Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks · Part 2: Reading

The Origin of Species

190 students marked "I sat this"Added 9 May 2020Question #120126

Choose the word for each blank.

In The Origin of Species, Darwin provided abundant evidence that life on Earth has evolved over time, and he proposed natural selection as the primary mechanism for that change. He observed that individuals 1 in their inherited traits and that selection acts on such differences, leading to 2 change. Although Darwin realized that variation in heritable traits is a prerequisite for 3, he did not know precisely how organisms pass heritable traits to their offspring. Just a few years after Darwin published The Origin of Species, Gregory Mendel wrote a ground breaking paper on inheritance in pea plants 4 that paper, Mendel proposed a model of inheritance in which organisms transmit discrete heritable units (now called genes) to their offspring. Although Darwin did not know about genes, Mendel’s paper set the stage 5 understanding the genetic differences on which evolution is based.

Options for each gap (alphabetical)

  • 1 differ · difference · different · same
  • 2 enormous · evolutionary · tremendous · unrivalled
  • 3 development · evolution · growth · maturity
  • 4 for · in · on · with
  • 5 as · at · for · in
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Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks format (Pearson)

Pearson's name: Fill in the Blanks (Dropdown)

PromptText up to 200 words
Time to answerNot set per question (Part 2 lasts 23–30 minutes)
Skills assessedReading, Writing

How it is scored

  • Partial credit applies: a partly correct response still scores.

Source: Pearson, PTE Academic & UKVI test format, Part 2: Reading, checked 9 October 2026.