The prose summary closes each TOEFL Reading passage: you are given an introductory sentence and six options, and three of them express the passage’s most important ideas. It carries more weight than an ordinary detail question and it offers partial credit, so it is never worth leaving blank. The skill it measures is separating a main idea from a true but minor fact.
Do the detail questions first. By the time you reach the summary you have reread most of the passage, which is exactly the knowledge this item wants.
It fixes the topic of the summary. Any option that does not develop that topic is out, however true it is.
Skim the first and last sentence of each paragraph and name what each one did: problem, cause, consequence, response. Your three options will map onto those.
Go through the six options once and mark each as major, minor or not stated. Sorting is faster and more reliable than comparing options in pairs.
The striking date, the single county, the memorable image: these are written to be memorable and they are almost always distractors.
Between two surviving options, take the one that covers more of the passage. A summary option should account for a paragraph, not a sentence.
Some distractors use the passage’s own vocabulary but swap cause and effect or turn ‘many’ into ‘all’. Read them against the paragraph, not against your memory.
Partial credit exists. If you are sure of two options, choose your best third and move on rather than losing the whole item.
Not thisChoosing “The fungus was first noticed on trees at a New York zoo.”
ThisChoosing “The blight spread across the tree’s range within a few decades.”
The first is a one-sentence detail; the second is a development the passage spends paragraphs on.
Not thisChoosing an option because you remember reading it.
ThisChoosing the option the passage builds on.
Memorability and importance are different things, and test writers know which details stick.
Not thisSelecting only two options when unsure.
ThisSelecting three.
There is no penalty for a wrong third choice, and leaving a slot empty gives up credit you might have had.
Not thisChoosing an option that says the blight killed every chestnut and none survive.
ThisChoosing one that says surviving roots still send up shoots.
The absolute version contradicts the passage, which is the most common way a distractor is built here.
Not thisTreating the introductory sentence as the first option.
ThisTreating it as the topic.
An option that merely restates the introductory sentence adds nothing to the summary.
Not thisLeaving the summary until under a minute remains.
ThisReserving time for it before the passage ends.
It is the highest-value single item attached to a passage and it needs a considered read of all six options.
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2Complete with a number word.
5Complete with one adjective beginning with m.
6In one sentence, say how the prose summary differs from every other Reading question.
One good answer
It is answered from the whole passage rather than a single paragraph, it asks for main ideas rather than details, and it allows partial credit because more than one option has to be chosen.
7Complete with one noun beginning with f.
9Complete with one noun beginning with s.
11Complete with one adjective beginning with i.
15Write a one-sentence introduction that could head a summary of Passage J.
One good answer
A fungus introduced around 1900 destroyed the American chestnut as a mature forest tree, and efforts to bring the species back are still under way.
16Complete with one noun beginning with t.
18Complete with one noun beginning with e.
22Complete with one verb beginning with r.
23Explain why a completely accurate option can still be the wrong choice here.
One good answer
The task asks for the passage’s major ideas, so a small but accurate fact, such as where the fungus was first seen, does not belong in a summary with room for only three points.
25Complete with one noun beginning with o.
27Complete with one adjective beginning with a.
29Complete with one word beginning with l.
31Complete with one noun beginning with s.
33Complete with one adjective beginning with g.
35Complete with the past participle of a verb beginning with r.
37Complete with one plural noun beginning with s.
38Give one reason candidates lose marks here even when they understood the passage well.
One good answer
They choose the details they remember most vividly, such as a striking image or a single figure, instead of the ideas the passage actually spends its paragraphs developing.
39Complete with one noun beginning with s.
Note
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It is worth more than an ordinary question and allows partial credit, so choosing two of the three correct options still earns something. That is why a blank is the worst possible outcome.
Not in full. Skim the first and last sentence of each paragraph to recover the structure; if you have already answered the detail questions, that takes under a minute.
Compare how much text each one accounts for. Three of them will correspond to sections of the passage; the fourth will rest on a single paragraph or a single striking sentence.
Usually not. They paraphrase at the level of a whole section, which is why an option that copies a phrase exactly deserves a second look rather than a first choice.
Close. If you can say in four lines what the passage did — problem, cause, consequence, response — the three correct options will match three of those lines.