TOEFL iBT Reading Questions

t just choose an answer just because it can be a correct meaning of the word; understand which meaning the author is using in the passage.
Reread the sentence in the passage, substituting the word or phrase you have chosen. Confirm that the sentence still makes sense in the context of the whole passage.
Type 6: Reference Questions
These questions ask you to identify referential relationships between the words in the passage. Often, the relationship is between a pronoun and its antecedent (the word to which the pronoun refers). Sometimes other kinds of grammatical reference are tested (like which or this).
How to Recognize Reference Questions
Reference questions look similar to vocabulary questions. In the passage, one word or phrase is highlighted. Usually the word is a pronoun. Then you are asked
The word X in the passage refers to
The four answer choices will be words or phrases from the passage. Only one choice is the word to which the highlighted word refers.
Tips for Reference Questions
If the reference question is about a pronoun, make sure your answer is the same number (singular to plural) and case (first person, second person, third person) as the highlighted pronoun.
Substitute your choice for the highlighted word or words in the sentence. Does it violate any grammar rules? Does it make sense?
Type 7: Sentence Simplification Questions
In this type of question you are asked to choose a sentence that has the same essential meaning as a sentence that occurs in the passage. Not every reading set includes a Sentence Simplification question. There is never more than one in a set.
How to Recognize Sentence Simplification Questions
Sentence Simplification questions always look the same. A single sentence in the passage is highlighted. You are then asked.
Which of the following best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence? Incorrect answer choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
Tips for Sentence Simplification Questions
Make sure you understand both ways a choice can be incorrect:
It contradicts something in the highlighted sentence.
It leaves out something important from the highlighted sentence.
Make sure your answer does not contradict the main argument of the paragraph in which the sentence occurs, or the passage as a whole.
Type 8: Insert Test Questions
In this type of question, you are given a new sentence and are asked where in the passage it would best fit. You need to understand the logic of the passage, as well as the grammatical connections (like pronoun reference) between sentences. Not every set includes an Insert Text question. There is never more than one in a set.
How to Recognize Insert Text Questions
In the passage you will see four black squares. The squares are located at the beginnings or ends of sentences. Sometimes all four squares appear in one paragraph. Sometimes they are spread across the end of one paragraph and the beginning of another:
You are then asked this question:
Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
[You will see a sentence in bold.]
Where would the sentence best fit?
Your job is to click on one of the squares and insert the sentence in the text.
Tips for Insert Text Questions
Try the sentence in each of the places indicated by the squares. You can place and replace the sentence as many times as you want.
Look at both the structure of the sentence you are inserting and the logic. Pay special attention to logical connecting words; they can provide important information about where the sentence should be placed.
Frequently used connecting words:
On the other hand
For example
On the contrary
Similarly
In contrast
Further, or Furthermore
Therefore
In other words
As a result
Finally
Make sure that the inserted sentence connects logically to both the sentence before it and the sentence after it.
READING TO LEARN QUESTIONS
Reading to Learn items are a new question category that is being introduced in the TOEFL iBT test. There are two types of Reading to Learn questions: “Prose Summary” and “Fill in a Table.” Reading to Learn questions will require you to do more than the Basic Information questions. As you have seen, the Basic Information questions focus on your ability to understand or locate specific points in a passage at the sentence level. The Reading to Learn questions will also involve.
Recognizing the organization and purpose of the passage
Organizing the information in the passage into a mental framework
Distinguishing major from minor ideas and essential from nonessential information
Understanding rhetorical functions such as cause-effect relationships, compare- contrast relationships, arguments, and the like.
In other words, these questions will require you to demonstrate an understanding of the passage as a whole, not just specific information within it.
Reading to Learn questions require you to show that you are able not only to comprehend individual points, but also to place the major ideas and supporting information from the passage into an organizational framework or structure such as a prose summary or a table. By answering correctly, you will demonstrate that you can recognize the major points of a text, how and why the text has been organized, and the nature of the relationships within the text. Having an organized mental representation of a text is critical to learning because it allows you to remember important information from the text and apply it in new situations. If you have such a mental framework, you should be able to reconstruct the major ideas and supporting information from the text. By doing so, you will demonstrate a global understanding of the text as a whole. On the TOEFL iBT, each reading passage will have one Reading to learn item. It will be either a Prose Summary or a Fill in a Table item, never both.
Type 9: Prose Summary Questions
These items measure you ability to understand and recognize the major ideas and the relative importance of information in a passage. You will be asked to select the major ideas in the passage by distinguishing them from minor ideas or ideas that are not in the passage. The correct answer choice will synthesize major ideas in the passage. Because the correct answer represents a synthesis of ideas, it will not match any particular sentence from the passage. To select the correct answer, you will need to create a mental framework to organize and remember major ideas and other important information. Understanding the relative importance of information in a passage is critical to this ability.
In a Prose Summary question, you will be given six answer choices and asked to pick the three that express the most important ideas in the passage. Unlike the Basic Information questions, each of which is worth just one point, a Prose Summary question can be worth either one or two points depending on how many correct answer you choose. If you choose no correct answer or just one correct answer, you will earn no points. If you choose two correct answers, you will earn one point. If you choose all three correct answers, you will earn two points. The order in which you choose your answers does not matter for scoring purposes.
Type 10: Fill in a Table Questions
In this kind of item, you will be given a partially completed classification table based on information in the passage. Your job is to complete the table by clicking on correct answer choices and dragging them to their correct locations in the table.
Fill in a Table items measure you ability to conceptualize and organize major ideas and other important information from across the passage and then to place them in appropriate categories. This means that you must first recognize and identify the major points from the passage, and then place those points in their proper context.
Just as fro Prose Summary questions, the able reader will create a mental framework to organize and remember major ideas and other important information.
Doing so requires the ability to understand rhetorical functions such as cause effect relationships, compare-contrast relationships, arguments, and the like.
When building your mental framework, keep in mind that the major ideas in the passage are the ones you would include if you were making a fairly high-level outline of the passage. The correct answer choices are usually ideas that would be included in a slightly more detailed outline. Minor details and examples are generally not included in such an outline because they are used only to support the more important, higher-level themes. The distinction between major ideas/important information and less important information can also be thought of as a distinction between essential and nonessential information.
Passages used with Fill in a Table items have more than one focus of development in that they include more than one point of view or perspective. Typical passages have the following types of organization: compare/contrast, problem/solution, cause/effect, alternative arguments (such as theories, hypotheses), and the like.
Correct answers represent major ideas and important supporting information in the passage. Generally these answers will not match specific phrases in the passage. They are more likely to be abstract concepts based on passage information or paraphrases of passage information. Correct answers will be easy to confirm by able readers who can remember or easily locate relevant text information.
In correct answers may include information about the topic that is not mentioned in the passage or that is not directly relevant to the classification categories in the table. They may also be obviously incorrect generalizations or conclusions based on what is stated in the passage. Be aware that incorrect answers may include words and phrases that match or resemble words or phrases in the passage.