TOEFL Booster / Inference questions ask for more
Lynn Stafford-Yilmaz Special to The Daily Yomiuri
In our last TOEFL Booster, we looked at the import!ance of answering speaking questions with a clear statement of your main idea. This month, we turn to the reading part of the TOEFL test. We will look at questions that ask about the author's beliefs or other general inferences. We will look at what makes these questions challenging, and at how you can increase your odds of answering correctly.
On the TOEFL iBT, test-takers read a passage that is followed by several questions. The majority of these questions are straightforward, based on facts in the passage.
However, there is a whole different type of question on the TOEFL iBT that asks not about specific facts, but instead about inferences. These more challenging questions ask test-takers to do more than find simple facts. Instead, they require that test-takers infer some information based on a variety of clues in the text. Let us look at some examples.
Example Reading Passage
(1) According to the article by Brown, when people are stressed, they naturally tend to eat more. They eat not because they are hungry, but instead, they do it to distract themselves from their stress or calm themselves down or use their hands.
(2) In the face of these emotions, the human body responds in an innately animalistic way. Back in the Cave Age, stress was seen as a response to a threat for survival. More often than not, that threat to survival meant that people lacked food. So people's bodies naturally took stress as a warning sign of hunger. In response to stress, people innately wanted to hoard calories. When they did this hoarding, the weight that they gained tended to cluster around the midsection of their bodies. In fact, it could be argued, their gut served as a kind of built-in pantry shelf, where they stored food. It was kind of like a safety net against starvation.
(3) According to Brown, the human body has changed little since the Cave Age, even if the environment has. So, these days, most Americans are more stressed about gridlock traffic than about their food supply. However, according to Brown's studies, their bodies don't know this. Basically, people are stuck in a rut. That is, when the body is stressed, it feels that the food supply is under threat. In response, it drives its owner to eat. Then, the body sends any excess calories to the pantry shelf. And for a lot of us, that shelf is already pretty full.
1. We can infer from the passage that the author of this passage thinks
(A) many readers of the passage are overweight.
(B) Brown's theories haven't been well researched.
(C) stress leads to overeating.
(D) emotional problems lead to weight problems.
2. Which of the following can be inferred from Paragraph 3 about Brown's attitude toward the environment?
(A) It plays a key role in the impulse to eat.
(B) It has changed little since the Cave Age.
(C) It is ultimately shaped by the food supply.
(D) Its focus on food attracts people to overeat.
The correct responses are (A) and (A). However, neither is stated directly in the reading passage. Instead, test-takers must figure out the response.
The first question is answered most directly in Paragraph 3, but answering it correctly requires cobbling together information from a couple of different places. In Paragraph 3, the final sentence reads, "And for a lot of us, that shelf is already pretty full." In this sentence, "us" refers to the writer and to the reader. The "shelf" refers to Americans' midsections, as defined by the author in the preceding paragraph. When the author says that our food-storage areas are "already pretty full," she is really saying that many of us are already overweight.
Answer option (B) isn't mentioned in this reading passage, so it is impossible to know the author's belief about it. Options (C) and (D) offer different possible summaries of Brown's opinions, but there is no evidence in the article that the author shares Brown's beliefs. So, these are not good answers.
The second question again leads readers to the passage's final paragraph. While Brown's view of the environment is not stated directly, it is implied by the surrounding arguments. In sum, Brown thinks that in the past, the environment often offered insufficient food. Insufficient food caused people to feel stress. They responded to this stress by eating more. These days, the environment continues to produce stress, and even though its causes may be different, the body still responds by eating more. In other words, the environment plays a key role in the impulse to eat, and the correct response is (A).
Answer (B) is the opposite of what Brown says in Paragraph 3, "... the human body has changed little since the Cave Age, even if the environment has." (C) relates to the food supply, but it is neither stated nor implied in the reading passage. (D) may relate to some modern images of society and overeating, but it is also not mentioned in this reading passage.
Questions that ask for inference of a stance or belief often require that test-takers integrate information from various parts of the reading passage. These questions may call for test-takers to pick up various clues that ultimately point to a certain conclusion. In facing such inference questions, test-takers should look for all of the pieces that contribute to informing the correct response.
Stafford-Yilmaz teaches at Bellevue Community College and is a coauthor of The Michigan Guide to Academic Success and Better TOEFL Scores.
