Reading: cloze, logical links and paragraph meaning

Fill the gap in a passage

• A cloze passage reads: “这家zhè jiācompany公司gōng sī ___ environmental protection环保huán bǎo，all所有suǒ yǒugoods产品chǎn pǐnall / both都dōuto use / with用yòngrecyclable可回收kě huí shōu(modifier / structural particle)的de(raw) material材料cái liào。” Options: to attach importance to sth重视zhòng shì / variant of 重复重复chóng fù / again重新chóng xīn / grave严重yán zhòng.
• Only to attach importance to sth重视zhòng shì (value, attach importance to) fits both the meaning and the collocation to attach importance to sth重视zhòng shìenvironmental protection环保huán bǎo. HSK 5 reading tests word choice, connectors and paragraph meaning.

Collocation and meaning

• Read the whole sentence, then ask what the gap must mean and which words naturally go with its neighbours: to raise提高tí gāolevel (of achievement etc)水平shuǐ píng, 解决问题jiě jué wèn tí, to cultivate养成yǎng chénghabit习惯xí guàn, to attach importance to sth重视zhòng shìto educate教育jiào yù.
• Options often share a character (to attach importance to sth重视zhòng shì / variant of 重复重复chóng fù / again重新chóng xīn); the full word's meaning decides.

this这家zhè jiācompany公司gōng sīvalues重视zhòng shìenvironmental protection环保huán bǎo。

Connectors across sentences

• The logic between sentences narrows the choice: contrast (however然而rán ér, but却què), result (therefore因此yīn cǐ, and so于是yú shì), addition (besides此外cǐ wài, moreover而且ér qiě), concession (despite尽管jǐn guǎn…or / still还是hái shì).
• “he / him他tāpreparation准备zhǔn bèi(degree marker)得dedegree / adjective linker很hěnample充分chōng fèn，___ to be interviewed (as a…面试miàn shìdegree / adjective linker很hěnsmoothly顺利shùn lì。” → therefore因此yīn cǐ.

Main idea and the author's claim

• In longer passages, separate the author's claim from examples and from views the author reports but does not share (someone有人yǒu rénto think / believe认为rèn wéi…，but但是dàn shì…).
• Main-idea answers are general enough to cover the passage, not a single example.

Common mistakes

Recap