STRUCTURE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION
The second section of the TOEFL test is the Structure and Written Expression section. This section consists of forty questions (some tests may be longer). You have twenty-five minutes to complete the forty questions in this section.
There are two types of questions in the Structure and Written Expression section of the TOEFL test:
1. Structure (questions 1-15) consists of fifteen sentences in which part of the sen-tence has been replaced with a blank. Each sentence is followed by four answer choices. You must choose the answer that completes the sentence in a grammatically correct way.
2. Written Expression (questions 16-40) consists of twenty-five sentences in which four words or groups of words have been underlined. You must choose the underlined word or group of words that is not correct.
GENERAL STRATEGIES
1. Be familiar with the directions. The directions on every TOEFL test are the same, so it is not necessary to spend time reading the directions carefully when you take the test You should be completely familiar with the directions before the day of the test.
2. Begin with questions I through 15. Anticipate that questions I through 5 will be the easiest. Anticipate that questions 11 through 15 will be the most difficult Do not spend too much time on questions 11 through 15.There will be easier questions that come later.
3. Continue with questions 16 through 40. Anticipate that questions 16 through
20 will be the easiest. Anticipate that questions 36 through 40 will be the most difficult. Do not spend too much time on questions 36 through 40.
4. If you have time, return to questions 11 through 15. You should spend extra time on questions 11 through 15 only after you spend all the time that you want on the easier questions. .
5. Never leave any answers blank on your answer sheet. Even if you are not sure of the correct response, you should answer each question.There is no penalty for guessing.
THE STRUCTURE QUESTIONS
In the TOEFL test, questions 1 through 15 of the Structure and Written Expression section test your knowledge of the correct structure of English sentences. The questions in this section are multiple-choice questions in which you must choose the letter of the answer that best completes the sentence.
Example
is taking a trip to New York.
(A) They
(B) When
(C) The woman
(D) Her
In this example, you should notice immediately that the sentence has a verb (is taking), and that the verb needs a subject. Answers (B) and (D) are incorrect because when and her are not subjects. In answer (A), they is a subject, but they is plural and the verb is taking is singular. The correct answer is answer (C); the woman is a singular subject. You should therefore choose answer (C).
STRATEGIES FORTHE STRUCTURE QUESTIONS
1. First study the sentence. Your purpose is to determine what is needed to complete the sentence correctly.
2. Then study each answer based on how well it completes the sentence.
Eliminate answers that do not complete the sentence correctly.
3. Do not try to eliminate incorrect answers by looking only at the answers.
The incorrect answers are generally correct by themselves.The incorrect answers are generally incorrect only when used to complete the sentence.
4. Never leave any answers blank. Be sure to answer each question even if you are unsure of the correct response.
5. Do not spend too much time on the Structure questions. Be sure to leave adequate time for the Written Expression questions.
The following skills will help you to implement these strategies in the Structure section of the TOEFL test.
SENTENCES WITH ONE CLAUSE
Some sentences in English have just one subject and verb, and it is very important for you to find the subject and verb in these sentences. In some sentences it is easy to find the subject and verb. However, certain structures, such as objects of prepositions, appositives, and participles, can cause confusion in locating the subject and verb because each of these structures can look like a subject or verb. The object of the preposition can be mistaken for a subject.
Therefore, you should be able to do the following in sentences with one subject and verb: (1) be sure the sentence has a subject and a verb, (2) be careful of objects of prepositions and appositives when you are looking for the subject, and (3) be careful of present participles and past participles when you are looking for the verb.
SKILL 1: BE SURE THE SENTENCE HAS A SUBJECT AND A VERB
You know that a sentence in English should have a subject and a verb. The most common types of problems that you will encounter in the Structure section of the TOEFL test have to do with subjects and verbs: perhaps the sentence is missing either the subject or the verb or both, or perhaps the sentence has an extra subject or verb.
Example I
was backed up for miles on the freeway.
