BULATS: Open cloze tasks

Reading and Language Knowledge

by Russell Whitehead

Overview: This lesson is designed to help you engage your students’ interest and understanding with
exams

open cloze tasks in the BULATS Reading and Language Knowledge test. This kind of task is used in
two places in the BULATS Standard Test and also appears in computer-based and online BULATS. In
the Standard Test, there are two tasks, Questions 70–74 and 87–91; the first is designed to be easier
than the second. This lesson is designed to provide effective preparation for both tasks.
Timing: Timing is relatively flexible, depending on the level of your class and the amount of
discussion you include, and will range from 45 to 70 minutes. Note that the lesson can be paused/
divided after 12 and/or after 14 in Stage 2. Stage 3 can be treated as a separate lesson, and some of
it can be done as homework and incorporated into the next lesson. Fully exploited, and including the
writing task, the material here could extend to over 100 minutes.
Preparation: You will need these teacher’s notes and to print one copy of each of Worksheets 1–3
for each student in the class. (Worksheet 3 is optional and is only needed for Stage 3, 20.) You will
teacher’s notes

also need to print/cut/prepare the text used in Stage 2, 15-17. The text needs to be copied and cut
into its three sections, and there need to be enough copies of these for your class.

Stage 1: Engaging with areas of business communication

1
• Introduce the lesson. Say that you will be focusing on gap-fill tasks as used in BULATS. There are two of
these tasks in the Standard Test, so the lesson will be helpful for the exam. You will be looking at grammar
in context, considering how to improve English knowledge and use by choosing exactly the right word.

2
• Distribute Worksheet 1. Refer students to (a). Ask them to work in pairs and look at the extract, and
decide on answers to the two questions together.

Business Worldwide: connections on the move

We can give you back the time you currently spend dealing with communications invoices.
It’s what every business person needs.
>
>
>
>
Call us on 8000 44 37 43 for all the information you need.

What kind of text is this taken from?

What will be in the rest of the text?

3
• Elicit answers from a couple of students. They should realize that this is an advertisement of some sort,
perhaps from a business magazine or somewhere on the web. You do not need to tell them exactly what
else is in the text – the idea is to engage attention at this point. However, if they are wildly wrong, you
may want to steer them a little.

4
• Focus on the two themes: communications and finance. Depending on numbers/dynamics, divide
the class into pairs, small groups or teams. You want half the students to be concentrating on
communications, half on finance. Ask each half to make a mind map or a list of either communications or
finance vocabulary, phrases, etc. They should make their maps/ lists under (b).
Note: This will work fine as a five-minute brainstorm to activate this area of knowledge. It is also,
if there is time, an opportunity for you to add in some other material on vocabulary for these
areas, to link to other texts/listening, etc.
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 BULATS: Open cloze tasks
Reading and Language Knowledge
by Russell Whitehead

5
exams

• Ask representatives from each half to read out/write on the board their words and phrases, and provide
feedback as appropriate. Everyone should copy the most useful of the words/phrases under (c).

Stage 2: Engaging with BULATS exam tasks

6
• Tell students that the text they were looking at in Worksheet 1 is taken from a BULATS test. There are
other kinds of text used in the exam, not only advertisements, but all the texts will be accessible.

7
• Distribute Worksheet 2. Refer students to (d). Ask them to look at the rubric. Make sure they understand
that they must write one word, and one word only in each gap. Ask them to work in pairs to decide on the
missing word in the example.
teacher’s notes

8
• Check that they understand the answer to the example is in. Now refer them to (e). Tell students that this is
the first part of the missing text. In the same pairs, they should now decide on the correct option for
the gap.

Ask yourself (70) ……….. often you have a chance to think your decisions over in peace.
A that B how C if D when

• Discuss possible answers and check understanding of the correct word how. Elicit the underlying direct
question, How often do you have a chance...? and make sure students are clear about the wrong answers too.
How often means when, so you don’t need to put when in. If is to do with word order: Ask yourself if you often
have a chance ... would be OK. That is a false link in this case.

9
• Now refer students to (f) – the next part of the missing text. Working in the same pairs, ask them to decide
about the words in the box. Which one is the correct answer to 71? Which is the correct answer for 72?
Which ones might be possible answers for 71, and then 72? Why are the wrong answers wrong?

