Hi everyone! Welcome back to Dr. Byrnes’ TOEFL and Duolingo English Test Show.
Today, we are going to focus on a task that appears in both tests: Complete the Words.
In this task, you will see a paragraph where the first few letters of some words are already given, and you need to complete the remaining letters. Both tests usually include around 10 words to complete.
Today, we have two practice sets to work with. The first one is easier, and the second one is a little more challenging. I will show you how to use your grammar knowledge and logical thinking to find the correct forms step by step.
As always, we will apply the same strategy. Before we begin, let's quickly review the approach.
First, understand the context.
The topic of the passage will help you predict common words and expressions related to that field.
Second, read the sentence with the blanks and identify the grammatical role of the missing word. Remember, there are only a few possible roles in a sentence:
Subject
Verb
Complement, such as an object
Modifier, such as an adjective or adverb
The first step is always to determine what role the missing word must play.
Once you know the role, you can predict what type of word can fit in that position.
For example:
If the missing word is the subject, it is usually a noun or a word that functions like a noun, such as a gerund.
If the missing word is a verb, always check the tense and whether the subject is singular or plural.
If the missing word is a noun, check whether it should be singular or plural.
If the missing word is a modifier, decide whether you need an adjective or an adverb.
By following these steps, Complete the Words questions become much more predictable. Instead of guessing, you can use grammar and context to logically find the answer.
OK, let's begin with the first, easier passage.
Set 1 Healthy Eating Habits
Eating healthy means choosing a variety of foods that provide essential nutrients. This means fru_ _ , vege _ _ _ _ , whole gra _ , and lean prot _ _ _ are the better choices. Avoiding t_ many sug _ _ snacks a_ _ drinks i_ very impo_ _ _ _ _ for maint_ _ _ _ _ _ good health.
This passage explains healthy eating habits and recommends foods that promote good health. Now, let's begin by looking at the first set of blanks.
Blanks 1–4
This means fru_ _ , vege _ _ _ _ , whole gra _ , and lean prot _ _ _ are the better choices.
First, notice the word "and" that connects the last item in the list. Whenever you see and connecting items, you should immediately think about parallelism. Parallelism means that items in a list should have the same grammatical form.
So, let's ask: What role do these items play in the sentence? The verb are tells us that the listed items are the subject of the sentence. Therefore, we need nouns.
Since the topic is healthy foods, we can quickly predict that the missing words are:
fruit
vegetables
grains
protein
Now, let's look more closely at their forms.
First, vegetable is always a countable noun, so we need either a vegetable or vegetables. Because we are talking about vegetables in general, we need the plural form.
Next, let's examine fruit, grain, and protein. These words can sometimes be used as uncountable or mass nouns when referring to food in general.
For example:
Eat more fruit.
Choose lean protein.
Whole grain is healthier than refined grain.
However, they can also be used as plural count nouns when referring to categories or different kinds of foods:
fruits
vegetables
whole grains
lean proteins
In this sentence, the words are used as categories in a list, so we need the plural forms. However, the most important clue in a Complete the Words question is always the number of missing letters.
Let's check the blanks:
fru_ _ _ → fruits (not fruit)
vege_ _ _ _ _ _ → vegetables
gra_ _ _ → grains (not grain)
prot_ _ _ _ → proteins (not protein)
So, even though some of these words can be singular mass nouns in other contexts, the letter pattern in this exercise requires the plural count-noun forms.
Blanks 5-10
Now let's move on to the next sentence. This one contains six blanks, so it may look difficult at first. However, if we analyze the sentence step by step, we can predict many of the missing words before we even look at the answers.
First, let's read the sentence:
Avoiding t_ _ many sug_ _ _ snacks a_ _ drinks i_ very impo_ _ _ _ _ for maint_ _ _ _ _ _ good health.
Whenever you see a sentence with several blanks, the first thing you should do is identify the subject and the verb. At first glance, there is no obvious verb in the sentence, so one of the missing words is most likely the verb.
Let's look at the beginning:
Avoiding...
