Language That Shapes a Debate

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: An arts centre described a proposed change to its funding arrangements as restoring independence, while critics questioned what earlier state was being restored. Calling the measure a restoration presupposes an earlier legitimate state. That implication may pass 1___ notice even when the explicit proposal is subjected 2___ scrutiny. The wording introduced a historical and evaluative assumption before readers had examined the practical terms of the proposal.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   without

   Blank 2

   to

   Pass without notice means escape attention; subject to scrutiny is the required pattern.

2. Question 2 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use entail and imply: A speaker said that the centre would once again be free to serve its audience, leaving listeners to infer which present arrangements had prevented that freedom. A statement can carry an 1___ (imply) without formally 2___ (entail) it. Context and shared assumptions often supply more than the words alone assert. The review of the speech separated what the sentence literally required from suggestions made persuasive by the surrounding discussion.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   implication

   Blank 2

   entailing

   Implication is the noun; without takes an ing form.

3. Question 3 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: Calling the existing arrangement interference treated a contested description as if it were an independently established reason for changing it. The label begs the 1___ if it assumes the disputed point. It cannot then serve as independent support 2___ the conclusion. The problem was not that the description was necessarily false, but that repeating it could not supply evidence for the very judgement it assumed.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   question

   Blank 2

   for

   Beg the question assumes what needs proof; support for identifies the supported conclusion.

4. Question 4 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use ambiguous and plausible: A promise to return decisions to the community appealed to groups with incompatible ideas about who should make those decisions. Deliberate 1___ (ambiguous) can allow incompatible audiences to hear different promises. Each reading may possess surface 2___ (plausible) without being equally defensible. The phrase could sound reassuring to each audience while postponing the disagreement that a more precise proposal would have exposed.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   ambiguity

   Blank 2

   plausibility

   Both gaps require abstract nouns.

5. Question 5 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use ONE word in the first gap and a form of STATE in the second: The director accepted a suggested change to one sentence without accepting the wider criticism of the funding plan. A concession to wording need not amount 1___ acceptance of substance. Treating it as blanket agreement would 2___ (STATE) the scope of the issue actually conceded. Reporting that limited agreement as approval of every objection would assign it a force that the original concession did not possess.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   to

   Blank 2

   overstate

   Amount to marks equivalence. Overstate means present something as greater or more extensive than it is; blanket agreement would exaggerate this narrow concession.

6. Question 6 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use frame and exclude: One leaflet offered a choice between the proposed funding model and the complete loss of artistic freedom. By 1___ (frame) the options as exhaustive, the speaker risks 2___ (exclude) possibilities not represented in the contrast. The contrast became persuasive partly by leaving intermediate arrangements outside the set of possibilities that readers were invited to consider.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   framing

   Blank 2

   excluding

   By and risk both require ing complements.

7. Question 7 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use one word per gap: A critic wrote that the centre would be independent in name only if every significant appointment still required external approval. The phrase in name only distinguishes formal recognition 1___ effective practice. Removing only would materially alter the scope 2___ the criticism. The limiting word carried an essential part of the criticism by separating a public description from what the procedure would permit in practice.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   from

   Blank 2

   of

   Distinguish from separates concepts; scope of identifies the extent of criticism.

8. Question 8 · Cloze (text)

   Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

   Use interpret and commit: The debate illustrated how a listener could reasonably infer a promise that a carefully worded statement had never actually made. A responsible 1___ (interpret) should separate what the wording commits the speaker to from what a listener might infer. Not every inference constitutes a 2___ (commit). Responsible analysis needed to explain that inference without automatically attributing every expectation formed by the audience to the speaker as a commitment.

   Check answers and explanations

   Blank 1

   interpretation

   Blank 2

   commitment

   Interpretation is the subject noun; commitment names what the speaker undertakes or asserts.

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.