C2 Proficiency - Open Cloze Exercises

Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE)

Open Cloze pages:
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Read our guide to C2 Proficiency Open Cloze

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 | Walkthrough Video

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