Dr. Byrnes’ TOEFL Reading: How to answer Information, Negative Information, Inference, and Summary Questions (Dr. Byrnes' TOEFL)

Book Synopsis: This book teaches you how to quickly identify correct answers for TOEFL reading comprehension-style questions. Since TOEFL reading passages are sourced from academic work, and academic writing has its own special style, you can develop the 'feel' for spotting correct choices and definitely wrong ones by utilizing this style.

For example, one feature of academic writing is that ideas must move from general to specific. Therefore, by quickly scanning the passage for topic sentences, you can understand the summary ideas of the passage. Detailed examination of specific text within the passage becomes necessary only when the questions inquire about particulars.

Another feature of academic writing is hedging. Just as it is employed in risk management for investments, academics use hedging to express their ideas cautiously, avoiding unnecessary criticism or objections from readers. By simply tuning into the choices that do not use hedging or qualifying words when the situation demands them, you can quickly eliminate the options as they should be wrong.

Of course, to score exceptionally high, you really need to learn these: close reading methods to uncover hidden information in the text, deductive inference methods used in TOEFL inference questions, and inductive techniques for making the best-educated guesses, deploying your background knowledge, which is necessary to answer inductive reasoning questions, as well as eliminating wrong choices in negative information and summary questions.

However, all of these 'tricks and tips' are useless if you do not practice them with challenging questions. In this book, you will be able to sharpen your hunting skills for correct choices with hundreds of questions specifically designed to compel you to use the same strategy.