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Referent Questions

A key reading skill required when taking the iBT TOEFL is the ability to follow a discussion of a certain
person, place, thing, or idea, even when this idea is referred to subsequently by pronouns or pro-forms.
Referent questions will test this basic reading skill. In order to answer a referent question properly, you
must keep track of the subjects being discussed and how they are later addressed by specific pronouns
and pro-forms. There are usually between one and two referent questions for a reading passage, and each
question is worth one point.

>> Identifying the Question

Referent questions always follow the same format. Look at the example below:

The word he in the passage refers to ...

>> Solving the Question

• One of the quickest ways to solve referent questions is to identify which part of speech the pronoun
belongs to – whether it is a subject or an object, whether it is possessive or plural, etc. Then match up the
pronoun to the noun that belongs to the same part of speech.
• Sometimes you will see more than one possible answer based on the part of speech. In this case, re-read
the sentence carefully, then work backwards from the pronoun and trace it to its logical antecedent.
You should be able to spot the referent quickly.
• Some referent questions involve pro-forms instead of pronouns. Pro-forms are phrases that can refer to
either nouns or actions, so they are a little bit more complex to solve than referent questions with
pronouns. Nonetheless, if you read the passage carefully, you should be able to trace the pro-form to its
antecedent easily.

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