C2 Proficiency - Open Cloze Exercises

Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE)

Open Cloze pages:
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The second part of the Reading and Use of English paper in the C2 Proficiency Examination is open cloze, in which you use one word to fill each space in a short text.

Example Question

6. The southern states of the USA ________ to be hot and humid in the summer.

Open Cloze Exercise 1
Exercise Number: CPE028

Open Cloze Exercise 2
Exercise Number: CPE029

Open Cloze Exercise 3
Exercise Number: CPE030

Exam Tip!

Read the whole sentence or the whole text. Often the answer required for the space is dependent on a word or reference many words before or after it. Look at this example:

Kathy spent the afternoon looking for the phone and finally John admitted taking it because he hadn't known that it was ______.

The answer is "HERS" but you wouldn't know that unless you'd read the name that appears TWENTY-ONE words before the gap!

Open Cloze Exercise 4
Exercise Number: CPE031

Open Cloze Exercise 5
Exercise Number: CPE032

Open Cloze Exercise 6
Exercise Number: CPE033

Open Cloze Exercise 7
Exercise Number: CPE034

Open Cloze Exercise 8
Exercise Number: CPE035

Open Cloze Exercise 9
Exercise Number: CPE036

Exam Tip!

Keep a database of difficult open cloze questions. This could be on your computer or in a notebook. You might list them like this:

put it IN order (to put something in order)
licked ITS paw (pronoun for objects/animals)
set UP a company (phrasal verb 'set up', to establish, create)

Open Cloze Exercise 10
Exercise Number: CPE037

Open Cloze Exercise 11
Exercise Number: CPE085

Open Cloze Exercise 12
Exercise Number: CPE086

Open Cloze Exercise 13
Exercise Number: CPE087

Open Cloze Exercise 14
Exercise Number: CPE088