TOEFL PREPARATION COURSE Reading Comprehension

Leonor Rosales ArellanoAulas 2-250lrosales@itesm.mx

TOEFL Reading SectionThe TOEFL Reading section has five passages with academic content.You will have to answer about 10 questions of each passage . Overview items: main idea,main topic and mail purposeVocabulary Referent PronounDetail and Factual informationInferencesNegative questionsOrganization of passage

Passages1. Science and technology: astronomy, geology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, zoology, botany, medicine, engineering and mechanics.2. North American history, government, geography and culture3. Art: literature, painting, scultpure, architecture, dance and drama

Social science: anthropology, economics, psychology, urban studies and sociology5. Biography.

Very often, youll see that the topics overlap.

General strategies for reading sectionUse your time wisely. You have 55 minutes to read five passages and 50 questions. Read each passage in 10 minutes and use the last five minutes to go back to difficult questions. DONT LEAVE BEFORE THE TIME IS OVER.

StrategiesAcquire a large vocabulary of formal and academic English. Reading passages are written in formal English and are general and academic.Answer the Vocabulary Appendix on pages 427-454. Check answers in www.heinle.comPractice general reading strategies such as skimming and scanning.

StrategiesSkim the passage before you start reading to get the main idea.Then, identify the types of questions you will need to answer. This is, read the questions first. Dont read the options, just focus on the information you need to concentrate on.

Build Good Reading Skills: Skim and ScanSkimming means reading quickly for general meaning. You skim reading material to find out the main topic, the main idea and the general organization of the passage.

Build Good Reading Skills: Skim and Scan

Scanning means knowing what information you need to find before you read. You scan when you are looking for a fact of detail , a particular vocabulary word or the referent of a pronoun.

General strategiesChoose the best answer to each question from the four answer choices listed in the test book. Figure out if the answer is too general, too specific, irrelevant, incorrect or correct. Eliminate wrong answers.

Overview items: Main ideaAlmost every reading passage will have a question about the main idea, topic, subject, primary idea, or main idea.StrategySince the TOEFL passages are written in a traditional organized manner, it is not difficult to find the main idea by studying the topic sentence, which is most probably found at the beginning of the paragraph

Overview items: Main topicWhen there is no main idea question, we could have to answer a main topic question. The passage will ask you what the passage is generally about. StrategyScan the nouns in the passage, some of them should belog to the same semantic field and will help you determine the main topic.

Overview items: PurposePurposeThe purpose is the reason why the author wrote the passageStrategies:Focus on the first and last paragraph.Identify key words in the passage that could give hints of the purpose of the passage.Answers are usually written in infinitive.

Overview items: Tone and attitudeTone and attitude items require you to determine the authors feelings. Strategy:Scan for the adjectives in the passage. They will show if the authors feelings were positive, negative or neutral. See page 343.

Overview item: Organization of the passageSome questions ask about the organization of the passage or the relation between two paragraphs:How is the information in the passage organized?StrategyRecognize signal words (transition words) in the passage and identify the organization patterns they represent.Read the first line of each paragraph.Look the words that show the relationship between the paragraphs.

Transition words:

Transitions indicate relations, whether within a sentence, paragraph, or paper. This list illustrates "relationships" between ideas, followed by words and phrasesthat can connect them.Addition: also, again, as well as, besides, coupled with, furthermore, in addition, likewise, moreover, similarlyConsequence: accordingly, as a result, consequently, for this reason, for this purpose, hence, otherwise, so then, subsequently, therefore, thus, thereupon, wherefore

Generalizing: as a rule, as usual, for the most part, generally, generally speaking, ordinarily, usuallyExemplifying: chiefly, especially, for instance, in particular, markedly, namely, particularly, including, specifically, such asIllustration: for example, for instance, for one thing, as an illustration, illustrated with, as an example, in this caseEmphasis above all, chiefly, with attention to, especially, particularly, singularly

Similarity: comparatively, coupled with, correspondingly, identically, likewise, similar, moreover, together with.