You’ll almost certainly find (71) ………. are precious few quiet moments in your day. That’s
(72) ………. we’ve created Business Worldwide, …

that because there so it they meaning why

• Discuss their ideas and deal with any questions and problems. The correct answer for gap 71 is there.
The word are needs its own subject, and the pronoun there fulfils this function. The word that could
be used (optionally) before the gap and after find, but it cannot be used instead of the gap word. The
word it would serve the same function as there, but we need a plural form to agree with moments. Partly
because of the phonological similarity, they are is often confused with there are, but they is not correct here
– although you can imagine a possible next sentence in the text: They are probably your favourite times.

10
• Now refer students to (g). Working in the same pairs, ask them to find one wrong word in this part of the
sentence, and, having found it, to correct it, by replacing it with the right word.
• In case they are confused by having just part of a sentence, make sure they understand that this is the
continuation of the sentence from Worldwide, above.

… leaving you time to get by with other things.

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 BULATS: Open cloze tasks
Reading and Language Knowledge
by Russell Whitehead

• Make sure they understand that by is the wrong word, and that on is correct, as part of the phrasal verb get
exams

on with. If they are very unclear about this, tell them not to worry, and say that you will deal with phrasal
verbs in another lesson (and do so).

11
• Now refer students to (h). Make the point (very clearly) that in the exam, this is how the gaps appear:
students have to think of the word to insert without choosing from options or identifying the wrong word,
etc. Explain that you have been doing these exercises to help them prepare. Working in the same pairs, ask
them to decide what word is missing in gap 74.

Sign up with us, and with one bill and one supplier for all your company’s mobile and
broadband needs, you’ll soon find yourself with even (74) ………. space to think.
teacher’s notes

• Check understanding of the correct answer more, and of the useful pattern have (even) more/less time/money/
desire, etc. to + base verb. Explain that find oneself with is a development of this pattern. You could also talk
about the version of the conditional structure that is used here: verb + modal will + base form of verb.

12
• Read through the complete text with the class.

13
• Tell the class certain kinds of words are more common than others when filling the gaps in this kind
of BULATS exam task. Refer them to (i), and ask them in the same pairs or small groups to check their
understanding of the different types of words and gaps. You could ask them to match the example words
to the categories; point out first that some words can fit more than one category, depending on the context.

14
• Check answers and discuss any points arising. More than one category is possible for some words.

~ words which link two parts of a sentence together: because, who, where, how, why
~ words which replace or represent other words: where, it, who, there, how, why
~ words which go with other words to add information about them or their function: much, very, more
~ words which can be part of phrasal verbs: on, with

Note: If you have been teaching with reference to grammatical labels, you could adapt this stage to suit
your own teaching style. You could ask students to match the list of example words to a list such as:
conjunctions
pronouns
personal pronouns
relative pronouns
phrasal verbs
prepositions
intensifiers

However, it is important to note that BULATS never tests knowledge of grammatical labels.

15
• Now tell students that they are going to try a little test-making themselves. They should work in pairs or
small groups. Distribute the sections of the Succeed in times of failure text that you have prepared so that
each pair or group is working on the same section. Each of the three sections should go to an equal number
of students.
• Tell them to read their section of the text, and discuss answers to the two questions in the Worksheet at (j).
Clarify as necessary with them that this is some kind of article from a magazine or website. The issue of
which section they have can be dealt with later. Tell the title of the whole text: Succeed in times of failure.

What kind of text is this taken from?

What will be in the rest of the text?
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 BULATS: Open cloze tasks
Reading and Language Knowledge
by Russell Whitehead

16
exams

• Now tell students, working in the same pairs/groups, to think about what they have learnt in the lesson so
far. They should apply this new knowledge to deciding which words would make good gaps in the text.
They can delete the words with a pen or correction fluid. You might like to suggest that they make three
deletions for each section. They note the words they have deleted at (k).
Note: You could also set this task up in the computer centre or use an interactive whiteboard, if you have
access to either of these, with different text sections on screen, and then students could use e.g.
Word’s cut and paste, to prepare the texts.
• Monitor, and help as requested, but avoid telling them what words to delete. However, you should
intervene if they have misunderstood and are deleting content words, such as main nouns and verbs, etc.
• Possible words that could be deleted:

Succeed in times of failure

teacher’s notes

When economic growth slows, many businesses find that their sales go down. In a recession,
a large number of businesses close down. Despite this, there are some categories of businesses
which actually do better in hard times.
For example, while shoe shops shut, shoe repairers have queues of customers who want to extend
the life of their shoes rather than waste money on new ones. As expensive restaurants become
empty, cheap ones fill up.
Of course, it all depends on how deep the recession is, and how long it lasts. The key to success
is being flexible. Try to be the shoe shop that also does repairs. Make sure that you are the high-
quality restaurant with a new cheap menu.

