Cloze Test
A passage with numbered blanks tests vocabulary, collocation, connectors, grammar and coherence together. How to read the passage first, work out what each blank is testing, and use the sentence before and after to choose.
What you will be able to do
- Read the whole passage for its theme and direction before filling any blank.
- Identify what a given blank tests — vocabulary, collocation, connector, or grammar.
- Use the sentences on both sides of a blank, not just the words touching it.
- Keep the passage's tense and viewpoint consistent across all blanks.
What is inside this lesson
- 1What a cloze test is
- 2Read the whole passage first
- 3What each blank is testing
- 4Use the sentence on both sides
- 5Worked example
- 6Common mistakes
- 7Quick revision
- 8Practice
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What a cloze test is
A cloze test is a single short passage — usually one connected argument or story — with five to ten numbered blanks. Each blank has four or five options.
Because the blanks sit in one passage, they are not independent. The theme, the tense and the writer's stance carry across every blank, and the sentence before and after a blank often decides it. Treat the passage as a whole first, then the blanks.
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