2Complete with the word that names the entrance from the notice.
5Write the day of the month as a digit.
8Complete with a two-word phrase from business English.
10Complete with one word meaning *an additional amount*.
TOEIC Part 7 single passages: emails and notices
B1Reading40 questionsUpdated
TOEIC Part 7 begins with single documents — an email chasing an invoice, a notice about lift maintenance, a job advertisement, a short message chain — each followed by two to four questions. The questions are predictable in type, and that is the advantage: purpose first, details in the order they appear, then one inference or one *what does the writer mean* item. This page drills reading for the question rather than reading the whole text.
What this task tests
- Purpose questions answered from the first line or the subject line of a document.
- Scanning for a detail — a date, a price, a department — without reading everything around it.
- Inference items phrased as *What is suggested about…* or *What is implied…*.
- NOT questions, where three options are in the text and one is not.
- Meaning-in-context items asking what a phrase means where it appears.
- Reading a text-message chain, where tone and short replies carry the meaning.
- Recognising the document type and its conventions: memo, notice, advertisement, form.
- Understanding who is writing to whom, including forwarded and reply-to-all messages.
- Finding the answer to a question that paraphrases the text rather than quoting it.
- Keeping to a pace that leaves the later multi-passage sets a fair share of the time.
How to do it
- Step 1:
Read the heading block before the body
From, To, Date, Subject, or the title of a notice. Four lines usually settle the purpose question, which is nearly always the first one asked.
- Step 2:
Read the questions before the passage
Stems only, not options. You then read the document once, with a list of what to look for, instead of reading it once for meaning and again for facts.
- Step 3:
Answer detail questions by scanning for the form of the word
A price question means hunting for a dollar sign; a date question means hunting for a month name. Scan the shape on the page rather than reading the sentences.
- Step 4:
Use the order of the questions as a map of the text
Detail questions usually follow the order of the document. If question two was answered in paragraph two, question three is below it, not above.
- Step 5:
For NOT questions, tick the three you find
Work positively: find each option in the text and cross it off. The one you cannot find is the answer, and this is far faster than trying to prove a negative.
- Step 6:
For meaning-in-context, cover the phrase and paraphrase
Read the sentence with the phrase blanked and decide what would fill it, then pick the option nearest to your own wording. The dictionary meaning is often the distractor.
- Step 7:
Treat inference questions as one-step, not clever
*What is suggested about the company?* is answered by a line you can point to, plus one small deduction. Anything needing a chain of reasoning is the wrong track.
- Step 8:
Do not reread to enjoy the text
Once every question is answered, move on even if parts of the document are still unclear. Understanding the passage fully is not what you are scored on.
- Step 9:
Watch the clock at fixed checkpoints
Know the time you should be starting the single passages and the time you should be starting the multiple ones. Correcting a small overrun early is possible; a large one is not.
Mistakes that cost marks
Not this
Reading the whole passage carefully before looking at the questions.ThisReading the question stems first.
Most questions need one line of the text. Reading everything at the same depth spends your minutes on sentences no question asks about.
Not this
Choosing the option that repeats the text word for word.ThisChoosing the paraphrase.
Verbatim options are often taken from a line that answers a different question. Correct options usually restate the fact in other words.
Not this
Answering a NOT question by scanning for the option that feels wrong.ThisLocating the three options that are present.
Feeling is not evidence, and the absent option is often the most plausible-sounding one in the list.
Not this
Taking *In the email, the phrase "hold off" is closest in meaning to…* as a vocabulary test.ThisReading it as a context test.
The question asks what the phrase means in that sentence, which can be narrower than its dictionary range.
Not this
Missing who the email is addressed to in a forwarded chain.ThisChecking the From and To lines of each message.
Forwarded messages have two senders and two audiences, and questions about *the writer* refer to a specific one of them.
Not this
Skipping a whole passage to save time.ThisAnswering its easiest question and guessing the rest.
Even a thirty-second skim usually yields the purpose question. Abandoning a set entirely gives up marks that were cheaply available.
Language this task keeps reusing
- subject line
- The topic field of an email, which often states its purpose.
- attachment
- A file sent with an email.
- recipient
- The person a message is sent to.
- inquiry
- A request for information, spelled this way in American English.
- confirmation
- A message that something has been booked or received.
- past due
- Overdue; an invoice not paid by its deadline.
- terms and conditions
- The rules attached to a contract or an offer.
- no longer
- Not any more: the form is no longer required.
- in response to
- Replying to: in response to your inquiry of May 3.
- as requested
- In line with what you asked for.
- pending
- Waiting for a decision: the application is pending.
- temporarily
- For a limited period only.
- be entitled to
- To have the right to something: entitled to a refund.
- proof of purchase
- A receipt or other evidence that an item was bought.
Practice: single passages
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.
12Explain in one or two sentences why you should read the question stems before the passage in Part 7.
One good answer
Most questions are answered by a single line of the document, so knowing what to look for turns careful reading into scanning. Reading the passage first means reading it twice.
14Write the number as a digit.
16Complete with a two-word phrase meaning *not any more*.
19Complete with the past participle of *request*.
21Complete with the adjective used with *to*.
23Write the number of hours as a digit, based on the notice above.
26Complete with the plural noun meaning *people who can recommend you*.
28A question asks: "In the notice, the word 'suspended' in line 3 is closest in meaning to…". Explain how you would answer it.
One good answer
Cover the word, read the sentence, and decide what would fill the gap in that context — here, probably *stopped for now*. Then choose the option closest to your own paraphrase rather than the broadest dictionary meaning.
29Complete with one adjective meaning *awaiting a decision*.
31Complete with the past simple of *credit*.
34Complete with the noun that pairs with *conditions*.
36Complete with one noun meaning *evidence*.
38You have five minutes left and two single passages unanswered. Describe what you would do, in order.
One good answer
Answer the purpose question in each from the heading and first line, mark a considered guess for the rest, and fill in every remaining space on the answer sheet. Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so no row should be left empty.
Note
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Frequently asked questions
How many questions follow a single passage?
Usually two to four. Short notices carry fewer, long emails and advertisements more, so glance at the number before deciding how much of the text to read.
Should I skim the whole document first?
Read the heading block, then go straight to the questions. A full skim is worth it only when the document is a narrative letter with no headings to orient you.
Are text-message chains harder than emails?
Different rather than harder. They are short, but the questions focus on what a speaker means by one line, so tone and the reply that follows do most of the work.
What if the answer seems to be in two places?
Then one of them is answering a different question in the set. Check the question numbers against the order of the text before changing anything.
How do I stop running out of time here?
Set a checkpoint: know the clock time by which the single passages must be finished. Correcting a two-minute overrun is easy; discovering a fifteen-minute one at the end is not.