GUIDED CLOZE PRACTICE - 02

GUIDED CLOZE PRACTICE – 02

Read the following passages and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.

Passage 1:
SCORPION DEATHS ON RISE
Specialists in Brazil have warned of the rising danger of deadly scorpions (1) _______ a spiraling
number of reported deaths and stings by the hardy arachnids which are (2) _______ in the
country’s urban centres.

The number of deaths from scorpion stings reported to the country’s public health system has more
than doubled in the past four years, from 70 in 2013 to 184 in 2017, while (3) _______ of scorpion
stings rose from 37,000 in 2007 to 126,000 last year.

(4) ________, the death last week of a four-year old girl in São Paulo state has reinforced concerns
that many small towns lack anti-venom to (5) _______ stings.

Four dangerous species of scorpion are found in Brazil but the yellow scorpion, or Tityus
serrulatus, has proved particularly deadly, having (6) ________from its traditional savannah habitat
to survive in sewers, garbage and rubble in urban areas.

“With deforestation and the increase in urban centres this scorpion is increasing its presence,” said
Rogério Bertani, a scientific researcher and scorpion specialist at the Butantan Institute, a São
Paulo research institute (7) ________ to the state government. “Contact with human beings is very
big. I believe personally this will tend to get worse.”

The yellow scorpion is parthenogenetic, which means the female can (8) _______ without being
fertilised by males and it eats insects such as cockroaches.

“These scorpions have a low metabolism and can live various months without feeding,” Bertani
said.

Small children are especially (9) ________. This week Yasmin de Campos, four, died after being
stung by a scorpion in Calabria Paulista in the (10) ________ of São Paulo state, the Estado de S.
Paulo newspaper reported.

1 A. among B. amid C. during D. between

2 A. accelerating B. receding C. stimulating D. proliferating
3 A. incidents B. accidents C. frequency D. cases
4 A. Meanwhile B. Thereby C. Henceforth D. Concomitantly
5 A. remedy B. check C. treat D. cure
6 A. transformed B. adjusted C. adapted D. converted
7 A. merged B. adhered C. attached D. glued
8 A. breed B. forage C. feed D. suffice
9 A. prone B. vulnerable C. exposed D. liable
10 A. peristyle B. central C. interior D. circumference

Answers:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

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 GUIDED CLOZE PRACTICE - 02

Passage 2:
HOPE AND FEAR
Hope and fear, suggests the American writer Sam Harris, “are two sides of the same (1) _______:
if we would be free of fear, we must let go of hope”.

It is true that hope and fear are intertwined. As the Thai boys were rescued, there (2) _______
have been many who did not fear that all might not survive. Yet the (3) _______ that one should
jettison hope because it is linked to fear is no more meaningful than would be the claim that we
should (4) ________ away with the idea of the “good” because it cannot exist without also the
concept of the “bad”.

To act on hope is to act without certainty, to risk disappointment. One can, of course, plan, and do
so with the meticulous care exhibited by the Thai rescuers. But humans, (5) ______ the end, have
to make choices without knowing fully the consequences of doing so. There is no God, or scientific
law, that can free us from the possibility of failure or (6) _______ us from having to take
responsibility for our actions.

The only way to rid ourselves (7) _______ the fear of failure is by never trying in the first place. But
that would be (8) _______ worse than failing. No one, even those who dismiss the idea of hope,
would have suggested that there should not have been a rescue attempt at the Tham Luang caves.
Hope and fear accompany not just each other, but also any (9) ______ of human agency.

To repudiate hope, in other words, is also to deny agency. Such denial is most acute not in
circumstances such as the cave rescue but in the (10) ______ of politics.

1 A. page B. note C. penny D. coin

2 A. must B. could C. cannot D. certainly
3 A. insistence B. sustenance C. resistance D. diffidence
4 A. make B. do C. cast D. carry
5 A. in B. at C. to D. by
6 A. acquit B. absolve C. exempt D. untie
7 A. off B. from C. of D. away
8 A. inconsolably B. soulessly C. unconscionably D. scrupulously
9 A. expression B. token C. air D. utterance
10 A. field B. vicinity C. perimeter D. realm

Answers:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

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