The large crowd and other problems could easily have

110 TOEFL EXAM ESSENTIALS CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS ■ Practice active reading techniques, such as highlighting and taking notes. ■ Schedule regular reading time into your study plan. ■ Familiarize yourself with the reading question types, including those on the computer-based exam. ■ Main ideas are general statements that bring together all the ideas in a passage. ■ Supporting details are specific examples and facts that back up a main idea. ■ Inferences are conclusions based on what the writer suggests or implies. ■ Word choice is the particular words a writer uses to describe his subject. ■ Connotation is the suggested meaning of words. ■ Learn the strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words. ■ Review the three-part strategy for answering reference questions. ■ For paraphrased sentence questions, practice “rewriting” material as you read. ■ Study the four most common patterns writers use to organize their ideas. ■ Familiarize yourself with the transitional phrases used to introduce specific information, chronology, important points, comparisons, contrasts, causes, and effects. READING 111 Practice Answers

1. c. 2. a.

3. b. 4. c. Because overt is not a positive characteristic in this con- text, you can eliminate choices a and d, which are posi- tive words in this setting. Choice b is too negative; nervous behaviors are not considered obnoxious.

5. a. Because the writer says that money is not important

to him, you can determine the meaning of lucrative has something to do with money. When you replace lucra- tive with “highly profitable” in the sentence, it makes sense.

6. c. 7. b. The author uses the phrases “deliberately obscure” and

“impossible to understand” to give a negative description of the “new writers” he is addressing. When the author states that obscure writing is “impossible to understand except by a small, elite group of other writers,” most likely he is not putting down the average reader but implying that most readers are not interested in obscure writing.

8. a. This passage is organized by chronological order.

Note the use of the transitional words next, later, when, and then.