RONNEL TOLD ME THAT THE LETTER FROM THE ATTORNEY WAS SHORT, CURT,...

20. Ronnel told me that the letter from the attorney was short, curt, and it troubled him.A B C Da. Ab. Bc. Cd.D

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Listening

Comprehension

Another key to your success in an American school is listening com-prehension. How well can you understand what you hear? This chap-ter prepares you for the Listening Comprehension section of theTOEFL exam. You will learn exactly what to expect from the exam,including important differences between the computer- and paper-based versions of the test. You will also learn active listening strat-egies and how you can use them during the exam. Finally, you will findtips for each kind of listening comprehension question and helpfulpractice exercises.

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T G O E S W I T H O U T

saying that your success in college will depend heavily upon your ability to under-stand what you hear. As carefully as you may read your textbooks, handouts and other course mate-rial, you won’t do well if you don’t comprehend what is said in the classroom. That’s why the TOEFLexam includes a section that measures your listening comprehension skills.

T h e T O E F L E x a m L i s t e n i n g S e c t i o n : W h a t t o E x p e c t

The Listening Comprehension section tests your understanding of the kinds of conversations you might hearon an American college campus. While the reading comprehension passages on the TOEFL exam are gener-ally formal, the listening passages are often quite informal and heavily idiomatic. They will typically includethe greeting “What’s up?” in a reading comprehension passage. But you might hear something of the sort inone of the passages on the listening test.On the actual exam, you will hear three types of recorded passages in this section:

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short conversations (Part A on the paper-based exam)

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longer conversations and class discussions (Part B)

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mini-talks and lectures (Part C)The passages are grouped in these three categories and presented in this order. Thus, you will begin withshort conversations (two people speaking), then move into longer conversations and class discussions (twoor more people speaking), and finish with a talk or lecture (one person speaking).

K i n d s o f L i s t e n i n g C o m p r e h e n s i o n Q u e s t i o n s

o n t h e T O E F L E x a m

You will be asked several different kinds of questions about the passages you hear in this section. They canbe divided into the following categories (many of which are very similar to the kinds of questions you willsee in the Reading Comprehension section of the exam):