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Use of English

Level C2

Part 2 - Open Cloze

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2
1

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

Art and Collective Trauma

In societies emerging from conflict, art is often praised not merely for its beauty but for its capacity to reshape memory. It can give form to grief that would otherwise remain diffuse, and it can do so (0) IN ways that public discourse rarely manages. Yet this process is valuable only in (1) .......... as it avoids turning suffering into spectacle. No sooner (2) .......... a community begin to narrate its losses through murals, theatre or music than disagreements arise over who has the right to speak (3) .......... whom. Some artists insist that they are speaking (4) .......... the dead; others reject that claim, arguing that art should speak (5) .......... loss rather than for those who endured it. The distinction matters, because a shift in preposition may alter the verb's meaning entirely and, with it, the ethics of representation. A work that dwells (6) .......... pain may deepen reflection, whereas one that trades (7) .......... pain may appear exploitative. In professional debate, therefore, critics tend to judge such works not only by aesthetic standards but also by whether they contribute (8) .......... a shared, if uneasy, process of repair.

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

Thanasis Kalpaktsis

@thanasis-kalpaktsis

User Prompt

"Create an exercise about the sublimation of collective trauma through art. Focus on: 'in so much as', 'no sooner than' structures, and dependent prepositions that change the verb's meaning entirely."

Tone: Professional
Level: C2

Created on:

May 2, 2026

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