REFERENTS, AN IMPORTANT QUESTION TYPE IN THE TOEFL READING SECTION

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TOEFL READING SECTION COMMENTS # 3

In the Reading Section of the TOEFL IBT you will often find various questions that require you to identify the “referent” of a particular pronoun, or adjective, or quantifier.

This makes it necessary for the test takers to know about pronouns, possessive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives and quantifiers.

WHAT ARE PRONOUNS?

A pronoun can be defined as a word that is used to replace a noun, or as a substitute for a noun.

Different Kinds of Pronouns.

Subject pronouns: I, you (singular), he, she, it, we, you (plural), they. These pronouns go BEFORE the verb. Example: She likes homework.

Object pronouns: me, you (singular), him, her, it us, you (plural), them. These pronouns go AFTER the verb. Example: The teacher gave me some homework

Possessive pronouns: mine, yours (singular), his, hers, its, ours, yours (plural), theirs. Example: This homework is theirs

Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. Example: John did the homework himself

POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES

These words do NOT replace a noun, they accompany a noun. The list is: my, your (singular), his, her, its, our, your (plural), their. Example: The teacher corrected our homework.

DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES

They are called “demonstrative” because they “point” to the noun they accompany. These adjectives are the only ones that have singular and plural forms.

Singular: This, that. Examples: This hat (near). That hat (not so near, over there).

Plural: These, those. Examples: These books, those books.

QUANTIFIERS

There are several of these, so just to name a few: one, some, a few, many.  

Examples:

There were many apples on the table.

I took a few photos of the flowers

SO HOW DO THE REFERENT QUESTIONS ON THE TOEFL WORK?

A referent generally comes before the pronoun or other expression that is replacing it, so it is necessary to search what comes in front of the word that has been selected for that particular question.

Here are various examples!

-In a country in Asia, people have different ways of nodding or shaking their heads to indicate “yes” or “no”. You have to know where they come from to understand which they are indicating.

They – the referent is “people”

Which – the referent is “yes or no”

-Living in another country can be exciting, but it can also be confusing.

It - the referent is “living”. Here “living” is acting as a noun.

-After a million-dollar lottery winner in Brasilia told reporters that his luck had come from a particular fish in a park pond, more than 200 Brazilians spoke up with similar stories. They had rubbed it and soon after had won a prize! Also many have won money simply by rubbing its picture

His (luck) – referent – lottery winner

They  - referent – other Brazilians

It – referent – a particular fish

Many – referent – Brazilians

Its (picture) – referent – the fish

-If you keep telling yourself that your memory is bad, your mind will start to believe it

It – referent – your memory is bad

-The term global village is used to describe the world and its people. So how can the world be a village? Changes in the past century have made it possible.

Its – referent – the world

It – referent – a village

-The greatest contributor to the global village is the microchip. Modern satellites and supercomputers work thanks to it.

It – referent –  the microchip

-The development of the global village will continue into the future. The various challenges the world faces will make it necessary

It – referent – development of the global village

-There were many apples on the table, so we ate some

Some – referent – many apples

FINAL WORDS

The questions about referents that are generally included in the Reading Section of the TOEFL are always rather complex, and the sentences provided are normally quite long and involved.

Therefore it will be necessary to analyze the sentences with care and to identify the more important words, especially the verbs.

Limiting your efforts to a superficial reading will not be enough, you have to really comprehend the ideas that the paragraph contains!

Try and find examples on the Internet, and above all, practice the use of pronouns and the other kinds of words I have commented on in this post.

See you on the next post!

©2013 joanveronica  (Joan Robertson)

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