Cambridge C2 Reading Part 6: Gapped-Text Cohesion

A paragraph begins, “That distinction is apposite here, but it does not resolve the underlying tension.” To place it, you need more than a nearby repetition of the topic. The preceding text must establish a particular distinction; the following text must continue the unresolved tension.

Cambridge C2 Proficiency Reading and Use of English Part 6 is Gapped text. In the current format, paragraphs have been removed from a text and placed in jumbled order after it. You choose from eight extracts to fill seven gaps: each extract can be used only once, and one extract is not used. Each correct answer carries two marks. Cambridge identifies cohesion, coherence, text structure, and global meaning as the focus.

The current C2 paper has seven parts. Gapped text is Part 6; Multiple matching is Part 7. If a resource labels C2 Gapped Text as Part 7 or refers to a C2 Part 8, it is using the wrong current numbering.

For the wider pathway, use the Cambridge C1/C2 vocabulary hub and Exam English.

Fit the paragraph at both edges

Every inserted paragraph must connect backwards and forwards.

At the entry edge, check:

• pronouns and demonstratives: this, that, these, such, the former;
• logical direction: contrast, cause, example, concession, result;
• information status: what must already be known?

At the exit edge, check:

• what noun or idea the next paragraph refers to;
• whether a question has been answered or a problem introduced;
• whether chronology and tense continue;
• whether the paragraph performs the missing stage of the argument.

A paragraph that fits one edge but strands a reference at the other is not the answer.

Apposite means relevant to the exact point

Apposite describes an example, comparison, or remark that is particularly well suited or relevant to the point under discussion. It is formal and commonly appears with example, comparison, remark, or apposite to.

“Her comparison with translation is apposite because both activities require choices about what to preserve.”

The word does not mean merely interesting or broadly related. In gapped text, an apposite example must illuminate the specific claim before it. A paragraph about the same subject can still be structurally irrelevant.

Appropriate is broader and often overlaps. Do not reject it merely because apposite sounds more advanced. The placement decision comes from the relationship between example and claim.

Indicative of supplies evidence, not proof

Indicative of means serving as a sign of something. It supports an interpretation without necessarily proving it.

“The repeated revisions were indicative of uncertainty, although the correspondence never states that directly.”

In a paragraph chain, indicative of this shift needs earlier evidence that can function as a sign of the named shift. It cannot refer to a later event the reader has not encountered.

Do not upgrade indicative of to conclusive proof of. A paragraph may use cautious evidence language precisely because the writer is building toward, but has not completed, an interpretation.

Infer reference without inventing an antecedent

To infer is to reach a conclusion from evidence. Gapped text requires inference about relationships, yet every antecedent and logical link must be licensed.

If an option begins This reluctance was understandable, locate behaviour that can reasonably be called reluctance. A delayed answer might indicate reluctance, but it might also have practical causes. The surrounding text must make the interpretation available.

Ask:

1. What exact earlier wording supplies the evidence?
2. Is the inferred label narrow enough?
3. Does the next sentence confirm, qualify, or redirect it?

Never invent a person's motive simply to make a pronoun fit.

Largely preserves an incomplete pattern

Largely means for the most part. It is a useful cohesion signal because it often prepares an exception.

“The early reviews were largely favourable. One persistent objection, however, concerned the book's final chapter.”

The second sentence develops the remainder left open by largely. If a removed paragraph instead says every reviewer approved without reservation, it conflicts with the calibration.

Track majority words and their exceptions across paragraph boundaries. Mainly, for the most part, and in most cases can create similar expectations. They do not tell you the size or nature of the exception, only that one remains possible.

Paragraph function controls placement

Label each option by its main job rather than its topic:

• define a disputed term;
• introduce the first example;
• concede a limitation;
• revise an earlier explanation;
• explain a consequence;
• compare two cases;
• return from an example to the main claim;
• pose a question the next paragraph answers.

At C2, two options may share reference vocabulary and both fit grammatically. Their functions can separate them. A paragraph that closes an example cannot fill a gap where the text still needs the example introduced.

Worked original gapped passage

This shortened passage and the options are original practice, not Cambridge material.

Predictions about disappearing handwriting have accompanied several communication technologies. Early typewriters, personal computers, and mobile devices were each said to make writing by hand obsolete. Those predictions were largely mistaken: handwriting changed its role, but did not vanish.

[GAP]

This distinction is apposite to current debates about generative tools. Asking whether people will stop composing unaided is less useful than asking which parts of composition will be delegated, and in which settings. The answer is unlikely to be uniform.

School policies are indicative of that unevenness. Some restrict assistance during assessment while encouraging it during revision. Others distinguish between generating a first draft and checking a completed one. These policies do not settle the broader argument, but they reveal where institutions currently locate responsibility.

