7. Short Readings Format ------ Part VII is the longest part of TOEIC. It s also the last part, so you may be starting to get tired. However, you need to stay focused on the test for a little longer. (Of course, if you want, you may work on part VII before you work on parts V and VI.) Part VII consists of short reading passages followed by questions about the passages. There are four possible answer choices for each question. You must pick the best answer choice based on the information in the passage and then mark that answer on your answer sheet. The Passages There are from twelve to fifteen passages. Most are quite short. Some consist of only three or four sentences. the longest have around 150 words. The passages deal with a wide variety of topics and involve many different types of written materials. There are from two to five questions per passage for a total of 40 questions. They include these three main types: 1. Overview questions 2. Detail questions 3. Inference questions * Overview questions occur after most of the passages. To answer overview questions correctly, you need a "global" (overall) understanding of the passage. The most common overview question asks about the purpose or the main topic of the passage: What does this article mainly discuss? What is the purpose of this letter? Why was this notice written? Some ask about the best title or heading of a passage: What is the best heading for this announcement? Which of the fo/lowing is the best title for the article? Other overview questions ask about the writer of the passage, the readers of the passage, or the place of publication: In what business is the writer of the passage? What is the author s opinion of ____ ? Who would be most interested in the information in this announcement? For whom is this advertisement intended? Where was this article probably published? * Detail questions, the most common type of Part VII question, ask about specific points in the passage. You will usually have to scan the passage to find and identify the information. Sometimes the answer and the information in the passage do not look the same. For example, a sentence in a passage may read "This process is not as simple as it once was." The correct answer may be "The process is now more complex." Some detail questions are negative questions. These almost always include the word NOT, which is printed in uppercase (capital) letters: Based on the information in the passage, which of the following is NOT true? Negative questions usually take longer to answer than other detail questions. * A few questions in Part VII are inference questions. The answers to these questions are not directly stated in the passage. Instead, you must draw a conclusion about the information that is given. Some typical inference questions: Which of these statements is probably true? Which of the following can be inferred from this notice?