TOEFL IBT

Reading skills 4 & 5

 Recognizing Referents
A referent generally precedes the pronoun or adjective
• Subject pronoun (he, she, it, they)
• Third person object pronoun(him, her, it, them)
• Relative pronoun( who, which, that)
• Third person possessive adjective (his, her, its, their)
• Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those)
• Quantifier ( one, some, a few, many)
Inserting sentences
Questions about Inserting Sentences
How to identify the question
Where to find the answer
How to answer the questions
Look at the four Squares [ ] …
The places where the sentence is maybe
inserted are marked in the passage.
1. Look at the sentence to be inserted
for any keywords or ideas at the
begaining or the end of the sentences.
2. Read the context before and after the
insertion squares for any ideas that
related to the sentence to be inserted.
3. Choose the insertion square that is
most relevant to the sentence to be
inserted.
• Pay attention to the upcoming questions and
answer them carefully.
 Question 1

{A} He was wearing a black mask. {B} Nobody

knew who he was, however, an eight year old
boy heard his voice. {C} The boy told the police
that he said "Be quiet” to him {D}

Insert the following sentence into one of the

above mentioned squares.
A thief had broken into a family’s house.
 Question 2

{A} A golden watch was found by a pedestrian in New

York city. {B} An unknown person who saw the watch in
his hand claimed that the watch was originally his. {C}
The man who had found the watch asked him to say what
was written at the back of the watch. The claimant said
the watch said “water proof”.{D}

Insert the following sentence into one of the above

mentioned squares.
The man wore the watch without telling anyone about it.
 Question 3
{A} One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest and had just
cut wood enough to load his horse, he saw at a distance a
great cloud of dust, which seemed to approach him. {B}
He observed it with attention, and distinguished soon after
a body of horsemen, whom he suspected might be robbers.
{C} He determined to leave his horses to save himself. {D}
Insert the following sentence into one of the above
mentioned squares.
He climbed up a large tree, planted on a high rock, whose
branches were thick enough to conceal him, and yet
enabled him to see all that passed without being discovered
 Question 1

{A} He was wearing a black mask. {B} Nobody

knew who he was, however, an eight year old
boy heard his voice. {C} The boy told the police
that he said "Be quiet” to him {D}

The Answer is (A)

A thief had broken into a family’s house.
 Question 1

(who?) He was wearing a black mask. (who was

he?) Nobody knew who he was, however, an
eight year old boy heard his voice. (what voice?)
The boy told the police that he said "Be quiet”
to him (what did the boy say?)

The Answer is (A)

A thief had broken into a family’s house.
 Question 2

{A} A golden watch was found by a pedestrian in New

York city. {B} An unknown person who saw the watch in
his hand claimed that the watch was originally his. {C}
The man who had found the watch asked him to say
what was written at the back of the watch. The claimant
said the watch said “water proof”. {D}

The answer is (B)

The man wore the watch without telling anyone about
it.
 Question 2

(when) A golden watch was found by a pedestrian in New

York city. (what did he do with the watch) An unknown
person who saw the watch in his hand claimed that the
watch was originally his. (how did the other guy react?)
The man who had found the watch asked him to say what
was written at the back of the watch. The claimant said the
watch said “water proof”. (was he right?)

The answer is (B)

The man wore the watch without telling anyone about it.
 Question 3
{A} One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest and had just
cut wood enough to load his horse, he saw at a distance a
great cloud of dust, which seemed to approach him. {B}
He observed it with attention, and distinguished soon after
a body of horsemen, whom he suspected might be robbers.
{C} He determined to leave his horses to save himself. {D}

The Answer is (D)

He climbed up a large tree, planted on a high rock, whose
branches were thick enough to conceal him, and yet
enabled him to see all that passed without being
discovered
 Question 3
(who was Ali Baba) One day, when Ali Baba was in the
forest and had just cut wood enough to load his horse, he saw
at a distance a great cloud of dust, which seemed to approach
him. (what was his reaction?) He observed it with
attention, and distinguished soon after a body of horsemen,
whom he suspected might be robbers.(What did he do?) He
determined to leave his horses to save himself. (how did he
save himself?)
The answer is (D)

He climbed up a large tree, planted on a high rock, whose

branches were thick enough to conceal him, and yet enabled
him to see all that passed without being discovered
 Put The following sentences in order

1: He knocked on the door

2: He was feeling hungry already
3: On a sunny day
4: He got frustrated because nobody responded.
5: A man wanted to visit his friend’s house.
6: He noticed that nobody was inside
7: So he decided to eat out
8: He looked through the window
 Put The following sentences in order