(A) Yesterday
(B) In the morning
(C) Traffic
(D) Cars
In this example you should notice immediately that there is a verb (was), but there is no subject. Answer (C) is the best answer because it is a singular subject that agrees with the singular verb was. Answer (A), yesterday, and answer (B), in the morning, are not subjects, so they are not correct. Although answer (D), cars, could be a subject, it is not correct because cars is plural and it does not agree with the singular verb was.
Example II
Engineers for work on the new space program. (A) necessary
(B) are needed (C) hopefully (D) next month
In this example you should notice immediately that the sentence has a subject (engineers), and that there is no verb. Because answer (B), are needed, is a verb, it is the best answer. Answers (A), (C), and (D) are not verbs, so they are not correct.
Example III
The boy going to the movies with a friend. (A) he is
(B) he always was
(C) is relaxing
(D) will be
This sentence has a subject (boy) and has part of a verb (going); to be correct, some form of the verb be is needed to make the sentence complete. Answers (A) and (B) are incor-rect because the sentence already has a subject (boy) and does not need the extra subject he. Answer (C) is incorrect because relaxing is an extra verb part that is unnecessary be-cause of going. Answer (D) is the best answer; will be together with going is a complete verb.
The following chart oudines what you should remember about subjects and verbs:
SUBJECT AND VERBS
A sentence in English must have at least one subject and one verb.
SKILL 2: BE CAREFUL OF OBJECTS OF PREPOSITIONS
An object of a preposition is a noun or a pronoun that comes after a preposition, such as
in, at, of, to, by, behind, on, and so on, to form a prepositional phrase.
(After his exams) Tom will take a trip (by boat).
This sentence contains two objects of prepositions. Exams is the object of the preposition
after and boat is the object of the preposition by.
An object of a preposition can cause confusion in the Structure section of the TOEFL test because it can be mistaken for the subject of a sentence.
Example
With his friend found the movie theater. (A) has
(B) he (C) later (D) when
In this example you should look first for the subject and the verb. You should notice the verb found and should also notice that there is no subject. Do not think that friend is the subject; friend is the object of the preposition with, and one noun cannot be both a subject and an object at the same time. Because a subject is needed in this sentence, answer (B), he, is the best answer. Answers (A), (C), and (D) are not correct because they cannot be subjects.
The following chart outlines the key information that you should remember about objects of prepositions:
OBJECT OF PREPOSITIONS
A preposition is followed by a noun or pronoun that is called an object of the preposition. If a word is an object of a preposition, it is not the subject.
SKILL 3: BE CAREFUL OF APPOSITIVES
Appositives can cause confusion in the Structure section of the TOEFL test because an appositive can be mistaken for the subject of a sentence. An appositive is a noun that comes before or after another noun and has the same meaning.
Sally, the best student in the class, got an A on the exam.
In this example Sally is the subject of the sentence and the best student in the class can easily be recognized as an appositive phrase because of the noun student and because of the commas. The sentence says that Sally and the best student in the class are the same person. Note that if you leave out the appositive phrase, the sentence still makes sense (Sally got an A on the exam).
The following example shows how an appositive can be confused with the subject of a sentence in the Structure section of the TOEFL test.
Example I
, George, is attending the lecture.
(A) Right now
(B) Happily
(C) Because of the time
(D) My friend
In this example you should recognize from the commas that George is not the subject of the sentence. George is an appositive. Because this sentence still needs a subject, the best answer is (D), my friend. Answers (A), (B), and (C) are incorrect because they are not subjects.
The next example shows that an appositive does not always come after the subject;
an appositive can also come at the beginning of the sentence.
Example II
, Sarah rarely misses her basketball shots.
(A) An excellent basketball player
(B) An excellent basketball player is
(C) Sarah is an excellent basketball player
(D) Her excellent basketball play
In this example you can tell that Sarah is the subject and misses is the verb because there is no comma separating them. In the space you should put an appositive for Sarah, and Sarah is an excellent basketball player, so answer (A) is the best answer. Answers (B) and (C) are not correct because they each contain the verb is, and an appositive does not need a verb. Answer (D) contains a noun, play, that could possibly be an appositive, but play is not the same as Sarah, so this answer is not correct.
