FCE Reading and Use of English Test 4: water refill points, community radio and paper maps
FCE Reading and Use of English Test 4 is a free B2 First practice paper: 52 questions in seven parts, timed at 75 minutes, with 2,181 words of text. You read about refill points, useful pauses, a reading room, a first radio programme, paper maps and unexpected benefits of classes.
- Free, no sign-up to start
- Layout modelled on the computer-based exam
- Estimated Cambridge English Scale score
What is in FCE Reading and Use of English Test 4
| Part | Task | Questions | What you read | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multiple-choice cloze | 1–8 | “Water along the way” | 159 |
| 2 | Open cloze | 9–16 | “A useful pause” | 159 |
| 3 | Word formation | 17–24 | “A room at the old station” | 154 |
| 4 | Key word transformations | 25–30 | Six sentences to rewrite, 2–5 words each | — |
| 5 | Multiple choice | 31–36 | “The space between songs”: an extract from a novel about a woman presenting a radio programme for the first time. | 627 |
| 6 | Gapped text | 37–42 | “Finding the route on paper”: an article about learning to use paper maps. | 532 |
| 7 | Multiple matching | 43–52 | “An unexpected lesson”: an article in which four people describe a useful skill gained through an unusual class. Hugo (improvisation), Priya (stop-motion animation), Felix (paper structures), Salma (reading building plans). | 550 |
| Total | Just below Cambridge’s 2,200–2,500 words (questions not counted) | 2,181 | ||
How the long texts begin
- Part 5: Anika laid five pages of notes beside the microphone and lined up their corners. The studio smelled of warm equipment and somebody’s coffee.
- Part 6: Outdoor tutor Nell asked her group to leave their phones in their bags for the first part of a countryside walk. They would use a paper map, not because electronic maps were forbidden, but because she wanted them to notice how a route was represented.
Examples (0), shown answered in the test
Part 1
People walking around the town will soon have easier (0) to drinking water.
- reach
- access
- entry
- admission
Answer: B, access
Part 2
People (0) spend hours on one task often notice that their attention begins to wander.
Answer: who
Part 3
An (0) railway building has become a public reading room. USE
Answer: unused
Part 4
The tickets cost more than I expected. EXPENSIVE
The tickets were (0) I expected.
Answer: more expensive than (3 words)
How it is marked
FCE Reading and Use of English marking
Reading (Parts 1, 5–7) is out of 42 and Use of English (Parts 2–4) out of 28; Part 4 gives up to 2 marks per question and spelling must be correct. 24/42 Reading is about 160. Scores are estimates.
More FCE Reading and Use of English tests
FCE Reading and Use of English practice tests · FCE Mock Test 4 · Updated 15 November 2026
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