Free PTE Core Reading Fill in the Blanks Practice

Reading: Fill in the Blanks is the drag-and-drop task in Part 2. You get a text of up to 80 words with several gaps and a shared pool of words below it. The pool holds more words than gaps, so some are distractors, and it scores Reading only.

The mechanic matters: because all gaps draw on one pool, a wrong choice in gap 1 removes the right word from gap 3. Fill the gaps you are certain about first.

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Key Takeaways

• Text up to 80 words with a shared word pool; scores Reading only.
• The pool contains more words than gaps — expect leftovers.
• Partial credit per blank, so fill every gap even by elimination.
• Because the pool is shared, work in order of certainty, not in order of gap number.
• Most gaps are decided by collocation or part of speech, not by the meaning of the passage as a whole.

How the task works

Element	Detail
Text length	Up to 80 words
Gaps	Several, filled by dragging from a pool
Pool	More words than gaps
Skill scored	Reading only
Scoring	Partial credit — one mark per correct gap
Part	Part 2, Reading

Why the order you work in matters

Approach	Result
Gap 1, then 2, then 3, in order	An uncertain choice in gap 1 can take the correct word for gap 3, losing two marks from one error
Certain gaps first, then eliminate	Each confident placement shrinks the pool and makes the uncertain gaps easier

Scan all the gaps before placing anything. There is usually at least one gap where only a single pool word is even the right part of speech.

Practice text 1

Beavers were hunted to extinction in Britain by the sixteenth century. Their (1) ___ four hundred years later has been welcomed by flood managers, because a cascade of beaver dams (2) ___ water during a storm and releases it slowly. Not all landowners agree. Where farmland lies at the same level as a dammed stream, the raised water table can (3) ___ fields, and the costs fall on the landowner while the benefits (4) ___ to communities downstream. Word pool: accrue · return · stores · waterlog · departure · consumes · drain · attribute

Gap	Answer	Reasoning	Distractor
1	return	Noun after “Their”; the sentence describes coming back, not leaving	departure — right part of speech, opposite meaning
2	stores	Third person singular verb; “stores water during a storm and releases it”	consumes — grammatical but contradicts “releases it”
3	waterlog	Bare infinitive after “can”	drain — the opposite effect
4	accrue	“benefits accrue to” is the collocation	attribute — needs “be attributed to”

Four pool words are unused. Gap 4 is the one to place first: only one pool word collocates with “benefits” and “to”.

Practice text 2

Cities measure tree canopy from above, which means a street of mature planes can (1) ___ higher cover than a park planted with young trees. Most authorities use aerial imagery, which is cheap and repeatable but systematically (2) ___ narrow street trees whose crowns are hidden by buildings. A few use lidar, which captures height and therefore volume, at roughly ten times the (3) ___. The choice matters, because targets are set against whatever the baseline method (4) ___. Word pool: register · reported · undercounts · cost · overstates · expense · recorder · registration

Gap	Answer	Reasoning	Distractor
1	register	Bare infinitive after “can”; register = record a value	registration, recorder — wrong part of speech
2	undercounts	Crowns hidden by buildings means fewer are seen, not more	overstates — grammatical, wrong direction
3	cost	“ten times the cost” is the fixed phrase	expense — correct meaning, wrong collocation with “ten times the”
4	reported	Past tense verb after “the baseline method”	—

Gap 3 is the useful lesson. “Expense” means the same thing and is the wrong answer, because “ten times the cost” is a set phrase and “ten times the expense” is not. Collocation, not meaning.

