CDS English · Cloze Test
Meaning from the Passage: Tone, Echoes and Elimination
When two or more options fit the grammar, the passage decides: its tone, a word it repeats or sets against another, and what makes sense.
Why this matters
These are the blanks the grammar slot cannot settle. All four options may be the right class, and several look reasonable on their own. The answer sits in the rest of the passage, so the habit of reading the whole passage first pays off most here.
Concept 1 of 3: Follow the passage's tone
Every passage carries a feeling: praise, worry, anger, sadness. Most blanks keep that feeling going. Decide the tone of the passage, then strike the options with the wrong charge.
Definition
The terms:
- Tone: the writer's attitude or feeling in a passage: admiring, critical, fearful, hopeful.
- Charge: whether a word is positive, negative or neutral.
The method:
- After your first read of the passage, name its tone in one word.
- At the blank, give each option a charge.
- Strike the options whose charge goes against the tone of the sentence.
- Among those left, use the details. 'smarting under the ___ control' needs something that hurts, so rigid, not orthodox.
- Watch for a turn. A contrast linker (but, yet, however) can flip the tone inside a passage. Follow the sentence the blank sits in.
Worked example
The village had lost its crops to the flood, and the farmers watched the ruined fields in ___ silence. (a) cheerful (b) grim (c) proud (d) lively
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2018 · CDS (I) 2018 — English · Q91Easy
Example 1 · Cloze Test · Meaning from the Passage
Directions: Each of the following sentences in this section has a blank space with four words or group of words given. Select whichever word or group of words you consider most appropriate for the blank space and indicate your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.
Passage
One of India’s greatest musicians is M.S. Subbulakshmi, affectionately known to most people as M.S. Her singing has brought ___(91)___ to millions of people not only ___(92)___ all parts of India, but in ___(93)___ countries around the world as well. ___(94)___ October 1966 Subbulakshmi was invited to ___(95)___ in New York, where people of ___(96)___ foreign countries listened to her music ___(97)___ This was one of the greatest ___(98)___ ever given to any musician. For ___(99)___ together M.S. kept that international ___(100)___ spell-bound with the beauty of her voice and her style of singing.
Blank (91): "Her singing has brought ______ to millions of people"
Right charge, wrong shade
'They made a last ___ attempt to regain their independence': horrible is negative, but it describes how something feels to others. A last attempt made with little hope is desperate.
Missing a turn
A passage can praise in one sentence and criticise in the next. Take the tone from the sentence around the blank, not from the opening line alone.
Two options with the right charge
When two options both match the tone, the charge has done its job. Move on to the details of the sentence, or to the methods below.
Concept 2 of 3: Find the echo or the opposite elsewhere in the passage
Writers repeat their key words, or set them against their opposites. Often the answer to a blank is printed somewhere else in the passage, a line before or after.
Definition
The terms:
- Echo: a word or an idea that appears again in the passage, the same or in another form.
- Opposite frame: a pattern that sets two things against each other: X rather than Y; from narrow ... to broad; some ... others more.
The method:
- After naming the slot, scan the sentences just before and after the blank.
- If a nearby sentence names the thing, the blank often takes that word.
- If the sentence sets up a contrast (from ___ local issues to broad aims), the blank is the opposite of the other half: narrow.
- 'Some ... Others are ___ complex' compares the second group with the first: more.
- 'that is how it has been, that is how it is ___': then and now set the past against the present.
- Check that the echo also fits the slot.
Worked example
The battalion trained in the desert for months. This ___ training prepared them for the heat they later faced in battle. (a) mountain (b) desert (c) river (d) jungle
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2019 · CDS (I) 2019 — English · Q101Easy
Example 2 · Cloze Test · Meaning from the Passage
Directions: Each of the following sentences in this section has a blank space with four words or group of words given. Select whichever word or group of words you consider most appropriate for the blank space and indicate your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.
Passage
CLOZE COMPREHENSION - II
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year is a tribute to the power of ___(101)___. The laureates harnessed evolution and used it in the ___(102)___ with amazing results. Frances H. Arnold, an American who was given one-half of the prize, used ‘directed evolution’ to ___(103)___ variants of naturally occurring enzymes that could be used to ___(104)___ biofuels and pharmaceuticals. The other half went to George P. Smith, also of the U.S., and Sir Gregory P. Winter, from the U.K., who evolved antibodies to ___(105)___ autoimmune diseases and even metastatic cancer through a process called phage display.
