Focus on Listening TOEFL

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