Concession without Contradiction

Study the questions and tasks

Work through the material below, or start the interactive practice above to complete an attempt. Try the exercises before opening any answer or transcript sections, then use them to review your work.

Practice level

C2. Try this level if you can follow the instructions and understand most of the language; choose an earlier level if you need more support.

Question formats

Cloze (text)

How to approach this practice

Read the complete context. Check both the meaning and the grammar, including word forms, collocations and links between sentences.

1. Question 1 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use an adjective from CONSISTENT in the first gap and ONE word in the second: A review essay compared two biographies whose authors disagreed about how much could be inferred from a collection of incomplete letters. An argument may be incomplete without being internally 1___ (CONSISTENT). Missing a premise is not the same 2___ asserting both a proposition and its denial. The reviewer distinguished an account that left some connections unstated from one whose own assertions could not all hold together.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   inconsistent

   Blank 2

   as

   Incomplete and inconsistent differ; the same as marks the comparison.

2. Question 2 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use concede and abandon: One biographer accepted a correction to the date of a meeting while continuing to defend her interpretation of the relationship. 1___ (concede) a minor point need not entail 2___ (abandon) the central thesis. The effect depends on how much the thesis relies on that point. Whether that concession damaged the larger interpretation depended on the role the disputed date had actually played in the reasoning.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   Conceding / To concede

   Blank 2

   abandoning

   An ing-clause or a to-infinitive can act as subject here. Entail takes an ing-clause naming the consequence.

3. Question 3 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: A critic challenged the claim that the correspondence explained every later decision, although the biographer had made no such universal claim. The objection is sound as far as it 1___, but it does not reach the claim actually defended. Its relevance is limited 2___ a stronger claim the author expressly disavows. The review asked readers to assess the interpretation that was defended, rather than a stronger version that would be easier to refute.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   goes

   Blank 2

   to

   As far as it goes concedes limited validity; limited to bounds relevance.

4. Question 4 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use contradict and qualify: In a later edition, the author stated explicitly that the letters supported several interpretations of one episode. A later 1___ (qualify) does not necessarily 2___ (contradict) an earlier statement. It may merely make an implicit limitation explicit. The additional care in wording narrowed the claim without necessarily reversing the earlier judgement about the relationship as a whole.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   qualification

   Blank 2

   contradict

   Qualification is a noun; does not takes a base verb.

5. Question 5 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: The biographies assigned different dates to one journey but agreed about the events before and after it. The accounts are at 1___ on a factual detail, yet compatible on the central sequence. Disagreement in one respect does not establish incompatibility 2___ every respect. The review warned against allowing a local disagreement to stand as evidence that every part of the two narratives was irreconcilable.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   variance / odds

   Blank 2

   in

   At variance marks disagreement; in every respect would make a universal claim.

6. Question 6 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use reconcile and precise: An apparent conflict concerned two uses of the word influence: one referred to a particular decision, the other to a continuing intellectual relationship. Apparently conflicting claims may be 1___ (reconcile) once their scopes are distinguished. Greater 2___ (precise) can expose agreement hidden by loose wording. Once the relevant scope was made explicit, the reader could ask whether the disagreement remained substantive or had partly arisen from terminology.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   reconciled / reconcilable

   Blank 2

   precision

   May be reconciled describes resolving the conflict; may be reconcilable describes its being possible to resolve. Precision is the noun from precise.

7. Question 7 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: The biographer allowed that a lost letter could have changed the interpretation while declining to claim that it must have done so. The author grants the possibility while denying its 1___. There is no contradiction in saying an event could occur but need not 2___. Use NECESSARY in the first gap and OCCURRENCE in the second. Recognising an alternative as conceivable did not require treating that alternative as the outcome demanded by the surviving material.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   necessity

   Blank 2

   occur

   Necessity is stronger than possibility; need not takes a base verb.

8. Question 8 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use coherent and tenable: The reviewer considered whether the preferred account was internally coherent before asking how firmly its premises were grounded in the archive. Internal 1___ (coherent) is necessary for this argument to be 2___ (tenable), but it is not sufficient. Its premises also require independent support. An elegant interpretation could fail through unsupported assumptions even when the steps connecting those assumptions had been expressed without contradiction.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   coherence

   Blank 2

   tenable

   Coherence is the subject noun; tenable is the adjective after be.

What to review next

Explain why each answer fits the meaning and structure. Record useful phrases and write a new example using each pattern you found difficult.

A focused practice result shows how you did on these tasks. Use several activities across skills to decide what to study next; one practice score does not certify an overall CEFR level.