TOEFL Preparation Program Handout VI-VII

Date Tue, 14th March 2023

Dengan membaca handout ini, peserta kursus TOEFL Preparation Program
dapat:
1. Menguasai dan memahami tips dan trik dalam mengerjakan soal TOEFL
Structure & Written Expression
2. Memahami & menguasai materi yang sering muncul di TOEFL
Structure & Written Expression

General Tips

1.Be careful with subject & verb agreement. It means that we have to be consistent in
writing.
Singular noun = Singular verb
Plural noun = Plural verb

2, Be careful with the differences between phrase, clause (dependent, independent, noun
clause, adjective clause, & appositives & sentence (compound & complex sentence)

3.Appositives > noun or noun phrase follow another noun or noun phrase in apposition to
it ( provide further information or defines it)

4.Learn about part of speech

a) Preposition
Connect words in a sentence
Prepositions indicate direction, time, location, and spatial relationships, as well as
other abstract types of relationships.

Direction: Look to the left and you’ll see our destination.

Time: We’ve been working since this morning.
Location: We saw a movie at the theater.
Space: The dog hid under the table.

There are so many different types of prepositions. Here are some samples:
-One word prepositions:  ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’, ‘of’’
Preposition & Time
When to use “in”
General & longer period of time such month, decades, or century
Example: In April, In 2025, In the 21st Century
When to use “on”
more specific periods of time, we use on to talk about particular days, dates, and
holidays . You may hear, “I went to work on Monday,” or “Let’s have a
picnic on Memorial Day.”
When to use “at”
For the most specific times, and for holidays without the word “day,” we use at. That
means you will hear, “Meet me at midnight,” or “The flowers are in bloom at Easter
time

Prepositions and Place

When English speakers refer to a place, we use in for the largest or most general
places. You can say that “VOA is located in Washington, D.C.” And “for the best
food, try the restaurants in Chinatown.”

For more specific places, like certain streets, we use the preposition on. You may
know that President Obama lives on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

Finally, we get to the most specific places. For exact addresses or intersections, we
use the preposition at. If I invited you to visit us here at VOA, I would say, “Come to
my office at 330 Independence Avenue.” To be exact, it’s at the corner of
Independence and 3rd Street.”

-Two word prepositions: ‘according to’, ‘ahead of’, ‘as for’, ‘aside from’, ‘along
with’.
-Three word prepositions: ‘in search of’, ‘in spite of’, ‘on behalf of’.
Prepositions precede a noun. Be careful not to confuse prepositions with
conjunctions, which join two nouns, verbs, adverbs or sentence parts. For example:
‘and’, ‘but’, ‘for’, ‘still’, ‘also’, ‘then’.

Let’s see if you can determine which part of the following sentence is wrong.
That singer became (A) instantly popular between (B) teenagers after (C) his debut on
screen (D) That’s right! The correct answer is B. Instead of ‘between’, it should be
‘among’.

4. Be careful with adjectives ending in -ing and -ed

Take a look at these sentences!

Jane is boring (Jane membosankan)

Jane is bored (Jane bosan)
These two sentences have very different meanings!
The first sentence means that Jane is not an interesting person to be around.
The second sentence means that Jane is not interested in what she is doing at the
moment.
An adjective that ends with -ing is used to describe the characteristic of a person,
a thing or a situation whereas an adjective that ends with -ed is used to describe a
feeling or an emotion.
Now, take a look at the sample question below and let’s see if you can find the
word that doesn’t belong:
One of the least common phobias is aquaphobia, its sufferers are terrifying by
bodies of water.
As usual, can you guess which of these words are incorrect? That’s right,
it’s C! The answer should be ‘terrified’ (takut) not ‘terrifying’ (menakutkan).

5. Be careful of adjectives and adverbs

What’s the difference?
Adjectives describe a noun.
Example: Sam is a careful driver.
Adverbs describe a verb.
Example: Sam drove carefully
Adverbs can also describe adjectives
Example: The test was extremely difficult
Now, take a look at the sample question below:
Despite being thousands (A) of years old, Egyptian mummies
are (B) incredible (C) well-preserved (D)
That’s right! The correct answer is C! It should be ‘incredibly’ not ‘incredible’.

6. Be careful with participle

Participles are a particular form of verb that has two main purposes: 

1 Turn the verb into an adjective to modify nouns.

2 Connect with auxiliary verbs to create different tenses, such as the present

perfect tense.

Here’s an example of participles used as adjectives: Let’s say you’re at a zoo

looking at otters. One otter is eating, and another is swimming. You could

distinguish them by saying, “Look at the eating otter” or “Look at the swimming

otter.” In these examples, the verbs eat and swim are not acting as verbs; they’re

acting as adjectives because they modify the noun otter. 

Be careful not to confuse participles with infinitives, another form of verb that can

modify nouns. Infinitives usually have the word to at the beginning, whereas

participles do not. 

[participle] a refreshing drink

[infinitive] a drink to refresh 

The second purpose of participles is to create different verb tenses, specifically

the perfect tenses and continuous tenses. For example, if you are doing

something now or in the near future, you use the present continuous tense, which

is formed with the verb be and a present participle, or -ing form, of the verb. 

I  am eating lunch right now. 

Every verb has participle forms, even impersonal verbs. Moreover, there are two

different types of participles—the present participle and the past participle—so

each verb has a couple of different participles you can choose from.