C2 Proficiency Use of English collocations dominoes

Cambridge Proficiency Use of English Part One and Part Two

Instructions for teachers

Choose which pack of dominoes you want to use, perhaps due to which part of the test you have just practised or want to practise next. If you want to do both, you could do a Use of English Part One paper, then the Use of English Part One dominoes, then the Use of English Part Two dominoes, and finally a Use of English Part Two paper.

Copy, cut up and shuffle one pack per group of two to four students.

Each student takes seven cards each, then they lay one more card face up in the middle of the table. Students take turns trying to match half of one of their cards to one of the halves on the table to make collocations from (real) CPE exams. If they can’t make any match that their partners accept, they should pick one more card and play passes to the next person. Students continue in the same way until someone finishes all their dominoes or all the dominoes have been taken but no one can match any of their dominoes to the two ends of the string of dominoes on the table. The person with fewest dominoes left in their hand at the end wins the game.

When they finish the game, ask them to compare the matches between the dominoes on their table to the matches on an un-cut-up copy of the worksheet below, asking you if any different matches they made are possible.

After the game, they could test each other on the collocations by:

• Saying a sentence with one of the collocations but with one word missing for their partner to complete
• Saying a sentence with one of the collocations but with one word missing and two or more options for words to put in the gap (from the worksheet or their own ideas) for their partner to repeat back with the right word in

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CPE Use of English Part One collocations dominoes to cut up/ Suggested answers

serious concerns	stimulating	challenges	still
applicable	innate	talents	intrinsic
value	see the light	of day	lay to
rest (the myth…)	a shining	example of…	a rebranding
exercise	a dusty	old law firm	a new lease of
life	the deadly	perils (of…)	reckless
actions	draft	a report	advertising
campaign	a change of	fortune	of central
importance	put someone to	sleep	render something
useless	gather	pace	hasten
his demise	achievable	goals	become
the norm	a common	trait	works
perfectly	does his job	competently	confirm
that it is true	support	someone’s opinion	sustain
life	a plausible	excuse	a predictable
failure	a prospective	candidate	the final
destination	the exact	location	museum
pieces	a mistaken	notion	sparks
a revolution	have a serious	flaw	hit a
snag	family	heirloom	personal
legacy	capture	the imagination	command your
attention	hold	great appeal (for…)	address

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Collocations in CPE Use of English Part Two dominoes

forward	nothing	new under the sun	for all
we know	in close	formation	on the other
hand	brings	recognition to	to what
degree	for good	reason	come to
fruition	a tall	order	might just make
it	would no	longer be needed	sounds
like science fiction	almost	all	each and
every time	it goes without	saying	needs little
more than…	strictly	speaking	can’t help
but wonder	think	big	given
enough support,…	very	little research	in danger
of disappearing	briefly if at	all	there is nothing
new in…	as far	back as 1767	the phenomenon in
question	call to	mind	willing to put
up with discomfort	the first thing to pop	into my head	more often than
not	however odd it might	seem	change is on the
horizon	begin to make	up a bigger part	looking further

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PDF for easy saving and printing: Collocations in CPE Use of English dominoes

Related pages

Collocations page

Cambridge Proficiency Use of English page

TEFL dominoes (TEFLtastic Classics Part 36)

Teaching C2 Proficiency: Interactive Classroom Activities (over 350 pages of photocopiable classroom materials on every part of the test) – NEW