10 Review Practice Questions with Answers | Cambridge C1 Advanced
In Part 2 of the Cambridge C1 Advanced (CAE) Writing paper, you choose one task from a list, and a review is one of the options. You read a situation, then write a review of 220 to 260 words for a magazine or website. This post gives you 10 C1 Advanced review practice questions with model answers. Each answer is written at C1 level and shows how to describe the work for a reader who does not know it, evaluate it with balanced and specific judgement, and end with a clear recommendation.
Review 1
You see this announcement on an international careers website. Reviews wanted: Working lives we rarely notice Review a podcast series that gave you insight into an overlooked profession. Describe what the series reveals about the work, evaluate how effectively it challenges assumptions, and say who would benefit from listening.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
The people behind a city's trees
The six-part podcast Working Above the Streets follows arborists who inspect, maintain and sometimes remove urban trees. I expected technical conversations about chainsaws; instead, the series reveals a profession combining biology, public safety and delicate negotiation.
Each episode is built around one decision. A damaged tree beside a school, for example, appears dangerous but also provides shade that cannot quickly be replaced. The arborist explains how roots, wind and previous construction affect the risk, while residents argue for different outcomes. Natural sound from the site creates atmosphere without turning hazardous work into entertainment.
The series is particularly effective at challenging the idea that arborists simply cut branches. Listeners hear them examine fungi, plan habitats for insects and explain unpopular decisions to the public. Occasional narration repeats points that the interviews have already made, and an episode on training would have clarified how someone enters the profession. Nevertheless, the workers are allowed to express uncertainty, which makes their expertise more convincing.
I would recommend this podcast to students considering environmental careers and to anyone involved in neighbourhood debates about trees. It demonstrates that visible manual work may depend on extensive scientific judgement, ethical responsibility and patient communication. More importantly, it encourages listeners to ask what careful observation took place before a familiar street suddenly looked different.
Review 2
You see this announcement in an international cultural magazine. Reviews wanted: Beyond the screen Review an exhibition that creates a memorable experience without using digital screens. Describe how it uses sound, texture, temperature or space, evaluate whether these choices deepen understanding of the subject, and say who should visit.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
Cold Storage: an exhibition felt rather than watched
Cold Storage explores how communities preserved food before electric refrigeration. Instead of presenting films on screens, the exhibition leads visitors through four rooms whose temperature, materials and sound gradually change.
The opening space is warm and dry, with grain containers that visitors can handle. A stone-lined room follows, noticeably cooler underfoot, while quiet dripping suggests an underground spring. The strongest section recreates an ice house. Its heavy door, low ceiling and sudden silence convey the labour involved in protecting a limited supply of winter ice. Short printed labels remain available, but objects and spaces carry most of the explanation.
This design deepens understanding because preservation emerges as a practical response to climate, architecture and local materials. Visitors compare methods physically rather than viewing them as isolated inventions. The coldest room, however, is entered by a narrow passage, and the alternative route offers samples of materials without recreating the same sense of enclosure. Accessibility has been considered, but not fully solved.
I would recommend Cold Storage to families with older children, design students and anyone interested in food history. Those expecting a large collection of rare objects may be disappointed. Its achievement lies elsewhere: ordinary stone, wood, air and sound make historical constraints immediate. By the exit, a modern refrigerator seems less like an anonymous appliance and more like one answer to an ancient problem.
Review 3
An international history website is seeking reviews of documentaries that compare different reconstructions of the same event. Review one documentary, describe the main interpretations and evidence, evaluate how clearly it distinguishes fact from possibility, and say who would benefit from watching it.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
Three Minutes at the Harbour
The documentary Three Minutes at the Harbour examines a 1912 collision between a ferry and an unmanned cargo vessel. Rather than presenting one dramatic solution, it reconstructs the final minutes in three different ways.
The first version follows the ferry captain's later statement, in which fog concealed the cargo vessel until evasive action was impossible. A second uses tide records to argue that both vessels should have been visible. The final reconstruction combines harbour workers' letters with a recently discovered repair invoice, suggesting that the ferry's warning bell failed. Each version uses the same scale model and clock, making differences in timing unusually easy to compare.
The film handles uncertainty responsibly. Documents are labelled by date and purpose, and an engineer explains what the surviving evidence cannot establish. The atmospheric music occasionally implies danger before the evidence does, but no reconstruction is announced as the answer. Most impressively, the closing sequence shows which assumptions must change for each account to remain possible.
I would recommend the documentary to history students and viewers interested in how evidence is interpreted. Those expecting a solved mystery may find the ending frustrating. Its real achievement is showing that an honest reconstruction has boundaries: it can organise surviving facts and test explanations without pretending that missing observation has somehow been recovered.
