Hi, I'm Michael from ETS. Today on Inside the TOEFL Test we're going inside the TOEFL iBT Reading section.
Specifically, the Vocabulary questions. . . . . . .
Vocabulary questions ask you to identify the meanings of words and phrases as they are used in the reading passage. It's easy to identify Vocabulary questions, because there will be a word or phrase highlighted in the reading passage, and you will see questions like these, with phrases like "closest in meaning" or "the author means."
. . . . . . Now let's look at a sample vocabulary question.
This one is from a reading passage about meteorite impacts. Here's an excerpt from the passage with the vocabulary word highlighted.
Here's the sample question, which asks the meaning of the word "pose". Now, there's really not much strategy in answering these vocabulary questions.
The words that are tested are academic vocabulary that you should know if your English is at the level of a university student. They are not usually words that you can guess from context.
So the best general strategy to be ready for this type of questions is to build your vocabulary. Keep in mind that there's a difference between academic vocabulary and specialized vocabulary.
Academic vocabulary words can be used across many fields of study. These are the kind of words you'll be tested on.
Specialized vocabulary words are specific to one field. If words like this are in a TOEFL reading passage, they will be defined for you.
