Cambridge C2 Part 1: Collocations and Shades of Meaning

At C2, four options may share a topic and a positive or negative tone. Only one completes the writer's exact lexical move.

The later interviews ______ the historian's account: they provided additional evidence consistent with a version already partly supported by letters.

A. compelled B. corroborated C. saluted D. tolerated

The answer is B, corroborated. The colon supplies the definition, the object pattern is natural, and the account already has some support. The interviews strengthen it; they do not necessarily prove it conclusively.

That is the habit Cambridge C2 Reading and Use of English Part 1 rewards: test grammar, collocation, fixed form, and semantic precision together. Do not choose a word merely because it belongs to the subject area.

Cambridge currently describes Part 1 as one text with eight gaps. For each gap, you choose one word or phrase from four options. The official page names idioms, collocations, fixed phrases, complementation, phrasal verbs, and semantic precision as targets. The complete Reading and Use of English paper has seven parts and 53 questions in 1 hour 30 minutes. Explore more task-specific lessons in the Cambridge C1/C2 vocabulary hub or see all six exam paths in Exam English.

Six precision checks for C2 Part 1

Ostensibly: the stated appearance is not the whole story

Ostensibly means seemingly or according to the represented purpose, often while leaving open a different underlying reality:

The fund was created ostensibly to support local artists, although most grants went to national institutions.

The productive pattern is ostensibly to + verb. The word does not prove deception. It tells you that the surface explanation may not be complete.

Apparently can overlap with ostensibly, so a fair item should not make one wrong just because the other sounds preferable. Look for a grammatical or contextual defeater. If apparently would remain equally natural and preserve the meaning, the item needs redesign.

Equivocal: more than accidentally unclear

An equivocal answer or stance supports incompatible readings and avoids a firm commitment. Applied to a person's answer, it commonly suggests strategic unclearness:

Asked whether the gallery would return the object, the director gave an equivocal reply that could later be presented as either yes or no.

Ambiguous only says that wording has more than one interpretation; it does not itself assign intent. With findings or results, equivocal can also be neutral because data cannot choose to evade a question. The word does not mean false or dishonest.

Tenable: able to survive challenge

A tenable position, argument, or explanation can be maintained or justified:

Once the dated photographs emerged, the claim that the building had never been altered was no longer tenable.

Feasible asks whether an action or plan can be done. Tenable asks whether a claim, position, or arrangement can be defended. A proposal may be feasible to implement but impossible to justify, so the proposal is feasible while the argument for it is not tenable.

Compelling: strong pull, not obligation

A compelling case, argument, reason, or body of evidence exerts strong persuasive force. A compelling story holds attention. The adjective does not mean compulsory, required, or automatically true.

The archive makes a compelling case for preserving the site because it connects the building to three documented social movements.

Ask: compelling to which audience, and because of what evidence or design? That prevents compelling from becoming decorative praise.

Salient: selected from a larger set

Salient identifies the point or feature that stands out as relevant within a larger body of information:

Of the twelve proposed explanations, the most salient was the only one supported by a contemporary diary.

Relevant means connected to the matter; many details can be relevant. Salient says a detail deserves prominence in this particular analysis. It need not be urgent, critical, or obvious.

Corroborate: strengthen with additional evidence

To corroborate an account, claim, or finding is to support it with additional evidence. The verb is transitive: records corroborate an account; an account is corroborated by records.

A second set of shipping logs corroborated the witness's timeline.

Corroboration strengthens what is already partly established. It need not settle the matter conclusively. Substantiate overlaps, but it often suits supplying the factual basis for an unsupported contention. Do not force that distinction unless the evidence state is explicit.

Worked eight-gap multiple-choice cloze

This passage and every option are original practice, not Cambridge exam material. Read the complete text before answering.

Who was the exhibition really for?

A regional museum recently reinterpreted a collection acquired during the 1920s. The project was (1) ______ intended to make the objects accessible to a wider public. Internal correspondence, however, suggested that attracting a major sponsor was also an important aim.

Curators initially argued that the collector had obtained every object legally. That position appeared (2) ______ until researchers found export restrictions that had been in force at the time. Shipping records then (3) ______ one community representative's account of how two objects had left the region. They did not prove every part of her story, but they added independent support to its central timeline.

