2016-11-09 TOEFL: reading vocab questions

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Homework: reading about the sense of smell
27 B (purpose)
28 A (vocabulary)
29 D (fact)
30 B (vocabulary)
31 C (fact)
32 B (vocabulary)
33 B (negative fact)
34 A (purpose)
35 C (paraphrase)
36 C (fact)
37 D (vocabulary)
38 B (inference)
39 B (sentence insertion) (“these structures” means “related nervous system structures”)
40 B C F (summarize)
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Other types of reading questions: categorization, reference
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Vocabulary questions are generally the most common.
DELTA p. 49 - Strategies for vocab questions.
- These questions are always about the word in the context of the passage, even if it has different meanings in other contexts.
appositive: phrase between commas to give more information about the preceding word
p. 53-54 have a list of word roots
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p. 56-57 - Answer the questions, and identify how you got the answers from the context.
1 D (example)
2 A (punctuation, knowing what “hexagon” means)
3 B (root “com” = together, adjective clause telling us these employees prepare the report)
4 A (“from one another”, “common origins but then”)
p. 58-59 - Do the same with these passages (questions 5-10). Check with a partner.
5 A (B is the “trick” answer, because “migrate” is similar to “travel”, but not in the sense of this paragraph, which is about tourism.)
6 B
7 A (“as well as” connects it to “comprehension of the basic framework…”)
8 D (this requires you to know that “hazards” is an example the negative aspects, or you can eliminate the other options because “benefits” is positive and “stages” and “causes” are neutral)
9 C (has to be something that can be colored)
10 D (B is the “trick”. You need to notice that this is about something which is not colored. Chemicals don’t capture things.)
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BREAK
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p. 59-61 - Take 5 minutes to skim the excerpts and answer the 10 vocabulary questions in 1.3.B. Compare your answers with a partner.
1 D (appositive - “in a very simple way”)
2 B (there isn’t cloud cover on the moon, “wave frequency” doesn’t mean anything in this context, and the dark sphere isn’t growing when the crescent is growing; you also might know that “irradiation” can refer to bright light)
3 A (“withstood” means “stood against” or “resisted”, so it’s a word related to contrast. The rest of the paragraph is about how long “cool” has remained popular, in contrast to the temporary nature of other slang.)
4 C (“its meaning continues to evolve” = it does not have the same meaning)
5 D (appositive - “removing most of the existing soil”)
6 C (“However” means it’s in contrast to unsuccessful attempts at agricultural use. This suggests that it can’t be A or D. Mineral wealth can’t protect a settlement.)
7 C (It’s about small-group discussions. They don’t demand, ignore, or remove ways to improve workplaces.)
8 A (“however” means they’re similar but not the same. “lockstep” refers to people marching together)
9 B (the colon precedes examples of how to stimulate discussion)
10 A (“and” means not being allowed to overwhelm something is similar to keeping it balanced)
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overlook = ignore
oversee = supervise
look over = look at and check quickly
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ETS sample test 5 p. 262-269 - Take 20 minutes to do this reading task and identify the question types.
Then check your answers with your partner. If you disagree, explain why you chose your answer.
1 B (not A because you can’t see all of them there, not D because while it is an example of that, giving an example isn’t the purpose)
2 A (C is a trick answer, becuase mountains are above the other things, but that’s not their important feature as an answer to the paragraph’s “why” question. These environments distributed among each other could isolate the populations, which the next sentence says is what happened. Also, “inter” means between or among.)
3 C
4 D
5 D
6 B (not D, because they don’t avoid interacting, not C because nothing about “threatened”, not A because nothing about social development)
7 D (highest to lowest: alpine, lodgepole, yellow pine, sagebrush)
8 B
9 D
10 A
11 C (“must be in those shaded forests”)
12 B
13 B (“yet” contrasts with the “obviously” sentence before it, not with the description of the different elevational zones before space A)
14 A C D (B and F are minor details, E is a detail and it’s really more about physiological tolerances than requirements)
(3 correct = 2 points, 2 correct = 1 point, 0-1 correct = 0 points)