iBT Listening Question: Purpose Why did the speaker say that? What was the purpose of saying that? You will hear a part of the listening passage repeated to you and then you will be asked to pick the answer choice with the reason for saying what the speaker said. Many times the speaker will use idioms so that you will have a harder time completely understanding what they said. When idioms and phrases are used, the focus shifts from a few words to the whole context. This question is testing you on whether or not you can understand the reason why somebody said something without necessarily understanding every word that the speaker spoke. If a speaker says that they will have to make due, this might not make any sense to the test taker, but if they think of the context or the situation being that they missed the registration deadline and they will only get to take three classes instead of four without any choice, then the test taker can guess that the purpose of saying "I’ll just have to make due" is one of resignation or being at peace with their situation. Lastly, watch out for any negative expressions that can have a positive meaning like "There isn’t a better place to eat lunch." This means that the place to eat is the best, not the worst. POSTED BY TOEFL TIGER AT 6:36 AM LINKS TO THIS POST LABELS: IBT LISTENING QUESTION: PURPOSE MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2007