What is a Cloze test?
A Cloze test or Cloze passage is essentially a fill-in-the-gaps exercise. In the CEM (but not GL) 11+ exam, your child may have to fill in missing words, letters or entire sentences, to complete a short written passage.
In order to work out what goes in the missing gap, they will need to read and understand the rest of the sentence or passage. While this post will mainly focus on missing letter Cloze passages (rather than missing word or sentence), most of the skills required are transferable.
Cloze tests are used to test a number of competencies:
- Reading comprehension
- Vocabulary
- Spelling
- Grammar
‘Cloze’ comes from the concept of closure in the Gestalt Theory of psychology. This theory argues that our brains are naturally able to visualise whole shapes, words and patterns even when parts are missing.
For example in this illustration, although there are gaps in these collections of lines, our brains are naturally able to see a circle and a rectangle. In the same way, if your child is given a sentence with missing pieces, they should naturally be able to work out what is missing from the remaining context.
How can my child best prepare for Cloze passages?
As previously stated, Cloze passages can mainly be found in the CEM paper. Therefore, as with other elements of that paper, they are designed to be ‘uncoachable’, testing students’ natural ability rather than how well they have prepared for the questions.
As a result, in order to excel at Cloze tests (and other aspects of this exam), a more holistic and long-term approach to preparation should be taken. The best way to help your child is to encourage them to read a range of books, and ask them questions about what they have read. This is important because Cloze passages test vocabulary and reading comprehension above all.
Supplementary Preparation
An additional way of building up vocabulary for Cloze tests is by using vocabulary lists. This may involve teaching your child a new word each day and testing them on these.
Another helpful exercise is doing practice questions. These will familiarise your child with this style of assessment, allowing them to feel more comfortable and confident come the actual exam. Sign up for our free fortnightly worksheets here.
Top Tips
If you find that your child struggles with these Cloze passage practice questions, here are some tips that they may find helpful:
- Work out the context of the sentence. Read the passage carefully. What is the message that it is trying to get across? Now look at the words you can make with the letters provided and work out which one would make the most sense in this sentence.
- What word class would fit? For example, if the word that precedes the missing word is an adjective, the missing word will be a noun. Therefore for the missing word you can rule out any of the options which are not nouns.
- Trial and error. Rule out implausible letter combinations until you find one that fits. For example if you have to find a letter to go between an f and an m, you can rule out any letter than isn’t a vowel as they wouldn’t be able to fit there. Therefore you would only have to consider six options for the answer, rather than the whole alphabet.
Variations of Cloze tests
In recent years the CEM board has used missing letter, missing word and missing sentence Cloze tests at various points. The main aim of each of these Cloze tests is always to test reading comprehension and how well a student understands the context of a passage, and therefore general preparation for them will be uniform across the different variations.
However it is good to get practice at the different types for the sake of familiarity as any of them could come up in the actual exam.
Cloze Passage Examples
Cloze missing letters
1) Ghana is a country on the Atlantic Coast of West Africa, sit__ __ted
2) east of Côte d'Ivoire, west of Togo and s__ __th of Burkina Faso
3) It has a diverse po__ula__ __on of over 31 million people, around 4
4) million of whom live in the c__ __it__l city of Accra. Ghana has a
5) tropical cl__ __ate, meaning it only has two seasons: the wet season
6) and the dry season. Ghana's landscape features ra__ __fo__ __sts and
7) savannahs, and an__ __ __ls found in Ghana include lions, monkeys and elephants.
Cloze missing words
1) The Rio de Janeiro Carnival is the _______ and most iconic carnival in the world.
2) Brazil's beautiful former capital city ________ 2 million people to its streets each year for the carnival,
3) which ________ a main parade and street parties throughout the city.
4) Rio's carnival is known for its _________ clothes and samba beats, and over 200 samba schools from across Rio take part.
5) The carnival __________ started as a celebreation preceding the religious season of fasting called Lent.
Word bank
originally welcomes colourful biggest features
Cloze missing sentences
1) Dana left her flat, bewildered by what she had just seen. ____________ where she had to make her decision.
2) What would a world so brutal and unpredictable make of her? As she stood there, ____________ cars whizzed by incessantly.
3) Left, back home to her loving but dull family, or right, ____________ and beyond that the entire world at her feet. Would she be able to make it in a world of such unknowns? What would a world so brutal and unpredictable make of her?
4) It seemed as though everyone in the world knew where they were going and what they were doing except she. ____________ tears gathering in her eyes.
Sentence bank
But alas, she stood, puddles forming at her feet,
to the train station,
rain dripping from her long brunette locks,
She hesitantly strolled forward to the road,
Answers
Cloze missing letters
1) Ghana is a country on the Atlantic Coast of West Africa, situated
2) east of Côte d'Ivoire, west of Togo and south of Burkina Faso
3) It has a diverse population of over 31 million people, around 4
4) million of whom live in the capital city of Accra. Ghana has a
5) tropical climate, meaning it only has two seasons: the wet season
6) and the dry season. Ghana's landscape features rainforests and
7) savannahs, and animals found in Ghana include lions, monkeys and elephants.
Cloze missing words
1) The Rio de Janeiro Carnival is the biggest and most iconic carnival in the world.
2) Brazil's beautiful former capital city welcomes 2 million people to its streets each year for the carnival,
3) which features a main parade and street parties throughout the city.
4) Rio's carnival is known for its colourful clothes and samba beats, and over 200 samba schools from across Rio take part.
5) The carnival originally started as a celebreation preceding the religious season of fasting called Lent.
Cloze missing words
1) Dana left her flat, bewildered by what she had just seen. She hesitantly strolled forward to the road, where she had to make her decision.
2) What would a world so brutal and unpredictable make of her? As she stood there, rain dripping from her long brunette locks, cars whizzed by incessantly.
3) Left, back home to her loving but dull family, or right, to the train station, and beyond that the entire world at her feet. Would she be able to make it in a world of such unknowns? What would a world so brutal and unpredictable make of her?
4) It seemed as though everyone in the world knew where they were going and what they were doing except she. But alas, she stood, puddles forming at her feet, tears gathering in her eyes.
As we have said previously in this article, regular, low intensity practice is one of the best ways for your child to feel prepared and confident to face their 11 plus exam. Try out our CEM – focused welcome bundle for a taster of what Exam Happy has to offer: