This document provides strategies for completing incomplete sentences on the TOEIC test. It discusses two main strategies: 1) Understanding relationships inside a sentence by looking for clues about cause/effect or contradictory relationships between clauses, and 2) Avoiding "divided answer choices" tricks where no single answer choice completes the sentence. It also provides an overview of common grammar and vocabulary concepts tested and a three-step process to follow for each question: 1) Read the sentence and identify what is being tested, 2) Analyze context clues and part of speech needed, and 3) Evaluate answer choices and eliminate incorrect options.

1. PART 5 INCOMPLETE
SENTENCES
INCOMPLETE SENTENCES

2. PART 5: INCOMPLETE SENTENCES
• This part of TOEIC test consist of 40
sentences . Each sentence contains a
missing word or phrase. Below each
sentence are four answer choices.You
must choose the answer that best
completes the sentece. The focus is on
gramar and vocabulary

3. ⚫ Incomplete Sentence STRATEGY #1
⚫ Understanding Relationships inside a Sentence
⚫ For Questions that focus on Conjunctions, you will need to look for
clues that tell you the relationship between the different parts
(clauses) of the sentence.
⚫ With sentences that have two clauses (often separated by a
comma), try to determine if the two clauses have either:
⚫ a clear and understandable ‘cause and effect’ relationship, OR
⚫ if they do not agree with each other

4. ⚫ Example:
⚫ Question Sentence: “This week’s report says that ________ the
recent housing crisis, our home-building business is doing quite
well.”
⚫ Because the clause before the comma is about a “housing crisis”
and the clause after the comma is about “home-building” doing
“well”, these two clauses are a little contradictory—the sentence
needs a conjunction that shows this contradiction.
⚫ A) because WRONG – not used in contradictory
sentences
⚫ B) because of WRONG – not used in contradictory
sentences
⚫ C) despite CORRECT – used for contradictory
sentences
⚫ D) even though WRONG – its clause needs a Subject and
Verb

5. ⚫ Incomplete Sentence STRATEGY #2
⚫ Divided Answer Choices
⚫ These wrong Answer Choices use words that
could fit if only the word before or after it was part
of the same answer choice–they do not work by
themselves.
⚫ To avoid this Trick, after you pick an Answer
Choice always read the sentence completely
with your Answer Choice in the blank–this will help
you avoid not only this Trick but other Tricks, too!

6. ⚫ Example:
⚫ Question Sentence: “Everyone is happy they will
receive a 5% _______ under the new contract.”
⚫ A) wage WRONG
⚫ B) salary WRONG
⚫ C) pay WRONG
⚫ D) increase CORRECT
⚫ Notice that Answer Choices A), B) and C) cannot
work by themselves–only if they were combined
with “increase” would they be correct.

8. ⚫ Steps to Success
This section presents an effective, step-by-step approach to
use when answering questions on part 5 of the TOEIC test.
The steps shown here are designed to help you achieve a
higher score when you take the test. By following these steps,
you should be able to maximize your score on this part of the
test.
1. Quickly read the sentence and look at the answer choices. Identify the
language focus and ask yourself what exactly the item is testing.

9. ⚫ 2. Read the sentences again carefully . First,
think about the meaning of the sentence as a
whole. Then focus on the missing Word or
phrase.
⚫ * Ask yourself what kind of Word you need to
complete the sentence (a noun, a verb,
adjective, etc)
⚫ * Play close attention to the words that come
before and after the blank . These words often
provide context clues that Will help you
identify the correct answer choice.

10. GRAMMAR OFTEN TESTED VOCABULARY OFTEN TESTED
• WORD CHOICE
• AUXILIARY VERBS
• COMPARATIVE AND
SUPERLATIVES
• SUBJECT-VERB
AGREEMENT
• PRONOUNS
• VERB FORMS AND
TENSES
• GERUNDS AND
INFINITIVES
• WORD FORMS
• WORDS WITH SIMILAR
MEANINGS
• WORD CHOICE
• PREPOSITIONS
• WORDS THAT LOOK
ALIKE
• CONJUCTIONS
• PHRASAL VERBS

11. 3. Look at the answer choices and identify the part
of speech and meaning of each one. Eliminate
any you are sure are incorrect. If you can’t decide
between two or more options, read the sentence
silently to yourself with each answer choice in
place.Which one “sounds” right?

12. STRATEGY REVIEW:
Remember , in the test:
Read the whole sentence carefully. Do not stop when you
see the blank. This will help you to get an idea of the
context.
Decide if the focus is grammar or vocabulary. Then look
more closely and ask yourself what exactly is being tested
Look at the words before and after the blank and try to
identify the part of speech, and the meaning, of each
missig Word of phrase.
Eliminate any answer that you are sure are wrong.
If you are not sure about the answer, don’t waste time.
Decide quickly and move on to the next item.