Essential Words for the Toefl.pdf

CHAPTER 1

GETTING TO KNOW THE

TOEFL

WHAT IS THE TOEFL?

The TOEFL is a comprehensive English language examination required by more than 3,000

colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world. In addition,

foreign born professionals frequently need a TOEFL score for certification to practice their

profession in the United States or Canada.

The TOEFL is a timed test that consists of the three sections listed here.

THE TOEFL

Section 1 Listening Comprehension

50 questions

35 minutes

Part A

Statements

20 questions

Part B

Short Dialogs

15 questions

Part C

Minitalks and Extended Conversations

15 questions

Section 2

Structure and Written Expression

Structure

Written Expression

40 questions

25 minutes

15 questions

25 questions

Section 3 Vocabulary and Reading

Comprehension

Vocabulary

Reading Comprehension

60 questions

45 minutes

30 questions

SECTION 1: LISTENING COMPREHENSION

This section of the TOEFL test your ability to understand spoken American English. You will hear

taped conversations to which you will make responses. Part A and B contain samples of informal

American English. Idiomatic expressions and two-word verbs are common in these parts.

Single Statement

In Part A you will hear a single statement made by a man or a woman. In your test booklet, there

are four sentences. You must choose the sentence that is closest in meaning to the one you heard.

YOU WILL HEAR:

To get to the post office, cross the street, go three blocks, and you'll see it right on the corner.

YOU WILL SEE:

(A) The post office is right on the corner.

(B) The post office is at the next corner.

(D) The post office is three blocks away.

The correct choice is, which most closely gives the same meaning as the sentence you heard. It is

important for you to know that if similar sounding words or the same words appear in an answer

choice, that answer choice is seldom correct.

Short Dialogs

Part B contains short dialogs followed by a question about what the people said in their

conversation. Generally, key information is found in the second speaker's sentence. You will need

to understand the meaning of the conversation and also the context , such as the time or place in

which it could occur. The correct choice directly answers the question.

YOU WILL HERE:

(Man Did you get to go shopping last night'? (Woman) They'd already locked the doors by the time

I got there.

(Man) What does the woman mean?

YOU WILL SEE:

(A) She arrived in time to shop.

(B) She was too late.

(D) She had to buy the door.

The correct choice is. Since the doors were locked when she arrived, she could not have gone

shopping. Note that the other choices use words heard in the conversation. Choices that contain

such words are usually not correct.

Extended Conversation / Minitalks

In Part C you will hear an extended conversation or a minitalk. The English in this section is

generally more formal and academic, typical of English conversation or lectures that take place in a

university or college setting. After each conversation or minitalk, there are between four and eight

spoken questions about its content. Choose your answer from among the four choices that appear in

your test book-let. Look at the example here.

YOU WILL HERE:

Man: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this tour of one of the nation's most

important cities, Chicago. Before we begin, I'd like to give you some background information that

will make the tour more enjoyable for you. The city was founded in 1837. Its strategic location on

Lake Michigan quickly made it the center of commerce for the Midwest section of the country. It is

currently the third largest metropolitan area In the United States. The city's site is generally level,

built mostly on glacial plain. The narrow Chicago River extends one mile inland from Lake

Michigan, where it splits, dividing the city into North, West, and South sides. Chicago's weather is

subject to rapid changes, but generally the climate is cold and windy in the winter, and hot and

humid in the summer.

Woman: What gave Chicago an advantage over other Midwest cities?

YOU WILL SEE:

(A) Its level site.

(B) Its location on Lake Michigan.

(D) Its location along the Chicago River.

According to the minitalk, would be the correct choice. Remember that you will not have a written

copy of the speaker's talk or conversation and you will only hear it once. You must concentrate on

details, such as names, dates, and the main idea of the selection that you hear. Do not read the

choices as you listen to the talk. Listen care-fully and try to remember what you hear.

SECTION 2: STRUCTURE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION

This section contains two types of questions, both designed to test your ability to recognize correct

style and grammar in written English. The sentences are academic; ones that you typically find in

college level texts, journals, and encyclopedias. The sentence topics include the social sciences,

physical and life sciences, and the humanities.

Structure

The structure questions test your ability to recognize correct structure and word order. These

questions consist of a sentence with one or more words missing. You must make the choice that

best completes the sentence. Here is an example of this type of question.

YOU WILL SEE:

__________ a short time after the Civil War, Atlanta has become the principal center of

transportation, commerce, and finance in the southeastern United States.

(A) While rebuilt

(B) It was rebuilt

(D) When rebuilt

The correct choice is (C). The other choices make the sentence incorrect or awkward.

Written Expression

The written expression questions test your ability to recognize errors in grammar or expression.

These questions consist of complete sentences with four underlined words or phrases. You must

identify the underlined part of the sentence that needs to be changed in order to make the sentence

correct. An example follows.

YOU WILL SEE:

The Navajo Indians have displayed a marked ability

A B

to incorporate aspects of other cultures into a changing,

flexibility lifestyle

The correct choice is (D). Flexibility, a noun, appears where an adjective must appear. In addition to

inappropriate parts of speech, be sure to check for missing words and extra words that are

inappropriate for the context.

SECTION 3: VOCABULARY AND READING COMPREHENSION

Good reading skills and an ample vocabulary are keys to doing well on all sections of the TOEFL.

This section of the TOEFL specifically test these skills. Many TOEFL test takers complain that they

do not have enough time to carefully answer all questions in this section. It is very important that

you follow the instructions in this book so that you will use all the allotted time to your advantage.

