PTE Academic · Reading
PTE Reading Fill in the Blanks (drag and drop)
Read a short text with gaps and drag a word from a shared bank into each one. The bank has more words than gaps.
A text of up to 80 words appears on screen with several words missing, and below it sits a bank of words. You move a word into each gap so the text reads correctly. The bank holds more words than there are gaps, so some words are never needed. Every gap you fill correctly earns a point. The task counts towards your Reading score only.
How the task works
Read the text, then match each gap to the one word that fits
Pearson gives no separate time for each question. The whole Reading section runs for roughly 23 to 30 minutes, so a short text is no reason to linger. This is a different task from the drop-down Fill in the Blanks: there every gap has its own list of options, while here all the gaps share one bank of words and some of them are extras.
Read the whole passage first
The text is short, so read it through once, gaps and all. Knowing what it is about tells you which words in the bank could belong at all.
Work out what kind of word each gap needs
Look at the words either side of a gap and decide whether it needs a noun, a verb, an adjective or a linking word, before you look at the bank.
Place a word, and move it if a later gap disagrees
Take the word that fits best and put it in the gap. Here you can drag it, or select it and then select the gap, and you can take a word back out again. If a word suits two gaps, decide which one it suits better.
How Pearson scores it
A point for every gap you fill correctly
Each gap is a point of its own, so one wrong word does not spoil the rest of the text.
Correctly completed blanks
Each correctly completed blank earns a point. If all of them are right you receive the maximum score for the question. If one or more are wrong, partial credit applies, and the lowest score on the question is zero.
Fill in the Blanks (drag and drop) counts towards your Reading score only. Four or five of these appear in a test. Because the word bank holds more words than there are gaps, a word that looks like it belongs somewhere may be an extra.
What usually goes wrong
Where students lose points
Filling the gaps in order and running out of words
Taking the first plausible word for gap one can leave a later gap with nothing that fits. Start with the gaps that only one word could fill, and let the harder ones be settled by what remains.
Trying to use every word in the bank
There are more words than gaps, so some are extras on purpose. If a word does not fit any gap in both meaning and grammar, leave it in the bank.
Choosing on meaning alone
Two words can both make sense in a sentence while only one has the right form. Check whether the gap needs a noun, a verb or a modifier before you settle on a word.
Leaving a gap empty
An empty gap cannot earn its point. Pearson's Score Guide gives a point for each correctly completed blank and lists no deduction for the others, so make your best attempt at every gap. Here, as in the exam, you can check with gaps still empty, and each empty gap scores 0.
Worked example
One short text, three gaps, four words in the bank
Here is a short text of the kind you meet in this task: “Many towns are turning old railway lines into (1) paths. Walkers and cyclists now (2) the routes that trains once used. The (3) is popular because it needs little new building.” The word bank holds: shared, follow, scheme, quickly. One of these four is an extra. Below is how each gap is settled.
The three gaps and the word that belongs in each
- Gap 1 shared The gap sits between “into” and “paths”, so it needs a word that describes the paths. “Shared” does that, and it also makes sense: walkers and cyclists use the same route.
- Gap 2 follow The subject is “Walkers and cyclists”, and “now” points to the present, so the gap needs a plural present-tense verb. “Follow” fits the grammar and the meaning.
- Gap 3 scheme The gap follows “The” and comes before “is popular”, so it needs a noun for the whole idea. “Scheme” is the only noun in the bank.
- The extra word quickly “Quickly” is an adverb. Not one of the gaps needs an adverb, so it belongs to none of them. Seeing that a word does not fit is part of the task.
The text with every gap filled
Many towns are turning old railway lines into shared paths. Walkers and cyclists now follow the routes that trains once used. The scheme is popular because it needs little new building.
Strategy tip: Fill the gaps you are surest of first. Each word you place takes one option away from the harder gaps, and what is left over is often the extra.
Each gap was settled by the kind of word it needed, and the leftover word was the one that fitted nowhere. Working that way beats going through the gaps from top to bottom.
Practising here
See which words landed in the right gaps
You practise on real-style texts with a word bank, and see every gap marked after you check.
Drag or select, then check
Drag a word from the bank into a gap, or select the word and then the gap. A word can sit in one gap at a time, and you can remove it again with the small cross. You can check as soon as one gap has a word, and any gap left empty scores 0.
Every gap marked in the text
After you check, each gap shows whether your word was right. Where it was not, you see the word that belonged there, so you can compare it with your choice.
A tip and your earlier attempts
Questions can come with a strategy tip and an explanation, and your earlier attempts on the same text are listed, so you can see whether the same kind of gap still trips you up.
Practise the way that suits you
Work through all questions, go back to Mistakes only, or keep a set of Bookmarked only questions to revisit.
Common questions
Fill in the Blanks (drag and drop), answered
How long is the text?
Up to 80 words.
How is this different from the drop-down Fill in the Blanks?
In the drop-down task each gap has its own list of options and the text can be longer. In this one you drag words from a single bank into the gaps, and the bank holds more words than there are gaps.
Will I use every word in the bank?
No. The bank contains more words than gaps, so some words are extras.
Is a wrong word penalised?
Pearson's Score Guide gives a point for each correctly completed blank and lists no deduction for the others. The lowest score on the question is zero.
What if I get only some gaps right?
Partial credit applies. Each gap you filled correctly earns its point, and only if all are right do you receive the maximum.
How much time do I get for each question?
Pearson gives no time for each question. The whole Reading section takes roughly 23 to 30 minutes.
Which score does this task count towards?
Reading only.
How many of these are in the test?
Four or five, depending on the test you get.
Try it with one text
Read the text, place a word in every gap, and see which ones landed right and which word was the extra.