Cohesion is the term for the way writers tie their sentences together so that their texts \'read well\' and make sense. In the first Cohesion quiz you saw that one way to tie sentences (or ideas) together is by using connectives such as therefore, however, on the other hand, etc.
This quiz concerns cohesion that is achieved by the use of pronouns to refer back to a noun that has been already been introduced. As an example, the following sentence doesn\'t read well because the pronoun has not been used: John was late for class again, so the teacher put John in detention. Much better is: John was late for class again, so the teacher put him in detention.
Apart from pronouns, there are other ways that writers refer backwards to an element already mentioned in the text. Cohesion that is achieved by backward reference is called anaphora.
#What is the referent of the pronoun him?^John~the teacher~the writer of this text~pronoun'); q('Some of the texts come from other pages of on website, some are from Wikipedia under GNU Free Documentation License, but most of them are from an old book called Amazing Facts. The texts are at just the right level of challenging English for my students. Equally importantly, they are academic texts such as they might encounter in their science or humanities courses. They are also, in my opinion, valuable in their own right in that students may learn something useful or interesting in the process of practising to be better and faster readers.
#What is the referent of the pronoun They?^quiz texts~students~other pages on this website~Amazing Facts'); q('Japanese verbs do not change for person or number, the most common consequence of which is the omission of the -s in the present simple 3rd person: she go .. / my father work ...
#What is the referent of the pronoun which?^the fact that Japanese verbs do not change for person or number~consequence~Japanese verbs~the omission of the -s in the present simple 3rd person'); q('The most famous anecdote told about Archimedes is how he discovered the scientific principle of buoyancy. According to Vitruvius, a new crown in the shape of a laurel wreath had been made for King Hieron, and Archimedes was asked to determine whether it was of solid gold, or whether silver had been added by a dishonest goldsmith. Archimedes had to solve the problem without damaging the crown, so he could not melt it down in order to measure its density as a cube, which would have been the simplest solution. While taking a bath, he noticed that the level of the water rose as he got in. He realized that this effect could be used to determine the volume of the crown, and therefore its density after weighing it. The density of the crown would be lower if cheaper and less dense metals had been added. He then took to the streets naked, so excited by his discovery that he had forgotten to dress, crying "Eureka!" "I have found it!"
[This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Archimedes.]
#What is the most likely meaning of it in Archimedes\' exclamation "I have found it"?^the scientific principle of buoyancy~the gold crown of King Hieron~the level of the bath water~the way to melt the crown without damaging it');