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Cloze Test – Introduction to the Concept
What is a Cloze Test?
A Cloze test is an amalgamation of ‘comprehension’ and ‘fill in the blanks’ where your reading, analysing and vocabulary skills are all tested at once. A comprehension or a passage is given in the question which comprises blanks. Candidates need to choose the most appropriate word from the given options, which can most suitably be placed in the blank.
There are various benefits for a candidate if a cloze test is asked in the question paper. This is because to answer these questions, it does not take anything more than 30 seconds and anybody who has a good command over Grammar can easily score high for this topic, thereby increasing the overall scores.
Willing aspirants can know more about General English for competitive exams at the linked article.
There are two major patterns based on which a cloze test is asked in the examinations:
- Basic Fill in the Blanks Format: The simplest format for the cloze test is that a passage is given with multiple blanks and candidates need to choose one correct answer from the given options, which would be appropriate and logically fill the blank.
- Replacing words: With the increased competition in the various Government exams, a new pattern for cloze test frequently appears in the examination. Instead of giving blanks, multiple words are given in bold in the passage and candidates need to answer if the word given in bold is appropriate or if it can be replaced with another word from the given options.
In either of the two cases, candidates need to have good command over vocabulary and grammar as only then can they answer these questions easily and efficiently.
Tips and Tricks to Solve the Cloze Test
The exam pattern for the various competitive exams may be different but the syllabus under each subject is the same. So, candidates who are preparing for any Government sector exam must be aware that questions from the cloze test may be asked in the examination.
To ensure that a candidate does not lose marks in the cloze test passage, given below are a few tips to solve the test-based questions:
- Overview of the Passage: Take a quick glance at the passage to know what the topic deals with as this will help you apprehend which of the given options most suitably fits in the blank.
- Look for Contextually Correct Options: The options provided under cloze test may seem to be similar in meaning, which makes selecting the appropriate option even tougher. Thus, look for an option which aptly fits with the context of the passage.
- Eliminate Options in case confused: If you are unable to reach an answer, try eliminating the options which seem to be incorrect. This will lessen your options and may help to arrive at the correct answer easily.
- Link the Sentences while answering: The cloze test is a passage based on a particular topic. So, if you are unable to find the answer, try linking the sentences with each other to simplify the context of the passage.
- Understand the tone of the passage: Once a candidate understands the tone of the passage, selecting the appropriate option becomes easier.
The tips given above will help an aspirant preparing for the competitive exams to analyse how time can be saved while answering any question. It must also be noted that the more a candidate practises, the more confident he/she shall become in the process.
Sample Questions for Cloze Test
With the current state of competition in the various Government sector examinations, be it Banks Exams, SSC, RRB or Insurance, the level of the exam has increased and it has become vital that a candidate practise more and more, in order to qualify the exam.
Given below is a sample question for a cloze test, which shall enable you to understand the topic well and also to analyze the pattern of the questions appearing under this topic.
Question: Read the passage given below and fill in the blanks with the suitable option:
Earth, our home, is the third planet from the sun. It’s the only _________ (a) known to have an atmosphere containing free oxygen, oceans of water on its surface and, of course, life.
The fifth-largest planet of the Solar system is the Earth. It is smaller ________ (b) the four gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — but larger than the three other rocky planets, Mercury, Mars and Venus.
Earth has a diameter of roughly 8,000 miles and is ________ (c) because gravity pulls matter into a ball. But, it is not perfectly round. Earth is really an “oblate spheroid,” because its spin causes it to be squashed at its poles and swollen at the equator.
71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, and most of that is in the oceans. About a fifth of Earth’s atmosphere consists of oxygen, produced by ________ (d). While scientists have been studying our planet for centuries, a lot has been learned in the past few decades by studying pictures of Earth from space.
Q 1. (a)
- Planet
- Moon
- Satellite
- Surface
- Life
Answer: (1) Planet
Q 2. (b)
- For
- Then
- Than
- There
- On
Answer: (3) Than
Q 3. (c)
- Oval
- Round
- Square
- Uneven
- Disrupted
Answer: (2) Round
Q 4. (d)
- Animals
- Humans
- Living Beings
- Plants
- None of the Above
Answer: (4) Plants
Frequently Asked Questions on Cloze Test
Q1
Q 1. What is a Cloze Test?
Ans. Cloze Test is a form of fill in the blanks question where words are committed from a paragraph, and candidates have to fill the blanks with suitable words either grammatically or context-wise.
Q2
Q 2. How many types of cloze test are there?
Ans. There are two major types of cloze test. One is which is given in the form of fill in the blanks and the other one is where incorrect words have to be replaced.
Q3
Q 3. How to score more marks in the cloze test?
Ans. Follow the below-mentioned tips to score more in the cloze test:
- Work on stronger vocabulary
- Increase readability by reading newspapers and paragraphs
- In topic-based cloze test questions, try to get the context of the given paragraph
- Prepare preposition and articles well
- In case of confusion, use the elimination method to answer questions
Q4
Q 4. What are cloze sentences?
Ans. When a keyword is missing from a sentence or has been replaced with an irrelevant word, such sentences are called cloze sentences.