1: He knocked on the door

2: He was feeling hungry already
3: On a sunny day
4: He got frustrated because nobody responded.
5: A man wanted to visit his friend’s house.
6: He noticed that nobody was inside
7: So he decided to eat out
8: He looked through the window
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TOEFL Reading Skill 4: Insert Sentences into The Passage

• In the Reading section of the iBT TOEFL test,

you may be asked to determine where to insert
a sentence into a passage. In this type of
question, you must click on one of a number of
squares in a passage to indicate that the
sentence should be inserted in that position.
• The following chart outlines the key
information that you should remember about
ques­tions testing vocabulary in context.
• Example 1: The Origin of Chess
• The origins of the game of chess are not known with
certainty, and traditional stories in a number of cultures
claim credit for developing the game. [1A] One legend
claims that chess was invented during the Trojan
Wars. [1B] According to another legend, chess was
developed to depict the battle between two royal
brothers for the crown of Persia. [1C] In a third legend,
chess was the creation of the mythical Arab philosopher
Sassa. [1D]
•  Question 1: Look at the four symbols [1X] that indicate
where the following sentence can be added to the passage. 
• When one brother was killed, the remaining brother had
the game invented to explain the tragic events to his
mother.
 Answer
• The origins of the game of chess are not known with certainty,
and traditional stories in a number of cultures claim credit for
developing the game. [1A] One legend claims that chess was
invented during the Trojan Wars. [1B] According to another
legend, chess was developed to depict the battle between two
royal brothers for the crown of Persia. [1C] In a third legend,
chess was the creation of the mythical Arab philosopher
Sassa. [1D]

When one brother was killed, the

remaining brother had the game
invented to explain the tragic events to
his mother.
 Trick
• Find Subject+ Find the predicate+ guess the
upcoming sentence= answer
• According to another legend, chess was developed
to depict the battle between two royal brothers for
the crown of Persia. 
• Subject: chess
• Predicate: depicts how two brothers fought
When one brother was killed, the remaining
• brother had the game invented to explain the
tragic events to his mother.
 Subject and Predicate
• Subject: Who or what the sentence is about
• Example; The sentence was about chess
• Predicate: What the subject is doing
• Example: Depicts the battle between two
brothers
TOEFL Reading Skill 5: Finding Accurate Stated Information

• In the Reading section of the iBT TOEFL test, you may be asked
questions about factual infor­mation. The answers to these
multiple-choice questions are often restatements of what is
given in the passage. This means that the correct answer often
expresses the same idea as what is written in the passage but
that the words are not exactly the same. The answers to these
ques­tions are generally given in order in the passage, and the
questions generally indicate which paragraph contains the
answers, so the answers are not too difficult to locate.
• The following chart outlines the key information that you
should remember about questions testing details
 How to identify the question
• According to paragraph X ...
• It is stated in paragraph X ...
• It is indicated in paragraph X ...
• It is mentioned in paragraph X ...
 How to find the question
• These answers are generally found in order in
the passage, and the paragraph where the
answer is found is generally indicated in the
question.
 How to answer the question
• 1. Choose a key word or idea in the question.
• 2. Skim the appropriate paragraph for the key
word or idea.
• 3. Read the sentence that contains the key
word or idea carefully.
• 4. Eliminate any definitely wrong answers, and
choose the best answer from the remaining
choices.
• Rabbits are small mammals with fluffy, short tails,
whiskers and distinctive long ears. There are more than 30
species around the world, and while they live in many
different environments, they have many things in
common. Some rabbits are about the size of a cat, and
some can grow to be as big as a small child. Small rabbits,
such as pygmy rabbits, can be as little as 8 inches (20
centimeters)
• According to the first paragraph
• A: Rabbits are the faster than cats
• B: Rabbits can be bigger than cats
• C: Rabbits can be as aggressive as cats
• D: Rabbits can be bigger than a small child
A ghost word is a nonexistent word that has made its way into a
reference work by mistake. One well-known example of a ghost
word is the word Dord, which appeared in a 1934 American
dictionary defined as density, as it is used in physics and
chemistry. Dord was added to the dictionary when a typesetter
who was making entries into the dictionary misread the entry 0
or d and typed it as Dord. In reality, the letter d (or its capitalized
version) was used to refer to density in physics or chemistry.
When the error was discovered, the ghost word Dord was
removed from the dictionary.
According to paragraph 1, the word Dord:

A: has appeared in numerous physics and chemistry texts

B: was mistakenly added to a dictionary
C: can be used in physics and chemistry to refer to density
D: can still be found in dictionaries
 Wrap Up
• Today we learned about TOEFL test Reading
skills 4 & 5: We discovered how we could
insert the right answer into the four squares
given in a paragraph. Also, we learned how we
could look for factual information in a reading
passage.
Excercise
Answer key
1. D
2. A
3. D
4. C
5. B
6. C
7. A
8. D
9. B
10.C