Cloze & Inference

Reading specialists believe that your ability to provide closure is a measure of reading comprehension and have developed the “cloze” activity to assess and develop this skill. A passage of 200 to 300 words in length is selected. The first and last sentences are kept intact, but every fifth word of the remaining text is replaced by a blank. The blanks are of equal length so as not to give the reader clues other than the context. Students work individually or in groups to infer or predict words that provide meaning. Readers use syntax, context and prior knowledge to predict the hidden words.

The names given to the (1)elements give clues about their (2)properties, or after whom or (3)where they were named.  Helium (4)derives its name from the Greek (5)word "helios" meaning "Sun" because the first (6)evidence of its existence was obtained by (7)analyzing the spectrum of sunlight.   The word "(8)hydrogen" comes from the Greek (9)words "hydro" meaning water (as in (10)hydroelectric, hydrolysis, etc.)  and "gene"  meaning (11)beginning  (as in Genesis, gene, genetics).  Thus the word hydrogen (12)means "water former", an appropriate name for a substance that forms (13)waterwhen it combusts.

Student Answers