Guide to the TOEIC® Test

Reading Section
The second section of the TOEIC Listening and Reading Test is the Reading Section.
It consists of three parts with a total of 100 questions. It is a test of your ability to
comprehend written English in a business context. You will complete sentences and
answer comprehension questions about reading passages.

QUICK GUIDE: Reading Section

Definition The Reading Section tests your comprehension of written English and your
ability to identify correct language use. There are three parts to this section. You
will choose the correct words or phrases to complete sentences and answer
comprehension questions about a variety of types of reading passages.

Targeted In order to do well on the Reading Section, you must be able to:
Skills • understand vocabulary pertaining to business and everyday activities.
• identify correct grammatical forms.
• identify correct word usage.
• understand the main idea and details in a variety of types of reading passages.
• make inferences about information you read.
• read and answer questions within the time given.

The Parts Part 5: You will choose the best words or phrases to complete sentences.
of the Part 6: You will read passages with incomplete sentences and choose the best
Reading
words or phrases to complete these sentences.
Section
Part 7: You will read passages of varying types and lengths and answer
comprehension questions about them. You will also read double
passages and answer questions about both.
(See below for more thorough descriptions of each part of the Reading Section.)

Question Parts 5 and 6: Choose the correct grammatical form, word form, or vocabulary
Types word to complete each sentence.
Part 7: Answer main idea, detail, audience, and inference questions about a
variety of reading passages.

Timing The Reading Section of the TOEIC test lasts approximately 75 minutes. Because
the content is printed in your test booklet, you can go back and check or adjust
your answers as long as it's within the time allowed.

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 READING SECTION OVERVIEW

Parts of the TOEIC® Test Reading Section

Part 5

In Part 5 of the Reading Test, you will read sentences and complete them. There is a total of 40 items in this
part of the test. For each sentence, you will choose among four answer options to complete the sentence. The
sentence topics focus on common business and everyday themes. The sentences focus on different types of
language issues.

Part 5 sentences may deal with themes such as:

• Office issues Transportation

• Financial issues Tourism
• Sales and marketing Dining out
• Business transactions Entertainment
• Schedules Weather

Part 5 items may focus on grammar issues such as:

• Verb tense Transition words

• Verb form Comparative adjectives
• Subject-verb agreement Adverbs
• Pronouns Time clauses
• Prepositions Conditionals

Part 5 items may focus on vocabulary issues such as:

• Word families (related words) Word meaning

• Parts of speech Commonly confused words

Part 6

Part 6 of the Reading Test consists of four reading passages. Three sentences in each passage are incomplete.
For each of these incomplete sentences, you will choose among four answer options. There is a total of 12
questions in this part of the test.

The reading passages include a variety of types like those you might see in common business or
everyday contexts. They may be of the following types:

• E-mails • Letters
• Memos • Instructions
• Notices • Articles
• Advertisements

The incomplete sentences in Part 6 are similar to the incomplete sentences in Part 5. The difference
is that they are presented within the context of a passage, or text. To complete some of the items, you
may have to look at the surrounding sentences in order to choose the correct answer option.

Part 7

In Part 7 of the Reading Test, you will read passages of varying types and lengths and answer
comprehension questions about them. The reading passages include types you might see in common
business and everyday situations.

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SKILLS FOR THE TOEIC® TEST: LISTENING AND READING

The passages may be of the following types:

• E-mails • Articles
• Letters • Reports
• Memos • Forms
• Agendas • Charts, tables and graphs
• Advertisements • Schedules
• Notices

There is a total of 48 questions in Part 7. You will answer a variety of types of comprehension
questions. Comprehension question types will include the following:

• Main Idea: What is this report mainly about?

• Detail: Where does Ms. Kim work?
• Purpose: Why did Mr. Jones write the letter?
• Audience: Who is this article for?
• Inference: What can we infer about the writer of this e-mail?
• Vocabulary: The word “insight” in line 10 is closest in meaning to

Part 7 begins with 7-10 single passages, each one followed by 2-5 comprehension questions, for
a total of 28 questions. The single passages are followed by a series of double passages. Double
passages are sets of two related reading passages followed by five comprehension questions for
each set, for a total of 20 questions. Some of the questions require looking at the information in both
passages and making the appropriate connections in order to answer correctly. The question types are
the same as for the single passages, except that you normally won’t see vocabulary questions for the
double passages.

