What the blank is actually asking
A transition question shows two or three sentences. The blank sits at the front of the last sentence, and all four choices are transition words. Grammar plays no part: every choice fits grammatically, and all four produce a readable English sentence. The only thing that separates them is the logical relation between the sentence before the blank and the sentence after it.
So the question is never “which word sounds best here”. It is: take the claim in sentence~1, take the claim in sentence~2, and name what sentence~2 does to sentence~1. There are six things it can do.
The routine. (1) Read sentence~1 and say what it claims. (2) Read sentence~2 with the blank covered and say what it claims. (3) Name the relation in one word — adds, opposes, follows from, illustrates, sharpens, comes after. (4) Only now uncover the four choices and keep the one whose family matches.
Bước 3 là bước bị bỏ nhiều nhất, và cũng là bước quyết định. Nếu nhìn phương án trước khi gọi tên quan hệ, mắt sẽ bám vào từ nào quen tai nhất — thường là however hoặc therefore — rồi đọc ngược lại câu văn cho khớp với lựa chọn đó. Cách chữa duy nhất là lấy tay che bốn phương án, tự nói ra quan hệ bằng tiếng Việt (“câu sau bổ sung” / “câu sau ngược lại”), xong mới bỏ tay ra.
The six relations
| p2.9cmp4.6cmp6.6cm@ Family | Typical words | Sentence 2 must… |
|---|---|---|
| Addition | moreover, furthermore, in addition, also, similarly, likewise | add a second point on the same side as sentence~1 (similarly/likewise also require a genuine parallel case) |
| Contrast | however, nevertheless, nonetheless, by contrast, on the other hand, still, instead, rather | cut against sentence~1, or against the expectation sentence~1 sets up |
| Cause–effect | therefore, thus, consequently, as a result, hence, accordingly | follow from sentence~1 as an outcome or a deduction |
| Illustration | for instance, for example | be one named case of a general claim made in sentence~1 |
| Emphasis / clarification | indeed, in fact, that is, in other words, specifically | push the same claim further (indeed, in fact) or restate it more plainly (that is, in other words) |
| Time / sequence | subsequently, meanwhile, ultimately, eventually, then, afterward | sit at a point in time relative to sentence~1: after it, alongside it, or at the end of the sequence |
Six families, and every transition on the test belongs to exactly one of them. Learning the list is the cheap part. The work is in the last column, because that column states a condition: a family is only available if sentence~2 actually satisfies it.
Cuvier's comparative anatomy gave palaeontology its first rigorous method for reconstructing an extinct animal from a handful of bones.\ his insistence that species could vanish entirely overturned the prevailing assumption that the fossil record held only creatures still living somewhere unexplored.
- However,
- Moreover,
- For instance,
- Meanwhile,
Sentence~1 credits Cuvier with a method. Sentence~2 credits him with a second, separate achievement. Same side, second point: addition. (A) needs the second achievement to cut against the first, and it does not. (C) needs sentence~2 to be a case of the method described in sentence~1; it is a different contribution altogether. (D) needs a time relation that nothing in the pair supplies. Answer (B).
The 1972 ban removed DDT from American agriculture and with it the main cause of eggshell thinning in birds of prey.\ peregrine falcon populations, which had been wiped out east of the Mississippi, recovered well enough for the species to be taken off the federal endangered list in 1999.
- Nevertheless,
- For example,
- In fact,
- As a result,
Sentence~1 states that a cause was removed; sentence~2 states the outcome. That is the cause–effect family and nothing else. (A) reverses the direction. (B) would need the recovery to be an instance of the ban, which is not a relation that exists. (C) would need sentence~2 to sharpen the same claim, but it reports a different event. Answer (D).
Inside a family, the choice is about conditions
Two words from the same family are not interchangeable. Each carries an extra requirement, and the test lives on exactly those requirements.
- For instance needs sentence~1 to be general and sentence~2 to be one named case of it.
- In fact / indeed need sentence~2 to be stronger than sentence~1 on the same point — more evidence, or the same point taken further.
- That is / in other words need sentence~2 to contain no new fact — only a plainer version of sentence~1.
- By contrast / on the other hand need two comparable items in view, one per sentence, differing on the same dimension.
Some languages mark evidentiality grammatically, forcing a speaker to record how a claim was acquired.\ in Tariana a speaker must choose a suffix showing whether an event was seen, heard, inferred, or merely reported by someone else.
- In other words,
- Therefore,
- For instance,
- Nonetheless,
Sentence~1 is a general claim about “some languages”; sentence~2 names one of them and describes what it does. General $\to$ named case is illustration. (A) fails because sentence~2 introduces a new fact rather than rephrasing the definition. (B) fails because the Tariana suffix system is not a consequence of the general claim; it is an example of it. (D) needs sentence~2 to work against sentence~1, and it does the opposite — it confirms the general claim. Answer (C).
Octopus skin contains opsins, the light-sensitive proteins otherwise found in eyes.\ an isolated patch of octopus skin will change colour in response to light even after it has been cut off from the animal's nervous system.
