CAE Reading and Use of English Test 5: handmade objects, seed collections and a reopened railway
CAE Reading and Use of English Test 5 is a free C1 Advanced practice paper: 56 questions in eight parts, timed at 90 minutes, with 3,281 words of text. You read about handmade objects, returning to an activity, seed collections, a runner’s plans, generalists, a reopened railway and city exploration.
- Free, no sign-up to start
- Layout modelled on the computer-based exam
- Estimated Cambridge English Scale score
What is in CAE Reading and Use of English Test 5
| Part | Task | Questions | What you read | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multiple-choice cloze | 1–8 | “The mark of a hand” | 157 |
| 2 | Open cloze | 9–16 | “Progress on returning” | 178 |
| 3 | Word formation | 17–24 | “Seeds with a local history” | 152 |
| 4 | Key word transformations | 25–30 | Six sentences to rewrite, 3–6 words each | — |
| 5 | Multiple choice | 31–36 | “A plan with room to move”: an article about a distance runner. A runner learns to organise ambition around an unpredictable working week. | 709 |
| 6 | Cross-text multiple matching | 37–40 | “What does breadth contribute?”: four views on generalists in collaborative work. By Elena Voss, Jonah Price, Priya Sen and Marcus Bell. | 558 |
| 7 | Gapped text | 41–46 | “A familiar journey, newly made”: an article about a journey on a reopened railway. A family photograph takes a traveller onto a reopened passenger railway. | 886 |
| 8 | Multiple matching | 47–56 | “Finding a way into a city”: about four ways of exploring unfamiliar cities. Nico (following a single street), Hana (taking an ordinary bus), Marta (walking with a novel), Owen (joining an early food delivery). | 641 |
| Total | Within Cambridge’s 3,000–3,500 words (questions not counted) | 3,281 | ||
How the long texts begin
- Part 5: At six on a wet Tuesday morning, distance runner Leila Ansari looks at the training schedule stuck to her kitchen cupboard and crosses out the session marked in blue. The deletion would once have irritated her all day.
- Part 7: The photograph showed my grandfather leaning from a carriage window at a station I had never visited. For years the line through that valley had carried no passengers.
Examples (0), shown answered in the test
Part 1
A (0) of handmade bowls may contain small differences which a factory would normally try to eliminate.
- line
- row
- range
- rank
Answer: C, range
Part 2
Returning (0) an activity after a long break can be disconcerting.
Answer: to
Part 3
Small seed (0) can preserve plants associated with a particular area, but setting up a network requires more than finding spare shelves. COLLECT
Answer: collections
Part 4
Please tell me when you arrive. LET
Please (0) when you arrive.
Answer: let me know (3 words)
Marking and review notes
CAE Reading and Use of English marking
Reading (Parts 1, 5–8) is out of 50 and Use of English (Parts 2–4) out of 28; Part 4 gives up to 2 marks per question and spelling must be correct. 32/50 Reading is about 180. Scores are estimates.
From our review
Our reviewer found that several Part 1 wrong options are ruled out by the preposition that follows the gap rather than by meaning.
More CAE Reading and Use of English tests
CAE Reading and Use of English practice tests · CAE Mock Test 5 · Updated 15 November 2026
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