2017-06-21 TOEFL: reading fact

Greg Malivuk
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
---
Homework: handout (Cambridge) p. 181-182 - Read the passages and decide if each sentence is true or false.
Check your answers with your partner. Find evidence in the text for your answer if you disagree.
Passage 1
A. T
B. F
C. T (A military risk is a security threat.)
D. T
E. F
F. F (There was no construction of the tunnel in 1930, so the construction couldn’t have led to anything.)
G. F
H. T
Passage 2
A. T
B. F (They likely came from an animal this size, but the bones they found were smaller.)
C. F
D. T (This is more of an inference question.)
E. T (This is also an inference, from “eardrums, which would not have worked in water”.)
F. F (It can recognize the source because the bones are isolated from each other, and it’s just the eardrum that is vestigial, not the middle ear.)
G. T
H. T (This can be concluded from the final sentence. “The separation of these bones” means the bones are in fact separated.)
Passage 3
A. T
B. F
C. F (It emits glue, not a smell.)
D. T
E. T
F. F
G. T
H. T
Passage 4
A. F (If A cannot match B, it means A is worse than B.)
B. T
C. T
D. F
E. F (The color of the varnish wasn’t important, and it ranges in color from orange to reddish-brown.)
F. T
G. F
H. T
---
The A led to B. - This sentence is telling you that A existed.
---
Reading Question Types
- fact - about specific details from the passage; information about the topic itself, not about the author
- negative fact - like fact questions, but with a word like NOT or EXCEPT in the question
- vocabulary
- inference - about things which are not stated directly, but which you can conclude from the passage
- reference - about what other thing in the passage a word like “this” or “it” refers to
- purpose - about why the author includes an example or argument in the passage
- paraphrase - Choose the sentence closest in meaning to a highlighted sentence in the passage.
- sentence insertion / coherence - Where in the paragraph does this new sentence fit?
- organize/categorize - match the sentences with the correct category they describe
- summarize - Which 3 of 6 sentences express main ideas from the passage?
---
You should be able to answer fact questions quickly by skimming the passage for key words.
p. 51 (Longman) - Take 2.5 minutes to answer the questions about Lake Baikal.
1 D
2 A (The volume is the largest of any freshwater lake, but the area is the ninth largest.)
3 D (20% of the world’s liquid surface fresh water, but only 1/40,000th of the total water.)
4 C
5 B
(TOEFL practice materials may not be completely correct or accurate. For example, Lake Baikal isn’t near any part of any peninsula, in Asia or anywhere else.)
---
p. 52 - Do the same for the reading about the postage stamp.
6 C
7 A (“In advance of the delivery” means before the delivery.)
8 D (Three nickels weigh 15 grams.)
9 B
10 C
---
(One nickel is 5 grams, one ounce is 5 quarters.)
---
p. 53 - Do the same for the Clovis Culture
11 A (About 12,000 years ago is about 10,000 BC.)
12 D
13 C (“quite sophisticated” = rather advanced)
14 B
15 D (“migrating seasonally”)
---
find/found/found = discover
found/founded/founded = establish
---
p. 30-32 (Cengage) exercise 1.1 - Find and underline the text from the passages that gives the answers to each of the questions. Skim for key words and then underline the whole sentence that includes the relevant information.
---
Homework: finish the handout (three reading passages, p. 35-42