither
The higher a light is, the further away it can be seen, because the curve of the Earth hides low lights from distant ships. (2) This meant that a ship's crew had more time to change course before reaching the rocks. Some towers were even built on tiny islands far out to sea, where waves crashed against their walls.
Show worked solution
B is right. The sentence after starts with 'They', which needs more than one person. The sentence before mentions just one keeper. B talks about keepers, so 'They' makes sense.
🔎 Proof: They trimmed the wicks
The traps:
- A — Wrong place: 'These meant…' needs plural things just before it, like lamps or switches. Here the sentence before talks about one keeper, so A belongs in paragraph 5.
📈 Walk me through this one
🧭 Move: Bracket the gap — Read the sentence before AND the sentence after
Every lighthouse needed a keeper. (3) They trimmed the wicks, polished the great glass lenses and wound the clockwork that turned the lamp. Many kept a logbook, writing down the weather and every ship that passed.
Show worked solution
F is right. 'For example' means the missing sentence is a general idea, and the example (two flashes here, one red flash there) shows it: each lighthouse has its own pattern.
🔎 Proof: For example, one light might flash twice
The traps:
- C — Word match: Stripes are a way of telling lighthouses apart by day, but the example after the gap is about flashes in the dark, so it does not illustrate stripes.
📈 Walk me through this one
🧭 Move: Easiest gaps first — Start with gaps that have a strong pin like "This…" or "For example…"
A sailor who spotted a light in the dark needed to know exactly which lighthouse it was, so that the crew could work out where the ship was. (4) For example, one light might flash twice every ten seconds, while its neighbour further along the coast flashed red once every five seconds. In the twentieth century, electric lamps and automatic switches arrived.
Show worked solution
A is right. 'These' points back to the electric lamps and automatic switches. Lights that switch themselves on and off explain the next sentence: lighthouses began to run themselves.
🔎 Proof: These meant that a lighthouse could switch itself on
The traps:
- E — Wrong place: 'These tools' in E points back to satellites and computer maps, which haven't been mentioned yet. They come in the last paragraph.
📈 Walk me through this one
🧭 Move: Pins both ways — The right sentence links to one side and clashes with neither
In the twentieth century, electric lamps and automatic switches arrived. (5) One by one, lighthouses began to run themselves. By the end of the century, most keepers had packed up and left, and the cottages beside the towers stood empty.
Show worked solution
E is right. 'These tools' points back to satellites and computer maps. E says captains no longer need lights, and the next sentence turns that around with 'however': old towers still shine as a back-up.
🔎 Proof: Many old towers still shine, however, as a back-up
The traps:
- C — Word match: Stripes are about lighthouses, but 'still shine, however, as a back-up' needs a sentence that says lights are less needed now.
📈 Walk me through this one
🧭 Move: Check the last gap — Test the last two sentences — don't fill by elimination alone
Today, ships find their way using satellites and computer maps. (6) Many old towers still shine, however, as a back-up in case the electronics fail. Others have become museums, where visitors can climb the winding stairs and imagine life as a keeper on a stormy night.