A Pinch of This

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.

total

amount

count

sum

word

letter

line

dot

preconceive

presuppose

predispose

preordain

devoured

ingested

swallowed

absorbed

wrist

knee

elbow

ankle

pin

clip

staple

tack

go

come

turn

fall

direct

close

near

first

Anyone who has tried to (0) ___ a grandparent's signature dish from their handwritten notes will know the frustration of instructions that (1) ___ to little more than 'some flour' and 'cook until it looks right'. Such recipes were never meant to be followed to the (2) ___ . They (3) ___ a cook who has stood at the stove for years and knows by smell when the onions are ready or when the dough has rested long enough. Knowledge of this kind is not so much taught as (4) ___ , over years of hovering at an older relative's (5) ___ , tasting, fetching and occasionally being shooed away. Attempts to (6) ___ such recipes down with precise weights and timings often (7) ___ flat: the dish is perfectly edible, yet something indefinable is missing. Perhaps that is the point. Some recipes are better learned at (8) ___ hand, in a crowded kitchen, than from any page, however carefully it has been preserved.

A Pinch of This

recollect

recount

reclaim

recreate

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

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