Part 2 of First Certificate Paper 3, the Use of English paper, is an open cloze test. In this kind of exercise you complete texts by putting a suitable word in each space. In this lesson there are 5 practice cloze tests. The first 3 tell the story of a different hero or heroine of the 20th Century. The first cloze is missing pronouns, the second is missing prepositions, and the third is missing verbs. The fourth cloze is missing articles, pronouns and determiners. In the final cloze test, any type of word may be missing.

For Questions 1-15, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use one word in each space.

In cloze tests any type of word may be omitted. In this cloze, however, only pronouns (he, it, they, him, her, them, who, which, whose, when, where, what, one, this, those, these, there etc.) have been omitted.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller, who was born in 1880, became deaf and blind at the age of 18 months, as a result of a terrible illness. Because of 1 ____, she soon became unable to speak, either. 2. ____ seemed to be no solution to the problem until her parents asked Alexander Graham Bell to help 3. ____. He decided that 4. ____ she needed was a special teacher and after much searching he found 5.____ . She was a young woman called Anne Sullivan, 6. ____ began to teach Helen the names of things by writing 7.____ in the palm of her hand. Helen later learned to speak by feeling the vibrations in Sullivan's throat when she spoke.

Helen gradually learned to read and write in Braille. She studied at special schools for the deaf in Boston and New York, and from 8.____ she went to university, 9. ____ Sullivan "wrote" the lectures in the palm of her hand.

Helen never recovered her hearing or her sight, but 10. ____ did not stop her spending her life working to help the deaf and blind. She travelled all over the world giving lectures to raise money for their education and to make people more aware of their problems and 11. ____ can be done to solve them. Because 12.____ was difficult for ordinary people to understand 13.____ she was saying, she generally spoke using an interpreter. She wrote several books about her life and work, and, in 1962, 14.____ of these was made into a film. She died in 1968, 15.____ she was 88.

In this cloze, only prepositions (to, with, on, from etc.) have been omitted.

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit in 1902. He is chiefly remembered 1. ____ his non-stop solo flight 2. ____ the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 1927. He learnt to fly at army flying schools in Texas in 1924, and his first job was 3.____ an airmail pilot in 1926, when he flew the route 4.____ St Louis and Chicago.

During this period, he managed to raise money 5.____ businessmen in St Louis to make his famous flight which took place on May 20th and 23rd. The plane, which only had one engine, was so full 6.____ fuel that Lindbergh had to fly close 7.____ the sea. The plane's top speed was 200 kilometres an hour, and the flight took over 33 hours. Lindbergh had to stay awake all that time. He could not look forward as his view was obstructed 8.____ fuel tanks, and he had to use a periscope to see what was in 9.____ of him or look out 10.____ the side windows.

His achievement turned him 11.____ an immediate hero 12.____ both sides of the Atlantic, and he became well-known all 13.____ the world. The plane returned to the United States 14.____ ship. During the years that followed, Lindbergh flew it frequently to encourage interest 15.____ flying, before giving it to a museum.

For Questions 1-16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use one word in each space.

In this cloze, all the missing words are verbs. Look carefully at the rest of the sentence and the prepositions to decide which verb is correct. Be careful to put it in the correct form. Remember that some of the verbs may be irregular! There are some hints below the text.

Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen, who was the first man to 1._____ the South Pole in 1911, had 2._____ medicine at university before 3.____ a sailor. He had intended to be the first person to the North Pole, but when he 4._____ that an American called Peary had got there first, he secretly 5._____ out for the South Pole - a secret that only his brother 6._____ .

Amundsen 7._____ up his base in the Bay of Whales in Antarctica and there he prepared his journey carefully. He 8._____ a shorter trip into the interior of the continent to leave supplies for the big journey to the Pole. In order to transport the supplies, he used dogs to 9._____ the sleds.

He 10._____ his journey on October 19th 1911, and 11._____ at the Pole on December 14th. He finally 12.____ to his base at the end of January.

Amundsen 13._____ enough money from his Antarctic adventure to start a successful shipping business, but he 14._____ to be interested in polar exploration, and during the 1920s he 15._____ over the North Pole in various types of aircraft before 16._____ in an accident in 1928.
 

Hints

  1. This means "arrive at".
  2. What you do at university!
  3. First he was a medical student, and then something else - and remember what form of the verb you use after prepositions.
  4. He found out that Peary had got there first.
  5. A multi-word verb meaning to start a journey.
  6. This verb goes with secrets.
  7. A multi-word verb meaning "established".
  8. A verb which goes with trips and journeys.
  9. What would the dogs do with the sled? Can you guess what a sled is - think about people travelling long distances across the snow in days before snowmobiles existed.
  10. He set out on his journey.
  11. He reached the Pole.
  12. He got back to his base.
  13. A verb which goes with money.
  14. He was still interested in polar exploration.
  15. What you do with aircraft.
  16. His final action.
 