Before solving the blank, let's review an important grammar point. The word avoiding is in the -ing form. Do you remember what grammatical forms can use verb + -ing?
A verb + -ing can be either:
a gerund
a present participle
A gerund functions as a noun in a sentence, while a present participle functions as an adjective.
So, how can we determine whether avoiding is a gerund or a present participle?
Let's look at its position in the sentence.
If there is a comma after an -ing phrase, it is often a participial phrase:
Avoiding snacks, she chose a healthy meal.
Here, avoiding snacks describes she, so it functions as a participle phrase.
However, in our sentence, there is no comma after avoiding. Therefore, avoiding is most likely a gerund functioning as the subject of the sentence.
A gerund has both noun and verb features:
Like a noun, it can function as the subject or object of a sentence.
Like a verb, it can take its own objects.
Now, we need to ask:
Avoiding what?
The objects of avoiding are:
snacks
drinks
Since these are two nouns listed together, they must be connected by the conjunction and. So we have:
Avoiding t_ _ many sug_ _ _ snacks and drinks...
This entire gerund phrase is functioning as the subject of the sentence.
Now let's solve the remaining words in this phrase.
The word that modifies many must be an adverb. The fixed expression is:
too many
Therefore:
Avoiding too many...
Next, sug_ _ _ describes the type of snacks. Since sugar is a content word and we need an adjective describing the snacks, the correct word is:
sugary
So now we have:
Avoiding too many sugary snacks and drinks...
This entire gerund phrase functions as the subject of the sentence.
Therefore, the verb must be singular, because a gerund phrase takes a singular verb.
The missing verb is:
is
Now we have:
Avoiding too many sugary snacks and drinks is very important...
The verb is needs a subject complement, and the adjective that fits the meaning is:
important
Finally, let's look at:
for maint_ _ _ _ _ _ good health
From the meaning, we need the idea of keeping or preserving good health, so maintain fits the meaning. However, maintain is a verb, and the preposition for requires a noun or a noun-like structure.
Therefore, we need the gerund form of maintain:
maintaining
The complete phrase is:
for maintaining good health.
Set 2
Modern cognitive psychology is of_ _ _ divided into three areas: cognitive systems, which fo_ _ _ on information processing; cognitive development, which exa_ _ _ _ _ the development of the brain and the mind; and cognitive neuroscience, which use neurobiological evi_ _ _ _ _ to understand mental phenomena.
Blank 1
Modern cognitive psychology is of_ _ _ divided into three areas
First, look at the sentence structure.
Modern cognitive psychology is the subject, and is divided is the verb phrase. This is a passive voice construction:
Subject + be verb + past participle
Because divided is already the past participle, the missing word before it must modify the verb. Therefore, of_ _ _ must be an adverb.
Now think about the meaning.
The sentence means that modern cognitive psychology is normally divided into three areas.
We need an adverb beginning with of that means normally or regularly.
The answer is:
often
Blank 2
cognitive systems, which fo_ _ _ on information processing
Now let's look at the second blank.
Which is a relative pronoun introducing a relative clause.
In a relative clause, which can function as either:
the subject, or
the object
Let's check the sentence:
which fo_ _ _ on information processing
The phrase on information processing is a prepositional phrase. Therefore, the blank must be the verb, and which must be the subject.
Now we ask:
What verb means "specialize in" or "concentrate on"?
The fixed expression is:
focus on
Since the antecedent of which is systems, which is plural, we need the plural form of the verb.
Remember:
Singular: focuses
Plural: focus
Therefore, the answer is:
focus
Blank 3
cognitive development, which exa_ _ _ _ _ the development of the brain and the mind
Again, which introduces a relative clause.
Which is the subject of the relative clause, so the missing word must be the verb.
Now look at the object:
the development of the brain and the mind
What verb means "study" or "analyze"?
The answer is:
examine
However, we must check the verb agreement.
The antecedent of which is development.
Development is a singular noun, so the verb must be singular.
For singular subjects in the present tense, we add -s:
examine → examines
Therefore, the answer is:
examines
Blank 4
which use neurobiological evi_ _ _ _ _ to understand mental phenomena
Now let's analyze the final blank.
