Fukushima Entrance English flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Main idea

The central point that the whole passage supports. A correct main-idea answer covers all paragraphs, while a true but narrow statement about one detail is a distractor.

Supporting detail question

An item asking for a specific fact stated in the passage. The answer is found by locating the relevant sentence, not by reasoning from general knowledge.

Inference

A conclusion the text forces without stating it directly. The correct choice needs no outside knowledge and no guess about facts the passage never mentions.

Pronoun reference

An item asking what a word such as it, this, or they points to. The antecedent is normally the nearest preceding noun phrase that fits the sentence logic.

Negative factual question

A question asking which option is NOT stated or is false. Three choices can be verified in the passage; the remaining one is the answer.

Author's purpose

The reason the writer produced the text: to inform, persuade, entertain, or instruct. Verb choice and text structure reveal which one applies.

Vocabulary in context

A question about a word's meaning inside the passage. Test each option by substituting it into the original sentence and checking whether the logic survives.

Paragraph function

The role a paragraph plays in the whole text, such as giving an example, presenting a counterargument, or providing background, rather than its detailed content.

Subject-verb agreement

The verb matches the head noun of the subject, ignoring phrases in between. The number of students is large; a number of students are waiting.

Countable and uncountable nouns

Countable nouns take many and few; uncountable nouns such as information, advice, news, and furniture take much and little and have no plural -s.

Future time clauses

After when, before, after, until, and as soon as, use the present simple for future meaning. Say I will call you when I arrive, not when I will arrive.

Present perfect

Have or has plus a past participle. It connects a past action to the present and is used with since, for, already, yet, and ever.

Past perfect

Had plus a past participle. It marks the earlier of two past events and commonly follows by the time or appears with before and after.

First conditional

If plus present simple, then will plus base verb. It describes a realistic future condition and its likely result.

Second conditional

If plus past simple, then would plus base verb. It describes an unreal or unlikely present situation and its imagined result.

Third conditional

If plus had and a past participle, then would have and a past participle. It describes an unreal past situation and its imagined different result.

Relative pronouns

Who refers to people as subject, whom as object, which to things, whose to possession, and where to places. That is used mainly in defining clauses.

Comparative forms

Use -er or more for comparing two items and the -est or the most for three or more. As ... as expresses equality between items.

Preposition collocations

Fixed verb and adjective pairings such as depend on, interested in, good at, afraid of, arrive in a city, and responsible for must be memorized as units.

Word formation

Choosing the correct part of speech for a gap. Endings like -tion, -ment, and -ness mark nouns; -ful and -ous mark adjectives; -ly marks adverbs.

Thesis statement

One sentence in the introduction naming the topic and stating your position. Every body paragraph must support it or be removed from the essay.

Topic sentence

The first sentence of a body paragraph stating its single claim. The rest of the paragraph gives evidence and explains how that evidence supports the claim.

Cohesion devices

Linking words such as however, therefore, for example, and in addition that show the relation between sentences and guide the reader through the argument.

Sentence variety

Mixing simple, compound, and complex sentences. A paragraph made only of short simple sentences loses style marks even when the grammar is correct.

Run-on sentence

Two independent clauses joined only by a comma. Fix it with a conjunction, a semicolon, or a full stop and a new capital letter.

Sentence fragment

A group of words punctuated as a sentence but missing a subject, a finite verb, or a complete thought. It is a frequent cause of lost writing marks.

Formal register

Essay style avoiding contractions, slang, and rhetorical questions, and preferring precise verbs such as argue, demonstrate, and suggest over get and very.

Conclusion paragraph

The final paragraph restating the thesis in new words and summarizing the main reasons. It introduces no new argument or evidence.

Signpost words

Words such as however, actually, but, and the thing is that signal a correction or contrast in speech and usually carry the tested listening detail.

Corrected number

A figure stated and then revised in the same turn, as in three, no, half past three. Record the last value given, not the first.

Spoken distractor

An option mentioned in the audio and then rejected, as in we considered the library, but it was closed. Match the final decision, not the mention.

Speaker attitude

The speaker's feeling or stance, judged from tone words and hedges such as to be honest, not really, and I suppose rather than from literal content alone.