Use of English Part 5 — Multiple-Choice Cloze for the CPE Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !Selecting based on single-word meaning rather than the full idiomatic phrase
• !Ignoring register: one option may be correct in informal speech but wrong in the formal text register
• !Not testing the selected word in the wider paragraph context

Study tips

• 1Build a C2 idioms list with register labels: formal, informal, neutral.
• 2For each answer option, ask: "Does this collocation actually exist in English?" Test against native sources.
• 3Read opinion pieces from The Times, The New York Times, and The Economist to absorb C2 fixed expressions.

Sample CPE Use of English Part 5 — Multiple-Choice Cloze questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real CPE questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   The committee's decision to proceed _____ opposition from several quarters was widely criticized.

   • AdespiteCorrect
   • Bin spite
   • Calthough
   • Dregardless
   Why this answer?

   "Despite" + noun phrase is correct. "In spite" requires "of" (in spite of opposition). "Although" requires a clause (although there was opposition). "Regardless" requires "of" and is typically followed by a gerund or noun, but "regardless opposition" is not a standard construction.