Open cloze exercises for B 2

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Activity title:

open cloze exercise

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Skill(s):

reading a short text with numbered spaces and writing the missing words to complete the gaps

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Level(s):

B 2

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Exam part:

Use of English part 2

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Aim(s):

The test is designed to test the vocabulary and collocations

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Materials needed:

All answers must go on an answer sheet

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Preparation:

Teachers should choose texts suitable for B2-level learners

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Pocedure:

Step 1. Candidates should skim the text. Having an overview of the content will help to identify missing words. Candidates should make sure they read the complete text first before attempting to answer any questions.

Step 2. Candidates pay attention to the clauses and words around each gap as these will usually help to identify which part of speech is missing - a verb, a conjunction, a pronoun for example.

Step 3. Candidates should use only one word for each gap.When all the gaps in the text are completed, candidates should read the whole text again to make sure it makes sense.

Exercise 1

I begged him to put the fire 1) ______ I stood and watched him burn. His eyes were shut and he fell 2) ______ the floor and his face was twisted and angry. I ran around him, hopping and calling, stupidly crying. He rolled over. His legs kicked the bed and the frame fell over him. And he burned. His legs were 3) ________ torches ablaze at the thighs. His face was unfamiliar and white in places. The fire reached the upper part of his thighs. His chest was leaping fire. My mother was the first to come 4) ________. She stopped at the door and her hand went to her mouth. The scream tore 5) ________ her fingers as if wrenched out of her. She ran in and started to beat the fire with her hands. She beat the fire with 6) ________ came to hand. Someone came running in with a bucket of water. I can't remember. He is dead. I was five. The room filled with people, shouting prayers and wailing. The room was awash 7) ________ water, and scraps of charred newspaper floated in puddles. My mother was weeping hysterically 8) ________ somebody's arms. She turned round and pointed at me, screaming hysterically. I didn't hear 9) ________ said.

A.Gurnah Memory of departure

Answers: 1) out, 2) on, 3) like, 4) in, 5) through, 6) whatever, 7) with, 8) in, 9) what

Exercise 2

He taught us English literature, and was often moved 1) ____ long harangues on the destructive ignorance of European arrogance. 'Chemistry, algebra, astronomy . . . all these were things 2) _____ Muslims taught to the backward Europeans. But then the Muslims gave up the discipline of the desert. They wanted banquets and festivals and luxury. Their enemies soon destroyed them, 3) _____ they knew in their barbarian hearts that culture is decadence. So don't worry your head 4) ____ this Shakespeare. A lot of people say he didn't even exist anyway, or that if he did, he was an eastern sage whose work was translated 5) ____ English. You know what these Europeans are like. This Jane Austen, I think she's English, don't you? Hoity-toity big red nose and a little mouth.' But this was in the days 6) ____ the British were still our masters, and our teacher would clown his anxiety by running to the classroom door and peeping out, 7) _____ the Welshman who was our headmaster was walking down the corridor. Then he would come back and continue his harangue. Our poor teacher, he did not know it 8) ____, but his days were numbered. The British were 9) _____to go, and the day of vengeance was drawing
near.

А.Gurnah Memory of departure

Answers: 1) into, 2) that, 3) because, 4) with, 5) into, 6) when, 7) in case, 8) yet, 9) about

Exercise 3

This task of opening the mosque, cleaning the steps, making the call 1) ____ prayer, was one he had appointed himself to for his own reasons.
Someone had to do it, someone had to get 2) ____ first, open the mosque and make the adhan for the dawn prayers, and someone always did, for his own reasons. When that person was ill 3) ____ grew tired of the charge, there was always another person to take over. The man who preceded him was called Sharif Mdogo, and had come down with fever so badly in the kaskazi two years ago 4) ____ he was still bedridden. It was a little surprising that Hassanali had volunteered himself to take over as the dawn cryer, though, not least to Hassanali himself. He was not zealous 5) ____ the mosque, and it required zeal to rise at every dawn and bully people out of sleep. Sharif Mdogo was like that, the kind of man who liked to barge into complacency and give it a good shake. In addition, Hassanali was a worrying man 6) ____ nature, or perhaps experience had made him that way, had made him anxious and cautious. These semi-nocturnal chores tortured his nerves and disturbed his nights, and he feared the darkness and the shadows and the scuttlings of the deserted lanes. But then these were 7) ____ the reasons he offered himself for the task, as a submission and a penance. He started doing the duty two years 8) ______ the dawn of this
sighting, when his wife Malika first arrived. It was a plea 9) _____ his marriage should prosper, and a prayer for his sister's grief to end.

