The primary skill detailed in the sources for mastering comprehension cloze passages is utilising contextual clues. This involves employing a specific answering strategy—Strategy #1: Looking for Contextual Clues.
This strategy requires students to develop the following key skills:
1. Identifying and Locating Contextual Clues
Students must be able to recognize that contextual clues are information within the passage that provides an idea of what the missing word should be. A crucial part of this skill is knowing where to look: clues are not always restricted to the immediate sentence but can be found in the sentences before or after the blank, or even the paragraphs before or after.
2. Inferential Reading and Concept Deduction
The ultimate skill is using the located clues to deduce the appropriate missing word, which requires inferential reading. This skill manifests in several ways:
• Deducing Adjectives/Characteristics: Students must analyse a subject’s behaviour or actions described in the context to infer an appropriate descriptive word. For instance, recognising that the behaviour “preparing more gifts than necessary” requires the adjective “generous” to perfectly convey that idea.
• Categorising Examples: Students must recognise when specific nouns or examples (like “Next of Kin” and Orchard Road”) are given, and infer the broader category (“places”) that encompasses them. The clues found in the surrounding text are crucial in solving the puzzle and identifying the correct category or concept.
For example:
The Passage: “The old bridge was badly damaged during the hurricane. City workers will have to ____________ the structure before winter arrives, or it will collapse.”
The Key Contextual Clues: The clues are the state of the structure (“badly damaged”) and the necessity of action (“before winter arrives, or it will collapse”).
The Deduction: If a structure is badly damaged and risks collapse, the action taken by workers must be one of repair or rebuilding.
The Solution: The missing word must be a verb conveying repair, such as “repair” or “rebuild.”
Another example:
The Passage: “When the ancient map was discovered, archaeologists noticed several markings that indicated the location of the hidden ____________. The markings included cryptic symbols and arrows pointing beneath a large boulder.”
The Key Contextual Clues: The clues are the surrounding concepts: “ancient map,” “hidden” status, “cryptic symbols and arrows,” and the overall context of an archaeological discovery.
The Deduction: The object being searched for, and whose location is revealed by cryptic symbols on an ancient map, is typically a valuable discovery.
The Solution: The missing word must be a noun representing a valuable discovery, such as “treasure” or “artefact.”
By practicing these strategies, students can transition from simply looking at the isolated sentence to utilising the entire passage as a resource to fill in the missing ‘puzzle pieces’ accurately.