Reading 16–18 What Goes in the Blank

Reading · Medium

A must-secure target.

You fill the blank not with grammar but with 'content' — a single phrase or clause. Unlike items 1–2, where you just pick one ending, here you read the surrounding context and have to infer for yourself the action or state that logically follows, so the felt difficulty goes up a notch. The key is a connecting expression around the blank — '그러므로', '그래서', '하지만', '그런데', and the like. Because it tells you in advance the relationship (cause-and-effect, condition-and-result, contrast) between the preceding sentence and the blank's content, the direction of what should go in the blank is set. Also, any option that strays from the topic the whole passage deals with — sleep, plant care, a presentation, and so on — is wrong no matter how plausible it sounds. The efficient reading order is to start from the sentence with the blank and work backward, checking the one or two sentences before it. There's no need to read the whole passage closely from the start — grasping just the cause-and-effect relationship around the blank narrows down the answer.

What Goes in the Blank

• 그러므로 — Everything before it is the cause or grounds, and the blank must hold the resulting conclusion or solution.
• 그래서 — The blank holds a result that naturally follows from the preceding situation.
• 하지만/그런데 — The blank must hold content that contrasts with what came before or defies expectations.
• 예를 들어 — The blank holds a concrete example that supports the general explanation before it.
• 이처럼 — The blank holds a conclusion that ties the preceding examples together into one.
• 즉 — The blank holds content that restates what came before in simpler terms.
• -기 때문이다 — When a sentence ends this way, the blank must hold the 'cause' behind the result or claim stated earlier.
• 반면(에) — The blank must hold a quality that contrasts with the subject introduced earlier.
• -을수록 — The blank holds content that changes in the same direction as the preceding degree grows or shrinks.
• 만약 ~다면 — The blank must hold the result that would follow if the hypothesis actually came true.
• 결국 — The blank holds the final state reached after a series of attempts or a process.
• 무엇보다/특히 — The blank holds the content being emphasized as most important among several conditions. It highlights one of the general points made earlier.

• The connecting expression around the blank (그러므로, 그래서, 하지만, 그런데)
• An option that strays from the topic the whole passage deals with
• The cause or problem raised in the sentence right before the blank

• Read the sentence with the blank and the one right before it first
• Grasp the relationship between the two sentences — cause-and-effect, contrast, or condition
• Choose the option, among the four, that fits that relationship
• Cross out first any option that strays from the topic or contradicts the passage

• Picking an option that's grammatically natural but unrelated to the passage's topic
• Looking only at the sentence right before the blank and missing the broader context before that

A must-secure target. It's logical inference rather than grammar, so it feels harder, but catching just one connecting expression sets the direction.