Fashionably Late?

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.

Most of us know someone who is perpetually late: the friend who turns up (0) ___ an hour after the agreed time, full of apologies and explanations. It is tempting to put this (1) ___ to rudeness, but chronic lateness is seldom a deliberate choice, and many latecomers are (2) ___ bit as frustrated by it as the people they keep waiting. One explanation is that some people are prone (3) ___ underestimating how long things will take. They remain convinced that a journey which has never once taken less than twenty minutes will, on this occasion, take ten. Others simply cannot bear the thought (4) ___ arriving early and having nothing to do, and so squeeze in one last task before leaving, with predictable results. (5) ___ the cause, the effect on others is real. Being kept waiting time and (6) ___ can leave friends and colleagues feeling that their time is held (7) ___ low esteem. Latecomers would be well (8) ___ to remember that punctuality is a courtesy that costs nothing but a little forethought.

Fashionably Late?

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