DECIDE WHETHER THE ANSWER MAKES SENSE IN THE CONTEXTOF THE SENTENCE...
3.
Decide whether the answer makes sense in the context
of the sentence. If not, eliminate it and try another.
For example, look at how the strategy works with the following
reference question.
The word they
in paragraph 2 refers to:
a.
the victims of heat stroke
b.
the treatments for heat stroke
c.
the people who administer aid to victims of heat stroke
d.
the characteristics of heat stroke
Here’s the sentence in which they
is used:
They
are a high body temperature (which may reach 106
degrees F or more); a rapid pulse; hot, dry skin; and a blocked
sweating mechanism.
They
clearly does not refer to people, so you can rule out choices
a
and c.
When you replace they
with the remaining answer choices,
you can easily narrow your answer to the correct choice: d.
In Your Own Words
Questions that ask you to paraphrase, or reword, a
sentence test the same skills as reference questions. They
measure your ability to comprehend a sentence or
paragraph. As you read, think about what the material is
stating, then try rewriting it (on paper or in your mind) in
new terms. This will increase your comprehension skills
and improve your chances of answering paraphrased
sentence questions correctly.
RECOGNIZING STRUCTURAL PATTERNS
Just as an architect needs a blueprint when designing a building,
writers must have a plan that organizes their information and ideas.
Learning organizational strategies will help you identify common
patterns so that you can guess at what is coming ahead.
Recognizing structural techniques also helps you answer two
types of questions on the TOEFL exam: supporting-detail ques-
tions (you will be able to locate specific information in a passage)
and sentence-insertion questions (you will know where best to
place new information in a passage).
The four most common organizational patterns that writers
use are: