Name: TOEFL® Listening Questions - Making Inferences │ Inside the TOEFL® Test
Uploaded: 2021-01-28T01:46:54.000Z
Duration: 4 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

we're going inside the TOEFL iBT Listening section.

to show an understanding of the meaning of something

when it is not directly stated in the lecture or conversation.

Let's look at a sample question from a literature lecture about

detective novels, including a famous one called The Moonstone.

First, here is an excerpt from the lecture:

PROFESSOR: Um, so in The Moonstone, as I said,

uh, Collins did much to establish the conventions

Uh, I'm not gonna go into the plot at length,

and then the true hero of the book arrives.

Now, Cuff, this extraordinarily important character um ...

well, let me try to give you a sense of who Sergeant Cuff is,

And uh this is the dynamic that you're going to see

throughout the history of the detective novel,

um, where you have the regular cops-who are well-meaning,

but officious and bumblingly inept-and uh they are countered

by a figure who's eccentric, analytical, brilliant, and ...

So, uh first the regular police get called in

Um, in this case, detective, uh, Superintendent Seegrave.

uh he orders his minions around, uh they bumble,

and they actually make a mess of the investigation,

particularly in the Sherlock Holmes stories

of a few years later where, uh, Inspector Lestrade,

this well-meaning idiot, is always countered, uh,

MICHAEL: Now, let's look at the question.

PROFESSOR: Well, let me try to give you a sense of

who Sergeant Cuff is, by first describing the regular police.

MICHAEL: We can see that this is an inference question

because it uses the word "imply" and asks the listener

that is not directly stated by the professor.

MICHAEL: He is hinting that there is a difference

between the behavior of the regular police

This contrast is supported in other parts of the passage.

For example, the speaker describes the regular police

He also says it is common in detective novels for them

in this case Sergeant Cuff, who is "brilliant".

Taken together, we can see that the best answer is A,

Sergeant Cuff is unlike the regular police in The Moonstone.

Here's a tip for improving your listening skills:

What words do the speakers use to support their ideas?

Are the words mainly positive or negative?

Then look at how they imply positive or negative ideas

There are lots of ways to improve your English skills.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

TOEFL® Listening Questions - Making Inferences │ Inside the TOEFL® Test

specific

recognize

figure

pattern