TOEFL reading tasks cover a wide range of topics and contexts.
How difficult are the TOEFL reading tasks?
Academic items use a short excerpt comparable to first-year university material. Practical items use everyday texts that require quick, accurate interpretation.
An academic excerpt may be a single focused paragraph or a brief passage, followed by targeted questions.
Paleontologists have argued for a long time that the demise of the dinosaurs was
caused by climatic alterations associated with slow changes in the positions of
continents and seas resulting from plate tectonics. Off and on throughout the
Cretaceous (the last period of the Mesozoic era, during which dinosaurs flourished),
large shallow seas covered extensive areas of the continents. Data from diverse
sources, including geochemical evidence preserved in seafloor sediments, indicate
that the Late Cretaceous climate was milder than today’s. The days were not too hot,
nor the nights too cold. The summers were not too warm, nor the winters too frigid.
The shallow seas on the continents probably buffered the temperature of the nearby
air, keeping it relatively constant.
(Source: ETS)
As you can see, TOEFL reading requires handling complex sentences, academic vocabulary, and precise logical connections.
Topics often resemble those found in introductory university textbooks and lectures.
What topics do the tasks cover?
The reading items span many disciplines, such as:
- Social sciences: anthropology, psychology, sociology, economics
- Natural sciences: biology, geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry
- Humanities: history, literature, culture, biography
- Arts and design: architecture, visual arts, drama
You can practice all these topics anytime at BestMyTest.
TIP: Familiarity with a topic makes comprehension faster and more accurate.
If you find passages challenging, build your vocabulary first. Our TOEFL vocabulary training includes 1200+ essential words across 17 academic themes:
TOEFL VOCABULARY
Next, you’ll complete a reading set and answer questions about what you read. Keep a steady pace so you finish within the time shown on screen.