READING (14) BUILDING SKILLS CAMBRIDGE PREPARATION FOR THE TOEFL® IBT TEST

 

CAMBRIDGE PREPARATION FOR THE TOEFL® IBT TEST BUILDING SKILLS READING (14)

 

PRACTICE WITH UNDERSTANDING THE CONNECTION OF IDEAS Recognizing and understanding how sentences and ideas are linked throughout a passage will help your comprehension of the passage. Your ability to follow the flow and organization of a passage depends upon your ability to understand how the major points, facts, and details are arranged in support of the main idea. The skills you will need in order to make these connections are outlined below. Understanding referents Instead of repeating the same words over and over, writers use pronouns and short phrases to refer to these words. These pronouns and short phrases are called referents. They may refer back to a previously used word, phrase, or idea. They can also be used to anticipate a word, phrase, or idea that follows. Read the following example:   Understanding transitional expressions Recognizing and understanding transitional expressions will help you follow the flow and organization of ideas in the reading passages on the test. Becoming familiar with the following list of transition words and phrases will help you follow the flow of ideas in a passage. Recognizing these words will help you recognize the organization and purpose of a passage more clearly and quickly.   Understanding the organization of ideas One of the question types that you will encounter on the TOEFL test requires you to insert a sentence in the correct place in a passage. Referents, connecting words, and surrounding words can help you identify where the sentence fits bets. The sentence can be one of the following three types. 1 A general sentence that introduce the topic. A well written passage has a main idea, called the topic. The topic is what the passage is about. The topic of the passage is usually stated in the first sentence, although other positions are also possible. The sentence that states the topic is called the topic sentence. 2 A sentence that gives details of a supporting idea within the passage If the sentence to be inserted gives details of supporting idea, it will probably contain transitions or connecting words. Additionally, it will often contain a word or phrase that refers to the supporting idea. Read the passage below and the sentence to be inserted. 3 A sentence that ends the paragraph A sentence that is meant to be inserted at the end of a paragraph will either be a detail of the final supporting idea of the passage or will summarize the ideas in the passage. Referents and/or transitions and connecting words will refer to the previous sentence. Read the passage below and the sentence to be inserted.