Here are some examples of double passage types:

• A train schedule and an e-mail about making travel arrangements

• A help-wanted ad and a letter asking for employment
• A page of course descriptions and a class registration form
• An invoice and a letter disputing the charges
• A meeting agenda and a meeting report

Challenges & Solutions

» CHALLENGE 1: “The vocabulary in the Reading Test is even harder than in the Listening Test!”

SOLUTION: The Reading Test does include higher-level vocabulary than the Listening Test, so it’s
important to become comfortable reading in English. Practice by reading advertisements, business letters
(a “ how-to guide” for writing business letters is a great source), newspaper articles, and business journals.
There are many sources of reading material on the Internet. Most major business journals have websites,
and you can learn a lot of vocabulary by reading the articles. Websites with information about tourism,
shopping, restaurants, and so on will also expose you to many vocabulary words that are useful for the
TOEIC test.

SOLUTION: Underline words you don’t know as you go through the readings and questions in this book.
Then look them up in a dictionary. This will help you get used to some of the language you may find on
the test. (See also the Guide to the TOEIC Test Listening Section for more vocabulary expansion hints.)

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 READING SECTION CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

SOLUTION: Learn common suffixes and prefixes to help you find the meanings of new words. Suffixes,
or word endings, often indicate the part of speech of a word. Prefixes, or word beginnings, often add a
specific meaning to a word. Learning the function and meaning of different suffixes and prefixes will
help you expand your vocabulary. Here are some examples.

P O W E R E D BY C O B U IL D

C om m on Suffixes
Suffixes P arts o f Speech M eanings Exam ples
-ation nouns refers to a state or process, or examination, inflammation,
-tion to an instance of that process protection, information, permission,
-sion confusion
-ment nouns refers to the process of replacement, government,
making or doing something, environment, document, assessment
or to the result of this process
-er nouns refers to a person who carpenter, teacher, copier, vendor,
-or performs a particular action, inspector
often because its his or her job
-ize verbs refers to the process by which civilize, modernize, realize
things or people are brought
into a new state
-ify verbs refers to making something or beautify, glorify, terrify, signify
someone different in some way
-en verbs refers to the process of putting brighten, enlighten, frighten
someone or something into a
particular state, condition, or
place
-ate verbs refers to becoming or educate, eradicate, obliterate
changing into
-able adjectives indicates what someone or readable, reliable, believable, adorable
something can have done to
them
-ive adjectives refers to a state of being creative, decisive, objective
related to something, or to
having certain qualities
-al adjectives indicates what something is regional, grammatical, magical,
connected with national
fore- verbs; nouns refers to something being or foretell, forefather, forethought
coming before
inter- adjectives refers to things that move, international, interact, intermingle,
exist, or happen between two interdependent
or more people or things
mis- verbs; nouns refers to something being misspell, misquote, misunderstanding,
done badly or incorrectly mistreatment
re- verbs; nouns refers to an action or process reread, redo, rebuild, rework
being repeated
in- various forms words that have the inconsiderate, incapable, impossible,
im- opposite meaning of the root immoral, illiterate, illegal,
il- word irresponsible, irregular
ir-

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SKILLS FOR THE TOEIC® TEST: LISTENING AND READING

P O W E R E D BY C O B U IL D

Common Prefixes
Prefixes Parts of Speech Meanings Examples
dis- various forms words that have the dishonest, disagree, displease,
opposite meaning of the root disorder, discomfort
word
un- various forms words that have the uninteresting, unlawful, unpopular,
opposite meaning of the root unprofessional
word
de- verbs forms words that have the defrost, decompress, deform,
opposite meaning of the root decompose
word
sub- nouns; adjectives nouns: refers to things that nouns: subgroup, subtotal,
are part of a larger thing or submarine, subway, subzero
that are below something
adjectives: refers to people adjectives: substandard, subtropical
or things that are at a lower
standard or level

» CHALLENGE 2: “There seems to be a big focus on grammar in the Reading Test, and I’m not
that good at grammar.”

