Name:________________ Number:___________________

Cloze Test

Please fill in the blanks in the following passage. Each blank must have one and
only one word.

Joe came home from work on Friday. It was payday, but he wasn’t ____even__
excited about it. He knew that __when___ he sat down and paid his ___bills___ and set
aside money for groceries, __gas__ for the car and a small ___deposit____ in his savings
account, there wasn’t ___too___ much left over for a good __life____.
He thought about going out for ____dinner____ at his favorite restaurant, but he
___just___ wasn’t in the mood. He wandered __around____ his apartment and ate a
sandwich. ___For_____ a while, he couldn’t stop himself __from___ worrying about the
money situation. Finally, ____he__ got into his car and started ___driving___.
He didn’t have a destination in ___mind___, but he knew that he wanted ___to__ be far
away from the city ____where____ he lived.
He drove into a quiet country ___road____. The country sights made him feel
___better___. His mind wandered as he drove ___past____ small farms and he began to
__imagine_____ living on his own piece of _____land___ and becoming self-sufficient.
It had always __been___ a dream of his, but he ___had____ never done anything to
make it ___a____ reality. Even as he was thinking, ___his___ logical side was scoffing
at his __impractical____ imaginings. He debated the advantages and
___disadvantages_____ of living in the country and _____growing___ his own food. He
imagined his __farmhouse____ equipped with a solar energy panel __on__ the roof to
heat the house ____in____ winter and power a water heater. ___He___ envisioned fields
of vegetables for canning __and___ preserving to last through the winter. ___If___ the
crops had a good yield, _maybe______ he could sell the surplus and ___buy__ some
farming equipment with the extra ___money____.
Suddenly, Joe stopped thinking and laughed ___out____ loud, “I’m really going
to go through with this?”
Adapted from American Kernel Lessons: Advanced Students’ Book. O’Neill, Cornelius and Washburn.