Restatement: in essence, in other words, namely, that is, that is to say, in short, in brief, to put it differently.

Contrast and Comparison: contrast, by the same token, conversely, instead, likewise, on one hand, on the other hand, on the contrary, rather, similarly, yet, but, however, still, nevertheless, in contrast

Sequence: at first, first of all, to begin with, in the first place, at the same time, for now, for the time being, the next step, in time, in turn, later on, meanwhile, next, then, soon, the meantime, later, while, earlier, simultaneously, afterward, in conclusion, with this in mind, Summarizing: after all, all in all, all things considered, briefly, by and large, in any case, in any event, in brief, in conclusion, on the whole, in short, in summary, in the final analysis, in the long run, on balance, to sum up, to summarize, finally

Overview items: TransitionSome questions might ask you what would the following or preceding paragraph could be about.How to identify the question?The paragraph preceding the passage probably..What is most likely in the paragraph following the passage?StrategyThe answer can be found in the first line of the passage for a preceding question.The answer can be found in the last line of the passage for a following question.

Detail and Factual information items

Detail items ask for specific information in the passage.Questions about information in the passage: According to the passage, what.According to the author, whichThe author states in the passage that

Strategies for Detail Questions TOEFL items follow an order, so you should not waste time rereading the passage.Answer choices will be a restatement of the information in the passage.Locate a key word in the question. Scan the passage. Once you find it, read one sentence before and one sentence after.

Negative itemsNegative items ask you to determine which of the four choices is not given in the passage. These items contain the words NOT, EXCEPT, or LEAST likey.Questions about information that is NOT in the passage:All of the following are mentioned in the passage EXCEPT.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

Strategies for Negative QuestionsLook for the information given in the passage and eliminate those options.Choose the option NOT mentioned in the passage.Check your time. If more that two minutes have passed, eliminate the options you found and guess. Use the last five minutes to go back to this question.

Inferences itemsSome TOEFL items ask you about information that is given in the passage and you are required to make inferences. In order to answer them you must read between lines and make conclusions based on the information in the passage.

Strategies for Inference ItemsCarefully read the sentence that contains the keyword.The answer to the question will be information NOT given in the passage.Incorrect answers will be information from the passage but restated.

Vocabulary itemsVocabulary items ask about the meaning of words or phrases in context. Some clues that can help you find the meaning of words are:Synonyms ExamplesContrastWord analysisGeneral context

SynonymsTOEFL passages are written for academic purposes and the author must use synonyms and avoid repetition of words. Search in the text. It is probable that the author used a synonym close to the vocabulary word in the question.

Word analysisSometimes you can figure out the meaning of the vocabulary word by knowing the meaning of the root and the prefixes and suffixes of a word.Example:UnwillinglyUn (means no)Will (means want to)-ing (suffix for a noun)-ly ( suffix for an adverb)

ContrastIf the vocabulary word is in a contrast sentence, you might be able to figure out its meaning by finding the opposite word. Example: Although buisiness partnership enjoy certain advantages over proprietorships, there are drawbacks as well.

ExamplesIf you do not know the meaning of the word, check if the author gives an example. Possible words that will give you an example are:For exampleFor instanceSuch asi.e (this is)e.g. (example given)Punctuation marks: parenthesis () or hypens - -

General contextYou can guess the meaning of a word through general context.The barges headed across the lakeA barge is probably which of the following?A) a trainB) a planeC) a bicycleD) a boat

Reference itemsReferece words are words in the passage that refer to back concepts mentioned earlier in the passage. Reference questions could be about:Subject pronoun: I, you, heObject pronoun: me, them Possessive pronoun: mine, his, oursDemonstrative pronoun: this, that, thoseIndefinite pronoun: someone, anyoneSpecified item: this concept, that dilema

Strategies for Referece ItemsFind the pronoun on the passage.Look for nouns that come before the pronoun.Read the part of the passage before the pronoun carefully.Eliminate any wrong answers.