SOLUTION: Be sure to study the grammar points and activities for Part 5 in this book to help bring up
your grammar skills. Then, when you are finished with the Progressive Practice section and practice
test for Part 5, note which types of questions you got wrong (e.g., Did you miss a lot of questions about
verb tenses? Did you have trouble choosing the right verb forms?). This will help narrow down problem
areas where you need more practice. When you have identified your weak areas, you can then look for
exercises in grammar books to help you practice and strengthen your skills in these areas.

SOLUTION: Read a lot, especially business-related materials. Seeing language and grammar in
context will help you become more familiar with structure and word forms.

» CHALLENGE 3: “I can’t always find important information in the reading passages.”

SOLUTION: Before reading the passage, always read the questions first. This will give you an idea of
what to look for in the passages. You can apply this technique when you do the Progressive Practice
section and practice test for Part 7 of this book.

SOLUTION: Know how to spot specific question types, such as main idea, detail, vocabulary, or
inference questions. Knowing the question type will help you know what sort of information to look for
in the passage.

SOLUTION: Learn and practice the skimming techniques found on pages 137 to 139 of this book.
Skimming means reading over a text very quickly to get a general understanding of the main ideas, how
the passage is organized, and what types of information it contains. Being able to skim well will help
you more quickly answer main idea, detail, and general questions.

» CHALLENGE 4: “The passages can be pretty long! There’s no way I can read them all and still
have time to complete the questions.”

SOLUTION: Here again you can use your skimming skills. You can practice skimming with any reading
text. Before reading, skim the text to get a general idea of the content. Make a guess about the main idea
and some of the details. Then read the entire text more thoroughly to see how close your guesses came.
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 READING SECTION CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

SOLUTION: Practice reading short texts about common TOEIC test topics and time yourself. You can
read the text again later and try to do it in less time, or you can try to read texts of about the same
length in the same amount of time or less. This will get you used to reading in a timed situation and
help you read more quickly.

SOLUTION: When you’re taking the test, quickly look for key words in the questions and answer
options. Then go back to the passage and look for these key words in the text. The answer to the
question will often be found in the general part of the text where the key words appear.

» CHALLENGE 5: “The wording in the answer options doesn’t match the wording in the
passage.”

SOLUTION: The answer options on the reading comprehension section of Part 7 are often
paraphrased, or reworded from the information in the passage. Study the paraphrasing skills on
pages 47-53 of the Listening Section of this book to learn more about paraphrasing. You can practice
paraphrasing when you read texts in English. After you read a sentence, write the idea again using your
own words. This will help you get used to different ways of expressing the same idea.

SOLUTION: Quite often, some of the answer options do have the exact wording found in the text. Be
sure to look very closely at these answer options and compare them to the information presented in
the text. These answer options often contain factual information, but they do not actually answer the
question.

» CHALLENGE 6: “I can never decide what the correct answer option is!”

SOLUTION: The questions after the passages are presented in the same order as the information in
the passage. This will help you narrow down the possible places where an answer can be found.

SOLUTION: You’ll probably notice that one or two of the answer options are clearly not the correct
answers. Many students find that they can effectively narrow down the possible answers to two
answer options. Carefully consider these two answer options, and if you still can’t decide on the correct
answer option, guess between the two. A fifty percent chance of getting the correct answer is always
better than a twenty-five percent or thirty-three percent chance. On the TOEIC test, incorrect answers
are simply not totaled with your score. You do not lose points for wrong answers.

SOLUTION: Don’t spend too much time thinking about an answer. If you find yourself being indecisive,
go with the answer you chose first. Often your first instinct is the right one.

» CHALLENGE 7: “I’m very tired by the time I get to the last section of the test, so I don’t do as
well on that part.”

SOLUTION: Pace yourself. Try to work at a steady pace and avoid spending too much time worrying
over any one question. If you find that you are lingering too long over a question, just make a guess and
move on. Working at a steady pace will help you maintain your energy throughout the test.

SOLUTION: Do the test backward. Some students find it useful to start with the last, most difficult part of
the test so that they can tackle those questions with greater energy. However, this solution doesn’t work
for everyone. The problem is that you may end up spending too much time on the last part, leaving yourself
too little time for the earlier parts. You can try this out with practice tests and see if it works for you.

» CHALLENGE 8: “I always worry that I won’t be able to finish.”

