The connector is an instruction, and it comes before the content
Look at the sentence that holds the blank and find its connector. Before you know anything about the subject matter, the connector already tells you which way the completion must point.
The routine. (1) Circle the connector in the blank's sentence. (2) Write same, opposite or result in the margin. (3) Predict a completion in that direction. (4) Only then read the four choices, and throw out every choice pointing the wrong way — usually two of them go at once.
Học sinh Việt thường đọc đoạn văn để hiểu nội dung, rồi chọn phương án nghe hợp lý nhất. Cách nhanh hơn và chắc hơn: đọc để tìm hướng. Chỉ cần thấy chữ however là biết câu kết phải đi ngược lại câu trước, dù chưa hiểu hết đoạn văn nói về cái gì. Từ nối là thứ duy nhất trong câu không thể hiểu nhầm.
Three families, and what each one licences
Cùng chiều — moreover, furthermore, similarly, likewise, also, in addition,
indeed, in fact. Câu kết đi tiếp hướng cũ, thường mạnh hơn.
Ngược chiều — however, but, yet, nevertheless, nonetheless, still, although,
though, whereas, while, by contrast, on the other hand, rather, instead, despite, in spite of.
Câu kết phải bẻ lại.
Hệ quả — thus, therefore, so, hence, consequently, as a result, accordingly,
which suggests, it follows that. Câu kết là điều rút ra được, không phải điều mới.
Ecologists once assumed that a forest's capacity to store carbon rises with its age until the trees stop growing. Measurements from an old-growth plot show mature stands still taking up carbon at rates comparable to much younger ones. The soil beneath them, however, is losing carbon fast enough to offset a large part of that uptake. The plot's total carbon balance is therefore
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- rising as quickly as that of a younger stand.
- determined entirely by the age of its trees.
- impossible to measure with current methods.
- much smaller than the trees' uptake alone would suggest.
Two connectors run in sequence. However makes sentence three cut against sentence two, and therefore makes the blank a consequence of both. (A) ignores the soil. (B) contradicts the soil sentence outright. (C) is the escape hatch students reach for when a passage gets complicated; nothing here says anything cannot be measured, and the numbers plainly were measured. Answer (D).
Phương án kiểu “không thể đo được / chưa ai biết / cần nghiên cứu thêm” rất hay xuất hiện khi đoạn văn có hai chiều đối nghịch. Nó nghe khiêm tốn nên dễ chọn. Nhưng đoạn văn vừa cho hai dữ kiện cụ thể ngược chiều nhau — vậy là đã đủ để kết luận, và kết luận đó phải tổng hợp hai vế chứ không phải bỏ cuộc.
Although and while: the concession is never the point
In Although X, Y, the writer commits to Y. X is granted only so it can be set aside. When the blank sits in the main clause, it must continue Y's direction, not X's.
Although the 1783 Laki eruption released enough sulphur to cool the Northern Hemisphere for two years, contemporary European chronicles say very little about the cold and a great deal about the haze, the smell of sulphur and the damage to crops. What the chronicles record is therefore best understood as
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- evidence that the cooling never occurred.
- a deliberate attempt to play down the disaster.
- what observers could perceive directly rather than the eruption's largest effect.
- proof that the eruption's effects were confined to Iceland.
The although clause grants the cooling; the main clause reports what the chronicles actually dwell on. (A) tries to use the concession against itself, denying what the sentence just granted. (B) invents an intention. (D) contradicts “Northern Hemisphere”. The gap between a real effect and what people wrote down is exactly what (C) names. Answer (C).
Quy tắc gọn: trong Although X, Y, người viết đứng về phía Y. Nhiều học sinh đọc xong nhớ mỗi vế X vì nó đứng trước. Nếu chỗ trống nằm ở vế chính hoặc ở câu sau, chiều của nó là chiều của Y. Câu While the survey did find…, it also found… hoạt động y hệt.
Because and since: the cause is given, the effect is the blank
A materials team found that their alloy's fatigue life depends almost entirely on the size of the largest flaw in a sample rather than on the average flaw size. Because samples cut from the centre of a cast billet contain fewer of the largest flaws than samples cut from its edge, the team predicted that centre-cut samples would
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- survive more loading cycles before failing.
- contain fewer flaws overall.
- be stiffer than edge-cut samples.
- show more variation in fatigue life.
