Читать книгу GRE 2022 For Dummies with Online Practice - Ron Woldoff - Страница 59

Transition words exist in most Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions (and other sentences) and serve as valuable clues to interpreting the meaning of a sentence. (Transition words connect two ideas in a sentence or paragraph and tell you whether the two ideas in the sentence agree or contradict one another.) Transition words help you decipher the meaning of a sentence with key words missing.

For example, changing the transition word in the following sentence completely alters its meaning:

Although he ran as fast as he could, Eric _____ the bus.

The transition word although, indicating contrast, tells you that Eric missed the bus. Consider the same sentence with a different transition word:

Because he ran as fast as he could, Eric _____ the bus.

The transition word because, indicating cause-and-effect, tells you that Eric caught the bus.

With a little practice, transition words become easy to identify and use to your advantage. They’re helpful when breaking the sentence into pieces (which is the next step) and are used frequently in the Analytical Writing portion of the GRE. (See Part 4 for more on the Analytical Writing essays.)

Common transition words include the following:

although	and	because	but
despite	either/or	however	in spite of
moreover	nonetheless	therefore	or

The English language has hundreds of transition words. Fortunately, you don’t need to memorize them, but you do need to be able to spot them.

Most transition words can be divided into two categories: continuing and contrasting. Continuing transition words — and, because, moreover, and therefore — indicate that the one part of the sentence will continue the thought of the other part. Contrasting transition words — although, but, despite, however, in spite of, and nonetheless — indicate that one part of the sentence will contrast the other part.

In the previous example with Eric and the bus, changing the transition from a continuing to a contrasting word (in this case, although to because) directly changes the meaning of the sentence. Note that the transition word isn’t always in the middle of the sentence. Now to work on the second step.