Cloze, Gap-Fill and Error Correction
What this domain tests
A cloze passage deletes words at regular intervals; a gap-fill deletes selected items; error correction asks you to find one wrong, missing or extra word per line. All three test the same thing: whether you can combine grammar, collocation and cohesion, rather than judging each gap in isolation.
Method
- Read the whole passage once without writing. The topic and the tense of the passage decide most gaps.
- Before looking at options, predict the word class the gap needs: determiner, auxiliary, preposition, connector, noun.
- Test your choice against the sentence before and the sentence after. A word that fits locally but breaks the link with the next sentence is wrong.
- Check cohesion markers: however and nevertheless signal contrast; therefore and consequently signal result; moreover signals addition; for instance signals example.
- In error correction, read each line alone and then in context. Look at articles, prepositions, verb forms, plurals and comparatives first, because those are the commonest error types.
Worked example
Gap: She has worked at the bank ______ 2019. Reasoning: present perfect plus a point in time requires since. For would need a duration (for six years). Answer: since. Error line: He suggested me to apply for the scholarship. Reasoning: suggest never takes object plus to-infinitive. Correct forms: He suggested that I should apply... or He suggested applying....
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing a distractor that shares the part of speech but not the collocation (do a photo instead of take a photo).
- Ignoring instructions such as one word only or write the extra word.
- Missing a negative or plural marker that changes the whole clause.
- Solving each gap alone and producing a passage that does not cohere.
- Correcting a line that is already correct when the rubric says one line has no error.