Focus on Listening TOEFL
1. Restatements
The Best Strategy: Choose Answer with Restatements.
- As you listen to the second line of the conversation, you should focus on the key idea(s) in that line
- If you see a restatement of the key idea(s) in a particular answer, then you have probably found the correct answer
- Do not choose answer with words that sound similar to the words on the recording.
2. Negative Expressions
The most common kind of correct response to a negative statement is a positive statement containing a word with opposite meaning
NEGATIVE SENTENCES
| ||
EXAMPLE
|
CORRECT ANSWER
|
NEGATIVE EXPRESSION
|
Tom is not sad about the result
|
Tom is happy about the result
|
Not sad = happy
|
The door isn’t open
|
The door is closed
|
Not open = closed
|
Steve did not pass the class
|
Stave failed the class
|
Did not pass = failed
|
3. Suggestions
We should become familiar with them, the following example shows an expression of a suggestion
| EXPRESSIONS OF SUGGESTIONS |
| Why... not... ? Why not...? Let's... |
4. Passives
It is sometimes difficult to understand who or what is doing the action is passive sentence.
PASSIVE STATEMENTS
- If the conversation contains a passive statement, the answer to the question is often an active statement.
- If the conversation contains an active statement, the answer to the question is often a passive statement.
5. Who & Where
One kind of conclusion that is common in this part of the test is to ask you to determine who the speaker is, based on clues given in the conversation. It is common for us to be asked to draw the following conclusion
6. Agreement
Expressions of agreement are common in Listening Part A, so you should become familiar with them. The following example shows agreement with a positive statement.
The following chart lists common expressions that show agreement. You should become familiar with these expressions.
EXPRESSIONS OF AGREEMENT
|
So do I
I’ll
say Me
too You can say that again
|
