Cloze
What cloze items test
A cloze passage has blanks, and you choose the word or phrase that completes each one. These items test three things at once: grammar, meaning, and cohesion-whether the sentence flows logically with what comes before and after.
Read the whole passage first. Then, for each blank, name its job: transition, pronoun, verb tense, preposition or idiom, or content word. That label narrows the choices before you compare them.
Signals to use.
- Transitions: contrast (however, nevertheless, conversely), addition (moreover, in addition), cause and result (therefore, consequently, as a result), time and sequence (subsequently, meanwhile).
- Agreement: the verb matches its real subject, not the nearest noun; the pronoun matches its antecedent in number and person.
- Tense consistency: stay in the passage's established tense unless a time clue forces a shift.
- Parallel structure: items in a list share the same grammatical form.
- Idiom: comply with, suspicion of, charged with, prohibited from, responsible for.
Traps. A word that fits the sentence but breaks the paragraph's logic; two choices that are both grammatical, where only one matches the tone; a word lifted from elsewhere in the passage used as bait; a transition pointing the wrong direction (adding where the passage contrasts).
Worked example. "The officer had interviewed both witnesses; ___, their accounts differed sharply." Therefore is grammatical but reverses the logic-the sentence contrasts. However fits the contrast, so it wins even though both are common transitions.
Rule of thumb. Eliminate on grammar first, then on logic and flow. Plug each remaining choice in and read the full sentence-and the sentence after it-before deciding.