Learners' Guide on Handling a Cloze Test Passage with Examples

 

Learners ought to know that the Cloze Test Passage:

• Cloze Test Passage tests the candidate’s exposure to English: does he or she know how English strings itself together to grammatically communicate an idea or ideas?
• Cloze Test Passage is about exposure to the language. Learners must have a good ‘amount’ of English in them to manage correct responses in cloze passages.
• Cloze Test Passage is usually topical; don’t be surprised to find cloze passages on Covid-19 ‘trending’.
• Cloze Test Passage  tests one’s understanding of:

•      words classes (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.)

•      collocations (e.g. We look forward to something, not *for something, hardly…when, not hardly…than)

•      rules, e.g. capitalization within sentences is only for proper nouns and the personal pronoun ‘I’, sentences begin with capital letters e.t.c.

The learners ought to do the following while tackling a Cloze Test Passage.

1. Read the whole passage from the beginning to the end before attempting to fill in any of the gaps. This helps you to:
2.  Recognise the tense that has been used.
3. Get some idea of the context and message of the passage.
4. Connect the meaning of each sentence to the one before it, the one after it and the whole passage.
5.  Get the general flow of thought. 
6. Get the topic or message, therefore the best words to use so as to remain within that topic or message.

*Important: As you read the passage the first time when you come to the gaps, do not say anything aloud or in the mind (Some people say ‘dash’ or ‘aha’). Pause slightly then continue reading. The slight pause allows your brain to generate an answer/response.

7.  Read the passage a second time while pencilling in the answers you think might be correct. Do this for the whole passage.
8 . Now read the passage with the answers you have pencilled in, checking whether each of the answers makes sense in that particular sentence and for the passage as a whole. Make corrections where necessary.

Sample Cloze Passage

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is ___________ (1) infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. ___________ (2) people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory ___________ (3). Such people will go on to recover ___________ (4) special treatment.  It is different, ___________ (5), for older people and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer. In such people, coronavirus is more likely to ___________ (6) into a serious illness. The way to prevent ___________ (7) slow down its spread is to be well informed about the virus; how ___________ (8) spreads and the disease it causes. The virus spreads ___________ (9) through droplets or discharge when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that you practice respiratory etiquette for example, by coughing or sneezing into a ___________ (10) elbow.

Sample Cloze Passage with Answers

Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is __an__ (1) infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. __Most__ (2) people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory __illness__ (3). Such people will go on to recover __without__ (4) special treatment.  It is different, __however__ (5), for older people and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory illness, and cancer. In such people, coronavirus is more likely to __develop__ (6) into a serious illness. The way to prevent __or__ (7) slow down its spread is to be well informed about the virus; how __it__ (8) spreads and the disease it causes. The virus spreads __mainly__ (9) through droplets or discharge when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that we practice respiratory etiquette, for example, coughing or sneezing into a __bent__ (10) elbow.

Feedback to Learners on responses to Sample Cloze Passage

Where more than one answer comes to mind, pick the one that sounds best. There must only be one word per gap.

Gap 1. The mind quickly comes up with ‘a’, but ‘infectious’ after the gap tells us we must use ‘an’.
Gap 2. The response must begin with a capital letter. After sentence-final punctuation (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark), whatever comes next ought, to begin with, a capital letter.

Gap 3. ‘respiratory’ is used as an adjective. The gap needs a noun that can be modified by ‘respiratory’ and has to do with what an infected person would suffer.

Gap 4. There may be a temptation to use ‘with/after’. What helps us realise that the answer is ‘without’? The word ‘however’ as well as the rest of the passage tells us that those with mild to moderate respiratory illness recover without special treatment as they are being contrasted with those who develop serious illness and therefore need special treatment.

Gap 5. Learners must be keen to note the two commas, which signals that the gap needs a connector.

Gap 6. There is a temptation to use a word such as ‘cause’, but ‘into’ after the gap makes ‘cause’ unsuitable.

Gap 7. The occurrence of two actions aimed at the disease, ‘prevent’ ___ ‘slow down’ its spread signals an addition or alternative expressed through a conjunction.

 Gap 8. Reference has been made to the virus so ‘it’ is suitable in the gap to make further reference to the virus.

Gap 9. The sentence “The virus spreads ______________ (9) through droplets or discharge when an infected person coughs or sneezes…”  is meaningful without a word in the gap. Learners are sometimes tempted to place a dash or ‘NA’ in such a gap. Such a gap calls for a modifier, a word that gives information about the words neighbouring the gap, so the learner should provide an adverb (if the word to be modified is a verb/adjective/adverb) or an adjective (if the word to be modified is a noun).

Gap 10. This is a “vocabulary gap” – one that gives the learner a chance to show that they are aware of contemporary happenings and the terms being used in those contemporary situations. A learner who provides “flexed” here is listening to the language use around him or her.

The parts of speech and vocabulary in the responses to the close test are:

 Noun:  3. illness/sickness/problems    
Pronoun: 8. it 
Verb     6. develop/advance 10. flexed/bent
Adverb 5. however  9. mainly/primarily/mostly/majorly       
Adjective 2. Most/Many
 Preposition: 4. without
Conjunction: 7. and/or
Articles:          1. an
Vocabulary:     6. transmission 10. bent/flexed/folded

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