Oxford practice tests for the TOEIC test with key

UniVE>rslty Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP York Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto OX FCIRC and OXFORD ENGLISH trade marks of Oxford University Press 0194535266 University Press 2000 pUblished 2000 Fifth impression 2003 No unauthorized photocopying All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Any websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the content Printed in China The author and publisher would like to thank Corels for use of royalty-free images Contents Introduction page Practice Test page Practice Test page 43 Practice Test page 79 Practice Test page 115 Tapescripts Test I Test Test Test page 151 page 153 page 158 page 163 page 168 Answer key Test Test Test Test page 173 page 175 page 187 page 199 page 211 Answer sheets Test Test Test Test page 223 page 225 page 227 page 229 page 231 Conversion table INTRODUCTION The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) was originally designed to test the English proficiency levels of people engaged in international business However, the TOEIC® test has proven to be such a reliable measure of a test-taker's English language skills that it is now used for academic admissions, for placement purposes, and for measuring achievement Over 1,500,000 people take the TOEIC test each year TOEIC test format The TOEIC test is divided into two sections These are Listening Comprehension and Reading Each section contains 100 questions You will need approximately Yz hours to take the test Listening Comprehension 45 minutes Part I Part II Photographs 20 questions Question~response Parr IH Part N Short conversations 30 questions 30 questions Short talks 20 questions Reading Part V Part VI Part \Ill Incomplete sentences Error recognition Reading comprehension 75 minutes 40 questions 20 questions 40 questions Listening Comprehension Part I Photographs In this part, you will see a photograph and you will hear four sentences about it You must choose the sentence that most closely matches what you see You will hear the sentences once You will identify what you see in the photo This may include people, objects, actions and locations both general and specif1c You will also make assumptions; you may not be able to determine if something is actually taking place, but from the clues in the photo, you can assume that it is Traps The three incorrect sentences will contain vvords that may make them appear correct A word mav have a similar sound to something in the photo' (e.g., a sheep rather than the ship pictured) The sentence filay contain a \vard which has luore than one meaning (e.g., a bottle oJport wine rather than a ship in port) There may be a suitable word included which is used inappropriately (e.g., He is opening the window There is a window in the photo, but nobody is opening it) Strategies Scan the picture quickly and try to identiJ:1' as much as you can Ask yourself questions: Who (gender, description, occupation) is in the photo' What is happening? Where was the photo taken' When listening, focus on the words that are easier to hear, the stressed words, as they carry the overall meaning Part 11 Question-response In this part, you will hear a question and three possible responses You must choose the response that best answers the question You will hear the question and each response once The question ,nay ask about people, location, time, an activity, an event, elllotions, reasons, or opinions In short, the question could be on almost any subject Traps As in Part I, words may sound similar or be used out of context Words from the question may be repeated in the response, but be used inaccurately In addition, there is a potential trap with grammar You will hear different types of questions: whquestions (tuho, tuhal, Luhen, wbere, wby, and how), yes/no questions and tag questions 'When you hear a yes/no or a tag question, you may assume that the response will begin with Yes or No In theTOEIC test, as in real life, the response Inay an::,'Vi,Ter the question indirectly instead For example: Is there any cake left? (A) I ate tbe last piece (B) Yes, the lake is on the leJl (C) No, Ilejt early (A) is the correct option The respondent doesn't answer with yes/no as would be expected Ho\vever, we know the ans\ver is 110, because the respondent ate tbe last piece Strategies You will have to exercise your short-term memory You must remember the question until you have Inlroduction -"4 picked the appropriate response If you really don't know the answer, then guess Choose the response that sounds most natural to you, don't leave any questions unanswered announcements, weather forecasts, special bulletins, etc The questions will ask you to determine the location, the speaker, the time, the event, or a reason Part III Short conversations Traps The traps that were set for you in Parts I, II and III are set once again In this part, you will hear a short dialog You will read a question and four answer choices in your test booklet You must choose the option that best answers the question You will only hear the dialog once The question will ask about the general idea of the conversation; usually it