Vocabulary

The first questions on this section will test your English vocabulary. There are 30 academic

sentences, each containing an underlined word. You must choose the word that has the same

meaning from among the four choices. Here's an example.

YOU WILL SEE:

The United States has instituted a set of forest conservation measures to maintain forest land.

(A) accepted

(B) published

(D) suggested

The word that is closest in meaning to the tested word, instituted, is choice (C). Further hints for

vocabulary questions can be found in Chapter 2.

Reading Comprehension

Your ability to read and understand college level reading material is test on this part of the TOEFL.

You will find five or six reading passages, each followed by four to seven questions. You must

work quickly and efficiently. Here is a sample passage.

YOU WILL SEE:

A lens has one or more curved surfaces that refract or bend, light rays passing through it to form an

image on a surface beyond the lens. Examples of such surfaces are the retina of the eye or a movie

screen. The distance from the lens to the focal plane is known as focal length. In cameras,

telescopes, and similar devices, the lens is turned on a screw-thread mounting to adjust the focal

length. This action allows focusing of images of objects at various distances. In the human eye,

focal length is adjusted by muscles that alter the lens curvature. Light rays of different colors are

bent by varying degrees as they pass through a curved surface. This causes a distortion of the

image, known as chromatic aberration. In cameras, sharp images are obtained by arranging two or

more lenses so that the aberration of one cancels out the aberration of another. Such an arrangement

of lenses is called an achromatic lens.

QUESTION:

According to the passage, what is focal length?

(A) A curved surface that refracts light.

(B) The distance from the focal plane to the lens.

(D) The degree that light rays of different colors are bent by the lens.

This is a factual question. The information needed to answer this question is directly stated in the

text. Choice (B) is the correct answer. Some questions will ask you to draw conclusions based on

material in the passage, other will ask about the main idea of a selection. Some may even ask what

information does not appear in the passage.

THE TEST OF WRITTEN ENGLISH

Most TOEFL test sessions now require the Test of Written English. The TWE will test your ability

to respond to topics that you may find on typical college level writing assignments. It will test your

ability to

express yourself as well as your organizational skills . The score on this test is reported separately

and is not used to determine your TOEFL score.

SOME HELPFUL HINTS

On all parts of the TOEFL, be sure to answer every question. If you must guess, choose choice (B)

or (C) since they are slightly more likely to be the correct choice than (A) or (D).

Watch your time! Be sure to wear a watch and be aware of the time you have remaining in each

section. Do not waste time reading directions or example in your test booklet. You should become

familiar with these before you take the test. When you are told to begin, go directly to the first

question. When time has expired on a section, you may not return to it. Work quickly and

accurately. If it seems obvious that you will not finish a section within the time limit, guess or

choose answer (B) or (C) in order to complete the section.

Prepare yourself for the test. In addition to this book, Barron's How to Prepare for the TOEFL

provides you with practical hints, tapes with sample questions, model test, and a grammar review to

help you maximize your TOEFL score.

CHAPTER 2

UNDERSTANDING

THE TOEFL:

Vocabulary and Reading

Comprehension Section

Developing a good English vocabulary is the most important way to prepare for the

vocabulary you will see on the TOEFL. In addition to developing a good English vocabulary, it is

very important to know the kind of vocabulary you will see on the TOEFL and to understand how it

is tested.

Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension make up Section 3 of the TOEFL. This section

contains 30 vocabulary questions and 30 reading comprehension questions. Remember that your

general vocabulary is tested in all sections of the TOEFL. However, it is in this section of the

TOEFL where your knowledge of specific vocabulary is tested.

You will have 45 minutes to complete this section of the TOEFL. Many test takers report that

they do not have enough time to complete the reading comprehension questions, so you should

work quickly in order to complete the vocabulary questions as soon as you can. If you follow the

strategies in this book you will have more time to complete the Reading Comprehension section of

the TOEFL.

The Vocabulary Question

Vocabulary questions are written in a formal, academic style, typical of most college or

university level texts and journals. The topics of these sentences are those that a first-year college

student in North America would be likely to encounter. The topics come from such areas as the

natural sciences, business, liberal arts, and the social sciences. Many sentences contain references to

North American places and personalities. Others will refer to historical events and may include

dates. It is important for you to understand that your knowledge of these areas is never tested on the

TOEFL. You do not have to be familiar with the content of the sentences to be successful on this

section of the TOEFL.

Each TOEFL vocabulary question consists of a single sentence followed by four choices.

These choices are marked by letters (A), (B), (C), (D). Most sentences have one word underlined,

and less frequently, some sentences may have a phrase underlined. You must identify the word

among the choices that has the same or similar meaning as the under-lined word or phrase in the

question. These words are called synonyms. Let's examine a sample question.

Many organisms change their role in habitats from one season to another

(A)

diet

(B)

size

(C)

color

(D)

function

This question is typical of the Vocabulary section. The topic is from the natural sciences and

the sentence contains a single underlined word. The correct answer is (D) function. Function is a

synonym for role. As in this example, the word you select is the one that best matches the meaning

of the underlined word. Note that all four of the choices make sense in the sentence. Vocabulary

questions are written so that the con-text of the sentence seldom helps you to determine the meaning

of the word. Therefore, you must understand the vocabulary to select the correct choice

Strategies

Remember that your reading comprehension skills are not tested on this section of the test.

Therefore you should not waste time reading the sentences. Simply look at the underlined word and

choose its synonym from among the four choices. This strategy will save you time and prevent

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