VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT 21
the idea that needs to be expressed in the incomplete unit. When you know what the
complete unit says, you know what the incomplete unit needs to say—the same
thing, or very nearly so. Here’s an example of a comparison sentence:
➥ Until he went to military school, Foster never stood up straight; as illus-
trated by his ________ in this photograph.This sentence has three units, two complete and one incomplete. The first two
units tell you that before military school, Foster slouched. The blank in the third
unit, therefore, needs to be filled by a word that will illustrate his slouching. The
correct answer will be posture, or its synonym.
ON YOUR OWN
PRACTICE REALLY LISTENING
Some of the best resources for nonnative English speakers trying to increase their
vocabularies are CDs or audiotapes. English is a difficult language because it is so visu-
ally confusing. One of the ways you most often encounter vocabulary is by listening.
Vocabulary CDs and tapes are available in libraries and bookstores. You may
also find it helpful to use a nonfiction or fiction book and the same book in audio
form (CD or audiotape). Play the audio version of the book as you read along in the
book. This will help you match the word to its written form.CAUSE AND EFFECT
A third kind of logical relationship often expressed in sentence completion ques-
tions is the cause and effect relationship. In other words, the sentence states that one
thing is a result of something else. Again, you can rely on key words to point you
in the right direction. Words such as thus, therefore, consequently, and because , and
phrases such as due to, as a result, and leads to signal a cause and effect relationship.
Try making some cause and effect sentences to see how they work.
Here’s an example of a cause and effect sample question.
Select the word that best fills in the blank.
➥ Scientific knowledge is usually _______, often resulting from years of hard
work by numerous investigators.
a. cumulative
b. illogical
c. decreasing
d. irrelevant