TOEFL iBT · full test
TOEFL iBT reading practice set 4
Nineteen practice items in the three task types of the updated TOEFL iBT Reading section: Complete the Words (five gaps in a paragraph about sleep and memory), Read in Daily Life (a policy email and a museum web post) and Read an Academic Passage (two longer texts, on fungi and plant roots and on glacial valleys). The hardest of the four reading sets. It is untimed; the real Reading section is timed and adaptive, with harder questions following stronger answers, and it is reported on a 1 to 6 scale.
Exam mode: timed, answers at the end, like the real test. Practice mode: untimed, the answer and explanation after each question.
What is in this test
| Multiple choice, one answer | 14 questions | instant marking |
| Fill in the blank | 5 questions | instant marking |
Covers: complete the words (5) · detail (4) · email (2) · web post (2) · rhetorical purpose (2) · inference (2) · vocabulary (1) · cause effect (1)
A sample question
Most land plants do not take up water and minerals entirely on their own. Their roots are wrapped in, or even penetrated by, the threads of fungi, and the two organisms trade: the fungus extends the plant's reach into the soil and in exchange receives sugars made through photosynthesis. These associations, known as mycorrhizae, are so widespread that they are thought to be as old as plants living on land. Recent studies suggest that the fungal threads may also connect neighbouring plants, forming a shared underground network. In one experiment, researchers shaded a young tree and found that carbon labelled with a harmless tracer moved through the network from a sunlit neighbour to the shaded tree. Some enthusiasts have interpreted this as evidence that forests cooperate. Many ecologists urge caution. The movement of carbon does not prove that the transfer benefits the receiving plant, nor that it has been selected by evolution to do so; it may be a by-product of the fungus balancing its own supplies. Establishing the true consequences for the health of forests will require long-term field studies, rather than experiments in controlled conditions. What does the fungus receive from the plant?
- Water
- Minerals
- Sugars
- Shade
Marked when you take the test; the explanation appears in your review.