The following chart outlines the key information that you should remember about appositives:
APPOSITIVES
An appositive is a noun that comes before or after another noun and is generally set off from the noun with commas. If a word is an appositive, it is not the subject. The following appositive structures are both possible in English.
S APP, V
Tom, a really good mechanic, is fixing the car.
APP, S V
A really good mechanic, Tom is fixing the car.
Contoh soal 1:
1. _____ the demands of aerospace, medicine, and agriculture, aengineers, are creating exotic new metallic substances.
(A) Meet
(B) Being met are
(C) To meet
(D) They are meeting
2. _______ James A. Bland, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” was adopted is the state song of Virginia in 1940.
(A) Was written b
(B) His writing was
(C) He wrote the
(D) Written by
3. Mary Garden, ______ the early 1900’s was considered one of the best singing actresses of her time.
(A) a soprano was popular
(B) in a popular soprano
(C) was a popular soprano
(D) a popular soprano in
4. In the realm of psychological theory Margaret F. Washburn was a dualist _____ that motor phenomena have an essential role in psychology.
(A) who she believed
(B) who believed
(C) believed
(D) who did she believe
5. The committee has met twice and ....
A. they reached a final decision
B. a final decision was reached
C. its decision was reached
D. it has reached a final decision
6. The manager won't be able to attend the shareholders' meeting tomorrow because....
A. he must to give a lecture
B. he will be giving a lecture
C. of he will give lecture
D. he will have giving a lecture
7. Brenda's score on the test is the highest in class.
A. She should study hard last night.
B. She should have studied hard last night.
C. She must have studied hard last night.
D. She had to study hard last night
8. Mother wanted to serve some coffee to my guests; however....
A. she hadn't many coffee.
B. there is not a great amount of coffee.
C. she didn't have my coffee.
D. she was out of coffee.
9. Having been served lunch,....
A. the problems were discussed by the participants.
B. the participants discuss the problems.
C. it was discussed by the participants.
D. A discussion of the problems were made by the participants.
10. East Kalimantan relies heavily on income from oil and natural gas, and....
A. Aceh province also.
B. Aceh province too.
C. Aceh province is as well.
D. so does Aceh province.
Contoh soal 2:
1. On Ellesmere Island in the Arctic one fossil forest consist of a nearly hundred
A B
large stumps scattered on an exposed coal bed.
C D
2. The surface conditions on the planet Mars are the more like the Earth’s than are
A B C
those of any other planet in the solar system.
D
3. The midnight sun is a phenomenon in which the Sun visible remains in the sky
A B C
for twenty-four hours or longer.
D
4. The Humber River and its valley form a major salmon-fishing, lumbering, hunting,
A B C
and farmer region in western Newfoundland, Canada.
D
5. If you buy one box at the regular price, you would receive
A B C
another one at no extra cost.
D
6. Located in the cranial cavity in the skull, the brain is the larger
A B
mass of nerve tissue in the human body.
C D
7. Professor Duncan recommended that we are present at the reception
A B
this afternoon in order to meet the representatives from the Ford Foundation.
C D
8. There have been little change in the patient's condition since she was
A B C
moved to the intensive care unit.
D
9. As a new employee, your duties are mailing the correspondence,
A
receive phone calls, and calling the members before meeting.
B C D
10. Passengers are able to clearly see the outline of the whole isolated island
A B C D
from the air plane.
kunci jawaban soal 1:
1.C 2.D 3.D 4.B 5.D 6.B 7.B 8.C 9.B 10.D
Kunci Jawaban soal 2:
1.B 2.B 3.B 4.D 5.B 6.B 7.A 8.A 9.B 10.B
Daftar Pustaka:
Indah, Maya. 2012. Structure and Written Expression. Jakarta: Alvonso
http://www.geniustoefl.com/artikel-ilmu-kunci-toefl/artikel/structure-and-written-expression/contoh-soal-toefl-structure-and-written-expression
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