Get Ready for taking the TOEFL, Proficiency Test

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Get Ready for taking the TOEFL,Proficiency Test

• Prepared and Presented by
• Kartika Noez

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GRAMMAR

• Some Strategies to work with problems with
  grammar of English
• Identify the Subject and Verb in the sentence,
  make sure if the sentence already contains
  Subject and verb, if No then try to locate the
  options that contain subject and Verb, then
  consider the agreement between the two.
• If the problem lies on the Subject it must be
  dealt with noun so then check if the articles or
  determiners, plurality, or noun clause, or gerund
  or to infinitive is used properly. Or, if there
  is a blank space after subject, it means that we
  are going to deal with the adjective clause or
  appositive, when there are two commas.
• If the problem is dealt with the verb, we need to
  check the agreement between subject and verb, and
  then go to see if the tense is used correctly.
• If there is no problem with the Subject and Verb,
  the problems might be found in the object or the
  adverb of the sentence, so take a look and check.
  When dealing with object, it is probably dealing
  with the adjective clause or appositive.

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Contd Expl-1

• Examples
• ----S V--- with their surroundings, or they
  hide in crevices for protection.

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Contd Expl-2

• ----S--- grow close to the ground in the short
  Artic summer.

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Contd Expl-3

• Liz Moses, ----N/NP---, grows beautiful
  vegetables in her garden.

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Contd Expl-4

• We do not ---V---- the bow drill was first
  developed for woodworking or fire making.

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Contd Expll-5

• Willa Cather is an author ---Adj Cl----for her
  evocative and memorable vision of frontier
  prairie life

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Some Basic Points to Know

• English Sentence What We Need to Know
• A sentence contains at least one subject and one
  predicate
• Peter eats at 500.
• Peter is the Subject, the doer of the action
• eat is the predicate, the action
• Besides, S and P, a sentence might contain
  objects or noun complements.
• a. Object (O)
• 1. Direct receiver of the action of a sentence
  (DO)
• 2. Indirect receiver of the action of a sentence
  (IO)
• 3. Object of a preposition (O of Prep)
• I gave Jane a book for her birthday
• IO DO O of Prep

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Contd(1)

• b. Noun Complement ( C )
• 1. Subject identifier after the verb BE (SC)
• 2. Object Identifier after the direct object
  of a sentence (OC)
• Jack is a doctor
• doctor is the SC
• They elected him president
• president is the OC
• The subjects, objects, and noun complements of
  English sentences normally occur as one of the
  five noun structure forms given below.
• Noun (phrase) Roses are beautiful plants
• subject SC

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Contd (2)

• Pronoun You like roses
• S
• You gave him the roses
• S IO
• Gerund (phrase) Growing roses is your favorite
  hobby (as S)
• You relax by growing roses (as O of
  Prep)
• Infinitive (phrase) You like to grow roses (O
  of Prep)
• Noun clause Everyone says that you grow
  beautiful roses. (DO)

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Contd

• A sentence can contain more than one clause. This
  sentence contains a main clause that contains a
  subject and a verb and also a subordinate clause
  that also contains a subject and a verb. However,
  a subordinate clause cannot stand alone as a
  sentence.
• There are three types of subordinate clauses
  noun clauses, adjective clauses, and adverb
  clauses.
• A noun clause functions as a subject, object, or
  complement in a sentence.
• I like what you said
• An adjective clause functions as an adjective in
  a sentence.
• I like the book that you gave me
• An adverb clause functions as an adverb in a
  sentence.
• Jack will call you as soon as he gets home.

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Contd (3)

• Clause markers (CM) are used to connect clauses
  in English
• Coordinating conjunctions (CM that is used to
  connect main clause with other main clauses).
  These includes and, but, or, so, for, and yet.
• Karina has a new coat, and Carolyn has new
  boots.
• (a comma is usually placed just before the
  conjunction)
• Other clause markers connecting main clauses
  include however, nevertheless, in addition, as a
  result, on the other hand, furthermore, and
  moreover.
• Carolyn has new boots in addition, she has new
  gloves.
• (a semicolon () usually precedes the CM but
  sometimes a period (.) can be used preceding the
  CM)

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Contd (4)

• The clause markers for noun clauses are that,
  how, how many (much), what, when, where, why,
  who, whom, whose, and which.
• I am not sure that we will be able to take a
  vacation
• The clause markers for adjective clauses are who,
  whom, whose, which, that, and sometimes, when,
  where, and why
• I like the cat that has yellow stripes
• The clause markers for adverb clauses, some, are
  after, as long as, because, as, if, unless,
  although, while, when, and since.
• We will take a walk after we finish studying

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Contd (5)

• Appositive and Reduced Adjective Clause
• Appositive a noun structure which comes just
  after or just before another noun structure. The
  appositive renames or has the same meaning as the
  noun structure it accompanies. They are often set
  off by commas. They come from adjective clauses.
• Carol, who is my colleague, studies
  psycholinguistics. (Adj. Cl)
• Carol, my colleague, studies psycholinguistics.
  (appositive)
• Thus,
• Adjective Clause that uses a reduced form can be
  written using an appositive.
• Reduced Adjective Clause
• Carol, who is my colleague, studies
  psycholinguistics, becoming
• Carol, my colleague, studies psycholinguistics

