Cambridge TKT: Teaching Knowledge Test, Modules 1–3
Describing language and language skills: practice questions
Our TKT Modules 1–3 bank has 66 questions on this topic. Here are 5 of them with answers; the full mock exam draws from every topic, like the real one.
Question 1
What is the schwa?
- The weak, unstressed vowel sound /ə/
- The long vowel sound /iː/, as in 'sea'
- A short pause between two stressed words
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A. The weak, unstressed vowel sound /ə/ — The schwa /ə/ is the most common vowel sound in English and occurs only in unstressed syllables, e.g. the first syllable of 'about'.
Question 2
'Happy, happiness, happily, unhappy' form...
- a lexical set
- a word family
- a set of compounds
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B. a word family — A word family is a group of words built from the same base word with different affixes.
Question 3
In 'stop playing', the first /p/ is often not pronounced separately: /stɒpleɪɪŋ/. What is this called?
- Assimilation
- Elision
- Intonation
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B. Elision — Elision is when a sound is left out in connected speech because it is followed by a similar sound.
Question 4
'Apple, banana, orange, pear' is an example of...
- a collocation
- a lexical set
- a word family
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B. a lexical set — A lexical set is a group of words on the same topic or in the same category, such as fruit.
Question 5
'If it rains, we'll stay at home.' Which type of conditional is this?
- Zero conditional
- First conditional
- Second conditional
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B. First conditional — If + present simple, will + infinitive is the first conditional, for a real or likely future situation.