Gapped-Text Matching: Cohesion Before Content
The core idea
In this task five sentences have been removed from a passage and you choose them from seven options. The passage is usually organised by paragraphs, and each gap must be filled by the option that is linked to the sentences around it. Content similarity is not enough; the grammatical and lexical glue must fit.
Cohesion signals to hunt for
- Pronouns and determiners: this, these, such a, its, they must refer to something already mentioned before the gap. If an option begins "This approach...", the previous sentence must have introduced an approach.
- Lexical chains: repetition, synonyms, and paired words (cost → budget, drought → rainfall).
- Connectors: however, therefore, for example, in addition, by contrast announce the logical relation.
- Structural role: is the gap the topic sentence of a paragraph, a supporting example, or a concluding comment?
- Parallel form: lists and comparisons often demand the same grammatical shape.
Traps
- Two options look equally on-topic; only one has a pronoun or connector with a valid referent.
- An option that fits the sentence after it but clashes with the sentence before it.
- Options containing a word from the passage used loosely, tempting a keyword match.
- The distractor that belongs to the passage's theme but to a different paragraph's stage of the argument.
Worked example
Gap preceded by: "Many cities now plant trees along main roads." Options: (A) "This simple measure lowers street temperatures by several degrees." (B) "Trees also need water, which is scarce." Both mention trees, but A's this simple measure points back to planting, and A continues the positive line; B introduces a drawback that the following sentence (about costs) may not support. Read the sentence after the gap before deciding.
Rule of thumb
Read the whole passage first for the argument's shape, then fill the gaps you are sure of and let elimination finish the rest.