What keeps us on the edge of our seats at the cinema? - Module 1

C2 Proficiency · Open Cloze · Expert Proficiency Resource Book, Pearson Education

For questions 1–8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space. There is an example at the beginning.

According (0) ___ James Cutting, a psychologist at Cornell University, film-makers are getting better at constructing films in (1) ___ a way that they hold our attention. He points (2) ___ that the viewer's attention is held more effectively in films which feature shots of a similar length. What's (3) ___ , this effect is enhanced (4) ___ those shots recur in a regular pattern throughout a film. (5) ___ analysed over a hundred Hollywood movies, he has come to the conclusion that, the more recent they are, the more closely their shot lengths have a tendency to follow the same mathematical pattern that also describes human attention spans. Cutting suggests that following such a pattern (6) ___ well make films more gripping because they resonate (7) ___ the rhythm of natural attention spans. However, he doubts that directors are deliberately using mathematics in the making of movies. Instead, he thinks films that happen to be edited in this way tend to be successful, (8) ___ in turn encourages others to copy their style, explaining why more recent films tend to conform to the pattern.

What keeps us on the edge of our seats at the cinema?

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