The phrase "closely imitate" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you want to express that someone or something is mimicking or copying the behavior of someone or something else very closely. For example: "The actor closely imitated the mannerisms of the character they were playing."
The writer Giorgio Vasari later extolled Leonardo's ability to closely imitate nature.
Advancements in bioengineering have enabled the development of various scaffold fabrication technologies, using natural or synthetic in origin polymers that closely imitate the native tendon anisotropic architecture.
Mr. Khayyat's group follows a puritanical form of Islam called Salafism that seeks to closely imitate the lives of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions.
Though his harmonic language has pungently modern elements, the true modernism comes from the way the vocal lines closely imitate the rhythms and contours of the Czech words.
The concept of verisimilitude was incorporated most fully by Realist writers of the late 19th century, whose works are dominated by well developed characters who very closely imitate real people in their speech, mannerisms, dress, and material possessions.
Tissue grafts and scaffolds based on extracellular matrix molecules have received much attention since they closely imitate the structural, biochemical, biophysical and biological properties of the tissue to be replaced.
Hawkesworth collaborated with Johnson (whose prose style he closely imitated) in founding a periodical, The Adventurer.
Among the countries that closely imitated the Prussian system were Austria-Hungary, tsarist Russia, and Japan.
As this model more closely imitates Abilene both in structure and behavior, a door to extensive experimentation is opened.
The words and music closely imitated the Resistance songs that the BBC had broadcast into occupied France.
Leaf mimicry often is elaborate among the leaf insects, with the insects' wings and legs closely imitating leaf colour and form.
