C1 Advanced Multiple Choice Cloze Practice

C1 Advanced (CAE) · Reading & Use of English Part 1 · 53 free exercises

A text with eight gaps, each offering four similar words — only one fits. Multiple choice cloze tests precise vocabulary: collocations (words that naturally go together), fixed phrases, phrasal verbs and shades of meaning between near-synonyms.

Multiple Choice Cloze: Four words fit the gap; only one fits the phrase.

• 8 — gaps
• 4 options — A B C D
• 1 mark — per gap
• ~8 min — of your paper

Collocation and fixed expressions — which words go together in English. The four options are usually close in meaning, so the answer is not the word you understand but the word English pairs with its neighbours.

What real learners get wrong: From 15,048 real gaps, learners get 14% wrong — and nearly every hard gap is a fixed phrase: clock up, out of harm’s way, called into question. The wrong answers are real synonyms that do not collocate.

The method

1. Read the whole sentence first, ignoring the options — try to feel what belongs in the gap.
2. Read the words on both sides: the answer is usually chosen by a neighbour (a verb before, a preposition after).
3. Ask whether this is a fixed phrase — a phrasal verb, idiom or set expression. If so, only one option completes it.
4. Test each option inside the phrase, not just by meaning. All four may mean something similar.
5. Eliminate what you can prove wrong, then choose — narrowing to two doubles your odds.

The traps

• The plausible synonym: A distractor that means almost the same but does not collocate. You "clock up" laps, you do not "sum" them.
• Choosing by meaning, not pairing: Combat, battle, struggle and contest all mean fighting — only one pairs with "doing".
• Idioms with a fixed word: "Out of harm’s way" allows no substitution — not danger’s, risk’s or threat’s.
• Ignoring the preposition: The little word after the gap often decides — "___ of working hours" wants "assurance".
• Reading only the gap sentence: If two options both fit the sentence, the wider context breaks the tie.

Worked example

Formula One development driver · Advanced Expert Student’s Resource Book, Pearson Education — A real past-paper text, attempted by 86 learners. Notice how the hard gaps are all fixed phrases — the wrong answers are real synonyms that don’t collocate.

1. title (collocation) — 10% wrong, most wrote “subject”: “Job title” is the collocation; heading/subject don’t pair with “job”.
2. set (phrasal verb) — 2% wrong, most wrote “put”: “Set up” — the phrasal verb for preparing the cars.
3. connected (collocation) — 21% wrong, most wrote “monitored”: “Connected to” = linked to; the screens link to the engineers.
4. clock (phrasal verb) — 43% wrong, most wrote “sum”: “Clock up” = accumulate (100 laps a day). The hardest gap — most wrote the synonym “sum”.
5. so that (purpose clause) — 0% wrong: “So that” introduces a purpose clause.
6. feedback (vocabulary) — 7% wrong, most wrote “backlog”: “Feedback” = information given in return.
7. issues (collocation) — 1% wrong, most wrote “questions”: “Issues with” = problems with something.
8. based (collocation) — 0% wrong: “Based on” = derived from.

All Multiple Choice Cloze exercises

Advanced Expert Coursebook, Pearson Education

• Can whales predict disasters? - Module 5
• Team spirit - Module 10
• The extended family - Module 2
• The man who invented playtime - Module 3
• What is a home? - Module 7

Advanced Expert Student's Resource Book, Pearson Education

• Formula One development driver - Module 10
• Man's best friend - Module 5
• One brick at a time - Module 3
• Should we stay at home? - Module 7
• The benefits of bilingualism - Module 6
• The dangers of miscommunication - Module 4
• The demise of the bookstore - Module 8
• The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence - Module 9
• The secret menu - Module 2
• Work placements - Module 1
• Working from home - Practice Exam

C1 Advanced Trainer 2, Cambridge University Press

• A Lost Amazonian Civilisation - Test 6
• Goals - Test 5
• Saying 'Thank You' - Test 4
• Violins and the Human Voice - Test 3
• When audience members save the day - Test 2
• Would you rather win a silver or bronze medal? - Test 1

Cambridge English Advanced 1, Cambridge University Press

• Dressing for success - Test 4
• Promotion is good for your health - Test 2
• The Japanese Bobtail - Test 3
• The camera never lies - Test 1

Cambridge English Advanced 2, Cambridge University Press

• Changing Typefaces - Test 7
• Citizen Science - Test 8
• Solar Power for Indian Villages - Test 6
• The Golden Gate Bridge - Test 5

Cambridge English Advanced 3, Cambridge University Press

• A taste of the future - Test 4
• Glass - Test 3
• Reading the slow way - Test 2
• Time and the rotation of the Earth - Test 1

Cambridge Exam Booster for Advanced, Cambridge University Press

• Don't miss the event of the year! - Worksheet 1
• Hobbyists around the world unite - Worksheet 2
• News sharing - Worksheet 3

Complete Advanced Workbook, Cambridge University Press

• Adaptive learning platforms - Unit 10
• Mini golf goes hi-tech - Unit 7

Complete Advanced, Cambridge University Press

• The Candle Problem - Unit 10
• The power of art galleries - Unit 7
• Zero-hours contracts - Unit 4

Ready for C1 Advanced 4th Edition Workbook, Macmillan Education

• Houseboats in the UK - Unit 10
• Nostalgia - Unit 2
• Opposites Don’t Attract After All - Unit 5
• The Hedonic Treadmill - Unit 7

Ready for C1 Advanced 4th Edition, Macmillan Education

• Customers Just Want Coffee, Not Friendship - Unit 5 Review
• Daylight Saving Time - Unit 2 Review
• Gadgets for the Future - Unit 8 Review
• Healing crystals - Unit 7
• Neighbours have become strangers - Unit 10
• Singing in the City - Ready for Use of English
• The Kea – An Unusual Parrot - Unit 12

Other levels

• B2 First (FCE)
• C2 Proficiency (CPE)