Practice text 3

Contingent valuation asks people what they would pay for a park. Economists have documented systematic (1) ___ in the answers: respondents give higher figures for a described gain than they will (2) ___ for an identical loss, and their stated amounts are influenced by whatever number the survey mentions first. Practitioners (3) ___ the method on the grounds that it captures values no market records, which is true, and that the distortions can be corrected, which is (4) ___. Word pool: contested · distortions · defend · accept · corrections · confirmed · reject · refuse

Gap	Answer	Reasoning	Distractor
1	distortions	Plural noun after an adjective; picked up later by “the distortions”	corrections — plural noun, wrong meaning
2	accept	Bare infinitive after “will”; willingness to accept versus to pay	refuse — grammatical, reverses the sense
3	defend	Practitioners are on the method’s side, as “on the grounds that” shows	reject — contradicted by the rest of the sentence
4	contested	Parallel with “which is true”; the contrast requires disagreement	confirmed — destroys the contrast

Gap 1 is answerable from a later sentence: the text says “the distortions can be corrected”, which names the word the earlier gap needs. Read the whole text before placing anything.

Signals that decide a gap

Signal	Gap needs
can / will / must / should before it	Bare infinitive
Article or possessive before it	Noun, or an adjective if a noun follows
Preposition before it	Noun or gerund
have / has / had before it	Past participle
Singular subject, no other verb	Verb with -s
“and” joining it to a known verb	Same form as that verb
The word appears again later in the text	That later mention names the answer
“which is true, and… which is ___”	A parallel structure — the second must contrast or match

Distractor types in the pool

Type	Example from above	How to reject it
Right form, opposite meaning	departure for return; overstates for undercounts	Check the direction the sentence requires
Right meaning, wrong collocation	expense for cost	Say the phrase in your head; set phrases sound wrong when broken
Same root, wrong part of speech	registration, recorder for register	Identify the part of speech before touching the pool
Plausible in isolation, contradicts a later sentence	confirmed for contested	Read the whole text first
Needs a different preposition	attribute for accrue	Check the preposition already printed in the text

Method

1. Read the whole text once without touching the pool. Gaps are often resolved by a later sentence.
2. Mark the part of speech each gap needs directly on the screen text in your head: noun, verb, adjective, participle.
3. Sort the pool by part of speech. Some gaps will have only one candidate.
4. Place the certain gaps first, whatever their order in the text.
5. Use elimination for the rest. The pool shrinks with every confident placement.
6. Fill every gap. Partial credit means a guess costs nothing and a blank costs a mark.
7. Read the completed text back once. A wrong placement usually sounds wrong in the sentence.

What loses marks

Error	Consequence	Fix
Filling gaps in order	One uncertain choice takes the word a later gap needs	Work in order of certainty
Leaving a gap empty	A guaranteed lost mark under partial credit	Always place something
Choosing by meaning alone	Misses collocation traps such as “ten times the expense”	Say the phrase, not just the word
Not reading to the end of the text	Misses gaps that a later sentence answers	Read once through first
Assuming every pool word is used	Forces wrong placements	The pool always has extras
Not reading the completed text back	Leaves errors that would be obvious	Twenty seconds at the end

FAQ

How many words are in the PTE Core Reading Fill in the Blanks text?

Up to 80. It is the shortest of the Reading texts, and the gaps are filled by dragging words from a shared pool rather than choosing from per-gap dropdowns.

Does the word pool contain extra words?

Yes, always more words than gaps. Assuming every word must be used forces you into wrong placements, so expect leftovers and treat unused words as normal.

How is this task scored?

Partial credit, one mark per correct gap, contributing to your Reading score only. Because there is no deduction for a wrong placement, every gap should be filled even if only by elimination.

Why should I not fill the gaps in order?

Because the pool is shared. If you place a word you are unsure about in the first gap and it actually belongs in the third, you lose both marks from a single error. Placing the certain gaps first shrinks the pool and protects you from that.

What is the difference between this and Reading and Writing Fill in the Blanks?

This task has a shorter text of up to 80 words, a shared drag-and-drop pool, and scores Reading only. The other has a text of up to 200 words, a separate dropdown of four options per gap, and scores both Reading and Writing.

How do I spot the distractors?

Most fall into five groups: the right form with the opposite meaning, the right meaning with the wrong collocation, the same root in the wrong part of speech, a word that contradicts a later sentence, and a word needing a different preposition from the one printed in the text.

Related practice resources

• PTE Core Reading and Writing Fill in the Blanks
• PTE Core collocation list
• PTE Core Reorder Paragraphs practice

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