For questions 1 - 15, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space. This test concentrates on articles (the / a), pronouns (it, she, who, there, one, this etc.) and determiners (this, its, one etc.). Try doing it without looking at the hints first. Then, if you can't produce some answers, look at the hints.
Cloze Advice
When you do the exam, with the easier gaps you will know the word which you need to write immediately. Here is some advice for the gaps you find more difficult:
Decide what type of word it might be - an adjective, a pronoun, a preposition or a verb. This may help you to get closer to the answer. To decide the type of word, look at its position in the sentence.
Do not spend a long time looking at the gap and worrying. Complete other parts of the cloze test first and come back to it. Use your time economically.
Read the sentences nearby - they may give you a clue about the word you need. Translate them into your own language if necessary.
If you don't know the word, do not write two words and leave the examiner to choose! Even if one of them is correct, your answer will be considered wrong, because the instructions tell you to write one word in each space.
If you decide the word is a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb, but you are not sure which word to write, think what word you would put in your own language, and translate into English!
As with the other parts of the Use of English paper, you have 15 minutes for this part. Make sure you spend exactly 15 minutes, certainly not more or you won't have time to finish all the paper.
You do not lose marks for writing a wrong answer, so at the end make sure you haven't left any gaps empty. If you have no idea of what word to write, guess - you might be right!
 
The benefits of space exploration

In the last fifty years, man has changed 1. ____ being a passive observer of space to being 2. ____ active explorer. This has allowed us to gain a new understanding of 3. ____ planets which are nearest to us, and 4. ____ origin and nature of the universe. It has also made us ask completely new questions about 5. ____ things.

At the same time, space exploration has caused an expansion in technology, particularly because space vehicles have to be safe. 6. ____ means that new materials have been developed 7. ____ are able to resist high temperatures at take off and landing. These materials have since been used in all sorts of other places, from 8. ____kitchen to public transport.

9. ____are other benefits of man's activity in space, for example our ability to observe the Earth from a distance. Using satellites we can observe and analyse 10. ____ composition and watch the weather. We can therefore see 11. ____ is happening all over the world at any one moment, and also predict what 12. ____ happen in the future. 13. ____ allows us to warn people about imminent natural disasters so that 14. ____ can protect themselves from 15. ____ . We can also observe the effects of human activity on the environment.

Hints

  1. Read the whole sentence before you answer, and see how man has changed. Decide what type of word you need.
  2. Notice that "active" begins with a vowel. Earlier we had "a passive observer".
  3. "Planets" is followed by a defining relative clause: "which are nearest to us". This means we know which planets we are talking about.
  4. We suppose the universe only had one origin.
  5. The things which we have just mentioned.
  6. The thing we have just mentioned.
  7. This is a relative clause.
  8. Here we are using "kitchen" in the singular to refer to kitchens in general.
  9. In other words, other benefits exist.
  10. The composition of the earth.
  11. Everything which.
  12. We are talking about the future.
  13. The thing we have just mentioned.
  14. People - but you don't want to repeat people!
  15. Protect themselves from what? Natural disasters of course, but you don't want to repeat natural disasters, and in any case, it's two words!
For questions 1 - 15, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space. In this test any type of word may be missing. Try doing it without looking at the hints first. If you can't get some answers, then look at the hints.

The Chip

Every schoolgirl and schoolboy knows that 1. ____ was Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone and Thomas Edison who invented the electric 2.____ bulb. But what 3. ____ more modern inventions? Who, for example, invented the silicon chip or the mobile phone, both of 4. ____ have transformed our lives so suddenly and so completely?

Nowadays, inventions tend to be far 5. ____ complex than a hundred or a hundred and fifty years 6. ____ , and they are normally developed by teams of scientists or technologists working 7. ____ large companies or universities. Nobody in particular invented the mobile phone, 8. ____ we can give credit to Ted Hoff for inventing the silicon chip in 1971.

Ted Hoff 9. ____ been working for Intel, which in those days had about a dozen employees, 10. ____ about a year 11. ____ he was asked by a Japanese customer to develop a chip for an adding machine. 12. ____ he came up with was a microprocessor on a single piece of silicon, 13. ____ could be used for any number of different tasks, depending 14. ____ the software, 15. ____ than one predetermined task. The computer revolution had begun.

In this lesson you have:
Gained familiarity with the cloze task
Seen what kinds of words are likely to be missing
Developed a strategy to help you do a cloze task
The next lesson focuses on part 3 of the Use of English paper. It develops your familiarity with the sentence transformation exercise through a series of graded activities.