THE GIN EPIDEMIC – Cloze Test

 

 

CLOZE TEST

Read the text and complete the chart below with a word from the list that comes after the text. Every word can only be used ONCE. There are FIVE words that you do not need to use. Question 0 has been answered as an example.

 

THE GIN EPIDEMIC

Distillation was common 0) __________ Europe by the Middle Ages, but was fairly uncommon in England, compared to beer and ale production, because a national monopoly kept prices very high. In 1689, Parliament banned imports of French wines and spirits and at the same time cancelled the 1) __________ monopoly. Subsequently, anyone who could pay the required 2) __________ could set up a distillery business. Not only 3) __________ distillers become producers, but also sellers. The cost of gin fell below the cost of beer and ale and gin drinking became the favourite alcoholic beverage among the ‘inferior class’.

British statistical abstracts put the annual 4) __________ of gin in England and Wales in 1700 at about 1.23 million gallons. By 1714, consumption was up to almost 2 million gallons per year. By 1735, it was 6.4 million gallons, and by 1751, 7.05 million gallons. In terms of population, per capita intake increased by up to 5) __________ from between 1 and 2 pints in 1700 to between 8 and 9 pints, about a gallon per person, in 1751.  Beer drinking for the same period remained relatively constant at 3 million gallons a year.

George, one of the most influential historians of the early 20th century, blamed the increase in gin consumption 6) __________ much of the social problems, which also increased during this period. The most commonly cited support for this argument was that, after the passage of the Tippling [1]Act of 1751, which George called a ‘7) __________ point in the social history of London, social 8) __________ declined. The Tippling Act prohibited distillers from selling gin at 9) __________, and levied severe penalties for non-compliance, such as imprisonment, whipping and even deportation for repeat offenders. As a result, gin prices rose, gin drinking steadily declined back to 2 million gallons [the intake of beer, however, steadily increased to about 4 million gallons a year and social agitation did decline. However, the social turmoil 10) _________ to and after the Tippling Act was the result of, and was fuelled and exacerbated by, excessive gin drinking, rather than having been its cause.

 

Adapted from: https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/36/5/401/233726

 

CONSUMPTION     DOMESTIC                HOUSEHOLD            TROUBLE

CONSUMER             DUTIES                       PRIOR                         TURNING

DECISIVE                   EIGHTFOLD               RETAIL                        UNREST

DID                              FOR                              THROUGHOUT        WHOLESALE

 

 

0	THROUGHOUT
1					6
2					7
3					8
4					9
5					10

 

 

[1] To tipple: to  drink alcohol habitually

 

KEY

 

0. THROUGHOUT

1. DOMESTIC
2. DUTIES
3. DID
4. CONSUMPTION
5. EIGHTFORLD
6. FOR
7. TURNING
8. UNREST
9. RETAIL
10. PRIOR