2020-10-13 TOEFL: reading vocab

Greg Malivuk
greg.malivuk@gmail.com
https://pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all classes
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What do you expect to be the most difficult section of the TOEFL?
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TOEFL: 3.5 hours, 4 sections, 120 points total (30/section)
1 reading: 54-72 minutes, 3-4 passages, 10 questions per passage
2 listening: 40-60 minutes, 5-7 listenings (2-3 conversations with 5Qs, 3-4 lectures with 6Qs)
	(10-minute break)
3 speaking: 17 minutes total, 4 tasks, 3m45s of speaking time
4 writing: 55 minutes, 2 tasks, 20+30 minutes of writing time
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Reading Question Types:
- fact (common) (“According to the text, which statement is true about _____?”)
	(negative fact - “All of the following are true EXCEPT…”)
- vocabulary (common) (“The word _____ in the passage is closest in meaning to…”)
- purpose (“Why does the author…?”) / method (“How does the author…?”)
- inference (“What can be inferred about…?”)
- paraphrase / sentence simplification (“Which sentence is closest in meaning to the one from the text?”)
- sentence insertion (“Where in the text should this new sentence go?”)
- summary (“Choose the three most important ideas from the text.”)
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How is it useful to know about the different question types?
- You know what to expect on the exam.
- You can focus your preparation on the more difficult question types.
- You can guess and move on (during the real test) from question types you probably won’t get correct.
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Vocabulary in Context
- Read the full sentence.
- Read other sentences that are necessary to understand the words in the full sentence.



Sustainable energy includes hydroelectricity, solar energy, geothermal energy, and others.
hydro = water/fluid
sol = sun
geo = Earth
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BREAK
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The handout starts with some different types of context clues.
Word analysis note: some roots can appear in a word with a more specific meaning than the general root has.
“hydro” means “water”
“hydrogen” can create (or generate) water
“hydrocarbons” are made up of hydrogen and carbon
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A highlighted word may have many different meanings, possibly including two or three that are answer choices, so it’s always important to check the context to be sure you pick the right one.

score
= the number of points in a game
= the act of getting points in a game
= the act of scratching or engraving something
= sheet music (especially that includes parts for all the instruments)
= twenty
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Handout (Cengage) p. 50 Exercise 2.1
- Take 3 minutes to explain the words in the first passage.
2 constant = continuous and always the same
3 dusk = sunset (or the time just after sunset)
4 rudimentary = basic; simple
5 faint = dim; not bright
6 refuse = rubbish (The noun is pronounced with stress on the second syllable: reFUSE.)
7 roam = wander around with no destination (This almost always goes with a form of “free” and is more common for animals than people.)

passage 2
8 took over = assumed responsibility or control
9 curriculum = course of studies (the set of classes a student needs to take)
10 elective = something you can choose to do
11 stressed = emphasized or encouraged
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pdf p. 7 exercise 2.2 - Take 5 minutes to choose the best answers for passage 1
1 B
2 C
3 C (Both expressions are metaphors for setting up circumstances so something can happen.)
4 D
5 A
6 D (“it was nothing if not ____” = “it was very ____”)
7 B
8 B
9 A
10 A (This supports the sentence about the rivalry heating up.)
11 A
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Homework: pdf pages 9-12 - Questions after passages 2 and 3
(Optional: everything else we didn’t get to on this handout.)