The Educational Testing Service (the organization that creates the TOEFL exam) categorizes the ten different questions on the Reading section of the TOEFL iBT into three main groups based on what skills they are designed to measure. In this article, we’ll provide a brief overview of all the different kinds of Reading questions, along with some helpful strategies to improve your performance on these questions. You can download a TOFAL Reading Questions and Strategy document that will help you learn how to answer these question types!
About the TOEFL Reading PDF
Within this PDF file, you will find two example passages together with multiple-choice mini sets of questions, along with a full-length complete TOEFL Reading question set that comes complete with ten questions! After reading and reviewing the information provided regarding question categories and strategies for approaching particular types of reading questions, please take advantage of the different question types presented in the PDF file and practice your ability to answer appropriately. Following your practice, you can find an additional complete TOEFL Reading question set in Magoosh’s complimentary TOEFL Reading PDF.
Each question type includes a set of unique characteristics from what it measures, to the number of choices available that can be selected as correct answers, so let’s take an in-depth look at each category. Also, if you’d prefer, you can jump ahead and click on the Table of Contents below.
Table of Contents
Basic Information questions are probably pretty similar to what you’ve encountered in other English classes. This type of question is designed to test your ability to understand the words on the page. These questions will almost always begin “In the first/second/third paragraph…” because the answer is always stated in the passage, usually in no more than a sentence or two.
Don’t get fooled into thinking that these questions are easy. Even though the answer is on the page, you may have trouble finding it, or you may find that the question is designed to look easier than it is. Identifying wrong answers can be trickier than you might expect. Basic Information skills include factual information questions, negative factual information questions, rhetorical purpose questions, vocabulary questions, reference questions, and sentence simplification questions.
Here are the basic question types in this category and where you can find them in the PDF for practice!
Synonyms Are Your Friend
Imagine if there were no synonyms in English. In that fantasy world, you would find the same words in the text as in the correct answer. You wouldn’t even need to know the meaning!
For example, you might see a statement in the passage like this: “More powerful earthquakes can destroy large portions of cities.” Then an answer choice like this one would probably be correct because it would include so many of the same words: “Large portions of cities can face destruction during powerful earthquakes.”
Wouldn’t that be nice? But sadly, that’s not how the TOEFL works.
In the example above, the actual correct answer in a TOEFL question might look more like this: “Strong seismic activity is capable of leveling vast metropolitan areas.” Notice that there are no words in common between the original text and the answer.
But if you know the meanings of those words in both sentences, you will see that they refer to the same ideas:
- strong = powerful
- seismic activity = earthquakes
- capable of = can
- level = destroy
- vast = large
- portions of cities = metropolitan areas
Well, the equal signs above might be misleading. “Vast” is not the same thing as “large”; synonyms often have different usages. But they do refer to the same basic ideas. And if you know that, then it becomes much easier to answer the question.
Don’t Get Tricked by Matching Words
The Reading section of the TOEFL iBT is significantly more complex than this description suggests. For example, there are occasions when a word from the passage is also found in one or more of the answer choices, while other times there may be multiple occurrences of that same word in both the passage and answer choices. There are also instances where a synonym of a word could be present within both the passage and answer choices. Therefore, locating one or two words from the answer choice and finding an exact match in the passage is not sufficient justification for considering that answer choice as correct, because you need to consider sentence structure as well. Together with these various factors, they will help you discriminate which of the various answer choices is actually correct.
However, without knowing what a synonym is, it will not be possible to apply these steps in order to successfully solve the questions on the Reading section of the TOEFL iBT. As a result, it is critical that you A) learn more vocabulary, so that you may identify synonyms as you read through passages and B) locate synonyms between the passages and answer choices, and then make a determination as to whether the sentence structures and their surrounding context create a similarity of meaning, or if there is some other form of relationship that will determine which is the better synonym option.
Sample Question: Basic Information
The paraphrase question comes from the Reading task on pages 10 to 14 of this official TOEFL Quick Prep PDF. Click on the link, and after you’ve read the passage, do question 24 (on page 12). Then we’ll go through the answer choices together.
Remember, synonyms can appear in both right and wrong answers. Still, it’s hard to write a good paraphrase without any synonyms. If an answer to a paraphrase question doesn’t contain synonyms for the original words, there’s a good chance the paraphrase is incorrect.
Show Correct Answer and Explanation
Answer (A) does not contain any synonyms. It is tempting to think “reopened” is a synonym of “opened” from the original sentence. However, “reopened” is simply a different form of the original word “opened,” not a true synonym. “Reopened” also changes the meaning of the passage, implying that the Strait of Gibraltar had been opened before. This idea is nowhere in the original sentence. From “reopened” alone, you can know this answer is probably not right. There are other reasons this answer is wrong, too. Can you find them?
Answer (B) has some synonyms in it. For example, “dramatically” is a synonym of “spectacularly” and “refilled” is a synonym of “cascaded… back to.” Therefore, the phrase “dramatically refilled by the waters of the sea” is, in effect, a paraphrase of “the waters of the sea cascaded spectacularly back to the earth.” The expression “are joined” can also be interpreted as meaning “now connect.” Both phrases convey how the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean have become linked together. In fact, you can find all of this same information in answer (B), so there are no new bits of information provided by answer (B) over what is stated in the original sentence. If answer (B) does represent the major points addressed in the highlighted sentence, then it is likely the correct selection. To determine this, however, let’s examine answer (C) and answer (D).
TOEFL Reading Question Types and Strategies: Inference Skills Questions
Inference Skills questions require you to use the information in the passage to answer questions that aren’t directly addressed in the passage. One common type of Inference question in the Reading section will imply a change over time, then ask you about the nature of that change. To answer Inference questions, use your skills with synonyms to find a correct restatement of what is in the passage.
Sample Inference Skill Question
“Methanol, or methyl alcohol, although related to ethanol, which is the type of alcohol found in wine, is far more harmful when swallowed, as it breaks down into poison in the body.”
Based on paragraph 1 (the sentence above), which of the following can be inferred about methanol and ethanol?
- Of the two types of alcohol, the type that occurs in wine is more widely abused and therefore toxic.
- While methanol is unlike other alcohols, it resembles ethanol closely, except for some differences in toxicity.
(D) Methanol, as opposed to its relative ethanol, does not appear in significant volumes in wine.The correct answer, although not said specifically in the sentence, is D. Methanol must not be in wine—-at least, if there is some, it must only be a small, insignificant amount—because it is poisonous. And we do know that wine is not poison.