- Indeed,
- Nonetheless,
- Similarly,
- Subsequently,
Sentence~2 is the same claim escalated: not only are the proteins there, they work without the brain. That is emphasis. (B) inverts the relation. (C) would need a second, parallel case — a different animal, a different tissue — and there is none. (D) invents a chronology. Answer (A).
In the Athenian courts a litigant had to speak for himself, and the water clock was stopped only while documents were read aloud.\ Roman advocates could be hired, could speak for hours, and treated the reading of evidence as part of the performance.
- In the same way,
- Accordingly,
- In fact,
- By contrast,
Two comparable items — Athenian procedure and Roman procedure — differing on the same dimension. That licenses by contrast. (A) points in the opposite direction: the two systems are being separated, not aligned. (B) makes Roman practice a consequence of Athenian practice, which the sentences do not support. (C) would need sentence~2 to press the Athenian point harder; instead it changes the subject to a second legal system. Answer (D).
Bốn từ for instance, in fact, that is, by contrast là bốn cái bẫy hay gặp nhất, vì cả bốn đều “đọc thấy được” ở rất nhiều chỗ. Mẹo kiểm nhanh: for instance phải có một cái tên riêng hoặc một trường hợp cụ thể ở câu sau; in fact phải mạnh hơn câu trước chứ không chỉ khác câu trước; that is phải không thêm thông tin mới nào; by contrast phải có đúng hai vật đem ra so, mỗi câu một vật. Thiếu điều kiện là loại, dù đọc lên nghe rất trôi.
Time is a relation, not a decoration
Meanwhile means at the same time, elsewhere. Subsequently means after that. Ultimately and eventually mean at the end of the sequence just described. A time transition is correct only when the two sentences really are placed on a timeline; it is wrong whenever the relation is logical rather than chronological.
Between 1929 and 1932 industrial output in the United States fell by nearly half and unemployment climbed into the millions.\ the Soviet Union was completing its first Five-Year Plan and publishing output figures that made central planning look immune to the crisis.
- Consequently,
- Meanwhile,
- For instance,
- Therefore,
Two things happening in the same years in different places: that is what meanwhile is for. (A) and (D) belong to the same family, so neither can be the answer — and in any case Soviet planning was not an effect of American unemployment. (C) would make the Five-Year Plan an instance of American collapse. Answer (B).
Marie Tharp drew her first physiographic profile of the North Atlantic floor by hand in 1952, and a rift valley running down the centre of the ridge was visible on it.\ that valley became the central evidence for seafloor spreading, a theory her own collaborator had at first dismissed.
- Meanwhile,
- By contrast,
- Ultimately,
- For example,
The pair describes a development with a starting point (1952) and an end state (the valley as central evidence). Ultimately marks that end state. (A) requires simultaneity, and the sentences are sequential. (B) requires two comparable items differing on one dimension, and the only object in view is the rift valley itself. (D) would make the valley's later career an instance of the 1952 profile rather than its outcome. Answer (C).
Two choices from one family cancel each other
The test cannot print two correct answers. So if two of the four choices belong to the same family and carry the same conditions, both are wrong, and the answer is one of the remaining two. This is not a guess: it is a certainty, and it converts many four-way questions into two-way questions before you have read the passage twice.
However and nevertheless are the pair this shows up with most often; therefore and thus, moreover and furthermore, for example and for instance behave the same way. Spot the pair, cross both out, decide between what is left.
Bioluminescence has evolved independently in at least forty separate lineages, a striking number for a trait that requires a dedicated enzyme.\ those same lineages have repeatedly lost the trait again, so the light-producing machinery appears to be as easy to abandon as it is to acquire.
- In addition,
- However,
- Nevertheless,
- Therefore,
(B) and (C) are the same word twice, so neither can be correct. That leaves addition and cause–effect. Repeated loss of the trait is not a consequence of repeated gain; it is a second fact pointing the same way, towards a trait that evolution moves in and out of easily. Answer (A).
Đừng dùng mẹo này ngược. Hai phương án cùng nhóm thì cả hai cùng sai — không phải “một trong hai chắc đúng”. Học sinh hay nhớ nhầm thành “đề nhấn mạnh nhóm đó” rồi chọn đại một trong hai, tức là tự tay chọn vào đúng chỗ đề gài.
Hai từ trông giống nhau chưa chắc cùng nhóm. However và instead đều là tương phản nhưng instead đòi hỏi câu sau thay thế điều câu trước bác bỏ. Thus và then nhìn na ná nhưng một cái là nhân quả, một cái là thời gian. Chỉ gạch cặp khi hai từ thật sự thay thế được cho nhau trong mọi ngữ cảnh.
Một câu từ nối chuẩn của đề thật dài 40–80 từ và luôn có đủ dữ kiện để gọi tên quan hệ. Nếu đọc xong vẫn thấy “từ nào cũng được” thì gần như chắc chắn đã đọc lướt một mệnh đề nào đó. Hay bị bỏ qua nhất là mấy chữ nhỏ: already, only, even, still, no earlier, for the first time — đó chính là chỗ đề giấu chiều của quan hệ.