WHAT IS THE SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION EXERCISE?
Part 4: transformations (rephrasing) in PDF B2 USE OF ENGLISH PART 4
In this part of the exam you have six sentences to complete. You need to read the first sentence in each question. From this you need to look at the second sentence and think about what information is missing. You must then complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning as the first with 2-5 words (NO MORE). Another thing to understand is that you are provided with a word that you must use in exactly the same form (if it is TOLD, you cannot use tell, telling or any variation of the word. ONLY TOLD). Each of the questions is worth 2 points and the points are based on lexical (vocabulary) or structural (grammatical) points. What they assess in this part of the exam are as follows:
Rephrasing examples with reported speech:
Fill in the gaps with 2-5 words, including the word GIVEN:
- ¨Would you be able to wait just a moment?”, she asked. MIND
She asked ____________________ waiting a brief moment.
2. My cousin says he earns about half the salary I earn. TOLD
My cousin ___________________ earned about 50% of my salary.
3. We are supposed to finish the assignment before the end of the week, according to the teacher. NEEDED
The teacher said that the assignment ____________________ before the end of the week.
4. My best friend said that she didn’t know how to fix the laptop. IDEA
My best friend told _____________________ how to fix the laptop.
5. ¨What are you going to do this weekend?” asked James. UP
James asked what I ____________________ this weekend.
6. ¨Will you give me a hand moving house next week?” She asked. TO
She asked ____________________ her a hand moving house the following week.
7. I told him that I didn’t have time to do the shopping. NOT
“I ________________ go to the supermarket”, I told him.
8. “I am a big fan of cooking international cuisine”. FOND
I told my new flatmate that ________________________ of cooking international cuisine.
DOWNLOAD THIS WORKSHEET IN PDF HERE
HOW DO YOU DO IT EFFECTIVELY?
Try the Deleting Technique. You take the sentence transformation, for example:
You’ll have a great time no matter where you go
REGARDLESS You’ll have a great time ________ where you go
YOU MUST CONSIDER WHAT IS THE SAME IN BOTH SENTENCES AND THEN DELETE WHAT IS THE SAME IN THE FIRST SENTENCE
You’ll have a great time no matter where you go
REGARDLESS You’ll have a great time ________ where you go
YOU ARE LEFT WITH NO MATTER AND ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS THINK OF THE SYNONYM FOR IT.
Answer: regardless of
Follow up activity 110 EXPRESSIONS FOR KEY WORD TRANSFORMATIONS FOR THE FCE (B2) AND CAE (C1): You should write down the answers and the common vocabulary. These are almost always synonyms. Write them in a list like…
put up with = tolerate
so that = in order
as long as = provided that
FIND OUT HOW TO DO THIS EXERCISES SUCCESSFULLY HERE
WHAT DO I NEED TO STUDY?
The best way to improve this part of the exam is to do examples of exams and to learn from your mistakes, but you might like to look at.
Lexical: phrasal verbs, word patterns, fixed expressions, contextual vocabulary etc. TO IMPROVE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF PREPOSITIONS: HERE
Structural: passives, relative clauses, reported speech, quantifiers, connectors, tense changes, gerund versus infinitive, modal verbs, inversions (rarely), conditionals etc.