Review 4
You see this announcement on an international arts website. Reviews wanted: Drama beyond the studio Review a radio drama recorded in real locations rather than a studio. Describe how the locations can be heard, evaluate whether their sound strengthens the story or makes it harder to follow, and say who would enjoy the production.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
Between Stops: a city heard from the pavement
Between Stops is a four-part radio drama about two siblings attempting to return a box of letters to its unknown owner. Instead of recreating the city in a studio, the production was recorded in stations, markets, stairwells and public gardens.
The locations are more than a decorative background. A conversation begun beneath a station announcement continues on a quiet footbridge, where the sudden space between sounds reflects the siblings' growing distrust. In the market episode, fragments of real bargaining repeatedly interrupt their careful plan. The most effective scene uses footsteps in a tiled passage to reveal that a third person is following them before either character notices.
Authenticity occasionally competes with clarity. Several lines spoken beside traffic require close listening, and the programme should provide a transcript more prominently. Nevertheless, the directors resist the temptation to make every sound significant. Ordinary pauses, distant doors and changing acoustics give the characters a physical world, while the central dialogue remains restrained enough to carry the story.
This drama will reward listeners who enjoy patient mysteries and sound design that asks for attention. Anyone wanting rapid action may find its detours frustrating. For me, those detours are precisely the point: the search changes because public spaces keep placing strangers and obstacles in its path. Between Stops demonstrates that location recording can shape narrative choices, not merely make a studio production sound more realistic.
Review 5
You see this announcement in an international arts magazine. Reviews wanted: More than one language on stage Review a stage production in which two or more languages are spoken without captions or translation. Describe how the production helps an audience follow the action, evaluate both the artistic effect and accessibility of this choice, and say who would appreciate the performance.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
Crossing Tongues at the Harbour Theatre
Crossing Tongues follows two sisters rebuilding a family restaurant. One speaks mostly Portuguese, the other English, while their father moves between both. No captions are provided, yet the production rarely leaves the audience completely lost.
Meaning is carried through repeated objects and precise physical action. When the sisters argue about an old recipe book, each handles it differently, so possession and resentment remain clear even when individual words do not. Later, an English conversation is replayed in Portuguese with the actors exchanging positions. The repetition reveals that apparent confidence depended partly on who controlled the language.
Artistically, refusing translation makes partial understanding central rather than accidental. Viewers experience the effort, impatience and occasional delight of communication across a family. The actors avoid exaggerated gestures, which preserves emotional complexity. Accessibility is less successful. A printed synopsis helps with the plot, but audience members with limited hearing cannot rely on dialogue in either language. Captioning the sound and identifying the language, without translating it, would respect the concept while widening access.
This is a rewarding production for audiences interested in family drama, migration and inventive staging. Anyone expecting every line to be decoded may find it demanding. However, its uncertainty has purpose: the play asks viewers to notice how much people understand through memory, power and attention before vocabulary supplies the rest.
Review 6
You see this announcement in an international consumer magazine. Reviews wanted: The long journey of an ordinary object Review an audio series that follows one everyday product from its raw materials to manufacture, sale and eventual disposal. Describe what listeners discover, evaluate the clarity and balance of the series, and explain whether it could help people make better choices.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
From Sand to Second Life
The eight-part audio series From Sand to Second Life follows an ordinary glass drinks bottle. Its journey begins at a quarry, passes through a furnace and filling plant, and continues beyond purchase into reuse, collection or landfill.
The strongest episodes make industrial systems understandable without pretending they are simple. Workers describe why colour, contamination and transport distance affect whether glass is recycled. A shop owner explains deposit returns, while a municipal planner compares refillable bottles with containers crushed after one use. Carefully chosen factory sounds give each stage a distinct atmosphere and help listeners remember the sequence.
The series is generally balanced. It interviews manufacturers, waste workers and environmental researchers, and it acknowledges that a heavier reusable bottle may require more transport energy. However, the episode on consumer behaviour relies on a very small street survey and draws conclusions too confidently. A brief source list on the programme website partly corrects this weakness.
Listeners will not receive a simple instruction to buy one particular package. Instead, they learn which questions matter: how far a bottle travels, how often it is refilled and whether local collection actually separates colours. I recommend the series to curious consumers and students of product design. It improves choices not by attaching a moral label to glass, but by revealing the system that determines what happens after the bottle leaves a hand.
Review 7
You see this announcement on an international media website. Reviews wanted: Arguing the other side Review a public debate series in which speakers exchange positions halfway through and must defend the view they originally opposed. Describe how the format works, evaluate whether it improves fairness and understanding, and say who would benefit from watching.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
Changing Sides
Changing Sides is a monthly public debate series with an unusual second half. Two specialists first defend their genuine positions, question one another and respond to an audience. After a short break, each must present the strongest case for the view previously opposed.
The exchange is more demanding than a simple role reversal. Speakers receive no new script, so they must demonstrate that they listened closely enough to reconstruct the other argument fairly. A moderator identifies any point that has been weakened into a convenient version. The final five minutes allow both participants to explain whether representing the opposing case altered their original judgement.
