The discourse cloze, an alternative cloze procedure, is described. It is argued that in the regular cloze procedure many of the words can be supplied from the "micro" context, and thus the regular cloze is not necessarily a test of reading comprehension on the "macro" level. In the discourse cloze approach, all words deleted from a passage of continuous discourse are markers of cohesion, of relationships between propositions. The discourse cloze may prove to be a better test of readers' overall grasp of a text because successful performance depends on the ability to reconstruct the underlying macro propositions. Examples are given of the range of markers that can be deleted in a discourse cloze, including anaphoric reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical devices. The psychological processes involved in restoring them to the text are discussed. The discourse cloze technique is also promising as a method for teaching reading comprehension and as an approach to research on reading comprehension. (Author/RW)