CPE sentence completion

[CarloSsS]

I just did a CPE sentence completion test, and there was this sentence in it:

The offer of a job will only be confirmed following a successful medical examination.

My task was to complete the following structure with 3 to 8 words while retaining the meaning of the original sentence. The given word was completed. And the structure to complete was:

Once (fill in 3 to 8 words), the offer of a job will be confirmed.

I completed the above as follows:

Once a successful medical examination is completed, the offer of a job will be confirmed.

My question is, do the original and my sentence have the same meaning? The answer key gives only one possible answer, but typically there are more than one correct answer to these types of tests.

 

[5jj]

My first reaction to that was horror that Cambridge examiners should so misplace 'only'.

I think your sentence is acceptable, although I would have written "... has been completed ..."

 

[bhaisahab]

My first reaction to that was horror that Cambridge examiners should so misplace 'only'.

I think your sentence is acceeptabble, although I would have written "... has been completed ..."

Typo alert.;-)

 

[CarloSsS]

I think your sentence is acceeptabble, although I would have written "... has been completed ..."

As a matter of fact, the answer key gives a similar answer:

Once a medical examination has been successfully completed, the offer of a job will be confirmed.

I don't see much of a difference between the sentence above and my solution.

 

[5jj]

Typo alert.;-)

I suppose you are trying to suggest that acceeptabble is unnaaceptible. Pheddant!

 

[bhaisahab]

I suppose you are trying to suggest that acceeptabble is unnaaceptible. Pheddant!

Oonly on Mondaays.

 

[5jj]

As a matter of fact, the answer key gives a similar answer:

Once a medical examination has been successfully completed, the offer of a job will be confirmed.

I don't see much of a difference between the sentence above and my solution.

There isn't a great deal of difference.

One of the extremely difficult tasks of those who prepare CPE test questions is to produce questions that realistically test your knowledge of English at this advanced level. I imagine that their justification for giving the present perfect as the 'correct' answer here is that it is the form that most educated native speakers would use in that sentence.

One of the reasons I gave up examining for Cambridge and other examining bodies some years ago was that I was unhappy with some of the decisions made over what was acceptable and what was not. I think Cambridge make a pretty good attempt at delivering a fair, objective range of tests (though I think Trinity are better), but sometimes I just bang my head against the wall in frustration at some of the things they expect candidates to do.

Some ten years ago, I persuaded my son and daughter (both intelligent, articulate, native-speaking graduates) to go through a mock FCE exam with me. They passed, of course, but only just scraped the highest grade. My personal, opinionated, view is that a reasonably intelligent native speaker should be able to get full marks at FCE level. If they can't, then the exam is setting artificial standards for something that is intended for non-native speakers.

 

[CarloSsS]

My personal, opiniated, view is that a reasonably intelligent native speaker should be able to get full marks at FCE level. If they can't, then the exam is setting artificial standards for something that is intended for non-native speakers.

I often get the impression that CPE is for English language enthusiasts only, no matter what their first language is.