The Cult of Busyness

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.

dispatched

delivered

posted

sent

brooch

button

badge

buckle

waving

beckoning

gesturing

signalling

preserve

conserve

preservation

reservation

matter

case

point

issue

chairs

desks

boards

tables

indebted

obliged

beholden

grateful

introspection

supervision

surveillance

inspection

Ask an acquaintance how they are these days, and the reply will, more often than (0) ___ , be 'busy', (1) ___ with a weary sigh that is not entirely free of pride. Being busy has become a (2) ___ of honour, a way of (3) ___ that one is needed, valued and in demand. It was not always so. Leisure was once the (4) ___ of the privileged few, and the wealthy made a (5) ___ of being seen to do very little, since only those who did not need to work could afford to be idle. Today the (6) ___ have turned. It is the person with an empty diary who feels (7) ___ to apologise, as though free time were evidence of failure rather than good fortune. Yet busyness is not the same thing as productivity, and much of the frantic activity we boast about turns out, on closer (8) ___ , to be little more than motion for its own sake: emails answered at midnight and meetings that might have been a single message.

The Cult of Busyness

ever

not

never

nothing

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

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