reading toefl

TOEFL Reading

The TOEFL exam is divided into four sections namely, Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking, which are slightly different for the two formats of the test. The two formats of the test are iBT TOEFL and PBT TOEFL. TOEFL Reading and TOEFL Listening are common to both formats but they vary slightly in terms of structure.

TOEFL Reading questions have the most variety. The two types of questions that occur the most are related to vocabulary and being able to find out facts from any given written information. Vocabulary questions test your lexical skills. Other questions aim to check whether you can understand the main idea of the text and your ability to infer the meaning of something by relating it to the connecting text. Reference to context questions, questions asking you to categorise the information given (filling the table) and to write summaries of the text are also a part of this section.

The first component you will have to do when you sit for the TOEFL iBT exam is the Reading. The Reading Section measures your ability to read and understand academic texts (passages) in English. Reading is a critical skill in academic environment. Students have to read a lot and comprehend the information presented in their textbooks or other reading materials. As we discussed in TOEFL iBT Format Section on i-Courses.org, three are the main purposes for academic reading in TOEFL iBT:

1. Reading to find information

2. Basic comprehension

3. Reading to learn

Preparation Strategies

·         Read, Read, Read

·         Find the purpose of the passage.

To Explain –

•  To Resolve
• To convince –
• Increase vocabulary.
• Take notes..
• Learn how to skim the text.
• Read after skimming.
• Try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words in the passages,
• Highlight some of the pronouns (he, him, they, them, etc.) in the texts
• Practice making general inferences and conclusions Learn to organize the data presented in the passage

At the exam strategies

·         Relax! You don't have to be familiar with the topic of the TOEFL iBT Reading passage..

·         Be fast

·         Take a guess. 

·         Stop thinking about Reading.

EXAMPLE

             Bacteria are extremely small living things. While we measure our own sizes in inches or centimeters, bacterial size is measured in microns. One micron is a thousandth of a millimeter a pinhead is about a millimeter across. Rod shaped bacteria are usually from two to tour microns long, while rounded ones are generally one micron in diameter Thus if you enlarged a founded bacterium a thousand times, it would be just about the size of a pinhead. An adult human magnified by the same amount would be over a mile(1.6 kilometers) tall.

          Even with an ordinary microscope, you must look closely to see bacteria. Using a magnification of 100 times, one finds that bacteria are barely visible as tiny rods or dots One cannot make out anything of their structure. Using special stains, one can see that some bacteria have attached to them wavy - looking "hairs" called flagella. Others have only one flagellum. The flagella rotate, pushing the bacteria though the water. Many bacteria lack flagella and cannot move about by their own power while others can glide along over surfaces by some little understood mechanism.

          From the bacterial point of view, the world is a very different place from what it is to humans To a bacterium water is as thick as molasses is to us. Bacteria are so small that they are influenced by the movements of the chemical molecules around them. Bacteria under the microscope, even those with no flagella, often bounce about in the water. This is because they collide with the water molecules and are pushed this way and that. Molecules move so rapidly that within a tenth of a second the molecules around a bacterium have all been replaced by new ones even bacteria without flagella are thus constantly exposed to a changing environment.

1. Which of the following is the main topic of the passage?

(A) The characteristics of bacteria                  (B) How bacteria reproduce

(C) The various functions of bacteria                 (A) How bacteria contribute to disease

2. Bacteria are measured in

(A) inches                     (B) centimeters             (C) microns                  (D) millimeters