15 Open Cloze Practice Questions with Answers | Cambridge C2 Proficiency

Open Cloze is Part 2 of the Reading and Use of English paper in Cambridge C2 Proficiency (CPE). You read a short text with eight gaps and write one word in each gap. It tests your control of grammar, with some focus on vocabulary such as fixed phrases and linking words. This post gives you 15 C2 Proficiency Open Cloze practice questions with answers. Each text has a worked example (gap 0), and every answer comes with a short note that explains why the word fits. Try each text first, then open the answers to check your work.

Question 1

Water in an Abandoned Mine

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

A mine may continue to influence the surrounding landscape, (0) ALTHOUGH extraction has ceased. Even when it is no (1) ______ worked, its passages collect groundwater. That water can become acidic on account (2) ______ reactions between air, water and exposed minerals. In deep workings, the pressure may be (3) ______ that a sudden release would affect nearby streams.

Water is therefore sampled prior (4) ______ being pumped out. Its chemistry can vary according to whether the inflow comes from surface drains (5) ______ fractured rock. The resulting pattern is anything (6) ______ constant, since rainfall and seasonal evaporation alter both volume and concentration. Pumps are adjusted so (7) ______ to avoid transferring pollution downstream faster than treatment can remove it. The absence of visible flow at the surface is by no (8) ______ proof that the mine is dry; water may simply be accumulating beyond the accessible shafts.

Question 2

Reading History in a Hedgerow

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

A hedgerow may look like an untidy line of shrubs, (0) ALTHOUGH its position can preserve a much older division of land. Its route is often anything (1) ______ random. Some boundaries survived by (2) ______ of their legal or practical importance even when the fields around them changed use.

A mature hedge can record (3) ______ property limits and repeated management, but age cannot be inferred from size alone. Historical maps reveal the extent (4) ______ which a line has remained stable. The evidence must be assessed irrespective (5) ______ whether the present shrubs were planted recently, since they may occupy an ancient bank. Researchers therefore compare maps and deeds rather (6) ______ relying on a count of plant species. Field notes are retained in (7) ______ later work reveals that a bank was moved or rebuilt. Far (8) ______ being a frozen relic, the hedgerow is a living feature whose historical significance lies partly in continued use.

Question 3

How Seating Shapes Debate

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Some debating chambers arrange members on opposing benches, (0) WHILE others place them in a semicircle. In the first arrangement, speakers face their opponents directly, as opposed (1) ______ facing a shared focal point. The position influences not only whom a speaker addresses (2) ______ also whom that speaker can see without turning away.

Far (3) ______ being a neutral container, the room can encourage particular forms of exchange. It does so only insofar (4) ______ members accept the conventions associated with the layout. A confrontational speech may be at (5) ______ with the informal negotiations taking place beyond the chamber. Be that (6) ______ it may, seating still exercises influence by (7) ______ of sightlines, distance and the visibility of reaction. Architectural comparison cannot establish how anyone will speak, but it can clarify the degree (8) ______ which certain interactions are made easier than others.

Question 4

What a Composer's Revisions Reveal

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Published scores often give the impression that a composition emerged fully formed, (0) BECAUSE crossings-out and abandoned passages have been removed. (1) ______ much editors may wish to offer performers a clean text, suppressing every revision would be nothing (2) ______ of a distortion. Drafts can reveal the extent (3) ______ which a musical idea changed during composition.

A deleted passage may be not merely an error (4) ______ evidence of an alternative structure. Critical editions therefore transcribe successive layers so (5) ______ readers can distinguish early decisions from later ones. Be that (6) ______ it may, no transcription can reproduce every feature of the manuscript. A facsimile is no more neutral (7) ______ an edited score, since lighting and scale affect what can be seen. Scholars make the revisions legible by (8) ______ of symbols and commentary, while keeping interpretation separate from physical description.

Question 5

Preserving Digital Art through Emulation

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

A work of digital art may cease to function (0) WHEN the computer for which it was written becomes obsolete. Its behaviour can be dependent (1) ______ a particular operating system, processor speed or screen shape. Once that hardware is no (2) ______ available, conservators may create an emulator that imitates the original environment.

The aim is not so much to freeze every visual detail (3) ______ to preserve the relationship between the work and its user. The emulator may deliberately slow a modern computer in (4) ______ to reproduce the timing on which an interaction depended. Each intervention is documented for fear (5) ______ the emulator itself might be mistaken for part of the original artwork. Conservators must decide whether an unexpected delay was intentional (6) ______ merely a technical limitation. Reconstructing that distinction from the software alone can be all (7) ______ impossible. Future emulators are compared by (8) ______ of recorded behaviour as well as surviving code.

