Hiroshima Entrance English cheat sheet

Detail questions: the answer is a paraphrase of one sentence in the passage, not a copy; locate the keyword, then read the sentence before and after it.

Inference questions ask what must be true given the text; a valid inference cannot be contradicted by any sentence and needs textual support, not world knowledge.

Main-idea questions: the correct option covers the whole passage; options that are true but cover only one paragraph are distractors.

Pronoun and reference questions (it, this, they): trace back to the last matching noun phrase that agrees in number and makes sense in context.

Vocabulary-in-context questions: substitute each option into the original sentence and check that the sentence's logic still holds; the common dictionary meaning is often wrong.

Negative/EXCEPT questions: three options are explicitly supported; the answer is the one with no supporting sentence, so verify each option against the text.

Author's-attitude questions hinge on evaluative adjectives and adverbs (surprisingly, unfortunately, merely), not on the topic itself.

Time management: read the questions first, then scan; a long passage with five questions should take about 8-10 minutes, leaving the rest for other sections.

Collocation decides many items: make a decision, take responsibility, pay attention to, have an influence on; the grammatically possible word may not collocate.

Distinguish confusable pairs by transitivity and preposition: affect (verb) vs effect (noun); rise (intransitive) vs raise (transitive); lie/lay.

Countability rules: advice, information, furniture, equipment, luggage are uncountable and take no plural -s and no a/an.

Formal written English prefers single-word verbs (establish, require, reduce) over phrasal verbs (set up, need, cut down) in academic passages.

Connectors signal logic and must match it: however/nevertheless contrast, therefore/thus result, moreover addition, whereas direct contrast between clauses.

Word-family items: choose the form that fits the slot - noun after a determiner, adjective before a noun, adverb modifying a verb or adjective.

False friends and loanwords: naive, delicate, sensible (reasonable, not sensitive), economic (of the economy) vs economical (cheap).

Subject-verb agreement: the verb agrees with the head noun, not the nearest noun; phrases between them (along with, as well as, together with) do not change the number.

Relative pronouns: who for people, which for things, whose for possession, where for places, when for times; that is not used after a comma.

Participles: a present participle (-ing) modifies the noun that performs the action; a past participle (-ed) modifies the noun that receives it.

Tense sequence: reported speech and past narratives shift back one step (is to was, will to would, has to had); time clauses after when/if/before take present for future.

Conditionals: zero (present/present), first (present/will), second (past/would), third (had + past participle/would have + past participle).

Inversion after negative adverbials: Never have I seen..., Not only did he..., Hardly had she arrived when...; the auxiliary precedes the subject.

Articles: a/an for first mention and countable singulars, the for shared or previously mentioned referents, no article for generic plurals and abstract nouns.

Typical task: 80-120 words on a given topic or prompt; the required points must all appear or the response loses content marks.

Paragraph structure: topic sentence, two or three supporting sentences with a reason or example, closing sentence; one idea per paragraph.

Cohesion markers to deploy: first, in addition, for example, as a result, however, in conclusion; vary them and avoid repeating the same linker.

Answer the exact question: if it asks for your opinion, state it in the topic sentence and keep every supporting point consistent with it.

Accuracy over ambition: a simple correct sentence scores higher than a complex sentence with a broken tense or agreement error.

Japanese-influenced errors to check: plural -s on uncountable nouns, missing articles, double subjects, and because/so used in the same clause.

Word count: stay within the range; being far under suggests underdevelopment, and being far over risks an incomplete or off-topic ending.

Japanese-to-English: Japanese drops the subject, so supply the pronoun only when English grammar or clarity requires it; do not add a subject that changes the meaning.

Translate meaning, not word order: Japanese verb-final structure becomes English subject-verb-object; modifiers that precede nouns in Japanese become relative clauses or prepositional phrases.

Distinguish wa (topic) and ga (subject): wa marks known information or contrast, ga marks new or exhaustive information; this affects English article and cleft choices.

