CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH EXAMINATIONS / CERTIFICATE OF PROFICIENCY EXAM / CPE / USE OF ENGLISH / Open Cloze

 

For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap.

 

Hackers

No one knows exactly when the term "hacker" (1) ... into the language, although it was certainly being used in small elite circles of (2) ... would eventually become the computer industry as far (3) ... as the mid-sixties. Even twenty years ago, few people outside of that fledgling computer industry would have known what you were referring (4) ... if you talked of "hackers," and that would have included most avid science fiction fans, and even the majority of science fiction writers—even many of the so called "hard science" SF writers who pride (5) ... on staying technologically au courant.
By the middle of the seventies, a few of us were vaguely familiar with the basic concept of hacking (6) ... its most general sense, although mostly what we heard of in (7) ... days were "phone phreaks," a specialized form of hacker who pirates telephone service; as long ago as 1967 or 1968, one of your editors can recall someone telling him about a friend who had made a "black box" or "whistler" that enabled him to make long-distance calls without (8) ... to pay for them.

[start-answers-block type=1 columns=3 textTransform=none]

[answer="came"]

[answer="what"] [answer="back"] ! [answer="to"][answer="themselves"][answer="in"][answer="those"]

[answer="having"]

[end-answers-block]

 

 

 

 

 

 

answer keys

 

1)    CAME
PHRASAL VERB COME INTO
To enter:
You can read here how new words come into the language. 
 
2)    WHAT
PRONOUN WHAT
Used to introduce a clause about something that is or was not known or not certain:
It is not clear to what extent these views were shared.
 
3)    BACK
PHRASE AS FAR BACK AS
A long time from the present; for a large part of a particular period of time: 
Poisoning incidents have been registered as far back as 1842.
 
4)    TO
PHRASAL VERB REFER TO
To describe or be connected to somebody/something:
The term 'Arts' usually refers to humanities and social sciences.
 
5)    THEMSELVES
PHRASE PRIDE ONESELF ON
To be proud of something:
The restaurant prides itself on having the best pizza in town.
 
6)    IN
PHRASE IN A SENSE
To a limited extent or degree:
It is said that he had bad luck, and in a sense that is true.
 
7)    THOSE
PHRASE IN THOSE DAYS
During a particular period in the past:
Most people married young in those days.
 
8)    HAVING
MODAL VERB HAVING TO
Used to show that you must do something:
I said I'd tell you how to get what you want without having to ask, and l have.