Select Missing Word: predicting how the recording ends

The recording stops in the middle of a sentence, a beep covers the last word or group of words, and you have a short time to choose. The common mistake is to remember the topic and forget the sentence, so every option looks equally likely. Prediction fixes this, because you decide what should come next before you see what is offered.

Listen to the last sentence as a sentence

The topic tells you the field: travel, say, or exam stress. The grammar of the last few words tells you the slot, and the slot rules out more options than you might expect. Keep these in mind:

• after "to", expect a verb in its base form
• after "a very useful" or "the main", expect a noun
• after "very", "quite" or "so", expect an adjective or an adverb
• after "has" or "have" as a helping verb, expect a past participle
• after "of", "for" or "by", expect a noun or an -ing form

When the beep comes, you should be able to say what kind of word is missing before you read a single option.

Predict the collocation before you look

Words come in partnerships. You make a decision, take a risk, do research and pay attention; rain is heavy, tea is strong and a mistake is serious. Before you look at the options, think of the one or two words that most naturally finish the phrase. The beep may also cover a short phrase, such as "in the long run", so predict the shape of the ending and not only a single word.

Direction matters as much as grammar. Words such as but, although and however turn a sentence round, while so and therefore carry it on. Ask yourself whether the speaker is agreeing or contrasting at this point. The missing words must point the same way.

Two worked examples

Both transcripts are made up for illustration.

Example 1

Options: air, fruit, paint, bread.

All four can follow "fresh", so collocation alone does not settle it. Fruit and bread are tempting because "lunch" came up earlier, which is what happens when you follow the topic instead of the sentence. This sentence is about stepping away from a desk, and "take in some fresh air" is the only one of the four that belongs on a walk. The answer is air.

Example 2

Options: closed, open, empty, quiet.

Grammar is no help here, because any of the four can follow "will now stay". Direction is. The cinema "looked certain to close", and the word "now" signals a turn. The answer is open. The option closed is the trap: it echoes "close" from the recording and is grammatically fine, but it points the wrong way.

Eliminate in this order

1. Grammar: does the option fit the slot you heard?
2. Direction: does it carry on the speaker's point or work against it?
3. Echo: an option that repeats a word from the recording is not safer, and is often bait.
4. Naturalness: if two options remain, choose the more natural phrase, the one you could imagine hearing on the radio.

A ten-minute drill

You do not need test material for this. Any speech will do.

1. Play a news clip or a podcast and pause it at a random point in the middle of a sentence.
2. Say aloud the next word or two that you expect. If you cannot guess the word, say what kind of word it must be.
3. Press play and compare. Note the times you were right about the type of word but wrong about the word itself. The options in a real question are often that close.
4. Repeat twenty times.

For more partnerships to learn, see Reading Fill in the Blanks: collocations and word forms. The habit of listening for the speaker's direction also helps in Highlight Correct Summary. Then try the Select Missing Word questions in the practice tests on this site, and when you miss one, write down the two words before the beep and the word that should have followed them.