Taking a Seat

C2 Proficiency · Open Cloze · Cambridge Ready original exercise

For questions 1–8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

We sit on chairs so often that we rarely give them a second (0) ___ . Yet for much of history a chair was a privilege reserved (1) ___ the few. Ordinary people made (2) ___ with stools, benches or the floor, while the only proper chair in the room belonged to the head of the household or an honoured guest. Traces of this association survive in our language. We still refer to the person in (3) ___ of a meeting as its 'chair', and an academic who is (4) ___ the top of her field may be awarded a 'chair' at a university. To be seated, in other words, was once to be recognised. As furniture became cheaper to produce, chairs gradually found their (5) ___ into ordinary homes, until they were so common as to be invisible. Today, some designers and doctors argue that we have become far (6) ___ dependent on them for our own good. Sitting for hours (7) ___ end, they warn, does our bodies no favours. The object that once signalled status may yet come to be seen (8) ___ a hazard to our health.

Taking a Seat

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

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