Grammar and Vocabulary in Context
Grammar and vocabulary in context
This domain covers sentence completion, sentence ordering, and transformation. It tests whether you can choose the form that fits the whole sentence: tense, subject–verb agreement, voice, verb patterns, conjunctions, comparatives, relative clauses, and common collocations. The correct answer must be grammatical and meaningful in context, not merely a word you recognize.
Core rules
- For completion, identify the missing grammatical job first: main verb, auxiliary, participle, preposition, conjunction, or pronoun.
- Check time markers before choosing tense: last year, since 2020, by next week, already, and tomorrow each point to different forms.
- In ordering tasks, build from fixed chunks: subject + verb, verb + object, preposition + noun, and common patterns such as “too … to,” “so … that,” and “not only … but also.”
- In transformation, preserve meaning while changing the required feature: active/passive, direct/indirect, noun/verb/adjective, or clause reduction. Do not add new information.
- Use vocabulary in a full phrase, not as a single translation. “Make a decision,” “take part in,” and “be interested in” are stored as chunks.
Worked example
Sentence: “The book ______ by many students last year.” Choices: A) read B) was read C) has read D) is reading. Answer: B. The subject “The book” receives the action, so passive voice is needed. “Last year” sets a finished past time, so the passive is “was read,” not “is read” or “has been read.” C is active and would mean the book read someone, which is impossible here.
Traps that cost marks
Ignoring agreement after a plural noun next to a singular subject; choosing present perfect with a finished past time; missing the auxiliary in passive or continuous forms; placing adverbs in the wrong order; and in transformations, changing “can” to “must” or dropping “not.” Also watch false friends and words with similar spelling but different part of speech.