17
• When the pairs/groups have prepared their section, ask them to exchange sections with other pairs/
groups, and then again, so that everyone tries all three sections. Then tell them to put the sections in the
correct sequence.
• Discuss any questions they may have.
• Conclusion at this stage: emphasise that since they have been successful in making such a test task, now
they should be successful in doing such a task in the exam.

Stage 3: Consolidating learning

18
• Suggest students take further texts, such as the one you have been using in the lesson, and make up further
tasks for each other. This could be a homework task, with a text extract taken from the web.
• Encourage students to underline words that they think might be ones gapped in the exam when reading a
variety of material. They could each prepare one or two texts before a lesson and then discuss them in pairs
or groups in the next lesson.
19
• From time to time, you could create gap-fill tasks out of written assignments that you have asked the
students to do. In particular, you could create gaps where a student has written an incorrect word.
20
• Writing task/exam task: distribute Worksheet 3 (if required) and refer students to (l). Ask them to write a
short article about a topic they have considered recently in class. For example, if you have been looking at
the topic of marketing and have read a few texts related to this, ask them to write a brief article explaining
a few of the most important things to consider when marketing a product or service.
• When they have completed their article, they should create a few (say, five) gaps in it. These practice exam
tasks can then be exchanged with other students.
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 BULATS: Open cloze tasks
Reading and Language Knowledge
by Russell Whitehead

Text for copying and cutting

exams

Succeed in times of failure

When economic growth slows, many businesses find that their sales go down. In a
recession, a large number of businesses close down. Despite this, there are some
categories of businesses which actually do better in hard times.

For example, while show shops shut, shoe repairers have queues of customers who
want to extend the life of their shoes rather than waste money on new ones. As
expensive restaurants become empty, cheap ones fill up.
cut-outs

Of course, it all depends on how deep the recession is, and how long it lasts. The key
to success is being flexible. Try to be the shoe shop that also does repairs. Make sure
that you are the high-quality restaurant with a new cheap menu.

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 BULATS: Open cloze tasks
Reading and Language Knowledge
by Russell Whitehead

Worksheet 1
exams

Stage 1

(a)
Business Worldwide: connections on the move

We can give you back the time you currently spend dealing with communications invoices.
It’s what every business person needs.
>
>
>
>
Call us on 8000 44 37 43 for all the information you need.
worksheet 1

• What kind of text is this taken from?

• What will be in the rest of the text?

(b)

.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................

(c)

.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................................
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 TG or WORKSHEET
BULATS: Open cloze tasks
Title
Reading and Language Knowledge
Author
by Russell Whitehead

Worksheet 2
subject
exams worksheet

Stage 2

(d) • For questions 70 – 74, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each
space.
• Write only one word for each space on your Answer Sheet.
Example:
He is very interested (0) ............... computers.
Answer:

(e)
Ask yourself (70) ............... often you have a chance to think your decisions over in peace.

A that B how C if D when

title2

(f)
You’ll almost certainly find (71) ………. Are precious few quiet moments in your day.
That’s (72) ………. we’ve created Business Worldwide, …

that because there so it they meaning why

(g)
… leaving you time to get by with other things.

(h)
Sign up with us, and with one bill and one supplier for all your company’s mobile and broadband
needs, you’ll soon find yourself with even (74) ………. space to think.

(i) ~ words which link two parts of a sentence together

~ words which replace or represent other words
~ words which go with other words to add information about them or their function
~ words which can be part of phrasal verbs

on who much
there it because
how with where
more them
why very

(j) • What kind of text is this taken from?

• What will be in the rest of the text?

(k)
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 BULATS: Open cloze tasks
TG or WORKSHEET
Reading
Title and Language Knowledge
by Russell Whitehead
Author

Worksheet 3
exams
subject

Stage 3

(l)
worksheet
title3

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