Researchers who study city sound do more than measure how loud a street is. They use recordings to understand (9) .......... a place sounds like at different times of day. A square that seems calm in the morning may be completely different in the evening, no matter (10) .......... carefully it has been designed. Recording these changes can help planners identify places where conversation is difficult or where traffic noise masks important signals, such (11) .......... a bicycle bell or an approaching vehicle. Participants were asked to record both the direction of a sound and how long it lasted. They were not expected to identify every source, only to describe it carefully.
The work is often done (12) .......... comparing recordings made over several months. This makes it possible to see (13) .......... a change is temporary or part of a longer trend. In one project, students placed small recorders near schools and parks, then wrote short descriptions of what they heard. The descriptions were sometimes more useful (14) .......... the recordings themselves, because they explained why a particular sound mattered. The students also discovered (15) .......... much their own expectations affected what they noticed. In the end, the project gave (16) .......... a more careful way of thinking about the places they used every day.
Researchers who study city sound do more than measure how loud a street is. They use recordings to understand (9) .......... a place sounds like at different times of day. A square that seems calm in the morning may be completely different in the evening, no matter (10) .......... carefully it has been designed. Recording these changes can help planners identify places where conversation is difficult or where traffic noise masks important signals, such (11) .......... a bicycle bell or an approaching vehicle. Participants were asked to record both the direction of a sound and how long it lasted. They were not expected to identify every source, only to describe it carefully.
The work is often done (12) .......... comparing recordings made over several months. This makes it possible to see (13) .......... a change is temporary or part of a longer trend. In one project, students placed small recorders near schools and parks, then wrote short descriptions of what they heard. The descriptions were sometimes more useful (14) .......... the recordings themselves, because they explained why a particular sound mattered. The students also discovered (15) .......... much their own expectations affected what they noticed. In the end, the project gave (16) .......... a more careful way of thinking about the places they used every day.
Question 9
Exam guide & reading text▾
Listening to a city — Part 2: Open Cloze
"Listening to a city" targets the Open Cloze (Part 2) of the Cambridge C1 Proficiency exam. Unlike Part 1, no options are provided — you must supply single words (articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns, conjunctions or discourse markers) that complete the text grammatically and logically. Scan each gap for the grammatical slot it occupies: is it linking clauses, marking reference, or completing a fixed structure? Small words carry heavy weight at C2 level.
Researchers who study city sound do more than measure how loud a street is. They use recordings to understand (9) .......... a place sounds like at different times of day. A square that seems calm in the morning may be completely different in the evening, no matter (10) .......... carefully it has been designed. Recording these changes can help planners identify places where conversation is difficult or where traffic noise masks important signals, such (11) .......... a bicycle bell or an approaching vehicle. Participants were asked to record both the direction of a sound and how long it lasted. They were not expected to identify every source, only to describe it carefully.
The work is often done (12) .......... comparing recordings made over several months. This makes it possible to see (13) .......... a change is temporary or part of a longer trend. In one project, students placed small recorders near schools and parks, then wrote short descriptions of what they heard. The descriptions were sometimes more useful (14) .......... the recordings themselves, because they explained why a particular sound mattered. The students also discovered (15) .......... much their own expectations affected what they noticed. In the end, the project gave (16) .......... a more careful way of thinking about the places they used every day.