A.Gurnah Desertion

Answers: 1) to, 2) up, 3) or, 4) that, 5) about, 6) by, 7) also, 8) before, 9) that

Exercise 4

Hassanali returned 1) ____ two young men he had found huddled halfasleep against the café doors. They worked there and were waiting 2) ____ it to open, clinging to the last moments of rest before the day's antics began, but they rushed to help when Hassanali shook them awake. Everyone liked to help in the old days. When they arrived 3) ____ the scene, urgent behind Hassanali's increasingly self-important strides, it was to find three elderly men standing a few paces from the body, watching it 4) ____ fastidious interest: Hamza, Ali Kipara and Jumaane.
These were the stalwarts of the dawn prayers, 5) ____ stood directly behind the imam in the congregation, and who were the coffee-seller's first customers every morning. They were men well past their best years, wise men who expected 6) _____ lives' endeavours to be considered
unblemished, and who kept their eyes open and on the world that passed them by. They did not usually stir for anybody but themselves, and thought their age allowed them to act in this way. 7) ____ they were not really three elderly men because everyone knew who they were, 8) ____ by the measure of their time and place they were old, and their infirmities were part of their dignity, and their unbending display was perhaps an attempt 9) ____ fulfilling what was required of them.

A.Gurnah Desertion

Answers: 1) with, 2) for, 3) at, 4) with, 5) who, 6) their, 7) so, 8) but, 9) at

Exercise 5

Maryam rang their children Hanna and Jamal. She told them 1) _____ what had happened, going round and round with her reassurances to keep them from hurrying home. If there are no further events he will be home tomorrow, she told them. 'What do you mean events?' Hanna asked. 'That's what the doctor said, if there are no further events,' Maryam replied. She was taking her cue from the hospital staff, 2) _____ seemed to want to keep everything calm, so perhaps that was best for Abbas, and having Hanna and Jamal rushing home would only excite him unnecessarily. She worked in a hospital 3) _____ , and knew that people sometimes made too much fuss about their sick relatives. 'They are treating him now. They say he is stable. No, there's 4) ____ need to rush down. He's not going anywhere. Of course you can come and see him 5) ____ time, but there's no need to rush. Come when you want. He's all right now. They're treating him. No, he will not need to inject every day, Jamal. He does so at the moment, 6) ____ not for much longer. He will take medicine and follow a diet and there will be
various things I have to check regularly. Like what? Oh, cuts and grazes on his feet, blood sugar, and other things. They'll teach me all 7) _____ it. He'll be 8) ____ right. It'll take him a little 9) ____ to be strong again. Don't worry, he'll be all right. Yes yes, come and see him soon.'

A.Gurnah Last Gift

Answers: 1) about, 2) who, 3) herself, 4) no, 5) any, 6) but, 7) about, 8) all, 9) while

Exercise 6

Yes, that was how she would always remember him, 1) _____ memory lasted, that slim restless man she met in the first summer after her last year at school. She had a job in a café at the time . . . and here she was still doing the same sort of thing a whole lifetime later. She thought 2) _____ that if she could earn enough she would move out of Ferooz and Vijay's flat and into lodgings with one of her friends from work. But the money was no good and the work was a drudge, although she liked her mates. It made a difference then, when everything was so hard, to work 3) _____ people you got on with, people who laughed at everything as if all their lives were a stupid joke. Later she got a better-paid job 4) ____ a factory, which was where she was working when she saw Abbas again. She still went to the café sometimes to have a cup of tea and meet 5) _____ the people she used to work with, and always got a cream cake on the house. That was where she saw him the second time. He glanced 6) _____ her and recognised her. He hesitated 7) _____ a moment and when she smiled 8) ____ him, he came over. He hovered for a moment with his tray and then sat 9) _____.

A.Gurnah Last Gift

Answers: 1) while, 2) then, 3) with, 4) in, 5) with, 6) at, 7) for, 8) at, 9) down