Plug-in Strategy

The next question type is plug-in. Plug-ins ask you to place a sentence into one of four
points in a paragraph. Here’s an example:

Look at the four squares (❒) that indicate where the following
sentence could be added to the passage.

In fact, these water deposits have recently become the focus of

increased attention as a source of freshwater for the inhabitants
of desert areas.

Where would the sentence best fit?

These questions follow a few simple steps. Often, you'll find your answer before reaching
the final step of our strategy. This question can become relatively easy if you master and
memorize this strategy. If you don't, it can be one of the hardest on the TOEFL reading.

Beware: if you have to get to the last step in our strategy when answering one of these
questions, you’re dealing with a tough example of plug-ins, so watch your time and work
through the final steps of strategy carefully.
1) Read the sentence carefully to identify what it’s saying and the key words
within it.

Above is an example of completing this step. The red sentence is what you
should read carefully in the first step of our strategy. The green boxes show
what your mind should identify as the key words after reading the sentence.

2) Read the paragraph and find the sentence (or sentences) that contains the key
words or synonyms of them.
Above is an example of completing this step. As you can see, our key words
are spread throughout 2 sentences: apples, grown (a synonym of raise),
and they (a pronoun for apples).

We know that our sentence must be plugged into a choice next to these two
sentences. Why? In academic English, we don't change subjects back and
forth. We wouldn't write the following:

I like apples. I like oranges. Apples are very delicious. They

have excellent nutritional value. Oranges are a fruit. Apples
are fun to eat. My sister likes oranges too.
 Do you see how awkward that is? If it doesn't sound awkward, remind
yourself of the basics of English: focus on one topic, complete your
description of it, then move on to the next topic. Our paragraph above should
read as follows:

I like apples. Apples are very delicious. They have excellent

nutritional value. Apples are fun to eat. I like oranges. My
sister likes oranges too. Oranges are a fruit.

You can make the above paragraph even better, but you get the idea. We
need to plug in our sentence to a place where the content around it is similar
or the same.

So, considering all of this, we can eliminate D as an answer choice because

we won't write about apples and then oranges and then apples again. You
will not find that kind of back and forth on the TOEFL readings.

3) If that’s not enough to find the answer (which it's not in our case because we
still have 3 choices possible: A, B, and C) and your sentence contains pronouns,
use them to help you determine where your sentence belongs.
 We don't find any pronouns in our example. This can happen in your plug-in
question on the TOEFL too. Some steps don't exist because every sentence is
different. But, following every step in this strategy will lead to success.

4) If that’s not enough to find the answer, determine whether your sentence
contains connecting adverbs such as however, consequently, therefore, etc. If
it does, use these connecting adverbs to determine whether your sentence
continues the idea its about or begins the idea. Then, choose the answer that
makes the most sense.

For example, we do have a connecting adverb in our sentence: for example.

We then know that our sentence must continue the idea of apples. As a
 result, can quickly eliminate A. A doesn't work because the sentence
before A doesn't mention apples or even regions. How can we provide an
example of something we didn't even talk about?

In the same respect, we can eliminate B. B doesn't work because it

mentions apples, but it doesn't talk about regions and our sentence talks
about both.

C is our answer. It works because the sentence

before C mentions apples and "throughout the United States"
references regions or geography, which connects with our sentence. Since
an example gives a more specific reference to something: Northeast is a
specific example of regions throughout the United States.

5) If that’s not enough to find the answer, determine whether your sentence is
discussing something in a general or specific way. In the academic English that
you will find on the TOEFL, general sentences appear before specific sentences.
As you can see, even if we didn't have "for example" in our sentence. We
would still find C as our answer because our sentence is very specific: in the
Northeast. The sentence before is more general: throughout the United
States. "Northeast" is more specific than "United States" just as "apple"
is more specific than "fruit." And, we know that general statements appear
before specific ones. Again, if you get to this step, you have a tough question.