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

Democratic government

16 students marked "I sat this"Added 22 Sep 2020Question #120286

Choose the word for each blank.

The essential problem, as Rosenfeld sees it, is that democratic government is predicated on an aspiration to collective truth. 1 older systems of aristocratic and monarchical rule, which excluded the people from power and stressed the need for administrative secrecy, the new republics of the late 18th century, and the more egalitarian mass democracies that 2 them, depended on openness and trust between citizens and rulers. Through the free discussion and united wisdom of the educated and the masses, errors would be dispelled, “public knowledge” established and societies advanced. And yet, she points out, the reality has never 3 to this powerful idea. From the outset , 4 societies contained vast inequalities of power and education, and their media have always been driven by commercial and partisan imperatives. In 5 , instead of a free civil marketplace of ideas, politics has always been a vicious fight over the truth and the power of determining it.

Options for each gap (alphabetical)

  • 1 that · those · unlike · which
  • 2 succeeded · succeeding · success · successful
  • 3 come up · dreamed of · lived up · living in
  • 4 democratic · romantic · static · statistic
  • 5 experience · practical · practice · practices
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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.