TOEFL Complete the Words: how the C-test works and how to practise it

Complete the Words is a Reading task in the redesigned TOEFL: a short paragraph has letters missing from half of its words, and you put them back. It looks nothing like a standard reading question, so it is worth knowing exactly what it asks before you meet it.

What is the Complete the Words task on the TOEFL?

ETS describes it as a task that assesses "the ability to process written texts for meaning and form". The paragraph is academic and runs to about 70 to 100 words. The first sentence is left whole. After that, the second half of every second word is deleted, and you supply the missing letters. Each text contains 10 words with missing letters.

ETS's own Reading page adds that the task measures "vocabulary knowledge and your ability to understand meaning from context". You need both: the context tells you which word fits, and the letters you are given tell you how it is built.

How do the missing letters work?

ETS's sample paragraph shows the rule better than the description does. Each missing letter appears as a blank, so the number of blanks tells you how many letters to supply:

• "might" is shown as mi followed by three blanks.
• "that" is shown as th followed by two blanks.
• "is" is shown as i followed by one blank.

Two details are easy to miss. The deletion alternates strictly, so short function words such as "is" and "from" can be cut as well as content words. And in ETS's sample, odd-length words lose the larger half: "might" keeps two letters and loses three.

How is Complete the Words scored?

ETS's blueprint lists it as machine scored, which it defines as rule-based algorithms using exact matches or predefined scoring logic. The blueprint sets a maximum of one point per scored Reading item. ETS's overview and blueprint do not say how a misspelt answer is treated, so assume every letter has to be right.

Do not turn your result into a band yourself. ETS lists 50 Reading items, but the blueprint carries 35 raw points, because the item count includes non-scored items that ETS uses to gather data. Your number correct out of what you saw is not a score. For how the 1 to 6 bands work, see TOEFL scoring.

How long do you get for Complete the Words?

ETS does not publish a time for this task alone. It publishes the section: 50 Reading items and an approximate base time of 30 minutes. Reading is also multistage adaptive, so how you do on the first part of the section decides what the second part contains. In practice, set your own limit per paragraph, a minute or so for ten gaps is a sensible starting point, and tighten it as your accuracy holds. That figure is our suggestion, not an ETS number.

What is the best method for filling the gaps?

1. Read the whole paragraph once, ignoring the gaps. The intact first sentence gives you the topic. Knowing the topic narrows every gap before you look at a single prefix.
2. Decide what kind of word each gap needs. Look at the words either side. After "the" or "this" you need a noun. After "can" or "to" you need a base-form verb. Before a noun you may need an adjective.
3. Count the blanks. Prefix plus blanks gives the full word length. Many wrong answers fail only because they are the wrong length.
4. Check the ending. Plural -s, past -ed, -ing, -ly and -tion are the endings most often missing. If the subject is plural, the verb needs to agree.
5. Fill every gap in one pass, then reread the finished paragraph. Change any word that breaks the grammar or the meaning. Do not stall on one stubborn gap; move on and come back.

A short illustration, invented for this guide and not from the bank: "Many students find that a quiet room makes it easier to conce______ on difficult reading." The prefix is "conce" and there are six blanks, so the word has 11 letters. It follows "to", so it must be a base-form verb. "Concentrate" fits the letters, the grammar and the meaning.

A second one: "The museum opens at nine, but the ticket off___ closes at five." The prefix is "off" plus three blanks, six letters, and a noun is needed after "ticket". "Office" fits, and "ticket office" is also a common pairing.

What mistakes cost the most marks?

• Answering from the prefix alone. "Th" plus blanks could be "the", "that", "this", "they" or "them". Only the blank count and the grammar decide.
• Ignoring the blank count. If the word you thought of is a letter too short or too long, it is wrong.
• Choosing the wrong form. "Relationship" and "relationships" share the same prefix. Check whether the sentence needs singular or plural.
• Misspelling the missing letters. You know the word, but you wrote it wrong. Say each completed word slowly in your head and spell it.
• Reading sentence by sentence. A gap in sentence three is often answered by sentence one.

Complete the Words practice texts

Practice items from the ScoreFluent bank (not real exam questions). They run from easiest to hardest by our own difficulty rating. Each blank is one missing letter, and the answers are underneath each text.

Two differences from ETS's published sample are worth knowing. Our texts are shorter, between 48 and 65 words, where ETS describes about 70 to 100. And our items round the split the other way on odd-length words and leave one- and two-letter words alone, so "day" appears as da followed by one blank where ETS's sample pattern would leave only d. Use them to rehearse the method, and rely on the blank count rather than on any rule about where the split falls.

Text 1

Bees are small insects that live together in large groups. Every da_, they fl_ from flo___ to flo___ and coll___ a swe__ liquid cal___ nectar. Th__ carry it back to their ho__ and tu__ it into honey. Farmers need bees because the insects help many plants grow fruit.

Answers

The ten completed words, in order: day, fly, flower, flower, collect, sweet, called, They, home, turn.

Text 2

When a store lowers the price of a popular product, more customers usually decide to buy it. Economists ca__ this relati______ the la_ of dem___. However, a lower pri__ also mea__ that th_ store ear__ less mon__ from ea__ sale. Managers must therefore decide whether the extra sales will be large enough to make up for the smaller profit.

Answers

The ten completed words, in order: call, relationship, law, demand, price, means, the, earns, money, each.

Text 3

Earthquakes occur when stress accumulated along a fault line is suddenly released. The surrou_____ rock th__ shifts, send___ waves of energy thro___ the gro___ in eve__ direction. Alth____ scientists can___ predict th_ exact mom___ a tremor will strike, they can identify regions where the risk is highest. Engineers use this information to design buildings that flex rather than collapse when the ground begins to shake.

Answers

The ten completed words, in order: surrounding, then, sending, through, ground, every, Although, cannot, the, moment.

Text 4

Historians increasingly caution against attributing the collapse of complex societies to a single catastrophe. Climate shi___, political fragmen______, and econ____ strain frequ_____ interacted in ways th__ amplified ea__ other. A drought alo__ rarely dest____ a sta__ that maint____ grain reserves and flexible institutions; it becomes decisive only when leaders have already lost the legitimacy required to organize collective responses.

Answers

The ten completed words, in order: shifts, fragmentation, economic, frequently, that, each, alone, destroys, state, maintains.

How do you practise Complete the Words on ScoreFluent?

Complete the Words is part of ScoreFluent's TOEFL Reading practice. Answers are checked by exact match as soon as you submit, and reading practice is free within a daily limit. New accounts start with 40 free credits, which pay for examiner reports and mock tests. Credits never expire and there is no subscription. Start practising TOEFL free →

Where do these facts come from?

Task description, text length, gap count and section figures come from the ETS Updated TOEFL iBT Test Overview, the ETS TOEFL iBT Reading page and the 2026 Test Blueprint and Specifications. Checked 15 and 16 October 2026. ETS notes that the blueprint was subject to minor revisions until launch, so treat item counts as ETS's design and check ets.org before test day. ScoreFluent is not affiliated with or endorsed by ETS, and the scores we give are practice estimates, not official results.

Keep going with the other Reading tasks: Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage. For the whole section, see TOEFL Reading, or return to the TOEFL hub.