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How can dinosaurs help you pass your Cambridge exam?

Updated: Jan 15, 2023

The best-kept secret of Cambridge exams


Dinosaurs were huge giant beasts having got extinct millions of years ago, but they still have an effect on your future? How come??


Let me tell you the best-kept secret of all Cambridge Papers: dinosaurs are still a thing!


Simply because the Cambridge exam writers love the topic of archaeology, palaeontology and prehistoric times. Probably that is the primary reason why candidates often run into reading or listening activities about dinosaurs, Neanderthals or any other extinct beings while sitting for their Cambridge papers.


There are plenty of common topics you can expect in preparation for the exam, such as travelling, environmental issues, studying or work, but there are some unique ones which can come out of the blue for the unsuspecting student expecting the general exam questions.


But what are the general exam topics for Cambridge C1 or C2 exams?


Actually, there are no fixed set of exam topics for Cambridge exams; however, there are some topics which are likely to come up in the exam. As for the C1 and C2 exams - apart from general topics - the topics of both the reading and listening papers tend to be more specific and academic in nature. This implies that you have to enhance your vocabulary on a wide range of topics from scientific and technological issues to business and economics. Boosting your vocabulary on these areas can only be successful if you keep up with the latest news, contemporary trends and you read widely on a daily basis.


Apart from both broadening your knowledge and vocabulary related to a variety of different topics for the exam, you should also improve specific types of vocabulary as well, which is not restricted to one particular set of topic but can be employed in almost all of them. (For example feelings, opining, arguments, likelihood etc.)


And of course, in addition to all of these, there are those cheesy ones! Those specific topics which have no logical basis to show up in the exam - at least not as often as they do. But they do. Do not look for explanations. There aren’t any. I mean, apart from the personal preferences of the exam writers. Yes, one of those is archaeology.


And there are some more! If you want to learn about the rest, join my next C1 or C2 course online and dive deep into the nitty-gritty of Cambridge exams!


So I have put together a vocab list for the most common archaeology-related words below, which you might want to be familiar with before sitting for the Cambridge exam. Just in case. :-)

What is more, I have also created a reading activity for the exam about the latest findings of the newly revealed 113-million-year-old dinosaur tracks in Texas!

Completing the gapped text is tricky, it requires special reading techniques.

(We learn all of those during our C1 online course.)


Cambridge C1 - Gapped Text – Reading and Use of English Paper - Task 7.

Click HERE to download the free task.

After finishing the task, please tell me how difficult it was!

How many mistakes did you have?

  • None! :-)

  • 1

  • 2

  • More



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