Complete the 12 sentences below. Choose the best answer for each one.
1............... was the finance director who insisted that the launch be postponed, not the marketing team.
Wrong!
Use "It" in an it-cleft to emphasize the person who made the decision: it was the finance director, not someone else.
2It was Dr Marin ............... challenged the committee's assumptions during the hearing.
Wrong!
Use "who" because the emphasized element is a person, Dr Marin.
3It was during the final hour of negotiations ............... the two sides finally accepted the compromise.
Wrong!
Use "when" because the cleft highlights a time, the final hour of negotiations.
4It was in the temporary warehouse ............... the auditors discovered the missing records.
Wrong!
Use "where" because the cleft emphasizes a place, the temporary warehouse.
5............... undermined trust was the management's refusal to release the full report.
Wrong!
Use "What" to form a pseudo-cleft subject meaning 'the thing that undermined trust'.
6The revised safety protocols ............... what mattered most to the inspectors, not the glossy presentation.
Wrong!
Use "were" because in this reversed pseudo-cleft the subject, 'the revised safety protocols', is plural.
7It was ............... that caused the production delay, not the design software.
Wrong!
Use "the delivery schedule" because an it-cleft after 'was' needs the emphasized phrase, not a full finite clause in this position.
8The question is not whether she resigned; the question is ...............
Wrong!
Use "why she resigned" after 'The question is': the complement is an embedded wh-question naming the unresolved issue. 'Because she resigned' gives a reason, not a question.
9............... the board rejected was the proposed timetable, not the underlying strategy.
Wrong!
Use "What" because the sentence is a pseudo-cleft: 'what the board rejected' is identified as the timetable.
10It was ............... that the journal agreed to publish the findings.
Wrong!
In an it-cleft the focused phrase keeps normal word order: "only after the data were verified". Inversion is used only when 'Only after...' is fronted without 'It was... that'.
11It was ............... that the investigation was suspended, not because the witnesses were unavailable.
Wrong!
Use "because the figures were inconsistent" to emphasize the reason for the suspension in an it-cleft.
12All the consultant ............... was summarise the risks that the engineers had already identified.
Wrong!
Use "did" because 'All the consultant did was...' emphasizes the limited action she performed.
Exercise complete
0 out of 12
correct answers
Answers
- It was the finance director who insisted that the launch be postponed, not the marketing team.
- It was Dr Marin who challenged the committee’s assumptions during the hearing.
- It was during the final hour of negotiations when the two sides finally accepted the compromise.
- It was in the temporary warehouse where the auditors discovered the missing records.
- What undermined trust was the management’s refusal to release the full report.
- The revised safety protocols were what mattered most to the inspectors, not the glossy presentation.
- It was the delivery schedule that caused the production delay, not the design software.
- The question is not whether she resigned; the question is why she resigned.
- What the board rejected was the proposed timetable, not the underlying strategy.
- It was only after the data were verified that the journal agreed to publish the findings.
- It was because the figures were inconsistent that the investigation was suspended, not because the witnesses were unavailable.
- All the consultant did was summarise the risks that the engineers had already identified.