The museum's first statement on possible returns was deliberately (4) ______: one sentence implied that negotiations had begun, while another allowed the institution to deny making any commitment. A revised statement drew a (5) ______ distinction between legal ownership and ethical responsibility. That distinction became the most (6) ______ point in the public debate because it helped readers understand why possession alone did not settle the issue.

Taken together, the documents made a (7) ______ case for further investigation. The trustees therefore agreed to publish the provenance files, while stopping (8) ______ of promising that every disputed object would be returned.

1. A substantially B ostensibly C saliently D provisionally
2. A tenable B feasible C compulsory D tentative
3. A compelled B corroborated C tolerated D stipulated
4. A equitable B provisional C equivocal D compulsory
5. A heavy B sharp C compulsory D negligible
6. A salient B compulsory C feasible D tentative
7. A compelling B compelled C compulsive D compulsory
8. A brief B short C near D shy

Answer and evidence grid

Gap 5 tests the collocation draw a sharp distinction between X and Y. Gap 6 then tests semantic selection: the most salient point is the one that stands out as especially relevant in the wider debate.

A four-pass method

1. Lock the grammar

Identify the required form before debating meaning. Gap 7 needs an adjective before case. Compelled could be an adjective elsewhere, but a compelled case is not the required pattern.

2. Test the collocation or fixed phrase

Try the complete unit: corroborate an account, a tenable position, stop short of doing something. Part 1 often tests a relationship between words, not a dictionary definition in isolation.

3. Read beyond the sentence

Gap 1 becomes precise only when the next sentence reveals the additional sponsorship aim. Gap 3 is calibrated by “did not prove every part.” Evidence often arrives after the gap.

4. State why every rival loses

Do not stop at “B sounds right.” Name the failure: wrong word class, unnatural partnership, broken fixed phrase, or contradicted meaning. If a rival survives your strongest reading, the item may be genuinely ambiguous.

Common mistakes

• Treating rarity as evidence. A less familiar word is not automatically more C2.
• Calling any unclear wording equivocal without evidence of strategic noncommitment.
• Reading corroborate as “prove beyond doubt.” It adds support.
• Using compelling to mean mandatory.
• Using salient as a decorative substitute for important without identifying the larger set it stands out from.
• Choosing from the words beside the gap and ignoring the rest of the paragraph.
• Inventing a hard distinction between overlapping words such as ostensibly and apparently when the context does not supply one.

Quick precision check

Choose the only answer licensed by the stated evidence.

1. The engineering change can be implemented with existing equipment, but management cannot justify the risk. It is technically ______, although the case for it is not tenable. A feasible B equivocal C salient D ostensibly

2. The first survey suggested a decline. A separate dataset collected by another team supports that finding but does not prove its cause. The second dataset ______ the decline. A compels B corroborates C equivocates D mandates

3. The spokesperson intentionally said the policy “might remain unchanged,” knowing that listeners could interpret this as either a promise or a warning. The answer was ______. A equitable B equivocal C feasible D salient

Answers: 1 A because feasibility concerns whether the change can be done; 2 B because additional evidence supports an existing finding without proving causation; 3 B because the wording deliberately preserves incompatible readings.

Fresh practice

Write a 100–130-word multiple-choice cloze about a research institute revising a public claim. Create four gaps: one collocation, one fixed phrase, one form decision, and one shade-of-meaning decision. Supply four options for each gap. Then annotate the exact evidence that defeats all three alternatives. If two answers remain possible, revise the passage instead of declaring one “more advanced.”

To practise precise vocabulary decisions in realistic contexts, try Lyra Practice.

Sources

• C2 Proficiency exam format — Cambridge English
• Preparing for C2 Proficiency — Cambridge English
• C2 Proficiency information for candidates — Cambridge English

Related

• Cambridge C2 Vocabulary: Precision Beyond C1
• Cambridge C1 Part 1: Collocations and Shades of Meaning
• Cambridge C1 Vocabulary List: Collocations, Phrasal Verbs, and Word Families
• Cambridge C1 Key Word Transformations Vocabulary

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