Use of English

Level B2

Part 2 - Open Cloze

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For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap.

Bermuda Triangle Mystery

The Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, has (0) BEEN linked to strange disappearances for decades. In the past, many people (1) .......... to believe that ships and planes simply vanished without explanation. Some writers claimed that these events (2) .......... only be explained by aliens or unknown forces, while others argued that the crews (3) .......... have made basic navigational errors. More recently, however, scientists have suggested that there (4) .......... been perfectly ordinary reasons for many of the incidents, including sudden storms, strong currents and human error. They point out that the region is heavily travelled and that accidents (5) .......... bound to happen from time to time. In fact, several famous cases once thought mysterious have later been shown to have (6) .......... caused by bad weather or technical failure. Even so, the legend remains powerful because people are often more attracted to dramatic explanations than to simple ones. If a plane disappears and no wreckage is found, it (7) .......... seem as if something supernatural was involved. Yet the truth is that the sea can be vast, and evidence may not always be easy to recover. What the Bermuda Triangle really shows is how quickly an ordinary event (8) .......... turn into a lasting myth.

What to do

This part consists of a short text with a series of gaps. There are no words from which to choose the answers, candidates have to think of a word which fits the gap correctly.

Errors in punctuation are ignored, although spelling must be correct.

Contractions (e.g. don’t, we’ve, won’t) count as two words. However, can’t is a contraction of cannot, which is one word.

Sometimes, there is more than one correct answer. Cambridge will always account for this and all options will be accepted. However, you should not write more than one answer.

Don't spend time in a word you don't know. Wasting time on this activity might cost you points later in the exam because you won’t have enough time to do other tasks well.

Strategy

  1. Read the title and the whole text so that you understand what it is about.
  2. Read the whole sentence in which the gap occurs, to look for clues as to what kind of word you need.
  3. Check the words before and after each gap and look for grammatical collocations.
  4. Remember you must write only one word.
  5. You are never required to write a contraction. If you think the answer is a contraction, it must be wrong, so think again.
  6. Read the whole text through once you have completed it to make sure you have not missed any connectors, plurals or negatives.

Instructions

For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap.

Exercise Details

Author

Δημήτρης Google

@demetres-google

User Prompt

"Create an exercise about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. Target: modal verbs (must, might, can’t), auxiliary verbs in different tenses, and the 'used to' structure. Use an engaging but grammatically challenging tone."

Tone: Informative
Level: B2

Created on:

May 3, 2026

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