In this reading part, we want to look specifically at three areas for each type of question:
1.How to identify this type of question on the TOEFL
2.Provide a definition of the skill being tested
3.Give steps and strategies for working on this skill
We’ll start with identifying referents.
1.So to our first goal, how do you identify this type of question?
In the question itself you will usually see the phrase “refer to” or “could be replaced by.”
In the reading, a word or phrase will be highlighted in gray.
2.Now to our second goal, what does identifying referents mean?
Identifying referents mean that the highlighted word or phrase refers to some word or phrase before it. The word that is often underlined is a pronoun. Now what are the pronouns?
He, she, it or they
This and that (singular) or these or those (plural)
Who, which or that (each of these are often used as relative pronouns or the word that begins an adjective or relative clause. They are immediately after the noun it describes).
3.To our final goal, let’s look at some steps and strategies to do better with this skill.
Step 1: Look at the highlighted word in the question and its location.
Step 2: Look to see if the highlighted word is singular or plural and look to see what it matches.
Step 3: Look to see if it is a person, place or thing that is highlighted.
Step 4: Use grammar to help you. In later posts, we will talk about these.
Step 5: If you still can’t figure it out, substitute the answers you think are right.