This format improves understanding when speakers treat it seriously. In an episode about restricting cars near schools, both acknowledged costs they had initially presented as minor. The audience then asked more precise questions about implementation rather than repeating slogans. Fairness is less certain when one position depends on highly specialised evidence; confidence can make a borrowed argument sound stronger than the speaker's actual knowledge. Brief fact sheets shown after the exchange would help viewers distinguish empathy from expertise.
I recommend Changing Sides to teachers, discussion leaders and anyone tired of debates designed only to produce winners. It does not force artificial agreement. Instead, it shows whether participants can recognise a reasonable concern without abandoning their conclusions. That ability makes disagreement more informative and exposes arguments that survive only when the other side is caricatured.
Review 8
An international culture website wants reviews of audio documentaries that reconstruct places which can no longer be heard as they once were. Review a programme about a vanished factory soundscape, describing how the sounds were recreated, evaluating the evidence and listening experience, and saying who would appreciate it.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
The Last Shift
The Last Shift attempts something unusually difficult: rebuilding the sound of a textile factory demolished forty years ago. Instead of relying on nostalgic interviews alone, its producers begin with maintenance records listing each machine's speed and materials. They then record surviving equipment in three museums and layer those sounds according to an original floor plan.
The result is absorbing without becoming merely theatrical. We first hear individual looms at low volume while former workers explain which noises signalled a broken thread or a dangerous fault. The final ten-minute reconstruction places the listener at different points on the factory floor. Headphones reveal how the rhythm changes near the stairwell and how shouted warnings almost disappear beside the largest machines.
Crucially, the programme distinguishes evidence from invention. A narrator identifies every sound taken from an original machine, while a softer tone marks elements inferred from written descriptions. One invented lunch bell is included to connect two sections, but its uncertain status is stated immediately. This honesty makes the reconstruction more convincing, not less.
I would recommend The Last Shift to listeners interested in industrial history, sound design or working life. Anyone seeking a simple spoken documentary may find its extended sequences demanding. For patient listeners, however, it turns technical records into a vivid argument: noise was not just a background condition but a form of knowledge shared by the people who worked there.
Review 9
You see this announcement on an international legal-affairs website. Reviews wanted: A difficult case made visible Review a graphic non-fiction book that explains a complex court case to general readers. Describe the case and the book's visual approach, evaluate its accuracy and balance, and say whether it helps readers understand both the decision and its wider significance.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
Lines of Evidence
Lines of Evidence reconstructs a court case about a town's contaminated water supply. Residents argued that years of industrial leakage caused their illnesses, while the company disputed both the source and timing of the pollution.
The book uses colour sparingly and intelligently. Blue timelines follow water tests, red ones medical reports, and grey panels show what regulators knew at each stage. When evidence is uncertain, the drawings leave deliberate gaps rather than inventing a complete scene. Short sections explain scientific terms before they appear in testimony, allowing the reader to follow why two experts interpret the same sample differently.
The visual structure makes an enormous record manageable without reducing the case to heroes and villains. Lawyers from both sides are shown selecting evidence strategically, and the final judgement is separated from later political debate. Occasionally, a dramatic full-page image gives an emotional statement more weight than the documents support. Detailed source notes at the back help correct that imbalance, although page references beside the panels would be more useful.
I recommend this book to readers interested in law, environmental policy or visual explanation. It clarifies not only what the court decided, but also why legal proof and scientific certainty do not always match. Most importantly, it shows that a fair account can remain readable while acknowledging evidence that is incomplete, disputed or uncomfortable.
Review 10
You see this announcement in an international environmental magazine. Reviews wanted: Wildlife after dark Review a guided night walk that reveals overlooked insects in a town or city. Describe what participants do and discover, evaluate the quality of the guidance and efforts to avoid disturbance, and say who would benefit from taking part.
Write your review in 220 to 260 words.
Model answer
Small Lives After Sunset
Small Lives After Sunset begins beside an ordinary row of shops, not in a park. Over ninety minutes, a guide helps twelve participants find moths near signs, beetles beneath street trees and tiny insects living around drain covers.
The activities are simple but revealing. We compare the insects attracted to two kinds of lamp, use red torches to inspect bark and listen for the faint clicks of a bush-cricket. The guide explains how heat, light and small patches of vegetation create connected habitats. She also distinguishes direct observation from guesswork: when a species cannot be identified safely, it remains an interesting unknown rather than receiving a confident label.
Care for wildlife is built into the route. No insect is collected, torches remain dim, and participants stand back from feeding areas. One stop beside a bright shop sign lasts too long, attracting an uncomfortable crowd on a narrow pavement. Dividing the group there would protect both insects and pedestrians. Otherwise, questions are handled patiently and technical vocabulary is introduced only when useful.
I recommend the walk to families with teenagers, amateur photographers and residents curious about urban ecology. It is not a species-counting competition. Its greater success is changing the scale at which participants notice a familiar street. By the end, apparently empty spaces have become busy habitats, and darkness feels less like an absence than the beginning of another shift.