Factual information questions in TOEFL Reading ask what the passage states; negative factual questions turn that around and ask which option it does not state. Both are answered from a named paragraph, and both punish candidates who answer from memory. The items below use short original passages so you can practise going back to the text every time.
Pick the one noun or name you can scan for, then find it in the named paragraph. Do not start reading the paragraph from the top.
Details are frequently qualified by the clause after them. Stopping at the key noun is how candidates pick an option that is half true.
Say what the passage claims in your own words. Then the correct paraphrase looks obvious and the copied wording looks suspicious.
Find textual support for three options and mark them off as you go. The one you cannot find is the answer. Do not try to spot the false one directly.
If a NOT item is still open after roughly a minute and a half, choose the option you have the least support for and move on. The questions follow the order of the passage, so you can return.
One second spent noticing EXCEPT saves a minute spent answering a question nobody asked.
Each option names something you can scan for. Take them in the order they would appear in the paragraph rather than the order they are printed in.
Few, some, most, all. Distractors are built by moving an option one step along that line, so check the passage’s word against the option’s.
Reread the one sentence rather than trusting what you read ninety seconds ago. Rereading a line is far cheaper than losing the point.
If you guess, note the item number on your scratch paper and come back only when every question for that passage is answered.
Not thisAnswering ‘according to paragraph 2’ with a detail from paragraph 4.
ThisAnswering only from paragraph 2.
Passages repeat topics; the question is scored against the paragraph it names, and similar-looking details elsewhere are placed there deliberately.
Not thisChoosing an option because it repeats the passage’s exact words.
ThisChoosing the option that restates the idea.
Word overlap is the cheapest distractor to build; correct answers are usually paraphrases.
Not thisChoosing an option that says ‘always’ or ‘never’.
ThisChoosing the cautious option.
Academic passages hedge. An absolute option rarely survives a check against the sentence.
Not thisTreating a NOT question as a normal factual question.
ThisReading the capitalised word first.
Candidates who skim the stem pick a true statement, which on this item type is exactly wrong.
Not thisReading ‘few buyers’ as ‘no buyers’.
ThisKeeping the hedge: few, not none.
Turning a hedge into an absolute is the single most common paraphrase error on this task.
Not thisStopping at the key noun in the sentence.
ThisReading to the end of the sentence.
The clause after the noun often limits or reverses the claim: ‘… except in the coldest years’.
Not thisChoosing the option that names the topic of the paragraph.
ThisChoosing the option that answers the stem.
A true statement about the paragraph is not automatically an answer to the question asked about it.
Not thisAnswering a NOT item by hunting for the false statement.
ThisConfirming the three true ones.
Absence is hard to see. Ticking off support is a procedure you can finish; spotting a gap is guesswork.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
2Complete with one capitalised word.
5Complete with ‘true’ or ‘false’.
7Complete with one word taken from Passage B.
8A question says “according to paragraph 3”, but you remember the detail from paragraph 5. What do you do, and why?
One good answer
Go back and read paragraph 3, because the item is scored against the paragraph it names; a similar detail elsewhere in the passage is a standard trap, so only a sentence inside paragraph 3 counts as evidence.
11Complete with one noun meaning a day, month or year.
14Complete with one adjective beginning with r.
15Rewrite this sentence as a correct answer option would paraphrase it: “Trucking glass to a plant often costs more than the recovered material is worth.”
One good answer
Transporting glass is frequently more expensive than the value of the glass that is recovered.
16Complete with one noun beginning with p.
18Complete with one noun beginning with o.
22Complete with one verb taken from Passage C.
23Complete with one word taken from Passage C.
26Complete with one verb beginning with l.
27Write the NOT question stem you would expect for a paragraph that lists four traditional uses of bamboo.
One good answer
According to paragraph 3, bamboo was traditionally used for all of the following EXCEPT ...
28Complete with one noun beginning with s.
30Complete with one noun beginning with c.
32Complete with one limiting word beginning with o.
34Complete with the past participle of the verb ‘state’.
36Complete with one noun beginning with q.
37Passage B says mixed-color glass “has few buyers”. Write a wrong option that misuses this detail, and say why it is wrong.
One good answer
“No one buys mixed-color glass” is wrong because the passage says few buyers, not none: the option turns a hedged statement into an absolute one.
38Complete with one adjective beginning with w.
Note
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They appear on most passages, usually once or twice, and they take longer than any other one-point item. Plan for that rather than being surprised by it.
Yes. The question points you at a paragraph and the questions run in passage order, so scanning for the key noun and reading that sentence in full is enough for most factual items.
Reread the first and last sentences of the paragraph: candidates most often miss support that sits in a subordinate clause. If you still cannot find it, choose the option that adds information the passage never raises at all.
Nearly always for factual items. A word-for-word copy does appear as the answer occasionally, but when an option repeats a whole phrase from the passage you should check it harder, not trust it more.
Around a minute and a half is realistic, roughly twice an ordinary factual item, because you are checking three options rather than finding one. Budget for that across the section instead of hurrying every other question.
Yes, for the detail questions. The exception is the summary question, which comes last and covers the whole text, so you can read the passage once and then work steadily downwards.