Topic continuity means each sentence in a paragraph follows on from the one before. When you fill a gap, choose the sentence that keeps that thread, not the one that merely shares a word.
This lesson is part of gapped text and information transfer. It builds on following sentence links and pronoun references.
How do you draw a topic line?
Write two or three words beside each sentence to name what it is about. Then read the column down the page.
A smooth paragraph gives a line such as: “Hana / Hana’s fear / Hana’s first talk”. A broken line jumps: “Hana / the school canteen / Hana’s first talk”. The sentence that breaks the line does not belong.
Worked example: a keyword that misleads
Here is an original passage about a school garden.
“Form 4 students planted chilli seedlings along the fence in March. [GAP] By June the plants were waist-high, and the students sold the first harvest at the school fair.”
Option A: “The fence was painted green by an earlier group of students.”
Option B: “They watered the seedlings every morning before assembly.”
Option A contains “fence”, a word from sentence one. Option B contains “seedlings”, also from sentence one. Both share a keyword, so keywords cannot decide.
Draw the topic line. Sentence 1: students planting. Sentence 3: plants growing, students selling.
The gap must sit between planting and growing, so it should describe the students caring for the plants. Option B fits. Option A moves the topic to paint and an earlier group, which has no part in the growth story.
The mistake: choosing by keyword
A common slip is to pick the option that copies the most words from the passage. Distractors are written to do exactly that.
| Check | Option A | Option B |
|---|---|---|
| Shares a keyword | fence | seedlings |
| Subject | the fence | the students |
| Fits between planting and growth | no | yes |
The fix is to ask two questions in order: who or what is this sentence about, and does that match the sentence before and after?
What if the topic really does change?
Sometimes the passage moves on. Look for signal words such as “However”, “Meanwhile”, “Another reason” or “At the same time”. These tell you a shift is planned.
If the sentence after the gap begins “However, the harvest was smaller than expected”, the gap should set up an expectation of success. A sentence about the plants growing well fits, because the word “However” needs something positive to contrast with.
Check yourself
Place the best sentence in the gap. “Amir began saving for a bicycle in January. [GAP] By April he had RM120, which was half of the price.” Options: (A) “He put RM10 into a tin every week.” (B) “Bicycles are popular with teenagers in many towns.”
Answer
Option A. It keeps Amir as the subject and explains how the savings grew between January and April.
Option B shares the word “bicycles” but changes the topic to teenagers in general. Nothing links it to the sentence that follows, which talks about Amir’s RM120.
Check the numbers: RM10 a week for 12 weeks gives RM120, and January to April is about 12 weeks, so the passage is consistent.
What to study next
Move on to transferring information without changing meaning. For reading across longer texts, see tracking references across paragraphs.
To have a teacher check your topic lines on real passages, see online one-to-one English tuition.