Blank (101): "The Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year is a tribute to the power of ______. The laureates harnessed evolution..."
An echo in the wrong word class
'to build a democratic and civil ___ society': liberty is the idea the passage is about, but the blank sits before a noun and needs an adjective: libertarian. The echo must also fit the slot.
Missing the opposite frame
'change from ___ local issues to broad aims' sets two ends against each other. The blank is the opposite of broad, narrow, not a word that means the same as broad.
Taking a look-alike for the echo
When the options share a root (revolution, devolution, involution), only the one the passage actually uses is the echo. Find the word in the text; do not guess from the sound.
Concept 3 of 3: Eliminate options that fit the slot but not the passage's logic
When the grammar and the tone both allow more than one option, test each against plain sense. Could this be true in the world the passage describes? Is it too small, too big, or the opposite of what the subject wants?
Definition
The terms:
- Elimination: removing options one by one, each for a stated reason, until one is left.
The method:
- Put each option in the blank and read the full sentence.
- Strike options that are impossible in the real world. A scientist does not 'sink' biofuels.
- Strike options that clash with a fact stated elsewhere in the passage.
- Strike options that are too strong or too weak. 'people of all foreign countries' overstates; 'many' fits.
- Strike options that do the opposite of what the subject is trying to do. Scientists who want new enzymes synthesize them; they do not inhibit them.
- Give a reason for every option you strike. If you cannot, read the sentence again.
Worked example
The doctor ___ the wound carefully before sending the soldier back to his unit. (a) ignored (b) dressed (c) opened (d) widened
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2018 · CDS (I) 2018 — English · Q99Moderate
Example 3 · Cloze Test · Meaning from the Passage
Directions: Each of the following sentences in this section has a blank space with four words or group of words given. Select whichever word or group of words you consider most appropriate for the blank space and indicate your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.
Passage
One of India’s greatest musicians is M.S. Subbulakshmi, affectionately known to most people as M.S. Her singing has brought ___(91)___ to millions of people not only ___(92)___ all parts of India, but in ___(93)___ countries around the world as well. ___(94)___ October 1966 Subbulakshmi was invited to ___(95)___ in New York, where people of ___(96)___ foreign countries listened to her music ___(97)___ This was one of the greatest ___(98)___ ever given to any musician. For ___(99)___ together M.S. kept that international ___(100)___ spell-bound with the beauty of her voice and her style of singing.
Blank (99): "For ______ together M.S. kept that international ______ spell-bound"
Too strong a word
'people of ___ foreign countries listened to her music': all claims every country on earth, which no concert can reach. many says what is true.
The opposite of the subject's aim
'used directed evolution to ___ variants of naturally occurring enzymes': inhibit and hamper are real verbs of the right class, but the scientists wanted to make enzymes. synthesize fits their aim.
Striking without a reason
If you cannot say why an option is wrong, you have not eliminated it. Guessing between two 'fine-sounding' options is where marks are lost.
Summary — formulas & gotchas at a glance
A revision cheat-sheet for the formulas and gotchas above. Click any concept name to jump back to its full explanation.
Watch out for (9)
- Right charge, wrong shade→ Follow the passage's tone
- Missing a turn→ Follow the passage's tone
- Two options with the right charge→ Follow the passage's tone
- An echo in the wrong word class→ Find the echo or the opposite elsewhere in the passage
- Missing the opposite frame→ Find the echo or the opposite elsewhere in the passage
- Taking a look-alike for the echo→ Find the echo or the opposite elsewhere in the passage
- Too strong a word→ Eliminate options that fit the slot but not the passage's logic
- The opposite of the subject's aim→ Eliminate options that fit the slot but not the passage's logic
- Striking without a reason→ Eliminate options that fit the slot but not the passage's logic
Test yourself on Cloze Test
20 past CDS questions from this chapter, timed at 20 minutes and marked the way the exam marks it. You see your score and every answer the moment you finish. Free to start.