SOLUTION: Again, pace yourself. When you practice at home, time yourself. Make sure you allow enough
time to get through all the parts of the Reading Test. In the actual Reading Test, you can go back to the
earlier parts, so leave enough time to go back to questions you weren’t sure of.

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TOEIC® Test Part 5:
Incomplete Sentences
Part 5 of the Reading Test consists of 40 items—each one a sentence with a blank. You
will choose the correct word or phrase to fill the blank. You will need to be able to identify
the grammatical form or vocabulary word that correctly completes the sentence.

Topics for Part 5 sentences may include:

» Office issues » Transportation

» Financial issues » Tourism
» Sales and marketing » Entertainment and dining out
» Business transactions » Schedules

QUICK GUIDE: Incomplete Sentences

Definition Part 5 is a test of your reading comprehension. It requires you to apply your
knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to a reading context.

Targeted Skills In order to correctly answer Part 5 questions, you must be able to determine
what part of speech is missing. Then you must be able to identify the correct
word or expression to complete the sentence.

Completion All Part 5 items consist of a sentence with a blank and four choices for filling
Types the blank. Items focus on the following types of issues.
Vocabulary:
• Words that seem similar but • Phrasal verbs
are different
Word forms:
• Noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, Infinitive and gerund use
and adverb use
Grammar:
• Missing subject Missing object or complement
• Missing verb Missing preposition or adjective

Things to Distracters, or incorrect answer options, may include the following.

Watch For • Words with similar sounds but different meanings (prescription vs. subscription)
• Words with similar meanings but different usage (allow vs. let)
• Words with similar meanings and similar usage (some vs. any)
• Combinations for phrasal verbs (turn over vs. turn in)
• Word form use (comfort, comfortable, comforting, etc.)
• Grammar use (noun vs. gerund, etc.)
 READING PART 5: INCOMPLETE SENTENCES

WALKTHROUGH: \ Incomplete Sentences

A What You’ll See
In Part 5, you will see the directions, the questions, and the answer options on the page.
Below are three sample incomplete sentence fill-ins from Part 5. Review the sample sentences
and notice the missing words. Think about the types of words that can be used to complete
the sentences. What type of word is missing in each sentence?

ft? . Directions: Each sentence is missing a word or phrase. Four possible answer options are shown.
Choose the best answer option and mark the corresponding letter on your answer sheet.

1. Although Mr. Jones been working 3. The doctor gave her a for some
here for very long, he is completely familiar medicine.
with all our office procedures. (A) prescription
QUICK TIP (A) isn’t (B) subscription
Often you can eliminate (B) wasn’t (C) description
an answer option right (C) hasn’t (D) construction
away. In Question 1 (D) haven’t
on this page, you have
2. Trees have been planted all along the local
to choose the correct
sidewalks as part of an effort to make the
verb form to follow the neighborhood___
subject, Mr. Jones. You
(A) beauty
can quickly see that
(B) beautify
choice (D) does not
(C) beautiful
agree with the subject
(D) beautification
and therefore cannot be
the correct answer.

B What You’ll Do
In the test, you will choose the best word or phrase to complete each sentence. The first item
in the sample questions above focuses on a grammar issue, the second one is about word
forms, and the third question is about word meanings. Choose the correct words or phrases
to complete the sentences in Part A. You will need to use the words around the blanks to help
you choose the best answer for each sentence.

d POWERED BY C O BU ILD

familiar: describing
something you know or
understand well

procedure: a way
of doing something,
especially the usual or
correct way

sidewalk: a path with a

hard surface by the side of
the road

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SKILLS FOR THE TOEIC® TEST: LISTENING AND READING

GET IT RIGHT: Tips and Tasks for Answering Correctly

FILL-IN TYPES
Vocabulary Completions
Vocabulary-based sentence completions require you to choose the appropriate word to
complete the sentence. Some vocabulary items focus on word meanings only. In those cases,
you will see four answer options that have similar but distinct meanings (e.g., transmit /
expand). Some other vocabulary items focus on word form. In those cases, you will see
answer options that appear similar (e.g., attention / detention). Here is an example of a
vocabulary-based sentence completion.

Helen gave a brief____ before discussing the project.

* beginning
S introduction
x reduction
x inspector

In this example, all of the words are nouns, so you must choose the word that best fits the
context.

