Reading

Comprehension
 READING COMPREHENSION

• PART 3 OF THE TEST

• 5 TEXTS
• 50 QUESTIONS
• 55 MINUTES
• 1 MINUTE TO FIRST PARAGRAPH
• 40 SECONDS TO ANSWER ONE QUESTION
• TARGETED SCORE 500: 33 READING CORRECT ANSWER
• BEGIN WITH EASY QUESTIONS
 In this part of the test you will be
given reading passages, and you will
be asked two types of questions
about the reading passages:
1.Reading Comprehension questions ask you
to answer questions about the information
given in the reading passages. There will
be a variety of questions about each
reading passage, including main idea
questions, directly answered detail
questions, and implied detail questions.
2. Vocabulary questions ask you to identify the
meanings of vocabulary words in the read in g
passages. To answer these questions, you may
have to know the meanings of the words. You can
also identify the meanings of some of the words by
understanding the context surrounding the words,
by using structural clues to identify
the meanings of the words, or by breaking down
the unknown words in to known word parts in
order to identify them.
 MAIN IDEA, MAIN TOPIC, AND
MAIN PURPOSE QUESTIONS

Main idea questions ask you

to identify the most important
thought in the passage.
Answer choices are complete
sentences.

• What is the main idea of the passage?

• The primary idea of the passage is...
• Which of the following best summarizes
the author's main idea?
 MAIN IDEA, MAIN TOPIC, AND
MAIN PURPOSE QUESTIONS

When there is not a single, readily

identified main idea, main topic questions
may be asked. These ask you what the
passage is generally "about." Answer
choices are noun phrases.

• The main topic of the passage is...

• What does the passage mainly
discuss?
• The passage is primarily concerned
with...
 MAIN IDEA, MAIN TOPIC, AND
MAIN PURPOSE QUESTIONS

Main purpose questions ask why

an author wrote a passage. The
answer choices for these
questions usually begin with
infinitives.
Sample Questions
• The author's purpose in writing is to...
• What is the author's main purpose in the
passage?
• The main point of this passage is to...
• Why did the author write the passage?
WHERE TO FIND THE ANSWER?

The answer to this type of question

can generally be determined by
looking at the first sentence of
each paragraph.
HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

1. Read the first line of each paragraph.

2. Look for a common theme or idea in the
first lines.
3. Pass your eyes quickly over the rest of the
passage to check that you really have
found the topic sentence(s).
4. Eliminate any definitely wrong answers
and choose the best answer from the
remaining choices.
 DETERMINE THE TONE, PURPOSE, OR COURSE

Possible questions of this type are those that ask about

(1)The tone of the passage
(2)The author's purpose in writing the passage
(3)The course in which the passage might be used.
• A question about the tone is asking if the author is showing any emotion in his or her
writing.
• The majority of the passages on the TOEFL test are factual passages presented
without any emotion; the tone of this type of passage could be simply informational,
explanatory, or factual.
• Sometimes on the TOEFL test, however, the author shows some emotion, and you
must be able to recognize that emotion to answer a question about tone correctly.
• If the author is being funny, then the tone might be humorous.
• If the author is making fun of something, the tone might be sarcastic.
• if the author feels strongly that something is right or wrong, the tone might be
impassioned.
 A question about purpose is asking what the author
is trying to do in the passage. You can draw a
conclusion about the author's purpose by referring to
the main idea and the organization of details in the
passage.
A question about the course is asking you to
decide which university course might have
this passage as assigned reading.
You should draw a conclusion about the
course by referring to the topic of the
passage and the organization of details.