Junkao English cheat sheet

Collocation rule: choose the partner word that native usage fixes, not the synonym closest in meaning - make a decision, take a photo, do harm, commit a crime.

Affix decoding: dis-/un-/in-/non- negate; -less lacks; -able/-ible means capable of; -ness/-ity/-tion form nouns; -ize/-ify form verbs; -ous/-ive form adjectives.

Countability: advice, information, furniture, equipment, luggage, news, research are uncountable - no plural -s, no a/an; use a piece of, an item of, some.

Confusable pairs by part of speech: affect (verb) vs effect (noun); rise (intransitive) vs raise (transitive); lie/lay; lend (give) vs borrow (take).

Formal register markers: hence, thus, furthermore, nevertheless signal written academic prose; so, get, a lot of, kind of signal informal speech.

Preposition fixedness: depend on, consist of, result in (cause) vs result from (cause source), comply with, be responsible for, be capable of.

Degree and gradability: very/really modify gradable adjectives (very cold); absolutely/utterly modify extreme ones (absolutely freezing); avoid very + extreme adjective.

Word-formation selection: pick the derivative whose part of speech fits the syntactic slot - determiner slot needs a noun, pre-verbal slot needs an adverb.

Subject–verb agreement: the verb agrees with the head noun, not the nearest noun - The list of items is long; One of the students is absent; Neither of them is ready.

Collective and quantity nouns: team, government, family take singular verbs in American English; police and people take plural; none may take either, so match the notional sense.

Tense sequencing: after a past main verb, a reported clause backshifts (said he was); a universal truth stays present (said water boils at 100°C).

Conditionals: Type 1 if + present, will; Type 2 if + past, would; Type 3 if + had + past participle, would have + past participle - never will/would inside the if-clause.

Relative clauses: who/which/that for defining clauses; add commas and use which (not that) for non-defining clauses; whose marks possession.

Parallelism: items joined by and, or, not only…but also, either…or must share grammatical form - to walk, to swim, and to cycle, not to walk, swimming, and cycling.

Modifier placement: a participial or adjectival phrase attaches to the noun it modifies - Walking down the street, I saw the sign, not Walking down the street, the sign appeared.

Inversion triggers: negative or restrictive openers (never, rarely, hardly, not only, no sooner) invert subject and auxiliary - Never have I seen such a crowd.

Question-type routing: main-idea items ask for the whole passage; detail items ask for one stated fact; inference items ask for what must follow but is not stated.

Main idea = topic + author's claim about it; a correct answer covers the entire passage, while an option that is true but narrow is a distractor.

Detail answers must be verified by locating the exact line; a choice that is plausible from general knowledge but absent from the text is wrong.

Inference rule: the answer must be logically entailed by the text; if it needs one extra assumption, it is out of scope.

Vocabulary-in-context: substitute each option into the sentence and test whether the surrounding logic still holds; literal dictionary sense often fails.

Attitude and tone items: positive, negative, neutral, or critical - locate evaluative adjectives and adverbs, since they carry the author's stance.

EXCEPT and NOT items: three options are supported by the passage and one is not; mark each option true or false against the text before choosing.

Reference words (it, this, they, such) resolve to the nearest preceding noun phrase that fits the grammar and the sense of the following clause.

Blank-type triage: grammar blanks (articles, prepositions, verb form) are solved by syntax alone; meaning blanks need the surrounding sentence's logic.

Cohesion signals: however, therefore, moreover, in contrast mark contrast, result, addition, and opposition - the connector must match the logical relation between clauses.

Lexical-chain rule: a repeated or synonymous word elsewhere in the passage usually names the correct option for a vocabulary blank.

Collocation test: when two options are grammatical, keep the one that forms a fixed phrase with the neighbouring word (make progress, not do progress).

Part-of-speech first: identify what the slot requires (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) and eliminate every option of the wrong class before reading for meaning.

Tense and voice check: the finite verb must agree with the clause subject and match the time frame set by time adverbials and surrounding verbs.

Pronoun and reference check: an option containing it, this, they, or such must have an antecedent in the preceding text that fits number and gender.

Whole-passage read-back: after filling, reread the completed passage to confirm register and topic consistency; a locally correct blank can break global coherence.

Restructure, don't mirror: English modifiers trail the noun, Chinese modifiers precede it - convert relative and participial clauses into pre-nominal 的-phrases.

Passive conversion: English be + past participle often becomes a Chinese active or subjectless sentence, or takes 被, 由, 受到, 得到 depending on whether the meaning is adverse, agentive, or neutral.

Noun-to-verb shift: English abstract nouns of action (the improvement of, the analysis of) usually become Chinese verbs - 改善, 分析 - to keep the sentence natural.

Long-sentence splitting: cut an English sentence at relative pronouns, conjunctions, and participial boundaries, then rejoin the pieces with Chinese connectives or by word order.

Article handling: English a/an/the carry no Chinese equivalent in most contexts; drop them rather than writing 一个 or 这个 mechanically.

Measure and number words: add Chinese classifiers (个, 项, 种, 条) before nouns where English uses a bare noun; keep numbers and units in the standard Chinese form.

Terminology consistency: fix one Chinese rendering per technical term before translating and reuse it throughout; do not alternate synonyms for the same concept.

Proper nouns: personal and place names follow established Chinese renderings (established transliterations or 约定俗成 forms); do not invent new characters for well-known names.

Paragraph architecture: topic sentence states the claim, supporting sentences give reason or example, closing sentence links back to the thesis or forward to the next point.

Thesis rule: one arguable claim in one sentence, placed at the end of the introduction; it must be specific enough that a reader can predict the body's structure.

Cohesion toolkit: pronoun reference, lexical repetition, and transition words (however, consequently, for instance) carry the reader across sentence boundaries.

Sentence variety: mix simple, compound, and complex sentences; a run of short simple sentences reads choppy, a run of long complex ones obscures the point.

Formal essay register: avoid contractions, slang, and first-person opinion markers in academic writing; use impersonal framing (It is argued that…).

Conclusion rule: restate the thesis in new words, summarise the main supports, and end with an implication - never introduce a new argument in the conclusion.

Common deduction points: sentence fragments, comma splices, and dangling modifiers cost more marks than vocabulary choice, so proofread for them first.

Word-count and task coverage: address every part of the prompt (describe, compare, give opinion) and check the required length, since an under-length response loses marks.