TOEIC Link Reading — Cohesive Device Recognition: The Connector-Tracking System That Unlocks Long-Passage Comprehension at Band 22 and Above

The TOEIC Link reading-module long passages — 350-to-500-word articles, emails, and reports — are constructed from sentences linked by an explicit cohesion architecture. Conjunctive adverbs name logical relationships between sentences, reference pronouns and demonstratives carry information across sentence boundaries, lexical chains repeat or substitute key terms to maintain topical continuity, and ellipsis omits recoverable information to compress sentence rhythm. Candidates who cannot recognize and track the four cohesive-device categories at reading speed lose the global structure of the passage within the first thirty seconds and fall back on local re-reading that destroys the reading-module section pacing.

This guide names the four cohesive-device categories, formalizes the connector-tracking system that band-22-and-above candidates use to maintain global structure under time pressure, and outlines a four-week drill routine. For adjacent reading-module topics, see the reading paragraph organization and flow guide and the reading skimming and scanning techniques guide.

The four cohesive-device categories

Category 1 — Conjunctive adverbs and connector phrases

Conjunctive adverbs (however, therefore, moreover, nevertheless, consequently, furthermore, in addition, on the other hand, as a result, in contrast) name the logical relationship between the sentence in which they appear and the preceding sentence or paragraph. The connector signals one of five high-frequency relationships: addition (moreover, furthermore, in addition), contrast (however, nevertheless, on the other hand, in contrast), consequence (therefore, consequently, as a result), exemplification (for example, for instance, specifically), and reformulation (in other words, that is, in particular).

The connector is the most explicit cohesive device and is the easiest to recognize, but it is also the device on which candidates most often make the recognition-without-tracking error: the candidate notices however at the start of a sentence and reads the sentence as a contrast, but does not actively retrieve what the contrast is against. The active retrieval of the contrast target is what distinguishes band-22-and-above reading from band-18-to-band-21 reading.

Category 2 — Reference pronouns and demonstratives

Reference pronouns (he, she, it, they, this, that, these, those, such) and demonstrative determiners (this proposal, that policy, these recommendations, such an approach) carry information across sentence boundaries by referring back to an antecedent in the preceding text. The reading task is to identify the antecedent within one second of encountering the reference, and the candidate who cannot identify the antecedent at reading speed loses the meaning of the current sentence.

The high-difficulty reference is the cataphoric reference (this or these pointing forward to a referent in the same or following sentence), the long-distance anaphoric reference (the pronoun three or four sentences after the antecedent), and the ambiguous reference (two possible antecedents in the preceding sentence). The reading-module long-passage questions occasionally test reference tracking by asking which of two candidates a pronoun refers to.

Category 3 — Lexical chains

A lexical chain is a sequence of words that maintain topical continuity across sentences through repetition, near-synonym substitution, or category–instance relationships. The opening sentence may use the noun proposal, the second sentence may use the document, the third sentence may use it, the fourth sentence may use the recommendation, and the fifth sentence may use the plan. The five surface forms refer to the same underlying entity, and the candidate who recognizes the lexical chain reads the five sentences as a continuous thread of meaning.

Recognition of lexical chains requires vocabulary breadth — the candidate must know that proposal, recommendation, plan, document, and suggestion can refer to the same entity in business contexts — and recognition speed — the candidate must perform the substitution within reading speed without breaking the section pacing. Lexical chains are the most demanding cohesive-device category for upper-intermediate readers and are the category where the band-22-to-band-24 transition shows the largest gap.

Category 4 — Ellipsis

Ellipsis omits information that is recoverable from the preceding context, compressing sentence rhythm and signalling that the writer assumes the reader is tracking the lexical chain. The most frequent ellipsis in TOEIC Link reading is the verb-phrase ellipsis (The first proposal was approved, but the second was not, where approved is elided after not), the noun-phrase ellipsis (Some candidates passed, others did not, where pass is elided), and the comparative ellipsis (The 2026 budget is larger than the 2025, where budget is elided).

Ellipsis is the lowest-visibility cohesive-device category — the candidate may not notice the omission until the meaning fails to resolve — and is the category where the band-24-and-above candidate distinguishes itself from the band-22-to-band-23 candidate by recognizing the omission and recovering the elided material at reading speed.

The connector-tracking system

The band-22-and-above candidate maintains a four-element working memory while reading any long passage, updating the memory at each sentence boundary.

Current connector and its target. When a connector appears, the candidate identifies the target sentence or paragraph the connector relates the current sentence to. The identification is automatic and consumes less than one second.
Active reference and its antecedent. When a reference pronoun or demonstrative appears, the candidate identifies the antecedent automatically. Ambiguous references are flagged for later resolution.
Active lexical chain. The candidate maintains a mental map of the two or three lexical chains active in the current paragraph and recognizes substitutions automatically.
Active ellipsis recovery. When the candidate encounters a sentence that does not resolve on first reading, the candidate scans the immediately preceding context for the elided material.

The four-element working memory is what allows the band-22-and-above candidate to read a 500-word passage in three minutes without re-reading, where the band-18-to-band-21 candidate re-reads two or three sentences per paragraph and runs out of time on the long-passage section.

The four-week drill routine

Week 1 — Connector inventory drill

The candidate works through a 30-passage corpus and marks every conjunctive adverb and connector phrase, classifying each by relationship category (addition, contrast, consequence, exemplification, reformulation) and identifying the target sentence the connector relates to. The week's output is a per-passage connector-density log and a relationship-distribution profile.

Week 2 — Reference tracking drill

The candidate works through the same 30-passage corpus a second time and marks every reference pronoun and demonstrative, identifying the antecedent of each reference within one second of encountering it. The week's output is a per-passage reference-density log and an antecedent-identification accuracy log; target: above 95% on first-pass identification.

Week 3 — Lexical chain mapping drill

The candidate works through 20 long passages and explicitly maps the lexical chains in each, using a color-coding system to mark each chain. The week's output is a per-passage chain-map and a self-test that confirms chain-recognition under reading speed without the color-coding aid.

Week 4 — Integrated reading drill

The candidate works through 12 full TOEIC Link reading-module long-passage sections with the connector-tracking system applied to every passage, tracking section completion time and per-passage comprehension accuracy. The week's output is a per-section time log and a per-question accuracy log; target: section completion within rubric time limit and above 85% accuracy.

CEFR band-by-band targets

Band 18: Connector recognition partial; reference tracking limited to immediate antecedents; lexical chain recognition limited to direct repetition; ellipsis frequently missed.
Band 21: Connector recognition complete on high-frequency connectors; reference tracking reliable on local antecedents; lexical chain recognition extends to high-frequency near-synonym pairs; ellipsis occasionally recovered.
Band 24: Connector tracking automatic across the entire passage; reference tracking reliable on long-distance antecedents; lexical chain recognition extends to category–instance substitutions; ellipsis automatically recovered.
Band 27: All four cohesive-device categories tracked automatically at reading speed; ambiguous references resolved by paragraph-level inference; lexical chain mapping extends to cross-paragraph chains; reading-module section completed with time spare for review.

Closing note

Cohesive device recognition is the highest-leverage reading-module skill above band 22 because it converts the long-passage section from a re-reading-driven race against time into a single-pass comprehension exercise. The candidate who installs the connector-tracking system to productive automaticity completes the long-passage section within the rubric time limit and frees attention for the high-difficulty inference questions where the band-24-to-band-27 transition is decided, and the transfer effect extends to the listening module where the same four cohesive-device categories operate at speech rate rather than reading rate.