Evidence, Uncertainty and Interpretation

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 one word per gap: A museum examined whether a late-opening programme had attracted visitors who did not usually attend during the day. The data bears 1___ the narrow claim, but it cannot bear the weight 2___ the broader interpretation. The latter depends on assumptions the study did not test. The report distinguished evidence about those surveyed from a much larger claim about people who had not responded or had never entered the museum.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   out

   Blank 2

   of

   Bear out means substantiate; the weight of marks the burden placed on the data.

2. Question 2 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: One comparison showed no detectable change in visits from a small neighbourhood, although very few residents had been surveyed there. The failure to detect an effect does not, 1___ itself, rule one out. That would require a test capable 2___ detecting effects of the relevant size. The authors considered whether the investigation had been sensitive enough before interpreting a quiet result as evidence that nothing had happened.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   in / by

   Blank 2

   of

   In itself or by itself limits what follows from one fact; capable of takes an ing form.

3. Question 3 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use warrant and discriminate: The participants came from particular districts and chose whether to answer the questionnaire, which restricted the population the findings could describe. The evidence does not 1___ (warrant) a universal conclusion. Applying it 2___ (discriminate), without regard to context, would exaggerate its reach. A defensible interpretation needed to carry those limits into any practical recommendation, rather than leave them behind in a technical appendix.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   warrant

   Blank 2

   indiscriminately

   Does not takes a base verb; the negative adverb matches application without contextual discrimination.

4. Question 4 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use an adjective from EXCLUDE in the first gap and ONE word in the second: The programme might have encouraged new visitors while also giving existing visitors a more convenient time to return. The two accounts are not mutually 1___ (EXCLUDE). Accepting one need not preclude the other, though they differ 2___ what they treat as central. Those explanations assigned different emphasis to the observed increase without requiring one contribution to eliminate the possibility of the other.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   exclusive

   Blank 2

   in

   Not mutually exclusive permits coexistence; differ in identifies a dimension of difference.

5. Question 5 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use qualify and contest: The museum had hoped to show that late opening transformed access across the whole city, but the evidence supported a more restricted conclusion. The finding calls for 1___ (qualify), not wholesale rejection. Its strongest interpretation remains 2___ (contest), even if a weaker one is persuasive. Retaining that useful observation required reducing the reach of the claim, rather than choosing between unconditional celebration and complete rejection.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   qualification / qualifying

   Blank 2

   contestable

   Call for takes a noun or ing form; contestable means open to dispute.

6. Question 6 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: Some visitors credited the later hours, while others mentioned publicity about a temporary exhibition that opened at the same time. Nothing in the study compels the preferred interpretation. It is tenable 1___ a particular reading, but the evidence also lends itself 2___ an alternative. The authors could explain why they favoured one account without pretending that the observations had made every competing explanation impossible.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   on / under

   Blank 2

   to

   On a reading marks the interpretive basis; lend itself to permits another interpretation.

7. Question 7 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: The report did establish that at least a few people attended because the museum remained open later, contradicting an absolute claim that nobody benefited. The result gives the lie 1___ an absolute denial of any effect. It does not establish how widespread the effect is, 2___ less how durable. That modest success could not by itself justify a precise estimate of the programme's city-wide reach or its longer-term effects.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   to

   Blank 2

   much / still / even / far

   Give the lie to contradicts a claim; much less marks an even stronger unsupported conclusion.

8. Question 8 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use circumscribe and certain: The final recommendation proposed continuing the programme while gathering information from a wider range of visitors and non-visitors. The conclusion is deliberately 1___ (circumscribe). Its value lies in making a defensible claim rather than giving an impression of unwarranted 2___ (certain). The restraint in the conclusion was intended to make the evidence useful without allowing its apparent clarity to exceed what the investigation could sustain.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   circumscribed

   Blank 2

   certainty

   Circumscribed means narrowly bounded; certainty is the noun after of.

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.