The fight for women's rights - Review 2

C2 Proficiency · Multiple Choice Cloze · Close-up C2 Workbook, National Geographic Learning

Read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.

effective

instrumental

affluent

impoverished

oppressive

domineering

stifling

overwhelming

detracted

distracted

dominated

confine

condemn

contain

condone

confine

benevolence

justice

equality

mercy

stay

run

do

get

occupied

mounted

formed

pickets

away with

up to

down on

out of

Lowell, Massachusetts is not a particularly (1) ___ place; it's a medium-sized town of about 100,000 citizens, most of whom have average incomes and live comfortable lives. But it serves as a turning point in the history of women's rights, as the women there fought against the (2) ___ conditions they endured at the city's textile mills in the 1800s. Almost 8,000 women – some as young as 13 – were employed at the mills that (3) ___ the industrial landscape of Lowell at the time. Employment gave these 'Mill Girls' a certain kind of independence for the first time in their lives, because before then, their husbands did not (4) ___ their wives or daughters working outside the home. But before this story begins to sound like a tale of employer (5) ___ , it is important to point out that employers hired the women at half the wages of the men, proving that there was nothing truly kind in their actions. They thought they could (6) ___ away with it, but in an ironic twist, the women, with their new-found sense of empowerment, (7) ___ a strike against their employers. Some very positive developments came (8) ___ the resistance: employers had to cave in to their demands and the women were offered better wages and working conditions.

The fight for women's rights

Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.

More C2 Proficiency Multiple Choice Cloze practice · All C2 Proficiency practice