Hello Exam Seekers,

Last week I brought to you some tips on the C1: Advanced (former CAE) Reading and Use of English [Part 1: Multiple-Choice Cloze]. Today I bring to you, the Reading and Use of English [Part 2: Open Cloze].

This is the second task with “cloze” in the name. Do you remember what “cloze” means? According to the Merriam- Webster dictionary:

This means that the test from last week and the test from this week, are formed by texts with some information taken away on purpose and you need to complete it with words you probably know. The difference, however, is that in a Multiple-Choice Cloze exercise, you have options to choose from, while in the Open Cloze, there are no options provided. You need to figure the answers by yourself. Here is a sample of how it looks like:

Part 2: Open Cloze

In this test, you have a text with some gaps, which represent one missing word. You have to guess (or figure out) the correct word for each gap.

In the C1: Advanced, this test contains 8 gaps which should be filled with vocabulary or grammatical structures and you will get 1 mark for each correct answer.

Here is the sample:

As you can see, the first sentence is:

The truth (0)__________ nobody really knows how language first began.

We need to complete this space with only one word. As you can see, it’s missing a verb right after “the truth” so that the sentence makes sense. The obvious answer is the verb “to be” conjugated: “is“. Now the second sentence:

Did we all start talking at around the same time (9)__________ of the manner in which our brains had begun to develop?

This seems a little more complicated. If you have no clue, skip it. Go to the next one before coming back to this one. Don’t get stuck in one exercise for so long, it wastes your time. However, if you think you know, and you just don’t remember, give it a second try, or, write a note on the side with the possibilities so that when you come back to this gap, you might choose from the ones you’ve written down.

Another tip is going by elimination. This part does not require a verb, but it does require an adverb to connect the two parts of the sentence. Which adverb? It seems that it is a “conclusion” adverb. So here are some adverbs of “cause and effect”: therefore, hence, because, so…

Read the sentence again and try to fill the gap with one of them. Before checking the answer (which, in this case, is “because“).

Let’s try number 10:

One recent theory is that human beings have evolved in (10)__________ a way that we are programmed for language from the moment of birth.

If you have studied a lot and you are used to the English language, just by reading the sentence you know the answer. However, if you are not too familiar, read the sentence slowly. The human beings evolved in ____ a way. You basically don’t need to fill with anything, because the sentence is complete, so we need something that doesn’t make much difference if we put it there and in a way that it completes the sentence. And the word you be similar to type, kind… The word is “such“.

Okay, now it’s your turn to try.

Some of the words above might be a little difficult to guess, but they all should be “guessable” because they are not specific vocabulary, but common.

So try and do the rest and I’ll leave the answers at the bottom of the post so that you can check after doing everything, ok?

Keep in mind that some of the gaps might have another possible answer than the one you are thinking of. Sometimes Cambridge accepts more than one possibility like “However / But”. But it’s essential that you fill with only one answer, don’t forget it!!!

If you have other questions about this specific test or the other parts of the C1: Advanced Exam, comment in the comment section below. 

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Have a great week,
Patricia Moura

OBS: All samples provided by Cambridge.

ANSWER KEY:

09. BECAUSE
10. SUCH
11. OTHER
12. COULD/MAY/MIGHT
13. DESPITE
14. IF/WHEN/WHENEVER
15. NOTHING/LITTLE
16. IN