(PETERSON’S TOEFL SUCCESS)
LESSON 33.2
OVERVIEW ITEMS
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MAIN IDEA, MAIN TOPIC, AND MAIN
PURPOSE QUESTIONS
After almost every passage, the first
question is an overview question about the main idea, main
topic, or main purpose of a passage. Main idea questions ask
you to identify the most important thought in the passage.
Sample Questions
When there is not a single, readily
identified main idea, main topic
questions may be asked. These ask you what the passage is generally
“about.”
Sample Questions
Main
purpose questions
ask why an author wrote a passage. The
answer choices for these questions usually begin with infinitives.
Sample
Questions
Sample Answer Choices
Don’t answer the initial overview
question about a passage until you have answered the other questions. The
process of answering the detail questions may give you a clearer idea of the
main idea, topic, or purpose of the passage.
The correct answers for main idea, main
topic, and main purpose questions correctly summarize the main points of the
passage; they must be more general than any of the supporting ideas or
details, but not so general that they include ideas outside the scope of the
passages.
Distractors for this type of question
have one of these characteristics:
If you’re not sure of the answer for
one of these questions, go back and quickly scan the passage. You can usually
infer the main idea, main topic, or main purpose of the entire passage from
an understanding of the main ideas of the paragraphs that make up the passage
and the relationship between them.
OTHER OVERVIEW ITEMS
Several other items test your overall
understanding of the passage. These are often the last question in a set of
questions.
Tone
items
ask you to determine the author’s feelings about the topic by the language
that he or she uses in writing the passage. Look for vocabulary that
indicates if the author’s feelings are positive, negative, or neutral.
Sample Questions
If you read the following sentences in
passages, would the tone of those passages most likely be positive or
negative?
The italicized words in sentences 1 and
2 show a positive tone; in 3 and 4, the italicized words indicate a negative
attitude. Notice that sentence 2 contains negative words (minor problems) but
the overall meaning of the sentence is positive. Sentence 4 contains positive
language (very popular) but overall, the tone is negative. (Words such as despite,
but, although, however, and similar words can “reverse”
the tone of the passage.)
Most TOEFL reading passages have a
neutral tone, but sometimes an author may take a position for or against some
point. However, answer choices that indicate strong emotion—angry, outraged,
sad, and so forth—will seldom be correct.
Attitude
questions
are
similar to tone questions. Again, you must understand the author’s opinion. The
language that the author uses will tell you what his or her position is.
What is the author’s attitude toward
smoking on airplanes as expressed in the sentence below?
Although some
passengers may experience a slight discomfort from not smoking on long
flights, their smoking endangers the health of all the passengers and crew.
The author opposes smoking during
flights. He admits that there is some argument in favor of smoking— some
passengers may feel discomfort—but this is not as important as the fact that
smoking can be dangerous to everyone on the flight. The use of the word although shows this.
Sample Questions
Another type of attitude question
presents four statements and asks how the author would feel about them.
Organization
items
ask about the overall structure of a passage or about the organization of a
particular paragraph.
Sample Question
Sample Answer Choices
Items
about previous or following paragraphs ask you to assume that the
passage is part of a longer work: What would be the topic of the hypothetical
paragraph that precedes or follows the passage? To find the topic of the previous
paragraph, look for clues in the first line or two of the passage; for the
topic of the following passage, look in the last few lines. Sometimes
incorrect answer choices mention topics that have already been discussed in
the passage.
Sample Questions
EXERCISE 33.2
Focus: Answering a
variety of overview questions about short passages
Passage
1
American folk music originated with ordinary
people at a time when the rural population was isolated and music was not yet
spread by radio, tapes, CDs, or music videos. It was transmitted by oral
tradition and is noted for its energy, humor, and emotional impact. The major
source of early American folk songs was music from the British Isles, but
songs from Africa as well as songs of the American Indians have a significant
part in its heritage. Later settlers from other countries also contributed
songs. In the nineteenth century, composer Steven Foster wrote some of the
most enduringly popular of all American songs, which soon became part of the folk
tradition. Beginning in the 1930s, Woody Guthrie gained great popularity by
adapting traditional melodies and lyrics and supplying new ones as well. In
the 1950s and 1960s, signercomposers such as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Joan
Baez continued this tradition by creating “urban” folk music. Many of these
songs dealt with important social issues, such as racial integration and the
war in Vietnam. Later in the 1960s, musical groups such as the Byrds and the Turtles
combined folk music and rock and roll to create a hybrid form known as folk-rock.
