Master the TOEFL Listening section with practice questions
Description
Listening
The TOEFL iBT Listening section evaluates your capability to comprehend English conversations and lectures. It covers listening for comprehension, recognizing the speaker's perspective, and linking related pieces of information.
28 Questions in total
Takes 36 minutes
- Identify the attitude of the speaker from a specific part of the lecture/conversation. TOEFL Listening Attitude questions are similar to Inference questions in that they ask test takers to identify something that is not explicitly stated in the passage. They require the test taker to identify the speaker’s attitude, opinion, or feelings about something mentioned in the lecture or conversation. They must rely upon the way the information was presented by the speaker to answer the question correctly. Basically, they have to make an educated guess. There is usually only one of these questions per passage, and sometimes a passage will have no Attitude questions.Study Tip
❖ Focus on the tone of the speaker's voice. This will help you identify the speaker's attitude toward what is mentioned in the conversation/lecture.
Connecting Content
much like the Table questions in the reading section while others will ask them to make inferences about the relationships among things mentioned in the lecture. They may ask test takers to infer a cause-and-effect relationship, predict an outcome, extrapolate some additional information, draw a logical conclusion, or put events in sequential order.0 users tried
Identify the relationships among ideas in the lecture. TOEFL Listening Connecting Content questions ask test takers to show that they understand the relationships among ideas presented in the lecture. These are the rarest type of listening questions, and they usually take one of two forms. Some will ask the test takers to arrange information in a chart or tableStudy Tip❖ When taking notes, focus on how information is related to one another. ❖ Since this question often requires TWO answers, it is important not to miss details.
- Understand the implied meaning from a specific part of the lecture/conversation. TOEFL Listening Function questions ask test takers to identify the meaning of a statement in a particular context. The meaning of the sentence can vary depending on the situation in which it was used. That is to say, the statement often has a surface or literal meaning that is different from its meaning in its current context. The statements often include slang or idiomatic expressions, and the meaning is often affected by the way that the speaker says the statement. The speaker may use one of several rhetorical functions including sarcasm/irony, redirection, correction/clarification, implied/indirect questions and requests, and rhetorical questions. These are used to direct, recommend, complain, agree/disagree, question, or confirm. The question will replay an excerpt of the conversation or lecture that contains the statement and then just the statement itself. There will be no written text provided. There is typically one Function question per passage, but sometimes there are none or even two.Study Tip
❖ Don't forget that a single statement can carry different meanings depending on its context. Try to understand the speaker's intention in the lecture or conversation.
- Identify the main idea or the purpose of the lecture/conversation. TOEFL Listening Gist Content/Purpose questions ask test takers to identify the main point or idea of a conversation or lecture. Gist Purpose questions ask test takers to identify the reason why the conversation is taking place. Every listening question set will begin with this type of question. Gist Content/Purpose questions are usually written as follows: ❖ What is the main idea of the lecture? ❖ What subject is the professor mainly discussing? ❖ What are the speakers mainly discussing? ❖ What problem does the student have? ❖ Why did the student come to this office? ❖ Why does the professor ask/want to see the student? ❖ With lecture passages, these questions will deal with the overall main idea of the lecture, but that is not necessarily the case with conversation passages. The purpose of a conversation may change. For example, the reason why a professor wanted to speak to a student may be different from the topic of the overall conversation. A professor may want to know why a student was absent from class, but they may spend most of their time discussing an essay that the student is writing.Study Tip
❖ Don't get stuck on minor details. This question calls for a big-picture approach. ❖ Don't miss the beginning of the audio—that is often where key
- Reach a conclusion by looking at the information presented in the lecture/conversation. TOEFL Listening Inference questions are very similar to the Inference questions in the reading section. They also ask test takers to identify an idea that was suggested by the information presented in the passage but not directly stated. However, the LC Inference questions tend to be somewhat easier to solve because test takers cannot refer back to the text like they can with RC Inference questions. The information is not directly stated in the lecture or conversation, but the answer choices are more like paraphrasing than educated guesses. There is usually only 1 Inference question per passage. Sometimes the question will include a replay of part of the conversation or lecture.Study Tip
❖ Do not make a guess; there is always clear evidence for the correct answer in the audio. ❖ Identify the speaker's attitude, opinion, or concern about what is mentioned in the conversation/lecture.
Organization
if ever seen in conversations, but the third type is pretty common in them. The entire lecture may be organized in many ways like chronological order, levels of complexity, likelihood, comparison, and general to specific. The second type will specifically refer to two smaller parts of the lecture and how they are related to each other. The third type usually names a particular word or phrase in the passage that is included in the question, although they may also replay a portion and ask about why the professor made that statement.0 users tried
Identify the organization of the lecture and understand the connection of ideas across the lecture. TOEFL Listening Organization questions ask test takers to explain how information was presented in the lecture or conversation. There are usually 1 or 2 per passage. They may ask about the overall organization of the passage, the relationship between two parts of the lecture, or why a particular thing was mentioned. The first two kinds are rarelyStudy Tip❖ While listening, focus on the signal words such as "first", "next", "for example[instance]", and so on. They help you understand how the lecture is organized.
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