Toefl reading summary

1. TOEFL iBT
Mohammad Masoom Rahimi

2. •The TOEFL iBT
Reading
Listening
Speaking
Writing

3. •The Reading section measures your ability to
understand university-level academic texts and
passages. In many academic settings around the
world, students are expected to read and
understand information from textbooks and
other academic materials written in English.

4. Question Types
•Vocabulary Question- 2
•Reference Question -0
•Paraphrases/Sentence Summary
Question

5. •Insert Sentence Question
•Factual Information Question3-4-5
•Negative Fact Question -1
•Inference Question1-0
•Rhetorical Purpose Question-1-0
•Select Summary Question 1
•Complete Organizational Table
Question0

6. Factual Information Question
•This question asks you to identify factual
information that is explicitly stated in one
specific part of the passage. The factual
information can be facts, details , definitions or
other information mentioned by the author.
•Frequency: 2-5 Per set .

7. How to recognize factual information question?
• FIQ is phrased as follow:
• According to the paragraph, which of the following is true about x ?
• The author’s description of x means which of the following ?
• According to the paragraph, x occurred because…
• According to the paragraph, x did y because…

8. Strategies
• Read the question precisely.
• Look for any indications that tell you where the answer is located ( i.e. ,
according to paragraph 3)
• Look for clear key words- such as dates, names and locations- to help you
scan for information and to eliminate wrong answer options.
• Look for synonyms in the answer choices that match the information in the
passage. Be careful of sentence structures.
• Be careful of transitions that indicate a relationship between ideas and
,may indicate comparison, contrast, cause , effect and so on.
• Eliminate those answer options that contradict the information from the
passage in any way.

9. Negative Factual Information Question
• This question asks you to verify what information is
true and what information is not true or not included
explicitly in one specific part of the passage.
• You will be given four choices in which three are true
and one is false. That false answer option is going to
be the target. ( correct answer option)
• Frequency: 0-2

10. How to recognize negative factual information
question?
• NFI question is phrased as follow:
• The author’s description of x means all of the following EXCEPT
• According to the passage, which of the following in NOT true of X ?
• It is NOT stated / mentioned / discussed/indicated …
• It is NOT true…
• Which of the following is NOT given as a reason…
• Which of the following is NOT mentioned …

11. Strategies
• Read the question precisely.
• Look for any indications in the question that tell where the answer is
located (e.g. according to paragraph 2…)
• Look for clear key words; such as dates, names, and locations to help
you scan for information and to eliminate wrong answers.
• In order to eliminate answers that are true or mentioned in the
passage, look for synonyms in the answer choices that match the
information in the passage.
• Finally, choose the correct answer choice.

12. Inference Question
• This question measures your ability to comprehend an
argument or an idea that is implied but not explicitly
stated in the passage.
• If an effect is cited in the passage, an inference
question might ask about its cause.
• You should not only think about the explicit meaning
of the author’s words but also the logical implications
of those words.

13. How to recognize Inference Questions ?
• Which of the following can be inferred about X ?
• The author of the passage implies that…
• Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2
about x ?
• Words like inferred, implied, suggested, likely and probably
are mostly used here.

14. Strategies
• Read the question precisely.
• Look for any indications in the question that tell where the answer is
located (e.g. according to paragraph 2…)
• Look for information in the passage that contradicts an answer
choice and eliminate that answer choice .
• Draw a conclusion based on the information in the passage.
• Should you choose an answer because it appears to be
true? (no, the correct answer will not be stated directly and
must be inferred)

15. Vocabulary Questions
•This question tests your understanding of
English, as well as your ability to use context
clues to help you determine the meaning of
a word or phrase.

16. Paraphrase/ Sentence Summary Question
• It is the skill of communicating the same primary information
in a different way, often using synonyms and changing the
word and clause order in a sentence.
• In this question, you are asked to recognize sentence
paraphrases. A sentence is highlighted in the passage and
four possible answer choices are provided. You need to
choose the paraphrase from the answers that is closest in
meaning to the original sentence.