Passage
2
Every scientific discipline tends to
develop its own special language because it finds ordinary words inadequate,
and psychology is no different. The purpose of this special jargon is not to mystify
non-psychologists; rather, it allows psychologists to accurately describe the
phenomena they are discussing and to communicate with each other effectively.
Of course, psychological terminology consists in part of everyday words such
as emotion, intelligence, and motivation,
but psychologists use these words somewhat differently. For example, a
non-psychologist may use the term anxiety to mean nervousness or fear, but
most psychologists reserve the term to describe a condition produced when one
fears events over which one has no control.
Passage
3
Gifford Pinchot was the first
professionally trained forester in the United States. After he graduated from
Yale in 1889, he studied forestry in Europe. In the 1890s he managed the
forest on the Biltmore estate in North Carolina (now Pisgah National Forest)
and became the first to practice scientific forestry. Perhaps his most important
contribution to conservation was persuading President Theodore Roosevelt to
set aside millions of acres in the West as forest reserves. These lands now
make up much of the national parks and national forests of the United States.
Pinchot became the chief forester of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905.
Although he held that post for only five years, he established guidelines
that set forest policy for decades to come.
Passage
4
Off-Broadway theater developed in New
York City in about 1950 as a result of dissatisfaction with conditions on
Broadway. Its founders believed that Broadway was overly concerned with
producing safe, commercially successful hit plays rather than drama with
artistic quality. Off-Broadway producers tried to assist playwrights,
directors, and performers who could not find work on Broadway. Off-Broadway
theaters were poorly equipped, had limited seating, and provided few conveniences
for audiences. But the originality of the scripts, the creativity of the performers,
and the low cost of tickets made up for these disadvantages, and off-Broadway
theater prospered. However, by the 1960s, costs began to rise, and by the
1970s, off-Broadway theater was encountering many of the difficulties of Broadway
and had lost much of its vitality. With its decline, an experimental movement
called off-off-Broadway theater
developed.
Passage
5
At the time of the first European
contact, there were from 500 to 700 languages spoken by North American Indians.
These were divided into some sixty language families, with no demonstrable
genetic relationship among them. Some of these families spread across several
of the seven cultural areas. The Algonquin family, for instance, contained
dozens of languages and occupied a vast territory. Speakers of Algonquin
languages included the Algonquins of the Eastern Woodland, the Blackfoots of
the Plains, and the Wiyots and Yuroks of California. Other language families,
like the Zuni family of the Southwest, occupied only a few square miles of
area and contained only a single tribal language.
Passage
6
Further changes in journalism occurred
around this time. In 1846, Richard Hoe invented the steam cylinder rotary
press, making it possible to print newspapers faster and cheaper. The development
of the telegraph made it possible for much speedier collection and
distribution of news. Also in 1846, the first wire service was organized. A
new type of newspaper appeared around this time, one that was more attuned to
the spirit and needs of the new America. Although newspapers continued to
cover politics, they came to report more human interest stories and to record
the most recent news, which they could not have done before the telegraph.
New York papers, and those of other northern cities, maintained corps of correspondents
to go into all parts of the country to cover newsworthy events.
Passage
7
In the western third of North America,
the convoluted folds of the earth’s surface and its fractured geologic
structure tend to absorb the seismic energy of an earthquake. Even if an earthquake
measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale struck Los Angeles, its force would fade
by the time it reached San Francisco, some 400 miles away. But in the eastern
two thirds of the continent, the same energy travels more easily. The
earthquake that struck New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811, estimated at 8 on the
Richter scale, shook Washington, D.C., about 800 miles away, and was felt as
far as Boston and Toronto.
Passage
8
There has never been an adult scientist
who has been half as curious as any child between the ages of four months and
four years. Adults sometimes mistake this superb curiosity about everything
as a lack of ability to concentrate. The truth is that children begin to learn
at birth, and by the time they begin formal schooling at the age of 5 or 6,
they have already absorbed a fantastic amount of information, perhaps more, fact
for fact, than they will learn for the rest of their lives. Adults can
multiply by many times the knowledge children absorb if they appreciate this curiosity
while simultaneously encouraging the children to learn.
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ANSWER KEY
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