2020-01-07 TOEFL: overview, vocab questions

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-corn-conquered-the-world-chris-a-kniesly
https://cornallergygirl.com/2013/06/03/wheres-the-corn-in-non-food-products/ - Some of the other products that may have corn products in them (and which can therefore cause problems for people with corn allergies).
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TOEFL iBT: 4 hours, 4 sections, 120 points total (30 per section)
1 reading: 54-72 minutes, 3 or 4 passages, 9-10 questions per passage
2 listening: 40-60 minutes, 5-7 listenings (2-3 conversations, 3-4 lectures/discussions)
		(The listening timer is for sets of 2 or 3 listenings, and will give 6.5 or 10 minutes to answer.)
	(10-minute break)
3 speaking: 17 minutes, 4 tasks, 3m45s of total speaking time (recorded on the computer)
4 writing: 55 minutes, 2 tasks, 20+30 minutes of writing (typing) time
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The TOEFL changed a little in August, 2019, and textbooks are still about the old version.
Reading: used to be 60-80 minutes, 13-14 questions per passage
Listening: used to be 60-90 minutes, 6-9 listenings (2-3 conversations, 4-6 lectures/discussions)
Speaking: used to be 6 tasks, they removed tasks 1 and 5
Writing: unchanged
- Independent (opinion) speaking and writing questions may be more complex than they used to be.
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Reading Question Types:
- purpose (Why does the author mention _____?) / method (How does the author explain ____?)
- vocabulary (Which choice is closest in meaning to “_____” in the passage?)
- reference (What does “_____” refer to?)
- fact (According to paragraph 1, ____?)
- negative fact (like fact questions, but with “NOT” or “EXCEPT”)
- paraphrase / sentence restatement (Which sentence best expresses the information in the highlighted sentence in the text?)
- inference (What does the author imply? What can we infer? What conclusion can we draw from ___?)
- sentence insertion (Where in the paragraph does the new sentence fit best?)
- summarize (Choose the three options that express the most important ideas from the passage.)
- organize/categorize (Place the answer choices in the correct categories.)
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BREAK
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Note: the Oxford book calls them “schematic framework questions” instead of organization questions
p. xii and xiii show which question types are covered in each chapter of the book
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Vocabulary Questions
p. 9-10 shows a summary chart for answering these questions
- “step 0” could be to pick the answer choice that’s probably correct if you are familiar with the word, and then read the sentence from the passage to make sure it makes sense. If not, continue with the other steps.
step 1 - “word form” is also “part of speech”; what “kind” of word is it (noun, verb, etc.)
step 3 - “transitions” are phrases like “for example” or “however” that show how one sentence is connected to other sentences
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Possible Difficulties
- Sometimes, you might know what the words mean, and the correct answer choice isn’t really a synonym of the word in the passage, but it’s the best replacement in this context.
- Other times, you might not know one or more words, so following all the steps won’t get you to a single final answer, and you just have to guess. (The steps should at least help you eliminate one or two options, so your guess is better than 25%.)
- If you have no idea what any of the answer choices mean, guess and move on right away.
- (This is the reason for step 0.) The highlighted word might have multiple distinct meanings, and the one you’re most familiar with might not be the correct answer.
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score:
- (n) the number of points a person or team earns for a competition or task
- (v) earn one or more points
- (n) sheet music, especially showing the parts for multiple instruments
- (n) twenty
- (v) scratch or engrave a mark into something hard, such as glass
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“fun” fact: English has some words that mean the opposite of the same word: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym
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p. 7 - try to think of one or two additional examples for each noun ending
1 teacher, painter, manager, educator
2 vigilant (often an adjective; “vigilance” is usually the noun), student
3 feminist, pianist, Buddhist
4 volunteer, pioneer, millionaire
5 wildness, awareness, sadness
6 electricity, diversity
7 clearance, independence
8 situation, graduation
9 statement
- Many English endings come from Latin (through French or in scientific words), so they are equivalent to certain endings in Portuguese.
p. 8 - Do the same for other parts of speech
1 sunny, foggy, snowy, icy, cloudy, spicy, salty, sugary, fatty
2 national, individual, global, intentional
3 extraordinary, elementary, secondary
4 electric, economic
5 organize, summarize, computerize
6 electrify, glorify
7 lighten, darken, whiten, blacken
8 investigate, educate
9 eventually
10 rapidly, extraordinarily
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A prefix or suffix is productive if we can use it to create new words (or you can reliably recognize a new word you’ve never seen before).
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Homework: p. 11-12 - Answer these vocabulary questions.