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«Insert Text Question»
… also known as the black box question on the TOEFL iBT reading section …
In each reading passage there is one insert text to question. Instead of whittling down from a choice of four answers as a multiple-choice questions, you will click on one of the four black squares on the screen to insert the text into the paragraph. During the test you can swap the location of the answer choice in the passage as many times as you would like to, so you can see if you like how the sentence sounds with the others adjacent.
Vocabulary Check Point
to swap
to whittle down
to dive in
to wrap up
adjacent
What topics are seen?
The topics range from soft sciences including anthropology and economics, to psychology and urban studies.
There are also hard sciences, such as astronomy, geology, biology, physics, chemistry, and engineering.
They also dive into social sciences such as government, biographies, history, geography, and popular culture.
And to wrap up, the world of the arts include architecture, design, painting, and sculptures.
Example One
Impacts by meteorites represent one mechanism that could cause global catastrophes and seriously influence the evolution of life all over the planet. [1] According to some estimates, the majority of all extinctions of species may be due to such impacts. [2] Such a perspective fundamentally changes our view of biological evolution. [3] The standard criterion for the survival of a species is its success in competing with other species and adapting to slowly changing environments. [4] Yet an equally important criterion is the ability of a species to survive random global ecological catastrophes due to impacts.
Look at the four squares [X] that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the passage:
This is the criterion emphasized by Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
Where would the sentence best fit?
Vocabulary Check Point
a catastrophe
due to
random
mechanism
competing
TOEFL Strategy Tip
This, that, these, those
I, you, we, they, he, she, it
which
Example Two
Approximately 10 percent of all children in the United States receive special education or related services (Reschly, 1996). [A] Within this group, a little more than half have a learning disability. [B] Substantial percentages of children also have speech or language impairments (21 percent of those with disabilities), mental retardation (12 percent), and serious emotional disturbance (9 percent). [C] Educators now prefer to speak of «children with disabilities» rather than «disabled children» to emphasize the person, not the disability [D] (Culatta and Tompkins, 1999). The term handicapping condition is still used to describe impediments to the learning and functioning of individuals with a disability that have been imposed by society. For example, when children who use a wheelchair do not have adequate access to a bathroom, transportation, and so on, this is referred to as a handicapping condition.
Look at the four squares [X] that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the passage:
The most common problem that characterizes children with a learning disability involves reading.
Where would the sentence best fit?
Vocabulary Check Point
within
a handicapping condition
rather than
a disability
a wheelchair
TOEFL Strategy Tip
This is a noun reference that is used as a transitional phrase to connect to sentences. «a learning disability» in the previous sentence and «children with a learning disability«.
Within this group, a little more than half have a learning disability. The most common problem that characterizes children with a learning disability involves reading. Substantial percentages of children also have speech or language impairments (21 percent of those with disabilities), mental retardation (12 percent), and serious emotional disturbance (9 percent).
Example Three
Like all minerals, ice has specific properties of hardness, color, melting point (quite low in the case of ice), and brittleness. We know the properties of ice best from those brittle little cubes in the freezer. But glacial ice has different properties, depending on its location in a glacier. In a glacier’s depths, glacial ice behaves in a plastic manner, distorting and flowing in response to weight and pressure from above and the degree of slope below. In contrast, the glacier’s upper portion is more like the everyday ice we know, quite brittle.
A glacier’s rate of flow ranges from almost nothing to a kilometer or two per year on a steep slope. [A] The rate of snow accumulation in the formation area is critical to the pace of glacial movement. [B]
Glaciers are not rigid blocks that simply slide downhill. [C] The greatest movement within a valley’s glacier occurs internally, below the rigid surface layer, where the underlying zone moves plastically forward. [D] At the same time, the base creeps and slides along, varying its speed with temperature and the presence of any lubricating water or saturated sediment beneath the ice. This basal slip usually is much slower than the internal plastic flow of the glacier, so the upper portion of the glacier flows ahead of the lower portion. The difference in speed stretches the glacier’s brittle surface ice.
Look at the four squares [X] that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the passage:
In other words, the heavier the snowfall, the faster the glacier moves.
Where would the sentence best fit?
Vocabulary Check Point
brittle / brittleness
a glacier / glacial
a slope
a pace
underlying
a ridge
to creep
a layer
to stretch
TOEFL Strategy Tip
This is a paraphrasing question. In other words, means that you are paraphrasing the sentence before the sentence in question. Learn many synonyms, pace/speed, snow accumulation/snowfall, & moves / movement.
The rate of snow accumulation in the formation area is critical to the pace of glacial movement. In other words, the heavier the snowfall, the faster the glacier moves.
Example Four
Insert Text Question
Every musical culture of the world uses only a certain number of frequencies from the audible spectrum. Few cultures use the same selection of pitches, and few approach the entire gamut of frequencies.
Most cultures, however, make use of the octave. An octave is an acoustic and scientific relationship between two pitches, one of which vibrates twice as fast as the other and thus sounds higher. But the higher pitch also sounds the «same» as the lower pitch; in fact, it duplicates the lower pitch but in a higher register, which can be defined as a specific segment of the audible frequency spectrum.
[A] If a string produces C when it’s plucked, it will sound C an octave higher if it’s divided in half. If either half is divided again in half, yet another C, an octave higher, is sounded. [B] This phenomenon can also be used to demonstrate how octaves and frequency coordinate. If the original string vibrates at 16Hz, each half vibrates at 32 Hz, and each of their halves vibrates at 64 Hz, and so on. If the entire audible frequency spectrum is similarly divided, there are ten octaves. [C]
How do we get the term octave? This term has to do with how European-based music divides the octave into constituent pitches. [D] Although most cultures of the world recognize the octave (calling it by different names) and use it in their music, the similarity often ends there. How the octave is divided is unique to each culture. Remember that this eight-part structure is unique to Western music. Other musical cultures do not necessarily divide pitches within an octave the way we do. Not surprisingly, each culture labels pitches differently. We name ours with seven letters -A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
Look at the four squares [X] that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the passage:
Thus, in the European tradition, all the keys marked C are octaves or multiples of octaves.
Where would the sentence best fit into the passage?
Vocabulary Check Point
to approach
thus
plucked
a string
to have to do with
and so on
a pitch
TOEFL Strategy Tip
Thus, hence, therefore, so & that’s why, all mean the same thing. We use these terms as connectors of consequence and very frequently to add a conclusion. So another words the last line in a paragraph.
If either half is divided again in half, yet another C, an octave higher, is sounded. Thus, in the European tradition, all the keys marked C are octaves or multiples of octaves. This phenomenon can also be used to demonstrate how octaves and frequency coordinate.
Example Five
There are three different types or styles of order (column) in Greek architecture: Doric, Tonic, and Corinthian. [A] The relative proportions of base, shaft and capital varied in the different types of order. [B] The Romans adapted the Greek orders for their own purposes, but in general Roman orders were lighter, and more heavily decorated. [C]
[D] The Doric order is the most massive of the three. It is the only style in which the column has no base and the shaft is placed directly on the platform. The shaft itself is grooved and the grooves meet in a sharp edge. The capital can be described as a plain convex moulding. The architrave can be plain or decorated with intermittent rows of small triangular carvings. The frieze is decorated with a series of tablets with vertical flutings, alternating with square spaces which were either left plain or decorated with relief carvings.
Look at the four squares [X] that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the passage:
Both the Greek and Roman orders have inspired a number of classical revivals, how many are evident in modern buildings..
Where would the sentence best fit into the passage?
Vocabulary Check Point
a shaft
a groove / grooved
a carving
a row
the frieze
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