The strategies on Reading Comprehension TOEFL PBT

To get high scores on the TOEFL test, you need to do preparation, and practice for the test regularly. The TOEFL test has there section tested. the last section on the PBT test is Reading Comprehension section. there 50 questions, and you have 55 minutes to do all questions. you need some skiils and strategies to be able to complete all question on time. 

Reading comprehension Skills

STRATEGIES FOR THE READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1 Skim the reading passage to determine the main idea and the overall organization of ideas in the passage. You do not need to understand every detail in each passage to answer the questions correctly. It is, therefore, a waste of time to read the passage with the intent of understanding every single detail before you try to answer the questions.

2. Look ahead to the questions to determine what types of questions you must answer. Each type of question is answered in a different way.

3. Find the section of the passage that deals with each question. The question-type tells you exactly where to look in the passage to find the correct answers.

·         For the main idea questions, look at the first line of each paragraph.

·         For directly and indirectly answered detailed questions, choose a keyword in the question, and skim for that keyword (or a related idea) in order in the passage.

·         For vocabulary questions, the question will tell you where the word is located in the passage.

·         For overall review questions, the answers are found anywhere in the passage.

4. Read the part of the passage that contains the answer carefully. The answer will probably be in   the same sentence (or one sentence before or after) the keyword or idea.

5. Choose the best answer to each question from the four answer choices listed in your test book. You can choose the best answer according to what is given inappropriate section of the passage, eliminate definitely the wrong answer, and mark you the best guess on the answer sheet.

See also:  Essential Words for the TOEFL PBT test.

1. Main Idea Questions

The passage:

In the philosophy of John Dewey, a sharp diction is made between “intelligent” and “reasoning.” According to Dewey, intelligence is the only absolute way to achieve a balance between realism and idealism, between practicality and wisdom of life. Intelligent involves “interacting with other things and knowing them.” While the reasoning is merely the act of an observer,”… a mind that beholds or grasps objects outside the world of things…” with reasoning, a level of mental certainty can be achieved, but it is through intelligence that control is taken of evens that shape one’s life.

 The question:             

What is the topic of this passage?

A. The intelligence of John Dewey

B. Distinction made by John Dewey

C. Dewey’s ideas on ability to reason

D. How intelligence differs from reasoning in Dewey’s work

See Also: TOEFL Barron's 7th edition                 

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE QUESTION	What is the topic of the passage? What is the subject of the passage? What is the main idea of the pass? What is the author’s main point in the passage? With what is the author primarily concerned? Which of following would be the best title?
WHERE TO FIND THE ANSWER	The answer to this type of question can generally be determined by looking at the first sentence of each paragraph.
HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION	1. Read the first line of each paragraph 2. Look for a common theme or idea in the first lines 3. Pass your eyes quickly over the rest of the passage to check that you have found the topic sentence. 4. Eliminate any definitely wrong answer and choose the best answer from the remaining choices.

2.    Direct Answered Questions

The passage:

  Williamsburg is a historic city in Virginia situated on a peninsula between two rivers, the York and the James. It was settled by English colonists in 1633, twenty-six years after the first permanent colony in America was settled at Jamestown. At the beginning of the colony at Williamsburg was named middle plantation because of its location in the middle of peninsula. The site for Williamsburg has been selected by colonists because the soil drainage was better there than at the Jamestown location, and there were fewer mosquitoes. 

The question:

1. According to the passage, Williamsburg is located…

A. on an island

B. in the middle of the river

C. where the York and the James meet

D. on a piece of land with river on two sides

2. The passage indicates that Jamestown

A. was settled in 163B.

B. was settled twenty-six years after Williamsburg

C. was the first permanent English colony in America

D. was originally named Middle Plantation

3. The passage states that the name Middle Plantation

A. is a more recent name than Williamsburg

B. derived from the location of the colony on the peninsula

C. refers to the middle part of England that was home to the colonists          

D. was given to the new colony because it was located in the middle of several plantations

3.     Unstated Details

The passage:

        In English, there are many different kinds of expressions that people use to give a name to anything whose name is unknown on momentarily forgotten. The word gadget is one such word. It was first by British sailors in the 1850’s and probably came from French word gachette, which was a small hook. In everyday use, the word has a more general meaning. Other words are also used to give a name to something unnamed or unknown, and these words tend to be somewhat imaginative. Some of the more commonly used expressions are a what-d’ye-call-it, a whatsis, a thingamabob, a thingamajig, a doodad, a doohickey.

The question:

1. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. it is used to name something when the name is not known

B. it was used at the beginning of the ninetieth century

C. it most likely came from a word from the French language

D. its first known use was by British sailors

2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as an expression for something unknown?

