CAE Practice Test

CAE Reading and Use of English Part 2: Open Cloze

For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Example (0) IS

The origin of language

The truth (0) ........ nobody really knows how language first began. Did we all start talking at around the same time (1) ........ of the manner in which our brains had begun to develop?

Although there is a lack of clear evidence, people have come up with various theories about the origins of language. One recent theory is that human beings have evolved in (2) ........ a way that we are programmed for language from the moment of birth. In (3) ........ words, language came about as a result of an evolutionary change in our brains at some stage.

Language (4) ........ well be programmed into the brain but, (5) ......... this, people still need stimulus from others around them. From studies, we know that (6) ........ children are isolated from human contact and have not learnt to construct sentences before they are ten, it is doubtful they will ever do so. The research shows, if (7) ......... else, that language is a social activity, not something invented (8) ......... isolation.

 

(Source: CAE Handbook. Reproduced with permission from Cambridge English)

Questions