Use of English - Open Cloze
B2
Cambridge English B2 Exam
For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. Click the gaps to type your answer.
Office Mysteries
People often think that office life is boring, but anyone who has worked in a shared space knows this is far (0) FROM true. Every workplace seems to have at least one mystery: who keeps stealing pens, why the printer jams only when deadlines are near, and how biscuits disappear so quickly. In one office I worked in, there was a fridge (1) .......... nobody trusted. Food placed inside it on Monday had usually vanished (2) .......... Wednesday, and no one ever admitted taking anything. The manager, (3) .......... was determined to solve the problem, even put up a polite notice. This had little effect, and things became (4) .......... strange that people started labelling their sandwiches with warnings. One said, 'This contains hot sauce,' while another read, 'I am watching you.' (5) .......... all this, the thefts continued. In the end, the truth turned (6) .......... to be less dramatic than expected: the cleaner had been throwing food away because she thought it was old. Ever (7) .......... then, staff have become much more careful about writing dates on containers. It is a story (8) .......... still makes everyone laugh.
About Use of English Open Cloze — Cambridge English B2
In this Cambridge English B2 Use of English Open Cloze exercise you read a short text and think of the one word that best fits each of the 8 gaps.
Open Cloze tests grammar and common fixed expressions — articles, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs and linking words. Only one word goes in each gap, and it is usually a small grammatical word rather than vocabulary.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many gaps are in this B2 Open Cloze exercise?
There are 8 gaps, and you must write exactly one word in each.
What kind of words go in the gaps?
Usually grammatical words: prepositions, articles, pronouns, auxiliaries, relative pronouns and parts of fixed phrases.
What is the best strategy for Open Cloze?
Read the whole text first for meaning, then look closely at the words around each gap — the answer almost always depends on the immediate grammar.
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What to do
This part consists of a short text with a series of gaps. There are no words from which to choose the answers, candidates have to think of a word which fits the gap correctly.
Errors in punctuation are ignored, although spelling must be correct.
Contractions (e.g. don’t, we’ve, won’t) count as two words. However, can’t is a contraction of cannot, which is one word.
Sometimes, there is more than one correct answer. Cambridge will always account for this and all options will be accepted. However, you should not write more than one answer.
Don't spend time in a word you don't know. Wasting time on this activity might cost you points later in the exam because you won’t have enough time to do other tasks well.
Strategy
- Read the title and the whole text so that you understand what it is about.
- Read the whole sentence in which the gap occurs, to look for clues as to what kind of word you need.
- Check the words before and after each gap and look for grammatical collocations.
- Remember you must write only one word.
- You are never required to write a contraction. If you think the answer is a contraction, it must be wrong, so think again.
- Read the whole text through once you have completed it to make sure you have not missed any connectors, plurals or negatives.