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PTE Trainer

Reading

Re-order Paragraphs

Drag jumbled text boxes into their correct logical order.

Scored on
Content
Contributes to
Reading

Sample item

Put the text boxes in the correct order.

A) This meant the settlement could support a far larger population than its neighbours. B) Archaeologists excavating the site found evidence of an early irrigation system. C) It drew water from the river through a series of stone-lined channels. D) The channels were maintained collectively, implying a level of social organisation not previously assumed for the period.

B, C, D, A

B is the topic sentence — full noun phrases, no back-reference. 'It' in C refers to the irrigation system. 'The channels' in D takes the definite article introduced in C. 'This' in A refers to the whole preceding situation.

How to approach Re-order Paragraphs

  1. Read every box once

    Read all the text boxes before you move anything, and get the subject of the passage clear. Ordering while you are still discovering what the text is about produces a chain built on your first guess rather than on the evidence.

  2. Find the opening box

    The first box introduces its subject with a full noun phrase and contains no pronoun, definite article or connector pointing backwards. Identify it by that absence of back-reference rather than by which box sounds most like an introduction.

  3. Chain by reference

    Link the rest by tracking what each box refers back to: a pronoun, a repeated noun now carrying the, or a linker such as however or as a result. Chronology and numbered stages, where present, confirm a chain you have already built.

  4. Lock pairs, place the rest

    Scoring counts correctly ordered adjacent pairs, so a partly right sequence still earns credit. Fix the links you can evidence and arrange the uncertain boxes around them, rather than dismantling a solid order because one junction remains doubtful.

The method

Find the topic sentence first — it introduces a subject with a full noun phrase and no back-reference. Then chain by pronouns and definite articles, then by linkers. Scoring is per adjacent pair, so a partly correct order still earns marks.

The mistake that costs most

Rebuilding the whole order from scratch after one uncertain link. Lock the pairs you are sure of and place the rest around them.

Other Reading tasks

Frequently asked questions

By adjacent pairs. Each correctly ordered neighbouring pair earns a mark, so a partly correct sequence still scores — there is no all-or-nothing penalty.

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