TOEIC Link Reading — Text Completion: Choosing the Right Connecting Word by Reading the Logic Between Sentences

Text-completion passages in TOEIC Link give you a short business text — a memo, an email, a notice — with several blanks. Most of those blanks are vocabulary or grammar slots, but at least one is usually a transition blank, where the four options are connecting words like however, therefore, in addition, for example, nevertheless, as a result. All four are grammatically legal in the sentence. The test is not asking which one fits the grammar; it is asking which one names the correct logical relationship between the sentence before the blank and the sentence after it. If you pick by ear — choosing the connector that "flows" — you will get these wrong whenever two transitions both sound smooth. The reliable move is to read the two neighboring sentences, name the relationship they have, and select the connector that expresses exactly that relationship.

This is a structure-first approach, the same mindset that turns word-form questions into pure grammar decisions and vocabulary questions into elimination exercises. Just as the vocabulary-in-context elimination strategy has you let the context license the meaning, a transition blank has you let the two sentences license the logic. You are not guessing at tone; you are matching a relationship.

Recognizing a transition blank

The tell, as with word-form questions, is in the options. If the four choices are connecting adverbs or phrases — words that join ideas rather than name things or actions — you have a transition blank. When you see However / Therefore / For example / Meanwhile stacked as choices, stop reading for content and start reading for relationship. The content of the sentences barely matters beyond enough to see how they relate; what matters is the logical hinge between them.

The four relationships you actually need

Almost every transition blank tests one of a small set of relationships. Decide which one holds between the sentence before the blank and the sentence after it:

• Contrast — the second sentence goes against the first. Signals: an expectation reversed, a "but" idea, a downside after an upside. Connectors: however, nevertheless, on the other hand, even so.
• Cause and result — the second sentence is the consequence of the first. Signals: the first states a condition or action, the second states what follows. Connectors: therefore, as a result, consequently, for this reason.
• Addition — the second sentence stacks another point of the same kind onto the first. Signals: both sentences push the same direction. Connectors: in addition, furthermore, moreover, also.
• Example or restatement — the second sentence illustrates or clarifies the first. Signals: the first makes a general claim, the second gives a specific case. Connectors: for example, for instance, in other words, specifically.

Name the relationship first, in your own words — "the second sentence contradicts the first," "the second is the outcome of the first" — and the correct connector is the one whose job is to signal that relationship. You are choosing a label for a link you have already identified, not searching for a word that feels right.

The read-both-sentences procedure

Transition blanks fail most often because the reader looks only at the sentence containing the blank. A connector points backward and forward; you cannot judge it from one side. The procedure:

1. Read the sentence before the blank. Get its point in a few words.
2. Read the sentence after the blank. Get its point in a few words.
3. State the relationship between the two. Contrast, result, addition, or example.
4. Match the connector. Pick the option whose function is that relationship. Eliminate the rest even if they sound acceptable.

Because a transition connects across sentences, this is the same cross-sentence tracking you use in longer passages when a pronoun or a result depends on an earlier clause — the discipline behind double-passage cross-referencing, scaled down to two adjacent sentences. The skill is the same: hold both sides of the link before you decide.

Why "it sounds smooth" fails

Two connectors can both produce a fluent-sounding paragraph while expressing opposite logic. Consider: "The launch date was moved up. (blank), the team added weekend shifts." Both However and Therefore read smoothly aloud. But the relationship is cause-and-result — an earlier deadline caused the extra shifts — so Therefore is right and However is wrong. Reading by ear cannot separate these, because fluency is not logic. Only naming the relationship does. Whenever two options both sound fine, that is your cue that you skipped step 3 and must go back and state the relationship explicitly.

A worked example

Text: "Our supplier raised prices by fifteen percent last quarter. (blank), we have decided to seek quotes from two additional vendors."

1. Before: the supplier raised prices.
2. After: we will seek other vendors.
3. Relationship: the price increase caused the decision — cause and result.
4. Match: As a result or Therefore. Eliminate However (no contrast), For example (the second sentence is not an illustration of the first), In addition (it is not a second point of the same kind; it is a consequence).

Answer: As a result. You reached it by naming a relationship, not by weighing which word sounded most natural.

Building the habit

Practice transition blanks by covering the four options and predicting the connector from the two sentences alone. Force yourself to say the relationship out loud — "contrast," "result" — before you look at the choices. When your predicted relationship matches one option's job cleanly, you are done; when two options seem to fit, you have mislabeled the relationship and should re-read both sentences. Over a set of practice items this turns a soft, ear-based guess into a hard, logic-based decision, which is exactly what these blanks are built to reward.