(Sep. 27, 2007)
Lynn Stafford-Yilmaz Special to The Daily Yomiuri
In our last TOEFL Booster, we looked at the import!ance of answering speaking questions with a clear statement of your main idea. This month, we turn to the reading part of the TOEFL test. We will look at questions that ask about the author's beliefs or other general inferences. We will look at what makes these questions challenging, and at how you can increase your odds of answering correctly.
On the TOEFL iBT, test-takers read a passage that is followed by several questions. The majority of these questions are straightforward, based on facts in the passage.
However, there is a whole different type of question on the TOEFL iBT that asks not about specific facts, but instead about inferences. These more challenging questions ask test-takers to do more than find simple facts. Instead, they require that test-takers infer some information based on a variety of clues in the text. Let us look at some examples.
Example Reading Passage
(1) According to the article by Brown, when people are stressed, they naturally tend to eat more. They eat not because they are hungry, but instead, they do it to distract themselves from their stress or calm themselves down or use their hands.
(2) In the face of these emotions, the human body responds in an innately animalistic way. Back in the Cave Age, stress was seen as a response to a threat for survival. More often than not, that threat to survival meant that people lacked food. So people's bodies naturally took stress as a warning sign of hunger. In response to stress, people innately wanted to hoard calories. When they did this hoarding, the weight that they gained tended to cluster around the midsection of their bodies. In fact, it could be argued, their gut served as a kind of built-in pantry shelf, where they stored food. It was kind of like a safety net against starvation.
(3) According to Brown, the human body has changed little since the Cave Age, even if the environment has. So, these days, most Americans are more stressed about gridlock traffic than about their food supply. However, according to Brown's studies, their bodies don't know this. Basically, people are stuck in a rut. That is, when the body is stressed, it feels that the food supply is under threat. In response, it drives its owner to eat. Then, the body sends any excess calories to the pantry shelf. And for a lot of us, that shelf is already pretty full.
1. We can infer from the passage that the author of this passage thinks
(A) many readers of the passage are overweight.
(B) Brown's theories haven't been well researched.
(C) stress leads to overeating.
(D) emotional problems lead to weight problems.
2. Which of the following can be inferred from Paragraph 3 about Brown's attitude toward the environment?
(A) It plays a key role in the impulse to eat.
(B) It has changed little since the Cave Age.
(C) It is ultimately shaped by the food supply.
(D) Its focus on food attracts people to overeat.
The correct responses are (A) and (A). However, neither is stated directly in the reading passage. Instead, test-takers must figure out the response.
The first question is answered most directly in Paragraph 3, but answering it correctly requires cobbling together information from a couple of different places. In Paragraph 3, the final sentence reads, "And for a lot of us, that shelf is already pretty full." In this sentence, "us" refers to the writer and to the reader. The "shelf" refers to Americans' midsections, as defined by the author in the preceding paragraph. When the author says that our food-storage areas are "already pretty full," she is really saying that many of us are already overweight.
Answer option (B) isn't mentioned in this reading passage, so it is impossible to know the author's belief about it. Options (C) and (D) offer different possible summaries of Brown's opinions, but there is no evidence in the article that the author shares Brown's beliefs. So, these are not good answers.
The second question again leads readers to the passage's final paragraph. While Brown's view of the environment is not stated directly, it is implied by the surrounding arguments. In sum, Brown thinks that in the past, the environment often offered insufficient food. Insufficient food caused people to feel stress. They responded to this stress by eating more. These days, the environment continues to produce stress, and even though its causes may be different, the body still responds by eating more. In other words, the environment plays a key role in the impulse to eat, and the correct response is (A).
Answer (B) is the opposite of what Brown says in Paragraph 3, "... the human body has changed little since the Cave Age, even if the environment has." (C) relates to the food supply, but it is neither stated nor implied in the reading passage. (D) may relate to some modern images of society and overeating, but it is also not mentioned in this reading passage.
Questions that ask for inference of a stance or belief often require that test-takers integrate information from various parts of the reading passage. These questions may call for test-takers to pick up various clues that ultimately point to a certain conclusion. In facing such inference questions, test-takers should look for all of the pieces that contribute to informing the correct response.
Stafford-Yilmaz teaches at Bellevue Community College and is a coauthor of The Michigan Guide to Academic Success and Better TOEFL Scores.
(Sep. 27, 2007)