2020-11-12 TOEFL: L inference, S 1

Listening Question Types:
- main idea (content or purpose)
- attitude
- detail/fact
- inference
- purpose
- function/replay
- complete a table or chart (multi-part detail questions)
- prediction
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Cambridge L18 - Can you infer the statements from the excerpts?
1 Yes (probably)
2 No
3 No (The fossils discussed are about an ancient bird. The modern albatross probably doesn’t have a lot of fossils.)
4 Yes
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espionage = spying
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L20 - In your own words, answer the purpose/inference questions.
1 She is (or plans to be) an art major.
2 They are toys that children can stay interested in because they can be anything.
3 It will give them practice listening to regional accents in Spanish.
4 There has been a violent crime on campus.
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L19
1 B
2 D
3 A
4 B - It’s about a way to get junior high students interested in economic history.
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faculty (American English) = all the people who teach (professors, assistant professors, teaching assistants, etc.) at a university
faculty (British English) = school or college within a university

As it’s used in the listening, each faculty has many different departments. For example the Faculty of Arts might have philosophy, history, psychology, languages, literature, etc. The Faculty of Science might have chemistry, physics, neuroscience, biology, etc.

Oxford 4L6
1 c
2 a
3 a d
4 b c d
5 c d
6 c (at least in the Northern Hemisphere)
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BREAK
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Speaking Section:
1 independent, choice question - 15 seconds to prepare / 45 seconds to speak
2 integrated reading/listening/speaking, campus announcement and conversation - 30/60
3 integrated R/L/S, academic text and lecture - 30/60
4 integrated L/S, academic lecture - 20/60
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There are basically three types of choice question you can have for speaking
- agree/disagree: “Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?”
- some/other: “Some students prefer…. Others enjoy…. Which do you prefer?”
- multiple (3) choice: “Imagine you ________. Which of the following would you choose?”
https://www.bestmytest.com/blog/toefl/new-toefl-speaking-topics-2019#toefl-speaking-topics-task-1 - You can see some (approximate) examples of each type.
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“Would you rather” questions are similar enough to the TOEFL choice question to provide a lot of additional practice with preparing answers.
https://conversationstartersworld.com/would-you-rather-questions/
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During your 15 seconds of preparation time (which is more like 25-30 total), you should write a very small outline with just the main ideas (one or two words for each reason):
answer
- reason 1
- reason 2

senator
- know more
- do good

Then, when you give your response, you can expand your main ideas with details and examples:
1 Introduction: state your choice (“I would rather become a senator than a CEO.”)
2 Lead-in (optional): “I have two reasons for this opinion.”
3 First reason (“First, I know more about what it would take to be a good senator.”)
4 Detail/example (“For example, …”)
5 Second reason (“Second, I could do more good as a senator.”)
6 Detail/example (“For example,...”)
(7 Conclusion - if you have time (“In conclusion, because I know more and could do more as a senator, I would rather become one than a CEO.”))
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Remember that you can lie as needed to invent details an examples in your answer.
- If you say you’re a history major, then your research papers will often require things that aren’t online.
- If you say you have bad eyesight, then it’s important to be able to resize text on a computer screen.
- You can think of (true or imaginary) things related to the pandemic and social distancing to support some answers, such as taking online classes and living alone.
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You can find score descriptions at https://www.ets.org/s/toefl/pdf/toefl_speaking_rubrics.pdf

- The key concept for pronunciation and grammar is “listener effort”: How hard does the listener have to work to understand what you’re trying to say?
- Another important grammar/vocabulary point is that they look for some range and variety. If your response has no mistakes but also no vocabulary above a beginner level, you won’t get a high score.
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Make sure that your reasons and details are different enough to be clearly separate in your response.
To answer a choice question, one reason can be an advantage of your own choice and the other can be a disadvantage of the opposite choice.