About this MEDIUM cloze passage — Test 28 of 50
Test 28 (“The Night Watchman (Character Narrative)”) is a 5-minute cloze passage with 8 fill-in-the-blanks. It is written at a medium level and modelled on the vocabulary and reading-in-context items that appear in the NSW Selective High School Placement Test and the Opportunity Class (OC) Test. Cloze passages assess whether a student can use surrounding context — grammar cues, tone, logical flow — to choose the most precise word. They are one of the fastest signals to NSW Education Standards Authority of a child’s reading maturity.
How to use this test
Read the whole passage once before choosing any answers. Cloze items are designed so that the correct word is only obvious once you have understood the writer’s overall intent. Where two options seem to fit, look for the one that matches the register and tense of the surrounding sentences — that is the discriminator examiners use. Aim to finish in roughly 5 minutes so you build the timed pacing real candidates need.
What parents should know
Vocabulary on the NSW Selective and OC papers is rarely tested in isolation; almost all word-knowledge questions are embedded in passages like this one. Children who read widely outperform children who memorise word lists, because the test rewards inference. After your child finishes, review every blank — including the ones they got right — and ask them to explain the clue that pointed to the answer. That conversation is where most of the learning happens.
When Test 28 feels comfortable, move on to Test 29, or build the wider skill set with our reading comprehension practice and the full OC preparation course.