fake, false b. believable interesting d. expensive

by chemical processes. 3 The Industrial Revolution transformed Western society, creating an international capitalist economy, urbanization, labor reforms, public education, and labor spe- cialization. 4 While the pace of change during the Industrial Revolution was indeed very rapid, the Industrial Revolution itself stretched over a rather long period of time—from the mid-1700s through World War I 1914. 5 In the first century of the Industrial Revolution, the country undergoing the most dramatic change was England. 6 After 1850, the Industrial Revolution spread rapidly throughout Europe. 7 Several key discoveries and inventions enabled the Industrial Revolution to take place. 8 These included machines and tools like the cotton gin, the radio, the circular saw, the cylin- drical press, and the steam engine. 9 Cement, dynamite, and aluminum were invented, as were the bleaching and papermaking processes. 1. The Industrial Revolution took place during which years?

a. 1700–1850 b. 1850–1914

c. 1700–1914 d. 1850–today

2. Which of the following was NOT an effect of the Industrial Revolution?

a. advances in medical technology b. mechanization of hand labor

c. development of a public education system d. specialization of labor

3. In which sentence does the author describe machines developed during the Industrial Revolution?

a. sentence 2 b. sentence 7

c. sentence 8 d. sentence 9

Recognizing Structure and Organizational Patterns As already mentioned, when you are looking for specific information in a passage, it’s often helpful to use the structure of the passage as a guide. Recognizing structural patterns can also help you answer the TOEFL exam sentence insertion questions. If you can identify organizational strategies and recognize transitional phrases, you will have a better chance of answering these questions correctly. – R E A D I N G C O M P R E H E N S I O N S K I L L S – 3 8 When writers write, they generally use one of several basic organizational patterns. These basic patterns help writers organize their ideas effectively. The four most common patterns are: ■ chronological order ■ order of importance ■ comparison and contrast ■ cause and effect C HRONOLOGICAL O RDER When writers use time to organize their ideas, it is called chronological order. They describe events in the order in which they did happen, will happen, or should happen. Much of what you read is organized in this way. Historical texts, instructions and procedures, and essays about personal experiences usually use this structure as the overall organizing principle. The practice passage about bicycles, for example, follows this pat- tern. Passages organized by chronology provide us with lots of clues to help us follow the passage of time. They use transitional words and phrases to guide us through the text. The transitions help us see when things happened and in what order and help us follow along when the passage shifts from one period of time to another. Transitional words and phrases keep events linked together in the proper order. Here is a list of some of the most common chronological transitions: first, second, third, etc. before after next now then when as soon as immediately suddenly soon during while meanwhile later in the meantime at last eventually finally afterward O RDER OF I MPORTANCE This organizational pattern arranges ideas by rank instead of time. That is, the first idea isn’t what happened first; it’s the idea that’s most or least important. Writers can start with the most important idea and then work down the line to the least important. Or they can do the opposite: start with the least important idea and build up to the one that’s most important. Organizing ideas from most important to least important puts the most essential information first. Writ- ers often do this when they are offering advice or when they want to be sure readers get the most important information right away. Newspaper articles, for example, generally use this structure. They begin with the most important information the who, what, when, where, and why about the event so readers don’t have to read the whole article to get those facts. When writers move from least to most important, they save their most important idea or piece of infor- mation for last. Writers often use this approach when they are presenting an argument. That’s because this kind of structure is usually more convincing than a most-to-least organization. The more controversial the argument, the more important this structure. In an argument, you need to build your case piece by piece and – R E A D I N G C O M P R E H E N S I O N S K I L L S – 3 9