Question 6

What a Fire Scar Can Tell Us

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

A dark mark inside a tree ring may preserve evidence of an earlier wildfire, (0) BECAUSE the tree continued growing after it was injured. The scar records damage rather (1) ______ the fire itself, so interpretation depends on comparison. Two nearby scars do not necessarily belong to one and (2) ______ same event.

Long-lived trees are capable (3) ______ surviving more than one fire, while a severe fire may leave no living tree at all. In the absence (4) ______ other evidence, a date alone establishes neither the size (5) ______ the cause of the event. A regional sequence becomes persuasive provided (6) ______ scars from several sites align with climate and historical records. Even then, uncertainty may remain as (7) ______ whether an unscarred interval was genuinely fire-free. Far (8) ______ making the record useless, these limits show why tree-ring evidence is strongest when treated as one strand in a wider reconstruction.

Question 7

Why the Seven-Day Week Endures

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

The seven-day week can feel like a natural unit, (0) ALTHOUGH it does not correspond neatly to either the lunar month or the solar year. Its durability owes less (1) ______ astronomy (2) ______ to coordination. Once markets, worship, wages and rest days were organised around the same cycle, altering its length would put records and routines out (3) ______ step with one another.

Reformers have repeatedly proposed tidier calendars. Some arranged months into equal blocks; others introduced days outside the weekly sequence. The full cost of transition became apparent (4) ______ governments only when such schemes encountered ordinary contracts and shared expectations. The week persists by (5) ______ of being shared across institutions whose purposes otherwise differ.

Logical alternatives exist in abundance; the difficulty lies (6) ______ the fact that logic is only one requirement of a calendar. So extensive are the agreements built around the seven-day rhythm (7) ______ even a more symmetrical system would initially create confusion. The cycle also crosses borders regardless (8) ______ whether national holidays and working patterns coincide. Its apparent inevitability is therefore historical rather than mathematical: people can imagine another week, but they cannot adopt one alone.

Question 8

Why an Orchestra Tunes to One Note

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

(0) BEFORE a concert begins, an orchestra's apparently simple tuning ritual establishes far more than a single correct frequency. The reference note is less a command (1) ______ a common point of departure. The oboe traditionally supplies it because its penetrating tone is easy to locate, although the instrument itself remains subject (2) ______ minute fluctuations in temperature and reed condition.

No sooner (3) ______ the oboist sound the note than players compare it with their own sustained pitches. Close agreement is signalled (4) ______ the disappearance of audible pulses between nearby frequencies, not by sheer loudness. Yet the result is provisional. The warmer the hall becomes, the (5) ______ readily some instruments rise in pitch, while others respond differently.

Tuning is therefore by no (6) ______ an attempt to erase every later discrepancy. It establishes a shared reference against which expressive deviations can be heard (7) ______ choices rather than accidents. What matters is the ensemble's capacity to remain within reach (8) ______ a common tonal centre, even as physical conditions alter around it.

Question 9

Keeping an Orrery in Step with the Sky

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

An orrery functions (0) AS a mechanical model of the solar system, but an old one is not simply a decorative object to be polished and displayed. At Veynor Museum, no sooner (1) ______ conservator Mara Elwin begun turning the handle than she noticed that Mars was drifting ahead of its intended position. The planets' relative movements depend on how each gear meshes (2) ______ the next, so a worn tooth can put one arm out (3) ______ phase without stopping the mechanism altogether.

Rather (4) ______ forcing every pointer towards today's sky, Elwin first records the accumulated error. She then compares tooth counts and surviving maker's marks so (5) ______ any replacement can reproduce the instrument's internal logic. She traces the discrepancy through the entire train prior (6) ______ resetting a pointer. The aim is not to make the model correspond exactly (7) ______ one particular night, but to preserve the mathematical relationship (8) ______ planetary periods and the motion of each pointer. A convincing restoration therefore leaves visible the difference between correcting damage and rewriting an old scientific model with modern precision.

Question 10

Why North Sits at the Top of Maps

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

The fact (0) THAT north occupies the top of most modern maps can make the arrangement seem inevitable. What appears self-evident is, in (1) ______, a convention. So accustomed are readers to the north-up page (2) ______ alternatives are often described as inverted, even though earlier mapmakers placed east, south or a sacred centre above the rest.

It was only with the expansion of standardised navigation and mass printing (3) ______ one orientation acquired exceptional authority. This is not to deny that the choice was partly motivated (4) ______ practical considerations. Compass use and shared coordinate systems lent themselves (5) ______ repeated north-up reproduction. Once atlases, classrooms and public institutions adopted it, the convention persisted by virtue (6) ______ the fact that each new map taught readers how the next should look.

