TOEIC Reading: What to Do When You Do Not Know a Word

Why one unknown word costs you three answers

Part 7, two passages, six minutes left, one noun in the middle of a sentence deciding the question in front of you. You re-read the sentence, then the paragraph, then the question, and the next two questions lose their time as well.

Reading is 100 questions in 75 minutes, 70 of them in Part 6 and Part 7, where questions ask about information rather than definitions. The four moves below stop one word from costing three answers.

Move one: name the word class from its position

Decide what job the word is doing before translating it; word order is enough.

• after the, a, this: a noun, or an adjective before one
• after is, was, has been: an adjective or a past participle
• after will, must, can: a verb

The supplier will confirm the delivery date by Friday. The word follows will, so it is a verb and the sentence is about an action. The revised schedule is tight but workable. Here it follows is and describes the schedule.

Move two: read the two words on each side

Business English runs on fixed partnerships. place an order, meet a deadline, waive a fee: the unknown half is the thing, the date or the charge.

The vendor agreed to waive the delivery charge after the second delay. agreed to marks a verb, the delivery charge is what it acts on, and after the second delay explains why the charge was dropped.

Move three: use the contrast and cause markers

but, although and instead set a contrast, so the unknown word probably means the opposite of something you understand. because, since, so and therefore set a cause or result, so the word explains the other clause.

The first shipment was on time, but the second was two weeks late. A word in the second half cannot mean on time. The meeting was postponed because the client's flight was cancelled. Here the unknown word belongs to the cause.

Move four: apply business logic

ETS lists the settings its questions come from: offices, purchasing and invoices, personnel and hiring, travel and schedules, finance and budgeting, manufacturing, health and insurance.

That narrowness helps. Something that can be released is goods or money; something that can be approved is a request, a budget or a form; something that can be extended is a deadline, a contract or a lease.

A worked example: one noun, four moves, two dead ends

We can only release the consignment once the outstanding balance has cleared. The question asks what happens when the payment arrives.

Move one: a determiner before it and release governing it, so it is a noun and the thing being released. Move two: release pairs with goods, documents or funds, and in a supplier email the object released after payment is the order. Move three is a dead end, since once marks a condition in time. Move four settles it: a supplier releases goods once the balance clears.

The second dead end is the ending: it marks a noun, which the position already showed, and not which noun.

When to stop guessing, and what to do instead

The stopping rule is set by the question, not by the word. Ask whether the options differ because of it. If they do, you need the role, not the translation; if they do not, the word is scenery.

Situation	What to do	Limit
Two options differ only by the unknown word	Use business logic to remove the impossible role	20 seconds
It sits in a descriptive clause and the question asks who or when	Answer from the question words	5 seconds
You know the class but not the meaning	Substitute a placeholder and finish the sentence	10 seconds

Read We can only release the X once the outstanding balance has cleared, and the sentence still answers the question: after payment, the goods go out.

The sheet, and ten sentences to test the moves

A TOEIC vocabulary list is useful when it holds your failures rather than someone else's frequency ranking. How to build the list is a separate job; the record you keep after a practice set is this.

Word	Position	Move that resolved it	What the question asked
consignment	after the, object of release	business logic	what happens after payment
waive	verb after agreed to	collocation	who pays the charge
outstanding	before balance	business logic	how much is still owed

The third column is the one people omit, and the one that changes your score: a word logged with the move that rescued it becomes a rehearsed action, not a flashcard.

#	Sentence	Clue
1	The branch will reimburse travel costs within five days.	will, travel costs
2	Please attach the signed form to your application.	imperative, form
3	The shipment was held at customs for three days.	shipment, customs
4	Managers must approve overtime before it is worked.	must, overtime
5	The lease expires in March, so we need a new office.	so
6	Although the quote was low, the contractor missed two deadlines.	although
7	All staff are entitled to a discount on company products.	are ... to, discount
8	The invoice remains outstanding until the transfer clears.	until
9	We have outsourced the payroll to a local firm.	have plus participle
10	The venue was changed, but attendance was unaffected.	but

Frequently asked questions

Where can I practice TOEIC listening questions and vocabulary online for free?

Start with what the test maker publishes. The ETS examinee handbook is a free download with the directions and a sample question for every part, and the IIBC test-format pages publish one official sample per part. Those samples are accurate but few, so treat them as calibration rather than practice volume. For vocabulary, drill the four-column sheet rather than a published list, because it is already filtered to the words that cost you answers.

What should I do when I do not know a word in a TOEIC Reading passage?

Name the word class from its position, read two words on each side, check for a contrast or cause marker, then test the word against the business situation. If the options differ only by that word, keep working until you can name its role; if it is scenery, read past it. Time on a word that decides the answer is an investment; the same time on a descriptive adjective is how the three-answer loss begins.