A. a thingamabob

B. a gadget

C. a doohickey

D. a what-is-it

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE QUESTION	Which of the following is NOT stated? Which of the following is NOT mentioned? Which of the following is NOT discussed? All the following are true except…
Where to find the answer	The answer to these questions  is found in order in the passage
How to answer the question	1. choose a keyword in the question 2. scan in the appropriate place in the passage for a keyword to keyword 3. read the sentence that contains the keyword or idea carefully 4. look for answers that are definitely true according to the passage. Eliminate those answers 5. choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage

4.    Indirectly Answered Questions

The passage

                The Hawaiian language is melodious language in which all words are derived from alphabet of only twelve letters, the five vowels A,I,U,E,O and the seven consonants H,K,L,M,N,P,W. each syllable in the language ends in a vowel, and two consonants never appear together, so vowels have a much higher frequency in the Hawaiian language than they do in English.

                 This musical-sounding language can be heard regularly by visitors to the islands. Most Hawaiians speak English, but it is quite common to hear English that is liberally spiced with words and expression from traditional language of the culture. A visitor may be greeted by expression aloha, and may be referred to as a malihini because he is a newcomer to the island. This visitor may attend an outside luau where everyone eats too much and be invited afterwards to dance the hula.

The questions:

1. which of following is probably NOT a Hawaiian word?

A. mahalo

B. mahimahi

C. mekleathe

D. moana

2. it is implied that luau is

A. a dance

B. a feast

C. a concert

D. a language

5.    VOCABULARY QUESTION

Example

The passage

       One of the leading schools of psychological thought in the twentieth century is behaviorism the belief that the role of he psychologist is to study behavior, which is observable, rather than conscious or unconscious thought, which is not. Probably the bes known proponent of behaviorism is B.F. Skinner, who is famous for his research on how rewards and punishments influence behavior. He came to believe that positive reinforcements  such as praise, food, or money were more effective in promoting good behavior than  negative reinforcement or punishment

The question

1.         In “behaviorism” in line 2, a psychologist is concerned with

A.      Conscious thought patterns

B.      Unconscious thought patterns

C.      Observable actions

D.      Unobservable actions

2.         What is “positive reinforcement” in line 7?

A.      A gift

B.      A reward

C.      A bribe

D.      A penalty

3.         What is “negative reinforcement” in line 9?

A.      A promotion

B.      A reward

C.      A surprise

D.      A punishment

STRUCTURAL CLUES
HOW TO IDENTIFY THE QUESTION	What is ….? What is the meaning of ….? What is true about…?
TYPES OF CLUES	Punctuation : comma, dashes Restatement : or, that, is, in other, i.e Example: Such as, for example, e.g
WHERE TO FIND THE ANSWER	Information to help determinate where something means will generally be found after the punctuation clue, the restatement clue, or the example clue
HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION	1.       Find word in the passage 2.       Locate any structural 3.       Read the part of the passage after the structural clue carefully 4.       Eliminate any definitely wrong answers from the remaining choices
.

Example

 The passage:

   Ring Lardner himself was born into wealthy, educated, and cultured family. For the bulk of his career, he worked as reporter for newspapers in south bend, Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago. However, it is for short stories of lower middle-class Americans that Ring Lardner is perhaps best known. In this story, Lardner vividly creates the language and the ambiance of thi lower class, often using misspelled words, grammatical errors, and incorrect diction that typified the language of the lower middle class.

The question:

1. The word “vividly” in line 6 is closest meaning to

A. in a cultured way

B. in a correct way

C. in a lifelike way

D. in a brief way

2. The word “misspelled” in the line 7 is closest meaning to

A. highly improper

B. vulgar

C. incorrectly written

D. slang

3. The word “diction” in line 8 is closest in meaning to

A. writing

B. sentence structure

C. form

D. speech

6.      Overall Review Questions

The passage:

                Meteor Crater, a great crater approximately 40 miles east of flagstaff’ Arizona, is generally though by scientists to have formed as a result of the impact of a 60,000 ton meteor about 50,000 years ago. The meteor, made of nickel and iron, disintegrated on impact an spread half a billon ton of rock over the surface of the land. The massiveness of the meteor can only be imagined from mammoth size of crater, which measures a mile in diameter and 3 miles around the top. The rim of the crater rises more than 130 feet above the plain where the meteor impacted and is visible for more than 10 miles in a clear day.

The question:

1. Where in the passage does the author discuss the composition of the meteor?

2. Where in the passage does the author mention the distance from which the crater can be seen?

QUESTIONS ABOUT WHERE IN THE PASSAGE
HOW TO IDENTYFY THE QUESTION	Where in the passage …..?
WHERE TO FIND THE ANSWER	The answer can be in any of the listed in the answer to the question
HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION	1.       Choose the key word or idea in the question 2.       Skim the lines the passage that are listed in the answers to the question. You should skim for the keyword or idea. 3.       Choose the answer that contains the line numbers of a restatement of the qustion

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