Orientation is therefore anything (7) ______ neutral in its effects: what lies above can appear primary, while familiar spatial relations seem natural. To rotate a map is not to make it inaccurate, but to expose (8) ______ thoroughly a learned convention shapes the act of seeing geography.

Question 11

When One Number Stands for Many

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

An average attracts attention (0) BECAUSE it appears to compress a complicated set of observations into a single, manageable fact. Yet far (1) ______ being neutral, the choice of average can shape the story told about a group. The mean is sensitive to extreme values, while the median says nothing about the extent (2) ______ which observations are dispersed around it. Neither measure is by any (3) ______ useless; the problem begins when its limitations disappear from view.

Proper interpretation of the headline figure depends (4) ______ showing the underlying distribution. Two neighbourhoods may have the same average income while differing radically in how income is shared. The disagreement is not so much about arithmetic (5) ______ about what the number is being asked to represent. A value technically calculated without error may still be at (6) ______ with most people's experience. In a sharply unequal sample, the mean can be anything (7) ______ typical.

Good statistical reporting therefore asks whether (8) ______ not the selected measure answers the practical question at hand. An average is most informative when accompanied by its range, its distribution and an explanation of why that particular summary was chosen.

Question 12

When Shipwrecks Are Safer Underwater

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

(0) WHEN a shipwreck is discovered, the instinct to raise its contents can appear synonymous with rescue. By that stage, however, waterlogged materials may have reached a chemical equilibrium (1) ______ their surroundings. No matter (2) ______ carefully an object is lifted, exposure to oxygen and rapid drying can initiate damage that was impossible underwater.

Timber may shrink to a fraction of (3) ______ it was, while apparently solid iron can be brought ashore only (4) ______ its outer layer to collapse. Leaving a site submerged is therefore not tantamount (5) ______ neglect. On the (6) ______, covering vulnerable remains, restricting anchors and monitoring currents may constitute active conservation.

Preservation in place is defensible on condition (7) ______ the site remains stable and accessible to responsible study. Recovery is justified when erosion or interference presents the greater threat. The serious question is not whether objects belong in a museum, but (8) ______ of the two options retains more evidence over time. Sometimes the least dramatic intervention demands the more exacting form of care.

Question 13

Why Old Flood Marks Still Matter

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Marks showing the height reached by earlier floods are sometimes left on walls, (0) WHEN a community chooses to preserve them after the water has gone. Far (1) ______ being mere curiosities, these lines can connect personal memory with long-term planning. Had it not been (2) ______ such marks, several older floods might have survived only in scattered written accounts.

What (3) ______ repeated repainting and changes to street level, however, the original position of a line cannot always be taken for granted. Surveyors verify its height before using it in maps prepared in the event (4) ______ future flooding. A marker remains useful provided (5) ______ its date and reference level are recorded. It should also be checked against at (6) ______ one independent source, whether that is a photograph (7) ______ an engineering report. The marks are by no (8) ______ a substitute for modern gauges, but they preserve evidence across periods for which measurements are otherwise inconsistent.

Question 14

Reconstructing an Old Ink Recipe

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Old instructions for making ink can look reassuringly precise, (0) ALTHOUGH their apparent clarity often vanishes under examination. A recipe remains intelligible for as (1) ______ as its ingredient names keep the same meanings. In practice, the terminology is anything (2) ______ uniform: a word for a mineral in one workshop may denote a plant extract in another.

Conservators therefore compare the marks left on manuscripts rather (3) ______ following each instruction literally. A modern substitute may be liable (4) ______ darken the paper or accelerate corrosion, even when its colour initially appears correct. One formula is especially useful in (5) ______ it records the order in which ingredients were heated. Yet it would be misleading to treat the text as (6) ______ it were a modern laboratory protocol. Were it not (7) ______ tests on sacrificial samples, a plausible reconstruction might be applied directly to an original page. The safest result may ultimately be one that is visually convincing but chemically at (8) ______ with the historical recipe.

Question 15

Restoring a Mechanical Automaton

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

A mechanical automaton may be admired for its painted exterior, (0) ALTHOUGH the mechanism inside is the part most vulnerable to misguided repair. Restoration succeeds only so (1) ______ as the sequence of movement remains legible. A brightly polished gear can be anything (2) ______ evidence of good condition, since polishing may erase tool marks.

Conservators therefore remove hardened oil rather (3) ______ forcing a seized part to move. They also prevent replacement components (4) ______ being mistaken for originals by marking them discreetly. Elements such (5) ______ cams and levers are photographed before disassembly, and every adjustment is recorded in (6) ______ a later conservator needs to reverse it. A perfectly smooth performance may be at (7) ______ with the maker's original design, which often included slight pauses. Demonstrations are consequently carried out by (8) ______ of a hand crank, allowing motion to be stopped before strain becomes damage.