TOEFL Reading Question Types: Current Tasks and Examples
The current TOEFL Reading section uses Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage. Distinguish these task formats from the skills assessed within them, such as finding a detail or interpreting a word. Older lists of ten academic-passage question categories are not a complete description of the current section.
The task names below follow the ETS Reading overview. All examples here are original teaching exercises, not official ETS items or score predictions.
1. Complete the Words
Use the surrounding meaning and grammar to reconstruct partially missing words. Check the whole sentence after filling a blank: a plausible meaning is not enough if the form does not fit.
Practice: “The library has extended its opening hou__ so students can stu__ there in the evening.”
Show the completed words
hours; study. “Opening hours” names the times when a building is open. After “can,” use the base verb “study.” The sentence's context helps you choose a word, while grammar confirms the form.
2. Read in Daily Life
Read a short practical text such as a message or notice. Identify the writer's purpose, the audience and any condition that changes what the reader should do.
Notice: “The west entrance will be closed on Thursday morning. Students attending classes before noon should use the south entrance. Both entrances will reopen at 12:30.”
Question: Which entrance should a student use for a 10 a.m. class on Thursday?
Show the answer and evidence
The south entrance. The class is before noon, so the instruction for morning students applies. The reopening time does not apply to a 10 a.m. arrival. Notice how the day and time work together.
3. Read an Academic Passage
Follow how a short academic text connects an idea with evidence. Separate what the writer states from what you already know about the subject.
Mini-passage: “In a classroom experiment, students remembered more unfamiliar words after retrieving them from memory than after rereading them. However, the two groups studied only one word list, so the result alone cannot show whether the advantage would persist across an entire course.”
Question: Why does the author mention that the groups studied only one list?
Show the answer and explanation
To limit how widely the finding can be applied. The first sentence reports a result. “However” introduces a qualification: one list does not establish what would happen over a course. The passage does not say that retrieval failed or that rereading is always ineffective. This is a fictional teaching example, not a report of a particular study.
A method for checking multiple-choice answers
- Restate what the question asks before looking at the choices.
- Find the relevant sentence and read its immediate context.
- Reject answers that contradict the text, add an unsupported claim or answer a different question.
- Explain the chosen answer in your own words using the text.
Do not choose an answer just because it repeats a familiar word. A paraphrase can express the correct relationship without copying the original sentence.
Which practice should I do next?
Try Reading Practice Test 3 for a mixed set with explanations. For printable academic-passage work, use the reading exercise PDF, which covers only part of the current skill mix. Check official preparation materials for the actual delivery and timing of your test.