Review tasks: Before the test, review the four different tasks on the TOEFL (Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing]. Familiarize yourself with the format and the question types you'll see on. test day. | Passage 5 The purpose of this passage is to describe one person s view of a government system. Right away we know we are reading about someone s book. That s the what. The why requires a little more reading but once again the body paragraphs help us figure out why the author wrote the passage. Each one mentions something about the centralization of power in a democracy. The passage ends by again mentioning centralization of power and that Tocqueville s view of democracy is interesting. Notice how in each case we were able to take a 500-word passage and condense it into a brief description. The key point is to ignore the details . All we need to worry about at first is the big picture. Summary How to Find the Purpose 1. Read the first two lines of the first paragraph. Note what the topic is and why the author is writing about it. 2. Read the first line of each body paragraph. Again note what the topic is and why the author introduces it. 3. Read the first and last line of the final paragraph. Pay particular attention to how the author ends the passage. 4. Look back at your notes. What s the common idea Is the author presenting facts Examining different views Answering questions STEP 2 UNDERSTAND THE STRUCTURE Once we ve found the purpose we ll have a better idea of the structure of the passage. The structure refers to the organization or layout of the passage. On the TOEFL different types of questions will address different parts of the passage. If you are familiar with the types of structures you will see on the TOEFL youTl know where to look to find the information you need. What Is the Structure of a TOEFL Passage On the TOEFL the passages will all follow a very similar structure which will look like the following 1. An introduction paragraph that contains the basic topic of the passage. 2. Four or five body paragraphs that provide more information about the topic. 3. A conclusion that brings the passage to a close with a final statement. Let s look at the .
