This is probably the most challenging time in TOEFL preparation that I have experienced because the Next Generation Internet-Based TOEFL (iBT) is more than a revision. It is a com¬pletely different kind of test, which requires a new approach to learning. Our students will have to demonstrate their ability to integrate the language skills by completing tasks simitar to those that they will be expected to accomplish in academic settings. | SUMMARIZING 127 Report the content accurately You will be evaluated not only on how well you use language to write a summary but also on how accurately you understand and report the content of the original. Practical Strategy Read and listen for meaning. When you have finished reading or listening review the content. Ask yourself some basic questions include the questions that reporters use in their writing who what when where why how The content may not include answers to all of the questions but with practice you will be able to identity the questions that are important to the content you have read or heard. Practice Activity 27 Did you understand Answer the content questions. Then copy the answers to the questions in paragraph form to make a summary. The answers and the example summaries are printed in Chapter 7 on pages 525-526. 1. Reading According to the controversial sunspot theory great storms on the surface of the Sun hurl streams of solar particles into space and eventually into the atmosphere of our planet causing shifts in the weather on the Earth and interference with radio and television communications. A typical sunspot consists of a dark central umbra a word derived from the Latin word for shadow which is surrounded by a lighter penumbra of light and dark threads extending out from the center like the spokes of a wheel. Actually the sunspots are cooler than the rest of the photosphere which may account for their apparently darker color. Typically the temperature in a sunspot umbra is about 4000 K. whereas the temperature in a penumbra registers 5500 K and the granules outside the spot are 6000 K. Sunspots range in size from tiny grains to complex structures with areas stretching for billions of square miles. About 5 percent of all sunspots are large enough so thal they can be seen from Earth without instruments consequently observations of sunspots have been recorded for thousands of years. They have been observed in arrangements of one to more than