will not focus on specific details You will be asked to identify an activity, an emotion, a relationship, or the location of the speakers In some instances you may have to some minor calculations based on measurements in the dialog Traps As in Parts I and II, words may sound similar or be used out of context Words may be repeated in the options, but be used inaccurately In addition, listen out for words that can add to or change meaning Listen carefully for words that indicate time (e.g., before, until, while, afterwards, etc.) and words that indicate negation (e.g., not, hardly, seldom, by no means, etc.) The dialog may compare two or more things so listen for words that show degrees of comparisons Modals (e.g.,can, could, ought to, etc.) indicate possibility and adVisability Listen carefully for modals to determine the intent of the speakers Word order is also a potential trap A sentence such as Never has the weather been so unpredictable means Tbe weather is usually predictable Strategies Try to read the question before you hear the dialog If you have time,read the answer choices as well Look at all the options, before choosing your answer As you listen, imagine the speakers and their location Part IV Short talks In this part, you will hear a short monologue about which you will read two or three questions in your test booklet For each question, you must choose the correct answer from four options You will only hear the monologue once The talks can be in the form of recorded Strategies This is a very difficult section because you have to listen carefully and remember speciflc details It is important that you try to read the questions before you hear the talk If you have time, try to read the answer choices as well However, you should listen to the whole talk before attempting to answer any of the questions Timing is crucial in this part If you cannot read and answer the question in the second pause then don't worry, but move on to the next one Don't get left behind on the tape Reading PartY Incomplete sentences In this part, you will read a sentence with one word or phrase missing and four possible choices to fill the blank You will choose the best word or phrase Both your knowledge of vocabulary and your knowledge of grammar are tested You will have to understand the meaning of the sentence to choose a vocabulary item You may have to apply your knowledge of phrasal verbs and set expressions You will, in some instances, have to understand the grammatical function of the blank to choose the correct grammaticai form of a word The grammar forms tested most frequently are verb tense, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and comparisons with adjectives and adverbs Traps In the items that test grammar, many of the choices are attractive because they seem to complete the meaning of the sentence However, they may not be grammatically correct You have to pay close attention to tl,e word endings and make sure you choose the correct grammatical form required Strategies You must develop a quick pace for the Reading section You have 75 minutes for 100 items There are 60 items in PartsV andVI You should save most of your time for the reading passages in Part VII Try to amwer a question in 30 seconds If the Introduction answer is not apparent to you, quickly move on Return to the unanswered questions after you reach the end of Part VII Always go back and check your answers at the end if there is time PartVI Error recognition In this part, you will read a sentence with four words or phrases underlined You must choose the underlined word or phrase which is incorrectly written Only grammar is tested The focus is mainly on errors with subject/verb agreement, pronmill agreement, and word family distinctions Errors with prepositions are common and occasionally there will be mistakes with verb tense and verb form The words that are not underlined are always correct Traps A common trap is to insert a word that does not belong This is usually a pronoun in the subject position e.g., The workers ':.!!!!:l are on strike, or a pronoun which is incorrectly used e.g.,She is going to interview 111r Robinson itself Strategies Check each underlined section for an error If nO error is apparent, take each option and see if that word or phrase tits the sentence grammatically Do not take time to correct an error (even in your head) PartVII Reading You will read a passage followed by 2-5 questions You will have to answer the questions based on the information in the passage Each question has four options You will have to interpret the information in advertisements, forms, reports, correspondence, tables, graphs, announcements, articles, and schedules Traps Many of the answer options repeat information that is found in the passage, but in a different context Make sure the option you choose directly answers the question Strategies Read over the questions before you read the passage Don't look at the answer options Read - Introduction the passage quickly to get a general idea Don't worry about words you don't understand Then read it again more carefully and try to 1lnd the answers to the questions as you read After that, choose from the options The questions uSU