Because hands you the premise and asks for its consequence, and the first sentence supplies the rule connecting largest flaw to fatigue life. (B) looks like a paraphrase but changes largest to overall, which the passage never claims. (C) introduces stiffness, a different property. (D) predicts spread where the passage predicts level. Answer (A).
Indeed and in fact: stronger, not different
These signal that what follows outdoes what came before. A completion that merely repeats the previous sentence is too weak; one that reverses it is disqualified.
The claim that medieval European peasants rarely travelled beyond their own villages has not survived scrutiny. Court rolls from one manor record tenants appearing as witnesses in disputes forty miles away, and its marriage registers show a quarter of brides arriving from outside the parish. Indeed, taken together the records suggest that
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- peasants rarely left their villages after all.
- travel of this kind was routine rather than exceptional.
- the court rolls are an unreliable source.
- marriage patterns varied sharply from one parish to another.
Indeed demands a step up in the same direction. (A) reverses. (C) undercuts the evidence the sentence is building on. (D) is a different topic and is not stronger than what precedes it. Only (B) takes the two pieces of evidence and raises the claim from “it happened” to “it was normal”. Answer (B).
For example, in other words, rather: the completion is pinned
For example demands an instance of the preceding generalisation — not a new claim, not a qualification. In other words demands the same content in different words, which means the completion may not add a fact the passage has not already earned. Not X; rather, Y is tighter still: Y has to be the direct alternative to X, so a completion that is merely true will not do.
A study of second-language learners found that grammatical accuracy improved fastest for structures that also exist in the learner's first language, even in cases where the structure works differently in the two languages. In other words, the learners' first language
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- made learning the second language harder overall.
- had no measurable effect on their progress.
- helped most when the two languages were unrelated.
- gave them somewhere to attach the new rule, whether or not the rule matched.
Restate the finding: a structure with a counterpart in the first language was learned faster, and the counterpart did not have to behave the same way. (A) and (B) reverse it. (C) inverts the condition. (D) is the same claim in other words, which is what the connector requires. Answer (D).
Analysis of a shipwreck's cargo identified amphorae from four separate production sites, but the ballast stones all came from a single quarry near the vessel's presumed home port. This pattern suggests the ship did not gather its whole cargo in one place and carry it home; rather, it
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- sank before it could take on ballast.
- carried only locally produced goods.
- called at several ports on a single voyage, taking on cargo at each.
- was built at the quarry site.
Not X; rather, Y is the tightest connector on the test: Y must be the direct alternative to X, so a completion that is merely true will not do. (A) contradicts the ballast that was found. (B) contradicts four production sites. (D) confuses where the stone came from with where the hull was built. Answer (C).
Rather và instead không chỉ đòi “ngược chiều” — chúng đòi đúng cái thay thế cho điều vừa bị phủ định. Đoạn văn bác bỏ “gom hàng một chỗ rồi chở về”, nên câu kết phải là một mô hình hành trình khác, không phải một sự thật khác về con tàu. Cứ thấy not… rather, hãy viết ra điều vừa bị bác rồi tìm phương án đối lập trực tiếp với nó.
Stacked connectors, negation and conditionals
The hardest items put two connectors in one sentence, or hang the blank on a negation (cannot be attributed to, is unlikely to come from) or on a condition (unless, only if, provided that).
A study of hospital handwashing found that compliance rose from 41 percent to 78 percent after electronic monitors were installed. In the wards where monitors were installed but never switched on, compliance rose almost as much. While the monitors clearly changed behaviour, then, the change is best attributed to
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- the visible presence of the devices rather than the data they gathered.
- the data the monitors gathered rather than their visible presence.
- an unrelated change in hospital policy.
- the improved access to handwashing stations that accompanied the installation.
The switched-off wards are the control, and they improved too, so whatever caused the change was present in both — the hardware on the wall, not the recording. (B) is the reading the control condition exists to eliminate. (C) is ruled out by the monitors clearly changed behaviour. (D) invents a second intervention. Answer (A).
Câu có While…, then, chồng hai việc: vế while nhượng bộ (đúng là máy có tác động), còn then yêu cầu rút kết luận từ dữ kiện đối chứng. Đọc thiếu một trong hai vế là chọn nhầm. Với các cụm phủ định như cannot be attributed to, hãy trả lời câu khẳng định trước rồi mới lật lại — đừng suy luận thẳng trong dạng phủ định.