When you read English texts, you will find many examples of the following common words: it, they, he, she, his, her, its, that, their, and there. We use those short, common words instead of using many other words – usually nouns. For you to understand the text or speech, it is important for you to understand what those common words refer to.
For example: Tom loves drinking coffee. He drinks it every day.
In that example, it = coffee. Tom loves drinking coffee. He drinks it every day.
We can write, “Tom loves drinking coffee. He drinks coffee every day” but it is more natural and common in English to use ‘it’ instead.
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Here are some more easy examples:
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I think your teacher is nice. Why don’t you like him? (him = the teacher)
I’m going to Japan next week. Have you ever been there? (there = Japan)
I like Celine Dion. I think she is a great singer. (she = Celine Dion)
Do you like the Spice Girls? No, I don’t like them or their music. (them = the Spice Girls) (their [music] = the Spice Girls’ [music])
Do you like Korean music? Yes, I love it. (it = Korean music)
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A sentence can have more than one referent word. For example:
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Peter was playing with a ball with his friends, John and Tom. When they started teasing him, he picked it up and threw it at them.
There are seven referents in two sentences.
his [friends] = Peter’s [friends], they = John and Tom, him = Peter, he = Peter, it = the ball, it = the ball, them = John and Tom.
If we re-write the sentences, they become:
Peter was playing with a ball with Peter’s friends, John and Tom. When John and Tom started teasing Peter, Peter picked the ball up and threw the ball at John and Tom.
You can see that the sentences with referents are shorter than the sentences without the referents.
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In reading tests, you are often asked to connect referent words to the words or meanings they refer to.
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Different ways to ask referent questions:
What does it refer to? What does xxx refer to? What does the word xxx refer to?
In paragraph 2, what does xxx refer to?
In line 6 of paragraph 1, “them” refers to: (a) ………. (b) ………. (c) ………. (d) ……..
In line 16, Peter says, “They always help us.” Who are they?
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Sometimes a referent question is like a vocabulary question – you have to match two words, expressions or ideas.
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1. The US President Barack Obama said, “I spent two hours this morning talking to my French counterpart.”
Question: Who does the word ‘counterpart’ refer to? (Who is Barack Obama’s French counterpart?)
Answer: The French President (Nicolas Sarkozy).
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Now try these examples:
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Text 1: I read in the newspapers that there are about 200 fires in American schools each year and more than half of them are started by boys under the age of 16.
Question 1: The word “them” refers to: (a) newspapers (b) fires (c) schools (d) boys
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Text 2: A mother and her two children were among those who died in Alabama, officials said. The trio had been sheltering inside their double-wide trailer when it was thrown about 500 ft by the winds, landing on its roof.
Question 2: Who does trio refer to?
Question 3: What does it refer to?
Text 2 is from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13109627
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