Passive and causative forms (rareru, seru/saseru) often become active English with a different subject, or English passive with by; choose whichever reads naturally.

English-to-Japanese: keep keigo register consistent with the source; formal notices use desu/masu or de aru style throughout, never mixed.

Katakana loanwords: preserve the standard spelling (computer, team, energy); do not invent phonetic spellings or translate proper nouns.

Numbers, dates, and units: convert to the reader's convention (April 5, 2024; 2:30 p.m.) and keep currency and measurement units explicit.

Preview the question stems and options before the audio starts; the options reveal what to listen for (number, reason, place, speaker's feeling).

Numbers and times are usually corrected mid-sentence (It was at three - no, three thirty); the second figure is the answer.

Signpost words mark the answer: however, actually, in fact, but, to be honest introduce a change from the earlier statement.

Distinguish the speakers' roles: who requests, who agrees, who refuses; questions often ask what one speaker will do next.

Inference items: judge from tone and hedging (I'm not sure, maybe, it depends) rather than from a stated fact.

Note-taking: record only keywords (names, numbers, places) while listening; writing full sentences makes you miss the following turn.

Distractors repeat words from the audio in a wrong relationship; the correct option usually paraphrases rather than copies.

Summary tasks: include the main claim and its key support, exclude examples and repetition; a summary is shorter than the source and contains no new opinion.

Paragraph ordering: find the sentence with no referring pronouns or definite article as the likely opener; then follow pronoun chains (this, these, such) and connectors (however, therefore).

Information transfer: read the table or chart labels first, then locate the matching sentence; answers must be copied or paraphrased exactly as the source requires.

Coherence markers: general-to-specific ordering, chronological ordering, and cause-to-effect ordering are the three common patterns in exam passages.

When two sentences could both be first, test which one the other's pronouns refer back to; the referent must already have appeared.

Summary word limits are strict; count words including articles and prepositions, and cut examples before cutting the main claim.

Detail questions: the answer is a paraphrase of one sentence in the passage, not a copy; locate the keyword, then read the sentence before and after it.

Inference questions ask what must be true given the text; a valid inference cannot be contradicted by any sentence and needs textual support, not world knowledge.

Main-idea questions: the correct option covers the whole passage; options that are true but cover only one paragraph are distractors.

Pronoun and reference questions (it, this, they): trace back to the last matching noun phrase that agrees in number and makes sense in context.

Vocabulary-in-context questions: substitute each option into the original sentence and check that the sentence's logic still holds; the common dictionary meaning is often wrong.

Negative/EXCEPT questions: three options are explicitly supported; the answer is the one with no supporting sentence, so verify each option against the text.

Author's-attitude questions hinge on evaluative adjectives and adverbs (surprisingly, unfortunately, merely), not on the topic itself.

Time management: read the questions first, then scan; a long passage with five questions should take about 8-10 minutes, leaving the rest for other sections.

Collocation decides many items: make a decision, take responsibility, pay attention to, have an influence on; the grammatically possible word may not collocate.

Distinguish confusable pairs by transitivity and preposition: affect (verb) vs effect (noun); rise (intransitive) vs raise (transitive); lie/lay.

Countability rules: advice, information, furniture, equipment, luggage are uncountable and take no plural -s and no a/an.

Formal written English prefers single-word verbs (establish, require, reduce) over phrasal verbs (set up, need, cut down) in academic passages.

Connectors signal logic and must match it: however/nevertheless contrast, therefore/thus result, moreover addition, whereas direct contrast between clauses.

Word-family items: choose the form that fits the slot - noun after a determiner, adjective before a noun, adverb modifying a verb or adjective.

False friends and loanwords: naive, delicate, sensible (reasonable, not sensitive), economic (of the economy) vs economical (cheap).

Subject-verb agreement: the verb agrees with the head noun, not the nearest noun; phrases between them (along with, as well as, together with) do not change the number.

