Grammar and vocabulary in context (文法・語彙)
What the grammar and vocabulary section asks
Grammar and vocabulary appear inside short sentences and dialogues: choose the correct form, put words in order, or change a word's shape. The exam stays inside 中学校 grammar: tense, passive, present perfect, infinitives and gerunds, comparatives, relative pronouns, indirect questions, and basic conjunctions.
Core rules
- Find the time marker first: ago, yesterday, since, for, just, tomorrow. It decides the tense.
- Find the subject and ask who does the action. If the subject receives the action, use be + past participle.
- After a preposition or at the start of a subject, a verb becomes -ing.
- In 語順整序, build the largest fixed chunk first ("as soon as I got home", "too tired to walk"), then attach the rest.
- Learn words in phrases, not alone: take part in, look after, be good at, arrive at.
Worked example
"This bridge ( ) more than 100 years ago." ① built ② was built ③ has built Reasoning: "ago" points to a finished past event, so present perfect ③ is out. A bridge cannot build; it is built, so passive past ②. ① would mean the bridge did the building.
Traps
- Present perfect with ago or yesterday.
- Relative pronoun choice: who for people, which for things, whose for possession.
- "one of the + plural noun" and "one of the most + adjective".
- so ~ that / too ~ to / enough to confusion.
- Spelling changes: stop→stopped, study→studied, write→written.