Use of English - Open Cloze
C1
Cambridge English C1 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.
Data and Decisions
In modern organisations, data is often treated (0) AS the ultimate source of truth. Yet the reality is more complicated: numbers rarely speak for themselves, and they can be misleading (1) .......... they are collected without a clear purpose. Good decision-making starts with asking the right question, rather (2) .......... searching for any dataset that happens to be available. Once the question is defined, analysts need to consider where the information comes (3) .........., how reliable it is, and what might be missing. A dashboard may look impressive, but it is only useful (4) .......... it helps people understand what is happening and why. Even in data-rich environments, judgement still matters. Leaders may be tempted to follow the metric that moves fastest, (5) .......... this can encourage short-term thinking. In addition, teams sometimes confuse correlation with causation, assuming that one change must have caused another, (6) .......... fact the relationship may be indirect. The best organisations build a culture in which data is shared openly, assumptions are challenged, and decisions are reviewed after they are made. That way, data becomes not a weapon in internal debates, (7) .......... a tool for learning. Ultimately, the goal is not to have more data, but to be (8) .......... to use it wisely.
About Use of English Open Cloze — Cambridge English C1
In this Cambridge English C1 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 C1 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.
Keep practising Cambridge English C1
Use of English at every level
More Cambridge English C1 skills
Cambridge English Exam Resources
More Cambridge English exam preparation tools from our family of apps:
Made with by Shining Apps
The best Cambridge English apps ever
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.