One long text, six sentences removed, seven to choose from. The examiners are testing whether you can follow the logic between sentences — not just whether you understand the general topic.
Part 6 removes six sentences from a longer text and gives you seven to put back — one extra sentence fits nowhere. This is a test of cohesion: pronouns, linking words, and logical flow that connect one sentence to the next. Every correct sentence fits the gap on both sides, not just the general topic.
"...specialized white blood cells called B cells begin producing antibodies, proteins shaped precisely to lock onto that antigen and disable it. ___ That is why the first days of a brand-new infection often feel the worst."
Four gaps, five sentences to choose from (one is extra). Pick the sentence that fits each gap on both sides.
Every winter, doctors' offices fill up with people hoping a prescription will cure their cold in a day or two. (1) Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria, or stop them multiplying, by targeting structures like bacterial cell walls that human cells simply don't have.
(2) Because a virus has neither a cell wall to attack nor its own metabolism to disrupt, an antibiotic has nothing to act on — the drug passes through the body without touching the infection at all.
Taking antibiotics for a viral illness does not just fail to help; it can also cause real harm. (3) Doctors call this problem antibiotic resistance, and consider it one of the most serious challenges facing modern medicine.
(4) Resting, drinking fluids, and giving the illness time to run its course usually works better for a cold than a prescription ever could.
A new full-length text, official Part 6 format: 6 gaps, 7 sentences. Aim to finish before the timer runs out.
15:00The human immune system is often compared to a security force that patrols the body, looking out for anything unfamiliar. (1) When a new pathogen — a virus or bacterium the body has never encountered before — slips past the body's outer defenses, immune cells begin searching for specific markers on its surface, called antigens, that mark it as a threat.
Once an antigen is detected, specialized white blood cells called B cells begin producing antibodies, proteins shaped precisely to lock onto that antigen and disable it. (2) That is why the first days of a brand-new infection often feel the worst, before the body has built up enough of a defense to bring it under control.
What makes the immune system remarkable, though, is that it does not forget an enemy once it has defeated one. (3) The next time that same pathogen appears, these cells recognize it immediately and mount a faster, stronger response, often before symptoms have any chance to develop at all.
Vaccines work by giving the immune system this same training experience without the risk of the actual disease. (4) Either way, the immune system responds as though it were facing the real pathogen, produces antibodies, and — crucially — builds the same lasting memory cells that a genuine infection would leave behind.
This protective effect reaches beyond any one vaccinated person. (5) Newborn babies, people with weakened immune systems, and others who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons all benefit from this protection, even though they never received the vaccine themselves.
Some vaccines require more than one dose, or a booster months or years later, to keep this protection strong. (6) In other cases, such as with the seasonal flu, the virus itself changes slightly from year to year, so last year's immune memory offers only limited protection against this year's version.
Whichever the reason, the underlying idea stays the same: a vaccine does not fight a disease directly. It simply gives the immune system a low-risk rehearsal for a battle it might otherwise have to learn to win the hard way.
This is a practice estimate for one exam part only. Your official Cambridge result is calculated across the whole exam on the Cambridge English Scale.