KEY for Schools Reading and Writing Assessment Part Four

Multiple-choice gap fill

Read a text and 

choose missing words (A, B, C) 

to fill in the gaps. 

Same as old Part 5 but shorter.

Part 4 

Questions 19 – 24 

For each question, choose the correct answer. 

William Perkin 

 William Perkin was born in London in 1838. As a child he had many 

hobbies, including model making and photography. But it was the

 (19) ………… of chemistry that really interested him. At the age 

of 15, he went to college to study it.  

While he was there, he was (20) ………… to make a medicine

 from coal. This didn’t go well, but when he was working on the 

problem, he found a cheap (21) ………… to make the colour purple.

 At that (22) ………… it was very expensive to make clothes in 

different colours. William knew he could make a business out of his 

new colour. Helped by his father and brother, William (23) ………… 

his own factory to make the colour. It sold well, and soon purple 

clothes (24) ………… very popular in England and the rest of the world. 

19  A class                   B subject                     C course        

20  A thinking           B trying                        C deciding        

21  A way                    B path                          C plan         

22  A day                    B time                          C hour         

23  A brought            B turned                      C opened         

24  A began               B arrived                     C became 

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE. PRACTICE ONLINE.