7 .
Pick the word/s which fill the gap/s to make the best sensible English.
Many secondary schools ~ and employers ~ expect students in their 'mid-teens' to achieve good grades in five subjects at the GCSE exams.
The usual subjects in which this level should be reached are: ... ...
... the 'core' subjects (English and Maths), a modern language and one from the Humanities (History / Geography) or a creative subject (such as Drama, or Design and Technology).
... the 'core' subjects (English, Maths and Science), a modern language and one from the Humanities (History / Geography / Religious Education) or a creative subject (such as Drama, or Design and Technology); and probably Information Technology.
... the 'core' subjects (Maths and Science), a modern language or a creative subject (such as Drama, or Design and Technology); and probably Information Technology.
... the 'core' subjects (English, Maths and Science), a creative subject (such as Drama, or Design and Technology); and probably Information Technology.
'Trial and error' was a perfectly good description, because anyone is likely to make some mistakes on the way to reaching the right answer. As long as you were sensible enough to recognise the mistakes, and move onwards the right way from them, there was nothing deeply 'wrong' about this method ... apart (of course) from a few well-intentioned wrong number-values as you followed the process.
But then the educationalists felt that it was also wrong (!) to suggest that children 'ought' to make mistakes, even if this was part of the very way to progress towards the right answer. So we can't call the method 'trial and error' any more; nowadays it's 'trial and improvement', which sounds a lot more positive. Yet there wouldn't be any 'improvement' ... unless there were a less-than-perfect earlier guess, to be improved upon!
In a much broader sense, this is an interesting example of how language changes, and how tastes and public opinions and use of language can change. A language is a living thing, used every day by human beings, and we human beings can be 'a funny lot' ... the English just as much as anyone else! It can do you no harm to be aware that language is changing and developing, in little and other ways, as time goes by. Let's hope that more-than-not of that is 'improvement'!