A teacher selected a text from a newspaper and dropped every fifth word and…

CONCEPT: A cloze test is a language-assessment technique in which words are deleted from a passage at a fixed, regular interval (commonly every fifth word), and the reader must supply the missing words using context and comprehension. It was devised by W. L. Taylor (1953) to measure reading comprehension and overall language proficiency, and it is distinct from an open-ended "fill in the blanks" exercise, where gaps are placed at the setter's discretion rather than at a fixed numerical interval.

APPLICATION: In the scenario described, the teacher takes a newspaper passage and removes every fifth word at a fixed, regular interval, then asks the learners to restore the missing words from context. This systematic, interval-based deletion rule is exactly the defining procedure of a cloze test, so the exercise the teacher has created is a cloze test.

CONTRAST:

• Fill in the blanks: gaps in this kind of activity are usually placed at specific target words chosen by the item-setter (often to test a single grammar point or vocabulary item), not at a fixed interval running through the whole passage.

• Complete the comprehensible paragraph: this phrase describes a general reading-completion activity on an already-understandable paragraph, without specifying any rule for how or where words are removed.

• Writing test: a writing test asks a learner to compose original text on a topic or prompt, rather than to restore specific words removed from an existing passage.

RESULT: Hence, this assessment technique is a cloze test.