Toyama Prefectural Public High School Entrance Examination - English cheat sheet

Numbers that are easily confused: -teen (thirteen, fifteen) stresses the second syllable and ends in a long /iːn/; -ty (thirty, fifty) stresses the first syllable and ends in a short /i/.

Times: 'half past six' = 6:30, 'a quarter past six' = 6:15, 'a quarter to six' = 5:45, 'ten to seven' = 6:50.

Negative auxiliaries are normally stressed in speech ('I CAN'T come'), while affirmative 'can' is weak and reduced; stress tells you which one was said.

Question-word first: who, what, when, where, why, how, how long, how much - the answer type must match the question word, not the topic.

Place answers are carried by prepositions: next to, across from, between A and B, behind, in front of, on the second floor, near the station.

Invitations refused are usually indirect: 'I'd love to, but I have to...' / 'Sorry, I'm busy then' = a no; 'That sounds good' / 'Sure' = a yes.

Distractor rule: an option that repeats a word heard in the dialogue is often wrong if that word was negated or attached to a different person.

The topic sentence usually opens an English paragraph and states the main idea; the following sentences supply examples and reasons.

Pronoun reference: for it / this / they / them, choose the nearest earlier noun phrase that matches both the meaning and the singular-plural form.

Ordering and summary questions follow discourse markers - first, then, after that, finally, before, while - which give the timeline directly.

A correct title covers the whole passage; an option naming one paragraph's detail is too narrow, one using ideas absent from the text is too broad.

Correct answer options restate the passage in different words (paraphrase); an option copied word for word from the text often distorts the meaning.

Blank-filling in a dialogue or passage requires three checks: grammar fit (tense, number), meaning fit with the sentences before and after, and connector logic (but, so, because, however).

For data questions, locate the exact line first, then compute only what is asked - a difference, a total, or a remaining amount.

Reason questions are answered by a because-clause in the text; that clause, not the general topic, is the answer.

Present perfect: have/has + past participle. Use for + length of time (for five years) and since + starting point (since 2019, since I was ten).

Indirect questions keep statement word order: 'Do you know where he lives?' - no do/does/did inside the embedded clause.

Passive = be + past participle: 'This bridge was built in 1990.' Add by + doer only when the doer matters.

Gerund after enjoy, finish, stop, mind, practice; to-infinitive after want, hope, decide, need, try. 'Stop -ing' = quit; 'stop to -' = pause in order to do something.

Relative pronouns: who for people, which for things, that for either in defining clauses; the pronoun is omitted when it is the object (the book I bought).

Comparison: as + adjective + as shows equality; not as ... as shows inequality; comparative uses -er/more ... than, superlative uses the -est / the most.

much and a little take uncountable nouns; many and a few take countable plurals. 'A few' is positive, 'few' alone means almost none.

Word building: -tion, -ment, -ness, -er form nouns (decide→decision, happy→happiness); -ful, -less, -ous, -ive form adjectives (care→careful).

Prepositions of time: at + clock time (at seven), on + day or date (on Monday, on May 3), in + month, year, season (in July, in 2025).

Reason support: attach 'because + subject + verb' to an opinion, as in 'I like summer because I can swim in the sea.'

Word-count tasks ('25 words or more') count every word including a, the, and I, but not punctuation; falling short of the minimum loses marks.

Full-sentence answers repeat the structure of the question: 'What club do you want to join?' → 'I want to join the tennis club.'

Opinion-plus-example pattern: sentence 1 gives the opinion, sentence 2 gives a concrete example introduced by For example or For instance.

Literal translation from Japanese fails because English requires an explicit subject and articles; build subject-first, then add a, an, the.

Every sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a period or question mark; the pronoun I is always capitalized.

Use structures already learned rather than new ones: It is ... for me to ..., I want to ..., I have been ...ing, There is/are ...

Permission vs request: 'May I ~?' asks for permission; 'Could you ~?' makes a polite request; 'Can you ~?' is casual.

Suggestion forms - Shall we ~?, How about + -ing?, Why don't we ~?, Let's ~ - are accepted with 'That sounds good', 'Sure', 'Good idea'.

The blank after an utterance must match its function: invitation → accept/refuse, question → answer, bad news → sympathetic phrase (I'm sorry to hear that).

Notice and e-mail reading: extract who it is for, the date and deadline, the place, and what to bring - answers usually combine two of these.

When a poster and a schedule must be matched, list each condition and eliminate every option that fails even one condition.

Reply tense follows the question tense: 'Did you enjoy the trip?' → 'Yes, I did. It was fun.'

Register check: use polite forms with teachers and shop staff, casual forms with close friends; the situation line at the top of the dialogue signals which.