» TIP 1 Learn how to recognize answer options that seem similar but have different meanings.
The answer options for vocabulary fill-ins always include four different words with distinct definitions.
However, the answer options may be similar word forms or may have some of the same word parts.

Answer options may be similar because they use the same prefix or suffix. Learn the differences in
meaning among answer options that look similar. Study these charts of common prefixes and suffixes.
■
C om m on Prefixes
Prefixes M eanings Exam ples
a- forms adjectives with not, without, That behavior was atypical and wasn’t like
or opposite in their meaning him at all.
bi- forms adjectives, nouns, or verbs The store is having a biannual sale—the
that mean two, double, or twice next sale will occur in six months.
de- forms verbs that mean remove, After the snowstorm, they had to de-ice the
away, or down roads in order to prevent accidents.
ex- forms adjectives, adverbs, nouns, Ms. Umani is the ex-president ofYEO
and verbs that mean out, former, Financial
or remove
im-lin-lil- forms adjectives and adverbs that The cord was improperly connected, leading
mean not, without, or opposite the system to fail.
mis- forms adjectives, adverbs, nouns, The editor apologized for the misprint and
and verbs that mean wrong or bad published a correction.
pre- forms adjectives, nouns, and verbs Customers must prepay for the merchandise
that mean before before shipment.
re- forms verbs that mean again or Mr. Wu hired an expert to redecorate his
back home.
sub- forms adjectives, nouns, and verbs The product was returned because of its
that mean under or incomplete or substandard quality.
that describe a later action
un- forms adjectives, nouns, and verbs It was unusual for her to go out to lunch.
that mean not, without, or remove She typically ate at her desk.
 READING PART 5: INCOMPLETE SENTENCES

C om m on Suffixes
Suffixes M eanings Exam ples
-ablel-ible forms adjectives that means able His homework was so messy, it wasn’t
to be readable.
-acy/-cy forms nouns that show a state or They added walls in the office to give the
quality of something employees more privacy.
-ast forms nouns that show a person She was a gymnast in her youth.
connected with a certain activity
-ate forms adjectives, nouns, and verbs The banker said the man could activate the
that mean make or put in order credit card the same day he received it.
-er/-or forms nouns that show a person The director was pleased with the outcome.
or thing connected with a certain
activity
-ful forms adjectives that show that The vacation was wonderful, and everyone
something has certain qualities had a great time.
-hood forms nouns that describe a group He visited the area many times during his
of people or a condition childhood.
-ish forms adjectives that say what a The old paper was yellowish.
person, object, or action is like
-less forms adjectives that mean not or He was fired because he made too many
without careless mistakes.
-ment forms nouns that show an action, She received encouragement from her
process, or result supervisor.
-ness forms nouns that show a quality or His alertness suffered because he had
condition worked for eighteen hours straight.

TASK 1 In each sentence, circle the underlined word that is used incorrectly. What word should replace
it? Choose a word from the box and write the new sentence on the line. How many of the words in the
box do you know?

delayed doable erasable mismarked prevent

projector redo remarkable repeated

1. My meeting was relaved until the week after next.

2. The marker left a stain that is not eraser.

3. Due to several problems. I had to undo the project over again.

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SKILLS FOR THE TOEIC® TEST: LISTENING AND READING

Part 5 may also include distracters that are commonly confused words. This chart shows word pairs
that are often confused. Be sure to note their definitions and parts of speech.

