Lectures are speeches by one person, often a professor. After listening to the lectures, you are asked a series of multiple choice questions. You have three main question types:
- Comprehension Questions
- Pragmatic Understanding Questions
- Connecting Information Questions
Let’s look at both types of questions and how you can answer them.
Comprehension Questions
These questions check your understanding of the listening.
Content questions check if you understand the main idea. Here are some samples:
- What is the topic of the lecture?
- What is the lecture mainly about?
Listen for the professor to introduce the main idea. Professors will probably use one of these phrases to introduce the main idea:
- Today I would like to discuss…
- Today I want to talk about…
- What we will talk about today is…
- We’re going to take a look at…
- I want to look at…
Purpose questions check if you understand the reason someone says or does something. These are sample purpose
questions:
- Why does the professor discuss the Great Depression?
- Why does the professor provide the example of the butterfly?
Detail questions check if you understand key details. Watch out for questions like these:
- What is the purpose of financial analysis?
- What happened to Abraham Lincoln after the war?
Detail questions often have answers with numbers or dates. For example:
- When was the cell phone invented?
- How much do European cows normally weigh?
Pragmatic Understanding Questions
These questions check your understanding of why the speakers says certain things. Parts of the listening is often
repeated for these questions.
Function questions check if you understand the purpose of what someone says. These question types will replay part of the lecture. They often look like this:
- What does the professor imply when she says _______?
- Why does the professor say this?
The function of what is said is not identical to the words. You must make inferences or discover implied meanings.
Attitude questions check if you understand how people feel about a topic. Sometimes these questions will replay part of the lecture. Questions look like this:
- How does the professor feel about _____?
- What is the professor’s opinion of ______?
Connecting Information Questions
These questions check if you can see relationships between ideas.
Organization questions check if you understand how a professor organizes information. They could be like this:
- How does the professor compare the two animals?
Connecting content questions check if you can see the relationship between ideas.
Inference questions check if you can make inferences about implied information. They often use the word infer or imply, like these examples:
- What does the professor imply about the product?
- What does the speaker infer about the success of the revolution?
Practice the three types of questions to be ready for the lectures section. Use the strategies to score high marks.
More TOEFL Listening Lessons
Ready for more practice for the TOEFL listening section? Increase your score with these lessons:
TOEFL Listening Overview
TOEFL Listening Lectures
TOEFL Listening Conversations
TOEFL Listening Strategies