Connector Choice in a Cloze About Library Hours
A short cloze passage of about 85 words appears in Part B. It describes a city library extending its opening hours. The candidate must fill five blanks. At blank 2, the sentence reads: “______ sollen vor allem Berufstätige die Möglichkeit haben, auch abends zu lernen.” The candidate is torn between “Damit” and “Deshalb.” At blank 4, the sentence reads: “Die Nachfrage war zuletzt stark gestiegen; ______ bleibt der Personalbedarf eine Herausforderung.” The candidate is torn between “dennoch” and “deshalb.” The passage later says the library is hiring two part-time staff and has reduced the number of reading-room seats during renovation. The candidate has 6 minutes for the passage and has already used 3 minutes on the first three blanks. The candidate worries that choosing “Damit” at blank 2 will force a matching choice at blank 4. The core judgment is about cohesion: purpose versus consequence versus concession, and whether the connector’s scope is the following clause or the previous sentence.
1. Resolve blank 2 and explain the grammatical and discourse signals.
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“Damit” is the better choice. The sentence states a purpose: the library is extending hours so that employed people can study in the evening. “Damit” introduces a purpose clause, and the modal “sollen” plus the infinitive “haben” at the end fits that structure. “Deshalb” would signal a consequence of something already stated, but no preceding cause has been given that would make the library’s decision a result. The candidate should check the scope: “Damit” points forward to the intended outcome, while “Deshalb” points backward to a cause. The presence of “vor allem Berufstätige” as the beneficiary also supports a purpose reading. This is a cohesion judgment, not a translation of the connector in isolation.
2. Resolve blank 4 and explain why the other connector is less likely.
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“Dennoch” is better. The first clause says demand has risen sharply; the second says staffing needs remain a challenge. The second clause is a concession or contrast: despite the rise in demand, staffing is still a problem. “Deshalb” would make the staffing challenge a direct consequence of rising demand, but the verb “bleibt” suggests persistence rather than causation. The later details-hiring part-time staff and reduced seating during renovation-support the idea of an ongoing constraint. The semicolon also allows a contrastive connector to scope over the second clause. The candidate should not choose “deshalb” merely because rising demand could plausibly increase workload; the passage’s logic is concessive, not causal.
3. What time-management judgment should the candidate make after 3 minutes?
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The candidate should stop trying to solve the passage perfectly and move through the remaining blanks with a coherence check. Three minutes on three blanks is too slow for a five-blank passage. The candidate should answer the unresolved blanks with the best local fit, mark them, and return only if time remains. Crucially, the candidate should not assume that “Damit” at blank 2 forces a matching connector at blank 4; cohesion operates locally and globally, and the two blanks have different functions. The passage’s overall topic-expanded service under resource constraints-supports purpose at blank 2 and concession at blank 4. The candidate should prioritize finishing and then review marked items.