Academic Reading Skills

　　The Reading section measures test takers’ ability to understand university-level academic texts and passages. In English-speaking academic environments students are expected to read and understand information from textbooks and other types of academic material. Below are three possible purposes for academic reading.

　　Reading purposes include

　　1. Reading to find information， which involves

　　effectively scanning text for key facts and important information

　　increasing reading fluency and rate

　　2. Basic comprehension， which requires the reader to

　　understand the general topic or main idea， major points， important facts and details， vocabulary in context， and pronoun references.

　　make inferences about what is implied in a passage

　　3. Reading to learn， which depends on the ability to

　　recognize the organization and purpose of a passage

　　understand relationships between ideas (for example， compare-and-contrast， cause-and-effect， agree-disagree， or steps in a process)

　　organize information into a category chart or a summary in order to recall major points and important details

　　infer how ideas throughout the passage connect

　　The TOEFL iBT test includes three basic categories of academic texts. The categories are based on the author’s objectives：

　　Exposition

　　Argumentation

　　Historical biographical/event narrative

　　Test takers do not need any special background knowledge to correctly answer the questions in the Reading section; all the information needed to answer the questions is contained in the passages.

　　Test takers must read through or scroll to the end of each passage before receiving questions on that passage. Once the questions appear， the passage is located on the right side of the computer screen， and the questions are on the left.

　　上述就是考官眼里的托福阅读考试考察重点，建议同学们从上述的考察能力出发，摸透考官的考察方向，在平时的托福阅读备考过程中有针对性的进行练习，相信托福阅读备考的角度和视野会有一个大的提升。