Confusing Word Pairs

Words Definitions Examples
admit / permit admit - v. to accept that John admitted that he had accidentally
something is true set off the fire alarm.
permit - v. to allow something to The m a n a g e r permitted the employees to
occur listen to music during work hours.
affect / effect affect - v. to influence or cause to The weather may affect our plans.
change
effect - n. a result The recent economic climate has had an
effect on spending.
accept / except accept - v. to take something that Rita Hallow accepted the award for
is offered designer of the year.
except - conj. not including Everyone except the accounting staff
must attend the meeting.
chicken / kitchen chicken - n. a bird raised for its The chicken looked for worms in the
meat and eggs yard.
kitchen - n. a room in which food He spent all day in the kitchen cooking
is prepared for eating the meal.
conscious / conscious - adj. to understand It is part of a supervisor’s tasks to be
conscience what is happening conscious o f everything that happens
during the shift.
conscience - n. awareness about The human resources manager always
something being good or bad complied with fair hiring practices, which
helped him keep a clear conscience.
decent / descent decent - adj. having good The customer did the decent thing by
manners and morals bringing the wallet to the lost and found.
descent - n. the process of The company’s descent into bankruptcy
moving downward occurred over the last decade.
experience / experience - n. the process of Sara has ten years of experience as a
experiment doing things that add to one’s sales representative.
knowledge or skills
experiment - n. a scientific test The experiment showed that calcium is
that is meant to determine how an important part of the human diet.
something works
prescription / prescription - n. a piece of paper I have to go to the drugstore to fill my
subscription on which a doctor writes the prescription.
name of a medicine
subscription - n. a request to I just got a subscription to my favorite
receive something regularly magazine.
precede / proceed precede - v. to come before The vice president’s speech preceded the
president’s.
proceed - v. to continue After a short break, the tour proceeded.

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 READING PART 5: INCOMPLETE SENTENCES

Confusing Word Pairs (continued)

Words Definitions Examples
receipt / recipe receipt - n. a document that After the customer paid for the meal, the
shows items or services that have cashier gave her the receipt.
been purchased and the amount
paid for them
Sammy enjoyed the meal so much that
recipe - n. a document that gives he asked the hostess for the recipe so he
instructions for making food could make it himself.
sensible / sensible - adj. having common The company is lookingfor employees
sensitive sense who are sensible and independent.

sensitive - adj. aware of the Clients respond well to Bob because he is

feelings of others sensitive to their needs.

TASK 2 Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

1 . 1had to ( admit / permit) that I was wrong.
2 . 1mixed the ingredients together as directed in the ( receipt / recipe).
3. She canceled her ( prescription / subscription) to the magazine.

Finally, some answer options may appear similar because they are homophones, which are sets of
words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings and slightly different spellings.
Study the list of common homophones, making note of the definition and part of speech for each word.

Common Homophones
Words Definitions Examples
aloud / allowed aloud - adv. in a speaking voice Please read the paragraph aloud.
allowed - past form of the verb The manager allowed everyone to leave
allow early.
board / bored board - n. a group that gives advice The board will meet on June 1 to discuss the
new plans.
bored - adj. not interested Everyone was bored during the long
meeting.
brake / break brake - n. the device that stops a She quickly stepped on the brake to avoid
vehicle hitting the squirrel in the road.
break - v. to destroy or make You didn’t break the copier.
unusable
complement / complement - v. to go well with The beverage complemented the flavors of
compliment something the meal.
compliment - v. to say something Gregory complimented his assistant on her
nice about someone or something work.
council / council - n. a group that makes The safety council decided that the product
counsel rules or advises about something was not suitable for children.
counsel - v. to give advice The lawyer counseled her client to think
carefully before responding.
(continued)

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SKILLS FOR THE TOEIC® TEST: LISTENING AND READING

C om m on H om ophones (continued)
W ords D efinitions Exam ples
do / due do - v. to perform or make They do very good work.
due - adj. owed or required The report isn’t due until Tuesday.
ensure / insure ensure - v. to guarantee I read the report three times to ensure that
there were no mistakes in it.
insure - v. to provide insurance for
something The owner insured the car before driving it.
there / their / there - indicates a place My sister is over there.
they’re
their - belonging to a group of Here are their shoes.
people
they’re - the contraction for they They’re arriving at 10:00.
are
wood / would wood - a hard substance from trees The table is made o f wood.
would - a modal verb Would you like to join us for lunch?

TASK 3 Write the correct word from the box to complete each sentence. Five words are not used.

brake aloud there break board

their bored due allowed do

1. All employees are permitted to take a fifteen-minute___________________________________

2. Peter yawned because he w as_____________________________________

3 .1 have several things_________________________________ before the end of the week.

4. Employees have to pay fo r_____________________________________uniforms.

5. We are not_____________________________________to check personal e-mails at work.

» TIP 2 Learn how to recognize words with similar meanings but different usage. Answer options
on Part 5 may include words that have similar meanings but that differ in the way they are used
grammatically. Study the words in the chart and analyze how they are different.

110