Reading Comprehension TOEFL

Passage 1: Questions number 1 - 3

Whales are mammals rather than fish, yet they live in the world’s oceans rather than on land. Because of the fact that they are mammals, scientists have believed for quite some time that whales are descendants of land mammals. Some interesting evidence to support this theory has recently been found. In Egypt, fossils have been found of a forty-million-year-old whale leg, kneecap, ankle, footbones, and toes. It appears from the fossil evidence that the bones were not very strong and not very large in comparison to the size of the whale. Based on this fossil evidence, the following evolutionary path has been hypothesized. As the whale began its evolution toward the water, its legs weakened and decreased in size. Then, during its millions of years in the water, the legs slowly disappeared, leaving only the front flippers today.

Question: The main idea of this passage is that...

• numerous whale fossils have been found in the world’s oceans

• there is evidence that whales may have descended from land mammals

• whales are mammals and not fish

• whales have not evolved very much over the last millions of years

Whales are mammals rather than fish, yet they live in the world’s oceans rather than on land. Because of the fact that they are mammals, scientists have believed for quite some time that whales are descendants of land mammals. Some interesting evidence to support this theory has recently been found. In Egypt, fossils have been found of a forty-million-year-old whale leg, kneecap, ankle, footbones, and toes. It appears from the fossil evidence that the bones were not very strong and not very large in comparison to the size of the whale. Based on this fossil evidence, the following evolutionary path has been hypothesized. As the whale began its evolution toward the water, its legs weakened and decreased in size. Then, during its millions of years in the water, the legs slowly disappeared, leaving only the front flippers today.

Question: All of the following are true about whales, EXCEPT that...

• they are mammals

• they live in the ocean

• they are fish

• they may have come from the land

Whales are mammals rather than fish, yet they live in the world’s oceans rather than on land. Because of the fact that they are mammals, scientists have believed for quite some time that whales are descendants of land mammals. Some interesting evidence to support this theory has recently been found. In Egypt, fossils have been found of a forty-million-year-old whale leg, kneecap, ankle, footbones, and toes. It appears from the fossil evidence that the bones were not very strong and not very large in comparison to the size of the whale. Based on this fossil evidence, the following evolutionary path has been hypothesized. As the whale began its evolution toward the water, its legs weakened and decreased in size. Then, during its millions of years in the water, the legs slowly disappeared, leaving only the front flippers today.

Question: According to the hypothesis in the passage, what happened to whales’ legs?

• They got stronger over time.

• They got larger over time.

• They disappeared quickly.

• They became front flippers.

Passage 2: Questions number 4 - 7

If you want to advance in your career, you will have to make some careful decisions about which jobs you take. Evaluate your job offer for the value it has to your career. It may mean sacrifices at first. You may have to move to a different region or different country to get a job that is right for you. You may have to work late hours, at least temporarily. You might even have to take a lower salary for a job that offers you the experience that you need. But you should never accept a job if it is not related to your career goals.

Accepting a job that is not within your career path will not give you the training or experience you need or you want. You will find yourself frustrated in such position an consequently will not perform your best. This will have an effect on the people around you, who will not feel as if you are being part of the team. The best advice is to think carefully before accepting any position and make sure the job is one you want to have.

Question: What is the most significant factor in evaluating a job?

• Location

• Salary

• Value to your career

• How much you will like it

If you want to advance in your career, you will have to make some careful decisions about which jobs you take. Evaluate your job offer for the value it has to your career. It may mean sacrifices at first. You may have to move to a different region or different country to get a job that is right for you. You may have to work late hours, at least temporarily. You might even have to take a lower salary for a job that offers you the experience that you need. But you should never accept a job if it is not related to your career goals.

Accepting a job that is not within your career path will not give you the training or experience you need or you want. You will find yourself frustrated in such position an consequently will not perform your best. This will have an effect on the people around you, who will not feel as if you are being part of the team. The best advice is to think carefully before accepting any position and make sure the job is one you want to have.

Question: What is NOT mentioned a sacrifice for a valuable job?

• No benefits

• Moving

• Bad hours

• Low salary

If you want to advance in your career, you will have to make some careful decisions about which jobs you take. Evaluate your job offer for the value it has to your career. It may mean sacrifices at first. You may have to move to a different region or different country to get a job that is right for you. You may have to work late hours, at least temporarily. You might even have to take a lower salary for a job that offers you the experience that you need. But you should never accept a job if it is not related to your career goals.

Accepting a job that is not within your career path will not give you the training or experience you need or you want. You will find yourself frustrated in such position an consequently will not perform your best. This will have an effect on the people around you, who will not feel as if you are being part of the team. The best advice is to think carefully before accepting any position and make sure the job is one you want to have.

Question: What is wrong with taking a job outside your career path?

• You will earn less

• You won’t perform well

• People will give you advice

• You will be stuck on a team

If you want to advance in your career, you will have to make some careful decisions about which jobs you take. Evaluate your job offer for the value it has to your career. It may mean sacrifices at first. You may have to move to a different region or different country to get a job that is right for you. You may have to work late hours, at least temporarily. You might even have to take a lower salary for a job that offers you the experience that you need. But you should never accept a job if it is not related to your career goals.

Accepting a job that is not within your career path will not give you the training or experience you need or you want. You will find yourself frustrated in such position an consequently will not perform your best. This will have an effect on the people around you, who will not feel as if you are being part of the team. The best advice is to think carefully before accepting any position and make sure the job is one you want to have.

Question: What is author’s best advice?

• Consider changing careers

• Don’t work with other people

• Take the first job offered

• Think before accepting a job

Passage 3: Questions number 8 - 10

When the typewriter was first invented, its keys were arranged alphabetically. This made the keys easy to find. However, this arrangement also caused the bars of the machine to jam, or get stuck. To solve this problem, a new letter arrangement was introduced by Christopher Latham Scholes in 1872. His system, the standard keyboard system, is still used on typewriters today. He arranged the letters in such a way that the bars hit the inked ribbon from opposite directions as much as possible. This resulted in far less jamming than had occurred with the alphabetical models.

Question: The main topic of this passage is ...

• a problem and solution concerning the early typewriter

• the invention of the typewriter

• how to write a letter on the typewriter

• why the keys stick on today’s typewriter

When the typewriter was first invented, its keys were arranged alphabetically. This made the keys easy to find. However, this arrangement also caused the bars of the machine to jam, or get stuck. To solve this problem, a new letter arrangement was introduced by Christopher Latham Scholes in 1872. His system, the standard keyboard system, is still used on typewriters today. He arranged the letters in such a way that the bars hit the inked ribbon from opposite directions as much as possible. This resulted in far less jamming than had occurred with the alphabetical models.

Question: According to the passage, on the first typewriters ...

• the keys were in alphabetical order

• the keys were hard to find

• the bars on the machine never jammed

• Scholes’s system worked quite well

When the typewriter was first invented, its keys were arranged alphabetically. This made the keys easy to find. However, this arrangement also caused the bars of the machine to jam, or get stuck. To solve this problem, a new letter arrangement was introduced by Christopher Latham Scholes in 1872. His system, the standard keyboard system, is still used on typewriters today. He arranged the letters in such a way that the bars hit the inked ribbon from opposite directions as much as possible. This resulted in far less jamming than had occurred with the alphabetical models.

Question: The passage indicates that under Scholes’s system, the bars hit the ribbon ..

• in alphabetical order

• and caused the keys to jam

• from opposite directions

• in the same way as they had on the original typewriter