Beside the Water

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.

failure

nothing

vain

futility

plead

beg

ask

pray

maintain

retain

sustain

obtain

toning

aligning

tailoring

attuning

installs

instils

inserts

infuses

stock

store

supply

provision

award

reward

endow

afford

best

more

better

finer

To the (0) ___ , fishing looks like an elaborate way of doing nothing: hours spent on a riverbank, waiting in (1) ___ for a bite that may never come. Anglers themselves (2) ___ to differ. Fishing, they (3) ___ , is less about catching fish than about (4) ___ oneself to the water: reading the current, noticing where fish are rising and sensing how a change in the weather will affect what lies beneath the surface. The sport also (5) ___ a kind of patience that is in short (6) ___ in daily life, where every spare moment tends to be filled with a glance at a screen. Few other pastimes (7) ___ such long stretches of solitude, broken only by birdsong and the occasional splash. Many anglers return a fish to the water once it is caught, which suggests that the catch was never really the point. And if, at the end of a long day, the float does finally dip, so much the (8) ___ .

Beside the Water

unaccustomed

uninitiated

unacquainted

unaccompanied

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

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