More Than Talk About the Weather

C2 Proficiency · Multiple Choice Cloze · Cambridge Ready original exercise

For questions 1–8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

loses

mistakes

misses

passes

road

way

path

route

largely

widely

greatly

highly

strike

forge

cast

mould

chins

eyes

noses

heads

talk

speech

saying

word

risk

hazard

peril

threat

taken

held

brought

made

Small talk has a poor reputation. It is routinely (0) ___ as a tiresome ritual, a way of filling silence with remarks that neither party has the slightest interest in. Yet such a view rather (1) ___ the point. Exchanges about nothing in particular are the means by which strangers signal that they mean one another no harm, and by which acquaintances pave the (2) ___ for more meaningful conversation. The actual content of what is said is (3) ___ incidental; what counts is the willingness to engage at all. Anthropologists long ago noted that a great deal of everyday speech serves to (4) ___ bonds rather than to convey information. Even those who turn their (5) ___ up at small talk tend to notice its absence soon enough. A colleague who walks past every morning without so much as a (6) ___ about the weekend runs the (7) ___ of being thought cold or aloof, however warm they may be in reality. Seen in this light, the passing remark about the rain is far from the empty formality it is often (8) ___ out to be. It is, in its modest way, an act of courtesy.

More Than Talk About the Weather

discarded

dismissed

refused

declined

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

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