Reading Comprehension And The Tips

• Definition

Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning. An individual's ability to comprehend text is influenced by their traits and skills, one of which is the ability to make inferences. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read. There are a number of approaches to improve reading comprehension, including improving one's vocabulary and reading strategies.

Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message. Comprehension is a "creative, multifaceted process" dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. It is also determined by an individual's cognitive development, which is "the construction of thought processes". Some people learn through education or instruction and others through direct experiences.

• Tips to do the TOEFL Reading section:

1. Stay calm while reading the text. because, read the wrong information or missed important thing is something that usually happen.
2. Use annotations such as underline, circle, or whatever you want to mark the words and phrases that are important. This will faster the process of filtering information and make it easier to search relevant information.
3. If you have much time left, use the time to re-examine the content of the answers that you have.
4. Fill out all the questions. Although you do not know the exact answer to a question, the question remains browse all by guessing the answers. TOEFL will not reduce the value you when you fill out a wrong answer, then the use of the 25% chance that you have to get the value.
5. Reading strategies. It's good to read text briefly beforehand, read all the questions, and then re-reading the text. The point is, you can save the questions that have you read in your brain while reading the text carefully. This will facilitate you to search for relevant information needed to fill in the answers and you will know where to focus your mind to what part of the text.
6. Exercise by reading many books and articles before. Get used to the eyes and brain to read the English books, as this will speed up and expedite the process of your reading time of the TOEFL test. It also will expand your English vocabulary, and help you when you do the test.
7. Exercise with online sites, books TOEFL test preparation, tutoring follow TOEFL preparation, and so on. There are so many sources of sample questions that you can access for free to prepare you before taking the actual test.

• The Example Of Reading Comprehension test problems.

1. When buying a house, you must be sure to have it checked for termites. A termite is much like an ant in its communal habits, although physically the two insects are distinct. Like those ants, termite colonies consist of different classes, each with its own particular job. The most perfectly formed termites, both male and female, make up the productive class. They have eyes, hard body walls and fully developed wings.

A pair of reproductive termites founds the colony. When new reproductive termites develop, they leave to form another colony. They use their wings only this on time

and then break them off.  The worker termites are small, blind and

wingless, with soft bodies. They make up the majority of the colony and do all the work. Soldiers are eyeless and wingless but are larger than the workers and have hard heads and strong jaws and legs. They defend the colony and are cared for by the workers.

       

The male and female of the reproductive class remain inside a closed-in cell when the female lays thousands of eggs. The workers place the eggs in cell and care for them. Even if one colony is treated with poison, if a male and female of the reproductive

class escape, they can form a new colony.

         

Pest control companies can inspect a house for infestation of termites. Often, of lay person can not spot the evidence, so it is critical to have the opinion

of a proffesional. Treatments vary depending upon

the type of termite.

1. The word "communal" in line 3 is closest in meaning to

      A. Eating

      B. Reproducing

      C. Organizational

      D. Social

2. Which of the following is not true?

      A. All termites have eyes

      B. Some termites cannot fly

      C. Workers are smaller than soldiers

      D. Termites do not fly often

3. In line 4, the word "distinct" is closest in meaning to

      A. Similar

      B. Different

      C. Genetically related

      D. Strong

4. In line 6, "classes" is closest in meaning to

      A. Sexes

      B. Colonies

      C. Courses

      D. Categories

5. Which of the following statements is probably true?

      A. Thousands of termites may move together to develop a new colony

      B. The male and female reproductions do not venture outdoors except

           to form a new colony.

     C. There are more soldiers than workers

     D. A worker could easily kill a soldier

              key : D, B, B, D, B

2.      1).....most people know that the success of television show is measured by its ratings, few know exactly how show are rated. First, a rating company 2)...meters in few thousand representative homes in particular area. 3)....the television set in one of these homes is turned on, the meter records the day, time and channel. The meter then 4)..... sends this information to the rating conpany's headquarters. A computer at the headquarters tallies all of the information from all the homes in the area, 5)..... the computers prints a rating sheet that shows how many homes watch each show and which shows are the most popular.

1) A. Although    B. However   C. since   D.Nevertheless   E. Because

2) A. induces      B. installs        C.introspects  D. invites   E. interprets

3) A. thus   B. until   C. when   D. unless   E. Since

4) A. electronic B. electrical  C. electricity  D. electronically  E. electronical

5) A. Finally   B. Eventually  C. Subsequently  D. Recently  E. Gradually

key: A,B,C,D,C

Source :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_comprehension

http://www.kursusmudahbahasainggris.com/2013/10/contoh-soal-tes-toefl-reading.html

http://www.hotcourses.co.id/study-abroad-info/university-applications/tips-untuk-tes-toefl-reading/

http://my-englishlesson.blogspot.com/2012/01/soal-melengkapi-kalimat-dalam-paragraf.html