How Can We Nail Comprehension Cloze?

The most frustrating thing about Comprehension Cloze is this – your answer can fit the blank but still be wrong.

For instance:

… the amount of saturated fats ____ by children.

It is not uncommon to see students fill in this blank with “eaten”. So why is it unacceptable even though it seems to make sense?

1. In this context, we are talking about fats as in a nutrient (like carbohydrates or protein). One does not eat a nutrient but consume it through the food that one eats!
2. Most of us don’t go out of our way to eat fats…

Here, we see the key to tackling paper 2 components:

It’s not just about accuracy but precision.

Accuracy Precision The Alternative Story

Close answers may not cut it.

So how can we nail Comprehension Cloze?

R.E.A.D.


But what do we read?

Non-fiction. Some commonly tested categories include:

- Nature (Plants/Animals)
- Health
- Environmental issues
- Technology
- Social issues

Where can we get resources?

- Your children may have subscriptions to newspaper in school. 📰
- Expand their repository by drawing from different sources. They might not be keen on long articles so you can always start from kid-friendly sites like Time for Kids or National Geographic. 💻
- Keep them engaged with different types of resources. Watching documentaries on Netflix, reels on social media from educational accounts and videos on YouTube… screen time is not all that bad! 📺

How would reading / being exposed to these resources help?

1. It would expand your child’s vocabulary bank and sharpen the precision of their answers.
2. Many common expressions / idioms / phrasal verbs that are tested can be picked up from these resources.

Final thought: There is a part of English that is about rules, techniques and practice. There’s also another part that is about exposure – there’s no escaping from reading!

 

 

Watch this space for more English exam tips and hacks on Grammar, Synthesis, Creative Writing and many more!