Four words, one meaning

When the four options under a gap share one dictionary meaning, a bilingual dictionary hands you the same gloss for all four, so translating them settles nothing. What decides then is the words around the gap. The same choice turns up in the multiple-choice cloze, in the word bank and in the open gap-fill.

When meaning does not decide

Four options, and each of them could be translated as strong or large.

Meaning decided nothing here: in translation any of the four would do. The word was picked by the noun rain to the right of the gap, and of these four it goes only with heavy.

Three questions and a table

When four options share a meaning, put three questions to the gap, in this order. The first is the quickest to check, since one glance at the neighbouring word is enough. The third makes you read the whole sentence.

Question one: does the neighbour have a fixed partner? Part of the English vocabulary travels in pairs, and the pair is fixed by habit rather than chosen by sense: heavy rain but strong coffee, although German and Russian use one adjective for both. If the noun next to the gap has a partner like that, the choice is over before meaning gets a turn.

Question two: what is printed immediately after the gap? English verbs differ in what they take after them: to with an infinitive, an -ing form, a clause with that, a direct object with no preposition, or an object introduced by a preposition. Four verbs with one translation almost never take the same thing, and whatever stands to the right of the gap crosses out three of them without saying a word.

Question three: which detail does the sentence name? If there is no fixed pair and nothing on the right decides, look in the sentence for the detail that only one of the four words covers: a place, a time, a quantity, a specific object rather than a general one.

Question one can be tested straight away, on nouns that the table above does not carry.

A partner next to the gap settles it in one move, but not every word has one. Next comes the same choice in tasks where no four options are printed under the gap.

The same choice in two other tasks

Word bank. The bank holds more words than there are gaps. Here it holds six verbs of speaking, nearly every one of them fits the sense of the gaps, and three are needed.

The three verbs came apart on a single feature: what each of them takes to its right. In the next task there are no options at all, and only the words around the gap help.

Open gap-fill. No options at all: one word goes in, and there are no prompts of any kind.

Fixed pairs and what a word takes after it are now covered. What remains are the gaps where neither applies.

When there is no fixed partner

Some gaps are decided neither by a pair nor by what follows: all four options fit the sentence grammatically, and all four fit its general sense.

The deciding detail sat at the end of the sentence, past a comma. Before it, date, appointment and deadline fitted “missed my ___ at nine” equally well.

Two gaps, no hint

Here the questions are not sorted into sections, and working out which of the three decides a gap is up to you.

What decided this one stands straight to the right: me to leave, a person followed by to with an infinitive. The last gap is decided somewhere else.

Checking a gap, in order

The tasks differ in how many answers get through. The open gap-fill often accepts a synonym: the key lists more than one accepted word for many of its gaps. Where four options are printed under the gap, exactly one gets through, and the three questions above are what finds it.

Multiple-choice cloze: four options under every gap Word bank: more words than gaps Collocations: partner lists for question one Phrasal verbs: there the particle changes the meaning of the verb instead of choosing among four