Which is the subject, and use is the verb.
Therefore, neurobiological evi_ _ _ _ _ must be the object of the verb use.
Look at the word before the blank:
neurobiological
This is an adjective, and adjectives modify nouns.
Therefore, the missing word must be a noun.
Now consider the meaning:
Cognitive neuroscience uses something related to biology and the brain to understand mental phenomena.
The natural academic expression is:
use neurobiological evidence to understand mental phenomena
Therefore, the noun beginning with evi is:
evidence
Blank 5
They fre_ _ _ _ _ _ _ use psychological experiments
They is the subject, and use is the verb. Therefore, fre_ _ _ _ _ _ _ must be an adverb modifying use. The meaning is regularly or commonly.
An adverb beginning with fre that fits the meaning is frequently.
Blank 6
to test the the_ _ _ _ _ they create
The article the is followed by a noun, so the_ _ _ _ _ must be a noun.
Test what? Let's look at the context. They refers to cognitive psychologists, who are scientists. Scientists use experiments to test theories.
If we try theory, it does not fit because there are still two more missing letters. Therefore, we need the plural form, theories.
Notice that the noun has the definite article the. The reason the is used is that theories is modified by the relative clause they create. The object relative pronoun that (or which) has been omitted.
What kind of theories? The theories (that) they create.
The noun beginning with the is theories.
Blank 7
These empirical fin_ _ _ _ _ are increasingly be_ _ _ applied to improve artificial intelligence algorithms by modeling technology af_ _ _ human ne_ _ _ _ networks.
The missing word fin_ _ _ _ _ must be a noun because it is modified by These empirical. It must also be a plural noun because of the determiner these and the plural verb are.
To identify the missing noun, let's first solve the other missing words so we can better understand the meaning of the sentence.
Blank 8
are increasingly be_ _ _ applied to improve artificial intelligence algorithms
The infinitive to improve is an adverbial phrase modifying applied. Therefore, are increasingly be_ _ _ applied must be a verb phrase.
The grammar tells us this is the present progressive passive.
Tense: present progressive (are being)
Voice: passive (being applied)
Therefore, being completes the verb phrase correctly.
The correct passive construction is are being applied.
The word beginning with be is being.
Blank 9
These empirical fin_ _ _ _ _ are increasingly being applied to improve artificial intelligence algorithms by modeling technology af_ _ _ human ne_ _ _ _ networks.
The phrase These empirical fin_ _ _ _ _ are increasingly being applied to improve artificial intelligence algorithms by modeling technology is already a complete sentence. Therefore, the missing word beginning with af must introduce the noun phrase human ne_ _ _ _ networks, so it should be a preposition.
The only common preposition beginning with af is after.
Also, model A after B is a fixed expression meaning to imitate or to base one thing on another.
The word beginning with af is after.
Blank 10
These empirical fin_ _ _ _ _ are increasingly being applied to improve artificial intelligence algorithms by modeling technology after human ne_ _ _ _ networks.
The missing word ne_ _ _ _ modifies networks, so it must be an adjective.
The context is about improving artificial intelligence by imitating the human brain. The networks in the brain are called neural networks.
The common scientific expression is neural networks.
The adjective beginning with ne is neural.
Go back to Blank 7
These empirical fin_ _ _ _ _ are increasingly being applied to improve artificial intelligence algorithms by modeling technology after human neural networks.
Now the meaning of the sentence is clear. It says that the results of cognitive psychology research are being used to improve artificial intelligence.
Therefore, the missing noun must mean research results.
The academic word for research results is findings.
The plural noun beginning with fin is findings.
That's all we have for today! Great job working through these Complete the Words questions. The more you practice analyzing grammar and sentence structure, the faster and more accurately you'll solve them on test day.
For more systematic preparation, be sure to check out Dr. Byrnes' website at www.nanheebyrnes.com for lecture notes, practice materials, and comprehensive courses on the TOEFL and Duolingo English Test. Thanks for watching, keep practicing, and I'll see you next time!
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