Self-Marking a Five-Blank Cloze on Night Navigation
Cloze text: 'Night navigation is a skill that decays quietly. (1)___ a soldier can read a map by day, he may still lose his bearing after dark. Instructors therefore (2)___ a simple routine: stop, orient the map, check the compass, confirm the pace count. The routine feels slow at first, (3)___ is exactly why it must be practised until it is automatic. (4), routine alone will not save a soldier who has stopped paying attention. Pairs are sent out after 22:00, (5) the instructor an honest picture of who can navigate under stress.' Word bank: Although / Despite / adopt / adapt / which / However / giving. Each word may be used once; two will not be used. A candidate fills the five blanks in four minutes and is confident about three. His teacher will not mark the sheet; he must decide for himself which two are doubtful and defend the alternatives before the next lesson at 08:00.
1. Fill all five blanks, justifying each by the grammatical signal in the gap rather than by the meaning of the sentence alone.
Read the worked answer
(1) Although. The gap is followed by a full clause with its own subject and verb (a soldier can read a map), so a conjunction is required. Although concedes the point and sets up the still in the main clause. Meaning is not enough to decide: Despite would express the same contrast but needs a noun phrase or gerund.
(2) adopt. Adopt a routine / a format / a policy = take it up and use it. The signal is the object a simple routine with no sense of modification. Adapt would need something being modified to something else (adapt the routine to the terrain).
(3) which. The gap follows a comma and refers back to the whole preceding clause (the routine feels slow at first), and the verb that follows is singular is. Only which can do clause-reference after a comma; that cannot follow a comma in this function, and what has no antecedent.
(4) However. The gap opens a new sentence, is followed by a comma, and marks a reversal of the argument (routine is necessary, but not sufficient). Although cannot stand alone before a comma, and Despite needs a noun phrase after it.
(5) giving. The gap follows a comma and needs a non-finite form whose understood subject is the whole preceding situation (pairs are sent out after 22:00), and which takes the instructor as indirect object and an honest picture as direct object. Giving does exactly that; a finite verb would need a conjunction and would change the sentence's shape.
2. The candidate is unsure about (1) and (4). Explain how he can decide between them without guessing, and show what a rewrite with 'Despite' would look like.
Read the worked answer
He should test what sits immediately after the gap, because these two words differ in the complement they license, not in meaning:
- Although + clause (subject + finite verb).
- Despite + noun phrase or gerund.
In (1) the following words are a soldier can read a map by day - a full clause. Despite is therefore barred, whatever the meaning.
For (4) the test is punctuation and position: the gap opens a sentence, is immediately followed by a comma, and is followed by another full clause (routine alone will not save…). Although is a subordinator and cannot be followed by a comma and then a main clause in this way; it would have to attach the two clauses into one sentence. However is a conjunctive adverb, and that is precisely the slot it occupies.
Rewrite of (1) with Despite: Despite being able to read a map by day, a soldier may still lose his bearing after dark. Note what had to change: the clause became a gerund, and the subjects of the two halves now have to match, which is why the rewrite is riskier under exam conditions than simply keeping Although.
3. Why is 'adapt' a plausible trap in (2), and what minimal change would make it correct?
Read the worked answer
'Adapt' is plausible because it is a near-homograph of 'adopt', is common in training contexts, and fits the general sense that instructors are doing something sensible about the problem. Candidates who match on topic rather than on syntax pick it.
What blocks it is argument structure: adapt is a change-of-state verb that wants either an object plus a to/for phrase, or an intransitive use. Instructors therefore adapt a simple routine leaves the reader asking 'adapt it to what?' - the routine is new, not modified, so there is nothing to adapt.
Minimal changes that would license adapt:
- Instructors therefore adapt a simple routine to the terrain. (now it has a target)
- Instructors therefore adapt an existing routine for night use. (now something pre-existing is being modified)
Note the useful general rule for cloze items with look-alike options: check the object and any following preposition before checking the meaning. Here the bare object with no preposition is the decisive signal, and it is available before the candidate has decided what the paragraph is about.