Vocabulary Cloze Exercises for Middle School Students

Cloze Exercises 1 Cloze Exercises 2 Cloze Exercises 3 Cloze Exercises 4 Cloze Exercises 5 Cloze Exercises 6

These cloze exercises that require filling in the blanks with suitable words are useful for middle school students.

Cloze Exercises 4

Cloze Exercises 4a

Children all (1) ………… the world love Tom and Jerry show. For those people (2) ………… don’t know, Tom and Jerry are a pair of (3) ………. cartoon characters created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Each short episode (4) ……….. the frustrated cat, Tom, trying to catch the clever (5) ……. naughty mouse, Jerry. Tom uses some very destructive tactics (6) …….. catch Jerry. He likes using dynamite or poison, (7) …….. the tricky Jerry always manages to escape. Tom and Jerry are joined (8) ……….. Butch, the alley cat, and the bulldogs Spike and Tyke, in many episodes.

Tom is (9) ……… pampered house cat with a furious temper, while Jerry is an intelligent brown mouse. Both the characters seem to enjoy (10) ……… frenzied chase in each cartoon. Occasionally, they help each other as well. Jerry has (11) ……….. known to rescue Tom from a hazardous situation or two. They have even worked (12) ……….. to save an injured boy. Sometimes, the episode can end with them being content together and even courteous to each (13) …………! This cartoon series has been extremely successful all (14) ……….. the world, and even adults seem to love (15) ……..

Answer Key

• around
• who
• famous/ well-known/ cute/lovable/naughty
• involves
• and
• to
• but
• by
• a
• the
• been
• together
• other
• over
• it

Cloze Exercises 4b

Gorillas are (1) ……. of the species of great apes. The other three (2) ………… chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Like all great apes, gorillas have arms (3) ……….are longer than their legs and tend to walk on all four limbs at certain times – a movement that is (4) ……….. knuckle walking. Adult males are known as ‘silverbacks’ due (5) …….. the distinctive silver-colored hair on their backs. Gorillas are herbivores that eat leaves, shoots, roots, vines (6) ………. fruits.

To most people, (7) ………. gorilla is a fearsome beast. Films and books are partly responsible for making the gorilla a monstrous animal which knocks (8) ……….. even very tall buildings, and crushes men and women to death in its palm.

The gorilla is the largest (9) ………. all the apes. An adult male gorilla may weigh (10) ……… than 200 kg. Although a gorilla looks huge and fierce, in reality (11) ……….. is a gentle creature. This fact was proven by an American couple, Mr. and Mrs. George Schaller, (12) ……….. lived with a family of gorillas in Central Africa. Not (13) ………… were they not harmed by the gorillas, but they became great friends also with these peace-loving animals. The scientists’ research revealed that gorillas are profoundly intelligent, gentle and vulnerable (14) …………. In many ways, (15) …………. behaviour is similar to humans.

Answer Key

• One
• Are
• That
• Called
• To
• And
• The
• Down
• Of
• More
• It
• Who
• Only
• Creatures/ animals
• Their

Cloze Exercises 4c

The slug is a relative (1) …… the snail. It has a long, rounded body and moves about (2) ……….. a muscular foot. As it moves, it leaves behind (3) …………. glistening trail of slime. In its mouth (4) ………… a ribbon-like tongue with many rows of tiny teeth. The slug uses this tongue like a file (5) ………. rasp up its food. Most slugs feed on living or decaying plants, (6) ………….. thus do some good in clearing away dead vegetation. However, they can also do much damage (7) ……… a vegetable garden by eating up precious vegetables. Some slugs are carnivorous (8) ……….. flesh-eating. They can be distinguished from the vegetation slugs (9) ……… the tiny shell each has near the hind end of its body. They feed on worms and caterpillars. (10) ……….. relatives, the vegetarian slugs do much harm to seedlings.

Gardeners kill as many slugs (11) ……. they can because of the damage they do to vegetables and fruits growing on (12) …….. ground. Salt kills slugs, so some gardeners put salt in their gardens (13) ……. keep off the troublesome tiny black slugs. The usual way of killing slugs, (14) ……………, is to put down a slug-killer in the form (15) ………. bran mixed with the poison metaldehyde.

Answer Key

• of
• on/with
• a
• is
• to
• and
• in
• or
• by
• Their
• as
• the
• to
• however
• of

Cloze Exercises 1 Cloze Exercises 2 Cloze Exercises 3 Cloze Exercises 4 Cloze Exercises 5 Cloze Exercises 6