Skill 13: LISTEN FOR EMPHATIC EXPRESSIONS OF SURPRISE TOEFL COMPLETE COURSE (LISTENING)

TOEFL COMPLETE COURSE

(LISTENING)

Skill 13: LISTEN FOR EMPHATIC EXPRESSIONS OF SURPRISE.

Emphatic expressions of surprise are common in the short dialogue, so you should become familiar with them. When surprise is expressed, it implies that the speaker did not expect something to be true.

Example

On the recording, you hear:

woman	Do you see Paul driving around in his Mustang?
man	Then he DID get a new car
narrator	What had the woman thought?

In your test book or on the computer screen, you read:

A.     Paul would definitely get a Mustang.

B.      Paul did not know how to drive.

C.     Paul did not like Mustangs.

D.     Paul would not get a new car.

In this dialogue the emphatic form he did get is used to show the man’s surprise that Paul got a new car. It means that the man expected that Paul would not get a new car, so the best answer is therefore answer (D).

The following chart outlines various ways to express emphatic surprise.

 

TOEFL EXERCISE 12: In this exercise, Listen carefully to each short dialogue and question on the recording, and then choose the best answer to the question. You should be particularly careful of expressions of emphatic surprise.

1	A.        Greg always comes to parties. B.         Greg would come to party later. C.        Greg was unable to attend the party for only a moment. D.        Greg would stay at the party for only a moment.	6	A.        He had changed apartments. B.         He did not like his new apartment. C.        He was still in his old apartment. D.        He had moved from a house to an apartment.
2	A.        The woman always rode her motorcycle to school. B.         The woman was not coming to school today. C.        The woman was an expert motorcycle rider. D.        The woman did not know how to ride motorcycle.	7	A.       The woman did not like desserts. B.        The woman ate sweets regularly. C.       The woman would not share her chocolate cake. D.       The woman had eaten his piece of cake.
3	A.        The man was not a very good cook. B.         The man never invited friends over dinner. C.        The man would never invite him over for dinner. D.        The man was an excellent cook.	8	A.       The man was going to study hard. B.        The man already had a driver’s license. C.       The man would not take the test. D.       The man had already taken the test.
4	A.        The woman had run more than three miles. B.         The woman always got lots of exercise. C.        The woman ran for three hours in the morning. D.        The woman had not gotten much exercise	9	A.       She had registered in physics. B.        She would go to physics class later. C.       She had already taken a physics class. D.       She had not enrolled in physics.
5	A.        He had been somewhere else. B.         He had been in the library. C.        He had been working on his research project. D.        He would start working on his project in five hours.	10	A.       The pipes were not clear. B.        The plumber would be late. C.       The plumber had already cleared the pipes. D.       The pipes did not need to be cleared.

ANSWER KEY

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
C	D	A	D	A	C	A	C	D	A

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