TOEFL PREPARATION Part 5

TOEFL PREPARATION PART 5

The following questions are completed by the answers and brief explanations.

1.       Justice Sandra Day O’Connor  was _____ to serve on the U.S Supreme Court.

a.       The woman who first

b.      The first woman

c.       Who the first woman

d.      The first and a woman

The right answer is (b) The first woman.  The is used with an ordinal  number before a noun.

2.       North Carolina is well known not only for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park _____ for the Cherokee settlements.

a.       Also

b.      And

c.       But also

d.      Because of

The right answer is (c) But also.  But also is used in correlation with the inclusive not only.

3.       General Grant had General Lee ____ him at appromatox to sign the official surrender of the Confederate forces.

a.       To meet

b.      Met

c.       Meet

d.      Meeting

The right answer is (c) Meet. A form of have with some one such as General lee expresses a causative. The blank word should be fulfilled by verb base (verb one).

4.       _____ both men and women have often achieved their career ambitions by midlife, many people are afflicted by at least a temporary period of dissatisfaction and depression.

a.       Because

b.      So

c.       A

d.      Who

The right answer is (a) Because. Because is used before a subject and verb to introduce cause.

5.       If it _____ more humid in the desert of Southwest, the hot temperatures would be unbearable.

a.       Be

b.      Is

c.       Was

d.      Were

The right answer is (d) were.  In contary-to-fact-clause, were is on the the accepted form of the verb be.

6.       Anthropologists assert that many of the early native Americans who lived on the Plains did not engage in planting corps but  _____ , living primarily on buffalo meat.

a.       To hunt

b.      Hunting

c.       Hunt

d.      Are hunted

The right answer is (b) hunting. Ideas in a series should be expressed by parallel structure. Hunting provides for parallelism with ing-forms such as planting and living. 

7.       For the investor who _____ money, silver or bonds are good options.

a.       Has so little a

b.      Has very little

c.       Has so few

d.      Has very few

The right answer is (b) has very little. The blank word should be fulfilled by a marker of an uncountable noun such as money.  Very little are the markers that can be used to express the quantity of a noncount noun.

8.       Of all cereals, rice is the one _____ food for more people than any of the other grain crops.

a.       It provides

b.      That providing

c.       Provide

d.      That provides

The right answer is (d) that provides. An adjective clause modifies a noun in the main clause. That provides food modifies the one.

9.       To generate income, megazine publishers must decide whether to increase the subcription price or _____

a.       To sell advertising

b.      If they should sell advertising

c.       Selling advertising

d.      Sold advertising

The right answer is (a) to sell advertising. Ideas in a series should be expressed by parallel structure. To sell provides for parallelism with the infinitive to increase.

10.   John Philip Sousa,  _____ many people consider the greatest composer or marches, wrote his music during the era known as the Gay 90s.

a.       Who

b.      Whose

c.       Which

d.      Whom

The right answer is (d) whom because it is the complement of the clause many people consider.

(The questions are cited from Barron’s TOEFL with several adaptations.)