17. Strategies to Answer Paraphrase Questions
• Use punctuation, such as commas, to break the sentence
down into parts that are easier to understand.
• Identify any transitional words or phrases that can indicate
time, contrast, addition and so on.
• Look at the parts one by one and identify important
information in each one.
• When necessary, read sentences immediately before and
after the highlighted sentence for more information.

18. The question is phrased in the following way
• Which of the following sentences best expresses the essential
information in the sentence highlighted in paragraph 4? Incorrect
choices change the meaning of the sentence in important ways or
leave out essential information.

19. Incorrect answer choices may :
• Leave out important information.
• Contain false information.
• Add in information that may be true, but is not included in the
original sentence.
• Use many of the same words or terms but not relate the information
accurately.

21. Rhetorical Purpose Question
•According to dictionary : A question that
is used to make a statement and which
does not expect an answer.
Ex: Why do these things always happen to me ?

22. Rhetorical Purpose Question
•Rhetoric is a noun. It is the art of
speaking or writing effectively . In other
words, it refers to the ability to use
language in an effective manner to
express ideas.

23. •Rhetorical purpose question tests your
ability to understand the relationship of
words and phrases to the ideas that are
mentioned or communicated in the
passage. Or
•In this question you are asked why the
author has presented a particular piece of
information in a particular place.

24. It is commonly phrased in this way:
•Why does the author mention/ discuss …?
•What is the function of … ?
•The author mentions Y in order to … ?
•Why does the author compare X to Y ?
•The author discusses X in paragraph 2 in order to
… ?

25. Purposes of this question type
It is used to :
Emphasize , clarify or develop ideas .
Provide an example of something familiar to the reader in
order to explain something that may not be known for the
reader.
Provide a point of compare or contrast for another idea.
Provide a definition of an unfamiliar concept, object or idea

26. Strategies to answer this question
• Read the sentence that contains the highlighted information.
• Look for signal words or phrases ( i ,e ., one example, rather
than) that establish a relationship between the highlighted
words and other ideas.
• Read one to two sentences around the key sentence to
clearly understand the relationship between the highlighted
words and other ideas being presented.

27. How to recognize the wrong answer
options
•For rhetorical purpose question, incorrect
answer choices may:
Contain information that is irrelevant to the
purpose .
Contain false or contradicting information.

28. •Questions?

29. Reference Question
• These questions ask you to identify referential relationships
between the word 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).

30. How to recognize reference Question?
• 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 . . .
How do you know that this is a referent question? (the
subject pronoun “they” is highlighted, and the question
includes the phrase “refers to”)

31. Strategies
• Read the question carefully.
• Try to find the antecedent.
• Make sure that the antecedent is agreeing with the pronoun
highlighted.
• Try on all the four answer options from the answer key to make
yourself very sure about the answer.
• Choose the correct answer.

32. Prose Summary Question
• Prose Summary Questions
These questions measure your 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 1 point, a Prose Summary
question is worth 2 points. You can earn 0 to 2 points depending on how many
correct answers you choose. If you choose no correct answers or just one correct
answer, you will earn no points. If you choose two correct answers, you will earn 1
point. If you choose all three correct answers, you will earn 2 points. The order in
which you choose your answers does not matter for scoring purposes.

33. How to recognize this question?
• You can easily recognize this question from the way it is asked.
• How do you know that this is a summary chart
question? (there is a reading passage and a chart with a
topic and space for three answer choices)

34. Fill in a Table Questions
• In this kind of question, you will be given a partially completed 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 questions measure your 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 for 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 idea 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 questions 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.

35. How to recognize this question?
• You can easily recognize this question from the way it is asked.

36. Strategies
• Read the question and the answer options carefully.
• Read the passage.
• Stay very concentrated while reading the passage paying special
attention to the major ideas.
• Choose the answers.
• Make sure you were correct.