Essential English: Spellings and Cloze

Created by Gemma Louise Bull

Text: 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens

Task 1: Can you find the six spelling mistakes in the extract?

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, renching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetaus, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and sollitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his greating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temparature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it won degree at Christmas.

Task 2: Can you choose the correct words to complete the passage?

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth (1) must/could/can/will warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain (2) more/lesser/fewer/less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage (3) over/under/beneath/above him in only one respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge (4) often/never/always/sometimes did.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see (5) them/I/you/me?” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men’s dogs (6) appearing/appear/appeared/appears to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!”

Answers

Task 1: Can you find the six spelling mistakes in the extract?

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.

Task 2: Can you choose the correct words to complete the passage?

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth (1) must/could/can/will warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain (2) more/lesser/fewer/less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage (3) over/under/beneath/above him in only one respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge (4) often/never/always/sometimes did.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see (5) them/I/you/me?” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men’s dogs (6) appearing/appear/appeared/appears to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!”