Cloze Test Quiz: English Passage Practice

Spoilers! These are the Starter quiz’s answers. Easy, Medium, Hard and Mixed rounds show their own answers when you finish.

1. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (1). Water is often called our most precious resource, yet many cities (1) ____ huge quantities of it every day. Through leaking pipes alone, a city can (2) ____ a large share of its supply before it reaches homes. Some towns have begun to (3) ____ rainwater from rooftops and store it in tanks. Such steps may seem small, (4) ____ together they can ease shortages in summer. What is needed most is a change in (5) ____: every litre must be treated as valuable.

   • conserve
   • waste
   • treasure
   • recycle

   Answer: waste. 'Yet' sets up a contrast with 'most precious resource', so cities must be doing something careless: waste.

2. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (2). Water is often called our most precious resource, yet many cities (1) ____ huge quantities of it every day. Through leaking pipes alone, a city can (2) ____ a large share of its supply before it reaches homes. Some towns have begun to (3) ____ rainwater from rooftops and store it in tanks. Such steps may seem small, (4) ____ together they can ease shortages in summer. What is needed most is a change in (5) ____: every litre must be treated as valuable.

   • lose
   • gain
   • store
   • deliver

   Answer: lose. Leaking pipes cause water to be lost before it reaches homes.

3. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (3). Water is often called our most precious resource, yet many cities (1) ____ huge quantities of it every day. Through leaking pipes alone, a city can (2) ____ a large share of its supply before it reaches homes. Some towns have begun to (3) ____ rainwater from rooftops and store it in tanks. Such steps may seem small, (4) ____ together they can ease shortages in summer. What is needed most is a change in (5) ____: every litre must be treated as valuable.

   • drain
   • pollute
   • boil
   • harvest

   Answer: harvest. Collecting and storing rainwater from rooftops is called rainwater harvesting.

4. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (4). Water is often called our most precious resource, yet many cities (1) ____ huge quantities of it every day. Through leaking pipes alone, a city can (2) ____ a large share of its supply before it reaches homes. Some towns have begun to (3) ____ rainwater from rooftops and store it in tanks. Such steps may seem small, (4) ____ together they can ease shortages in summer. What is needed most is a change in (5) ____: every litre must be treated as valuable.

   • so
   • because
   • but
   • unless

   Answer: but. 'May seem small' is followed by an opposing idea (they can ease shortages), so the connector is 'but'.

5. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (5). Water is often called our most precious resource, yet many cities (1) ____ huge quantities of it every day. Through leaking pipes alone, a city can (2) ____ a large share of its supply before it reaches homes. Some towns have begun to (3) ____ rainwater from rooftops and store it in tanks. Such steps may seem small, (4) ____ together they can ease shortages in summer. What is needed most is a change in (5) ____: every litre must be treated as valuable.

   • attitude
   • altitude
   • aptitude
   • latitude

   Answer: attitude. Treating every litre as valuable is a matter of attitude (way of thinking). The others are look-alike traps.

6. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (1). Arjun had always been (1) ____ of speaking in public. At school he stayed silent even when he knew the answer. When his college announced a debate, a friend (2) ____ him to take part. For weeks he practised in front of a mirror, and slowly his fear began to (3) ____. On the day, his voice shook at first, but he did not (4) ____ up. He ended the evening with a prize and a new (5) ____ in himself.

   • fond
   • proud
   • afraid
   • capable

   Answer: afraid. The next sentence says he stayed silent at school, so he was afraid of speaking in public. 'Afraid of' is also the right preposition.

7. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (2). Arjun had always been (1) ____ of speaking in public. At school he stayed silent even when he knew the answer. When his college announced a debate, a friend (2) ____ him to take part. For weeks he practised in front of a mirror, and slowly his fear began to (3) ____. On the day, his voice shook at first, but he did not (4) ____ up. He ended the evening with a prize and a new (5) ____ in himself.

   • prevented
   • urged
   • refused
   • blamed

   Answer: urged. Urged fits 'urged him to take part'. Prevented takes 'from', and refused or blamed do not fit the sense.

8. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (3). Arjun had always been (1) ____ of speaking in public. At school he stayed silent even when he knew the answer. When his college announced a debate, a friend (2) ____ him to take part. For weeks he practised in front of a mirror, and slowly his fear began to (3) ____. On the day, his voice shook at first, but he did not (4) ____ up. He ended the evening with a prize and a new (5) ____ in himself.

   • grow
   • return
   • rise
   • fade

   Answer: fade. Practice reduces fear, so it began to fade.

9. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (4). Arjun had always been (1) ____ of speaking in public. At school he stayed silent even when he knew the answer. When his college announced a debate, a friend (2) ____ him to take part. For weeks he practised in front of a mirror, and slowly his fear began to (3) ____. On the day, his voice shook at first, but he did not (4) ____ up. He ended the evening with a prize and a new (5) ____ in himself.

   • give
   • make
   • take
   • put

   Answer: give. To give up means to stop trying; despite his shaking voice, he did not give up.

10. Read the passage and choose the word that best fills blank (5). Arjun had always been (1) ____ of speaking in public. At school he stayed silent even when he knew the answer. When his college announced a debate, a friend (2) ____ him to take part. For weeks he practised in front of a mirror, and slowly his fear began to (3) ____. On the day, his voice shook at first, but he did not (4) ____ up. He ended the evening with a prize and a new (5) ____ in himself.

    • conference
    • consequence
    • convenience
    • confidence

    Answer: confidence. He won a prize and overcame his fear, so he gained confidence in himself.