Single and Double Fillers
How the fill-in-the-blank question is scored: filtering the options by grammar fit, meaning fit and collocation, handling one blank, and handling two blanks where both words must fit and the link between them matters.
What you will be able to do
- Run the three filters — grammar, meaning, collocation — over the options for a blank.
- Use the words around a single blank to predict its part of speech and sense.
- Solve a double-blank item by requiring both words to fit and reading the connector between them.
- Eliminate an option that fits one blank but fails the other.
What is inside this lesson
- 1How the question is built
- 2The three filters
- 3One blank
- 4Two blanks
- 5Worked example: two items
- 6Common mistakes
- 7Quick revision
- 8Practice
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How the question is built
A filler item gives a sentence with one or two blanks and four or five options. For one blank each option is a single word; for two blanks each option is a word pair, and both words must fit.
The sentence around the blank tells you what belongs there — its part of speech, whether it is positive or negative in sense, and which fixed word it goes with. Work from the sentence, not from which option "sounds nice".
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