APPLYING SYNONYM QUESTIONS IN TOEIC READING COMPREHENSION AND ITS STRATEGIES
In Part 7, Synonym Questions ask you to choose the answer which is synonymous with or similar in meaning to the one used in a reading passage.
Here is a typical synonym question The word…..is closest in meaning to.
Example: The word “drew” in paragraph 1, line 4 is closest in meaning to
Reading Strategy
Step 1: Read the question, then identify the word and its location in a reading passage.
Read the question, then identify the word and locate it in a passage. For example, with the question The word “drew” in paragraph 1, line 4 is closest in meaning to, we can locate the word “drew” in line 4 of paragraph 1 in the reading passage.
Step 2: Identify the meaning of the word in context
Read the sentence containing the word carefully in order to understand its meaning in context.
Step 3: Choose the synonym
Choose the answer that is closest in meaning to the word in the question.
Synonyms that do not fit the context are often used as distractors; therefore, the answer should be both similar in meaning to the intended word and appropriate in the context.
Sample:
The question below refers to the following letter.
Dear Ms. Ralph,
I would like to congratulate on the grand opening of your company last September. On November 3, under the sponsor of Trading Association, the 23rd annual session of the Trading Association will be held at the Crown Hotel. As this is the biggest annual event of business community, many business leaders will attend, for example, last year there were more than 3,000 people from in this annual session, please register as soon as possible in order to improve your status and make chances to lengthen your footsteps in the business world. Detailed information about the annual session is available on the Trading Association website.
Question:
The word “footsteps” in line 9 is closest in meaning to
Step 1: Identify the word and its location
Step 2: Identify the meaning of the word in context
(A) methods (B) range of activities
Step 3: Choose the synonym
Analyzing:
Step 1: Identify the question type based on the phrase The word……closest in meaning to, and the keyword footsteps. The target word footsteps can be found in line 9 of the reading passage.
Step 2: Read the sentence that contains the word and try to figure out the meaning. The phrase….make chances to lengthen your footsteps in the business world means make chances to be known and expand the company’s range of activities. Therefore, footsteps refers to a range of activities.
Step 3: Choose the correct answer (B).
Synonym questions are difficult types of questions. However, if we apply the strategies above, we will do this part 7- Reading Comprehension which is related to Synonym questions quickly and correctly.