29.

Overall Review Questions

Skill 12. Determine Where Specific Information Is Found
Sometimes the final question accompanying a reading passage (or one paragraph of a
passage ) will ask you to determine where in the passage a piece of information is found.
You may do the following steps to answer the question:

1. Choose a key word or idea in the question.

2. Skim the appropriate part(s) of the passage looking for the key word or idea.
3. Choose the answer that contains the key word or idea.

Skill 13. Determine The Tone, Purpose Or Course

Other types of review questions occur occasionally in the reading section of the TOEFL
test. Possible questions of this type are questions that ask about:

1. the tone of the passage, (This type of quesion is asking if the author is showing
any emotion in his or her writing )
The majority of the passage on the TOEFL test are factual passages presented
without any emotion (the tone of this type of passage could be simply
informational, explanatory, or factual.). However, sometimes the author shows
some emotion. If the author is being funny (then the tone might be humorous )
making fun of something ( then the tone might be sarcastic ) Also, sometimes the
author feels strongly that something is right or wrong (the tone might be
impassioned )

2. the author's purpose in writing the passage, (This type of question is asking what
the author is trying to do in the passage )
You can draw a conclution about the author's purpose by referring to the main
idea and the organization of details in the passage (If the main idea is that George
Washington's early lifegreatly influenced his later career and if the details give a
history of his early life, the author's purpose could be to show how George
Washington's early life influenced his later career. ) However, the answer to this
type of question is often considerably more general than the main idea (A more
general author's purpose for the main idea about George Washington would be to
demonstrate the influence of early experiences on later life (without mention of
George Washington).

3. and the course in which the passage might be used. ( This type of question is
asking you to decide which university course might have this passage as assigned
reading.)
You should draw a conclution about the course by referring to the topic of the
passage and organization of details (If the passage is about George Washington
and the details give historical background on his early life, then this would
probably be assigned reading in an American history class. However, if the
 passage is about George Washington and the details show the various influences
that he had on the formation of the American government, then the passage might
be assigned reading in a government or political science class )

Here are the steps to answer the tone question:

1. Skim the passage looking for clues that the author is showing some emotion.
2. Choose The answer that identifies the emotion

Here are the steps to answer the purpose question:

1. Study the main idea in the topic sentence and the details used to support the main
idea.
2. Draw a conclution about the purpose.

Here are the steps to answer the course question:

1. Study the main idea in the topic sentence and the details used to support the main
idea.
2. Draw a conclution about the course.

Skill 14. Determine Where To Insert A Piece Of Information

On the computer TOEFL test, there may be a question following a particular paragraph or
at the end of the reading passage that asks where a particular piece of information should
be inserted. In this type of question, you must click on one of a number of squares in a
passage to indicate that piece of information should be inserted in that position.

Here are the steps to answer the question:

1. Look at the sentence to be inserted for any key words or ideas at the beginning or
the end of the sentence.
2. Read the context before and after the insertion squares for any ideas that relate to
the sentence to be inserted.
3. Choose the insertion square that is most related to the sentence to be inserted.