Choose a Response: Using Question Words
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Listening Section (2026 Version)
Summary
Mastering the use of question words is a crucial strategy for tackling the choose-a-response questions in the TOEFL exam, particularly for open-ended questions which are more common than yes-no questions.
- Open-ended questions using who, what, when, where, why, or how are about twice as common as yes-no questions in the listening module of the TOEFL.
- Identifying the question word helps in quickly eliminating wrong answers that do not match the type of information asked for.
- For yes-no questions, the best answer often provides extra information rather than a simple yes or no, and sometimes the yes or no is implied rather than explicitly stated.
- Using both the question word and the context of the question together is the best strategy for choosing the correct response.
- Practicing the recognition of question words and their implied information types can significantly improve efficiency in answering choose-a-response questions.
Chapters
00:00
The Importance of Question Words
00:22
Strategies for Open-ended Questions
04:07
Handling Yes-No Questions