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Contd (6)

• Reduced Adverb Clauses
• Some of the adverb clauses can be reduced.
• Although he works very hard, he cannot earn more
  than what he spends for food
• becoming,
• Although working very hard, he cannot earn more
  than what he spends for food

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READING

• Some Common Strategies Used against Problems of
  Reading Comprehension
• Recognize the types of the questions before
  starting to read the passage.
• Start working with questions of word meanings in
  context.
• Continue to work with questions about finding
  referents.
• The next can be directed to search the answers of
  questions about detain and factual information.
• Those types of questions will give us time to
  read at a glance the passage. It will help us to
  build our schemata that is worthwhile for helping
  us to understand in the second reading. The
  second reading is done for answering the rest
  types of questions including inferences, topic
  and main ideas, purpose and organizational
  patterns, and authors attitude and tone of the
  passage.

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Reading Practices

• Questions 1-9
• Spiders produce three basic types of webs. The
  sheet web is a two-dimensional layer of threads
  seemingly laid out at random. The space web is a
  three-dimensional, wispy structure. The orb web,
  by far the most familiar, is the two-dimensional
  cartwheel pattern.
• Of the 30,000 spider species, some 6,000 are
  orb spinners. For three decades Dr. Peter N. Witt
  has studied orb spinners, especially a species
  called Areneus diadematus, and their webs. Witt
  is a German-born medical doctor and self-taught
  arachnologist, whose passion is to understand the
  ways of spiders. Witt has delved deeply into the
  behavior of spiders and vastly expanded our
  knowledge about orb spinners and their webs. Some
  of his findings have even amazed other
  arachnologists.

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Contd RP-1

• We have actually compared human building
  activities to spider building, and we find an
  enormous amount of parallel between the two,
  Witt says. For one of thing, just like their
  human counterparts in the building traders, orb
  spinners erect a form of removable scaffolding as
  they weave their webs.
• Orb spinners are solitary creatures who dwell
  one to a web. The web is home, food source, and
  mating ground, it is guarded aggressively. When a
  male arrives at mating time, the courtship ritual
  is an intricate set of advances and retreats
  until the female is finally won over and no
  longer tries to kill her would-be lover.

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Contd RP-2

• Orb spinners each weave a new web every day,
  working in the predawn darkness and executing the
  distinctive pattern of concentric circles and
  radial lines in a half hour or less. There is
  nothing important as web building, because
  without the web there is no food, Witt says.

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Contd RP-3

• The topic of this passage is
• a. spiders
• b. different types of webs spiders make
• c. Dr. Peter N. Witt
• d. Orb spinners and their webs
• According to the passage, the difference between
  the sheet web and the orb web is
• a. the pattern
• b. the size
• c, the texture
• d. the length of threads spun by the spiders

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Contd RP-4

• The phrase at random in line two is closest in
  meaning to
• a. arbitrarily
• b. quickly
• c. deftly
• d. incongruously
• We can infer from passage that an arachnologist
  is
• a. a photographer
• b. a medical doctor
• c. a person who studies spiders
• d. a person who intensely dislikes spiders

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Contd RP-5

• The word their in line 14 refers to
• a. humans who build
• b. other arachnologists
• c. Witt and his associates
• d. orb spinners
• According to the passage, web-making by spiders
  and human building activities are
• a. both dependent on removable scaffolding
• b. hard to compare
• c. simple to analyze
• d. lengthy procedures

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Contd RP-6

• The word it in line 18 refers to
• We can infer that the female or spinner is NOT
• a. hard-working c. solitary
• b. cautious d. easily wooed
• We can conclude the passage that the purpose of
  webs is
• a. to initiate courtship of spiders
• b. to engage spiders in useful activity
• c. to provide a way for spiders to entrap food
• d. to display artistic talents of spiders.

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Contd text 2

• Questions 10 11
• When a strong earthquake occurs on the ocean
  floor rather than on land, a tremendous force is
  exerted on the seawater and one or more large,
  destructive waves called tsunamis are commonly
  called tidal waves in the United States, but this
  is really an inappropriate name in that the cause
  of the tsunami is an underground earthquake
  rather than the oceans tides.
• Far from land, a tsunami can move through the
  wide open vastness of the ocean at a speed of 600
  miles (900 kilometers) per hour and often can
  travel tremendous distances without losing height
  and strength. When a tsunami reaches shallow
  coastal water, it can reach a height of 100 feet
  (30 meters) or more and can cause tremendous
  flooding and damage to coastal areas.

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Contd text 2

• The paragraph preceding the passage most probably
  discusses
• a. tsunami in various parts of the world
• b. the negative effects of tsunamis
• c. land-based earthquakes
• d. the effect of tides on tsunamis
• Which of the following is most likely the topic
  of the paragraph following the passage
• a. the cause of tsunamis
• b. the destructive effects of tsunamis on the
  coast
• c. the differences between tsunamis and the
  tidal waves
• d. the distances covered by tsunamis