MICHAEL: Hi, I’m
Michael from ETS. Today on Inside
the TOEFL Test, we’re going inside the
TOEFL iBT Reading section. Specifically, the
Insert Text questions. The Insert Text questions
are designed to show that you understand
the logical order of ideas in a reading passage. In the reading section, every reading passage has
one Insert Text question. But instead of choosing
from a list of 4 choices, like with most
Reading questions, you will click on one
of the 4 black squares to insert the text
into the paragraph. During the real test,
you can change the location of the sentence as many
times as you need to, so you can see how it works
in each of the four places. Here’s a sample
Insert Text question, and the corresponding paragraph. Note that the sentence says
“This is the criterion…” And it’s important
to look for pronouns. The pronoun here is “this,”
so there is probably something about a criterion in
the previous sentence. If we insert the sentence
at square number 4, the previous sentence talks
about “the standard criterion,” and the following
sentence says “Yet an equally
important criterion”. So that’s a
likely choice. And when you read those
sentences together, the sentences do
flow logically. So this is the
correct answer. One tip for improving
your reading is to really know
your pronouns, and to practice matching
them to the words they refer to in a text. Here are a few of
the most common pronouns that you will see
when you read. There are lots of ways to
improve your English skills. Whatever you do,
keep practicing. And good luck on
your TOEFL test.