Relative pronouns: who for people, which for things, whose for possession, where for places, when for times; that is not used after a comma.

Participles: a present participle (-ing) modifies the noun that performs the action; a past participle (-ed) modifies the noun that receives it.

Tense sequence: reported speech and past narratives shift back one step (is to was, will to would, has to had); time clauses after when/if/before take present for future.

Conditionals: zero (present/present), first (present/will), second (past/would), third (had + past participle/would have + past participle).

Inversion after negative adverbials: Never have I seen..., Not only did he..., Hardly had she arrived when...; the auxiliary precedes the subject.

Articles: a/an for first mention and countable singulars, the for shared or previously mentioned referents, no article for generic plurals and abstract nouns.

Typical task: 80-120 words on a given topic or prompt; the required points must all appear or the response loses content marks.

Paragraph structure: topic sentence, two or three supporting sentences with a reason or example, closing sentence; one idea per paragraph.

Cohesion markers to deploy: first, in addition, for example, as a result, however, in conclusion; vary them and avoid repeating the same linker.

Answer the exact question: if it asks for your opinion, state it in the topic sentence and keep every supporting point consistent with it.

Accuracy over ambition: a simple correct sentence scores higher than a complex sentence with a broken tense or agreement error.

Japanese-influenced errors to check: plural -s on uncountable nouns, missing articles, double subjects, and because/so used in the same clause.

Word count: stay within the range; being far under suggests underdevelopment, and being far over risks an incomplete or off-topic ending.

Japanese-to-English: Japanese drops the subject, so supply the pronoun only when English grammar or clarity requires it; do not add a subject that changes the meaning.

Translate meaning, not word order: Japanese verb-final structure becomes English subject-verb-object; modifiers that precede nouns in Japanese become relative clauses or prepositional phrases.

Distinguish wa (topic) and ga (subject): wa marks known information or contrast, ga marks new or exhaustive information; this affects English article and cleft choices.

Passive and causative forms (rareru, seru/saseru) often become active English with a different subject, or English passive with by; choose whichever reads naturally.

English-to-Japanese: keep keigo register consistent with the source; formal notices use desu/masu or de aru style throughout, never mixed.

Katakana loanwords: preserve the standard spelling (computer, team, energy); do not invent phonetic spellings or translate proper nouns.

Numbers, dates, and units: convert to the reader's convention (April 5, 2024; 2:30 p.m.) and keep currency and measurement units explicit.

Preview the question stems and options before the audio starts; the options reveal what to listen for (number, reason, place, speaker's feeling).

Numbers and times are usually corrected mid-sentence (It was at three - no, three thirty); the second figure is the answer.

Signpost words mark the answer: however, actually, in fact, but, to be honest introduce a change from the earlier statement.

Distinguish the speakers' roles: who requests, who agrees, who refuses; questions often ask what one speaker will do next.

Inference items: judge from tone and hedging (I'm not sure, maybe, it depends) rather than from a stated fact.

Note-taking: record only keywords (names, numbers, places) while listening; writing full sentences makes you miss the following turn.

Distractors repeat words from the audio in a wrong relationship; the correct option usually paraphrases rather than copies.

Summary tasks: include the main claim and its key support, exclude examples and repetition; a summary is shorter than the source and contains no new opinion.

Paragraph ordering: find the sentence with no referring pronouns or definite article as the likely opener; then follow pronoun chains (this, these, such) and connectors (however, therefore).

Information transfer: read the table or chart labels first, then locate the matching sentence; answers must be copied or paraphrased exactly as the source requires.

Coherence markers: general-to-specific ordering, chronological ordering, and cause-to-effect ordering are the three common patterns in exam passages.

When two sentences could both be first, test which one the other's pronouns refer back to; the referent must already have appeared.

Summary word limits are strict; count words including articles and prepositions, and cut examples before cutting the main claim.