Academic Vocabulary Test 1 Gapfill

This imaginary news article lets you practice a large number of words from the first half of the Academic Word List (AWL).

These words are very important for understanding college textbooks, lectures, and tests. (They are also common in professional and business conversations and articles, so they are worth learning!)

This gapfill exercise is the second part of the Academic Vocabulary Test 1. 

Students Organize a Hypothetical State

Fill in the gaps (blanks) from the list below:

access, analyzed, appropriate, concentrated, conducted, constitution, features, foundation, imaginary, journalists, maintenance, minority, monitor, philosophies, section, sectors, selected, summarized, symbol, version.


Enter your answers in the gaps. Remember to use a capital letter if the word begins a sentence.When you have entered all the answers, click on the "Check" button.


To learn how real governments work, the students in Mr. Duncan’s Civics classes at Central State High School have organized a government for the new state of East California. Mr. Duncan began by giving his students an orientation lecture on traditional of authority and the practical outcomes of those theories.

The student participants a survey of the potential citizens (other students at the school) to learn the they wanted most for their new state. They the statistics they collected and them in their first report.

Then they drafted a to provide a framework for future legislation. Each of Mr. Duncan’s classes was responsible for a different . They the students with the largest vocabularies to write the preamble (introduction) for it. That may have been a mistake.

Their initial began “Whereas the people of East California sought a revision in governance, this document will establish parameters for a stable for the creation of a fundamentally more beneficial state.” (After reading it, Mr. Duncan asked the school’s English teachers to help his students find clearer, more language for a 21st century constitution.)

Once the constitution was finished, one class coordinated economic planning. They on strategies to facilitate growth. Another factor they considered was the of balance between the public and private , ensuring that the government would not dominate the state’s economy.

Another class discussed mechanisms for public to government officials. They generated ideas for handling complaints and suggestions of ways to increase public welfare.
Two of his top students acted as investigative , raising questions to determine if the new government would function as the students intended. They asked what regulations would protect rights. How would their new government handle conflict between ethnic groups or political factions? How would they security issues?

The best artist in Mr. Duncan’s classes contributed an illustration of a condor flying overhead as a of their new state.

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