Writing style
Choose the word for each blank.
Learning to write well in college means learning (or re-learning) how to write clearly and plainly. Now that doesn’t mean that plainness is the only good style, or that you should become a 1 to spare, unadorned writing. Formality and ornateness have their place, and in 2 hands complexity can take us on a dizzying, breathtaking journey. But most students, most of the time should 3 to be sensibly simple to develop a baseline style of short words, active verbs and relatively simple sentence 4 clear actions or identities. It's faster, it makes arguments easier to follow, it increases the chances a busy reader will bother to pay attention, and it lets you 5 more attention on your moments of rhetorical flourish which I do not advise abandoning altogether.
Options for each gap (alphabetical)
- 1 person · slave · soldier · staff
- 2 competent · empty · full · half
- 3 rinse · rotate · strive · struggle
- 4 conveying · demonstrating · loading · making
- 5 converge · focus · notice · pay
Opens question #120235 in the RealPTE practice screen.
More Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks questions
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks format (Pearson)
Pearson's name: Fill in the Blanks (Dropdown)
| Prompt | Text up to 200 words |
|---|---|
| Time to answer | Not set per question (Part 2 lasts 23–30 minutes) |
| Skills assessed | Reading, 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.