Option A

The more revealing question, then, was not whether the old practice survived, but what work it continued to perform. Handwritten notes retained value in some classrooms and personal contexts even as typed documents became standard elsewhere.

Option B

Every technology has therefore produced exactly the same social effects. Schools that resisted typewriters later prohibited computers for identical reasons.

Option C

Generative tools can produce sentences rapidly. Speed is an important quality in many industrial processes and has often been measured.

Option D

This evidence conclusively proves that predictions about technology are unreliable and should be ignored.

The answer is A.

Its opening the more revealing question, then follows from the failed disappearance predictions. It reframes survival as changing function. Its final contrast between contexts supplies the distinction picked up after the gap. The later school-policy paragraph then gives evidence indicative of uneven delegation.

B makes an unsupported universal claim and invents identical policy history. C shares the technology topic but does not create the referenced distinction. D upgrades a pattern to conclusive proof and leaves this distinction without an antecedent.

Resolve chains, not isolated links

In the worked passage, the chain is:

1. disappearance predicted;
2. practice survives in changed form;
3. better question becomes function and context;
4. that distinction transfers to generative tools;
5. school policies provide signs of contextual variation;
6. the evidence remains informative but not final.

A correct option participates in that whole chain. It does not merely repeat technology or school.

Make similar chains for names, concepts, and time:

• an initial hypothesis → this account → its limitation → a revised explanation;
• first trial → subsequent revision → by then → eventual outcome;
• two categories → the former / the latter → that distinction.

If any link lacks an antecedent, test another placement.

Ambiguity at C2

C2 ambiguity often arises because more than one paragraph appears locally coherent. Do not resolve it by choosing the option with rarer vocabulary. Compare constraints.

Suppose two options begin This response. One ends by introducing a new experiment; the other closes the debate with a judgment. If the next paragraph describes the experiment, the exit edge selects the first option. If the next paragraph changes topic after a conclusion, the second may fit.

Use three levels of evidence:

• hard constraint: pronoun antecedent, chronology, named contrast;
• structural constraint: paragraph function, argument stage;
• supporting clue: lexical repetition, topic continuity.

Prefer hard and structural constraints over a pile of supporting clues.

Keep C2 Part 6 distinct from C1 Part 7

The mechanics are closely related: C1 Gapped Text is currently Part 7 with six questions, while C2 Gapped Text is Part 6 with seven. The useful distinction in practice is not that one version simply uses “harder words.”

For this C2 lesson, work on cases where two options maintain local cohesion but only one preserves the developing abstraction or rhetorical sequence. Track how an example is reinterpreted, how a provisional conclusion is qualified, or how a distinction becomes the organizing frame for later evidence.

The same method remains valid at C1: entry, exit, reference, direction, chronology, and function. Current part numbers and question counts must not be transferred between exams.

Common Part 6 errors

• Choosing by shared nouns rather than paragraph function.
• Checking only the sentence before the gap.
• Treating indicative of as proof and misreading the argument's evidence level.
• Calling an example apposite because it shares the topic, not the point.
• Inventing an antecedent for this reluctance or such confidence.
• Ignoring the exception prepared by largely.
• Placing a conclusion before the evidence it evaluates.
• Missing that an option answers a question introduced elsewhere.
• Assuming every available paragraph must be used.
• Using C1 part numbering for the current C2 paper.

Controlled placement test

Before the gap: “The first study found a strong association, but it did not record participants' prior experience.”

After the gap: “The later design therefore grouped participants by experience before comparing outcomes.”

Which bridge is stronger?

A. “This limitation made a second study necessary. Its researchers changed the sampling procedure rather than abandoning the original question.” B. “The association was indicative of a universal effect and required no further qualification.”

The answer is A. This limitation has a precise antecedent, and the sampling change prepares the later grouping. B contradicts the missing-variable problem and overstates indicative of.

Practice routine

Use an official sample Part 6. For each gap, write four notes: required antecedent, logical direction, paragraph function, and exit requirement. Label every option by function before placing it.

Anchor the most constrained paragraphs first, then reread the entire text. A locally correct choice can still duplicate an argumentative role needed elsewhere. When two options compete, state the hard constraint that decides between them.

After checking the key, explain the strongest wrong option. Identify the exact link it satisfies and the exact link it breaks. This trains global coherence rather than answer memorisation.

Sources

• C2 Proficiency exam format — Cambridge English
• C2 Proficiency preparation and sample tests — Cambridge English
• C2 Proficiency handbook for teachers — Cambridge English
• C2 Proficiency information for candidates — Cambridge English

Related

• Cambridge C1 Gapped Text: Cohesion and Reference Vocabulary
• Cambridge C2 Vocabulary: Precision Beyond C1
• Cambridge C2 Open Cloze: Grammar and Fixed Phrases
• Cambridge C2 Part 5: Multiple-Choice Vocabulary

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