Learning at the Bench

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.

wakeful

sleepless

watchful

waking

taciturn

tacit

reticent

laconic

conveyed

carried

borne

ported

fragment

pittance

sliver

morsel

pity

grace

charity

mercy

sunk

fallen

tumbled

sagged

absorbed

engrossed

obsessed

possessed

worth

valuable

deserving

equal

Long before there were universities, skills were (0) ___ down from master to apprentice. The apprentice learned by watching, copying and making countless mistakes under the (1) ___ eye of someone who had spent a lifetime at the trade. Much of what was learned in this way is (2) ___ knowledge: it lives in the hands rather than the head and cannot easily be (3) ___ in words, however detailed the instructions. The arrangement was not always a happy one. Apprentices commonly worked long hours for a (4) ___ and were at the (5) ___ of their master's temper. Yet the model has never quite (6) ___ out of favour, and in an age (7) ___ with paper qualifications there is growing recognition that some things can only be learned by doing. The precise angle of a chisel, the moment when the glue is ready, the sound of a joint that fits: none of these can be read in a book. An hour at the bench, it turns out, can be (8) ___ a week in the lecture hall.

Learning at the Bench

given

handed

sent

carried

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

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