The Last Word

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.

Many newspaper readers confess that they turn to the obituaries before they so (0) ___ as glance at the headlines. This is less morbid (1) ___ it sounds. A good obituary is not so much a record of a death (2) ___ a celebration of a life, and the best of them bring their subjects (3) ___ life in a few hundred words. Those subjects are by no (4) ___ always famous. Some of the most memorable obituaries concern people who achieved little of note (5) ___ the eyes of the world but who lived with unusual courage, kindness or eccentricity. Writing them is a delicate art. The writer must be honest without being cruel, and warm without tipping over (6) ___ sentimentality. Since nobody can predict when they will be needed, many papers keep obituaries of well-known figures on file, written well in (7) ___ and updated from time (8) ___ time. It is not unknown for an obituary to outlive the journalist who wrote it.

The Last Word

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