TOEFL: What is a "bad TOEFL" question?

[iguh_budi]

Dear all,

I quote a question from Barron's here :

One of the world's best-selling authors, Louis L'Amour said to have written 101 books, mostly western.

The answer is : B, should be is said

But I see B could be right if C is changed to "that he has written."

So the answer C also right.

Pls help me

iguh

[harbinger]

I agree with you.

[Erin]

If it is possible to correct the sentence in two underlined places, then the sentence is a BAD TOEFL question. Since your correction is fine, this question is NOT good. In other words, you're right!

[iguh_budi]

Dear Erin and Harbinger

Than you for your quick answer

Regards
from Indonesia
iguh

[iguh_budi]

Sorry I miss the letter "k"

[Erin]

You're welcome!

[ttaann]

Hi all,

One of [the world's] best-selling authors, Louis L'Ampur [said] [to have written] 101 books, [mostly] western.

IMHO this question isn't as difficult as you might think.

The correct answer is:
One of the world's best-selling authors, Louis L'Ampur issaid to have written 101 books, mostly western.

All in all IMHO this isn't not standard at all.

Could you ERIN [tm] help me with this confusion?

[iguh_budi]

Dear ttaann

But we can say :
One of the world's best-selling authors, Louis L'Ampur said that he has written 101 books, mostly western.

[Erin]

Originally posted by ttaann

The correct answer is:

One of the world's best-selling authors, Louis L'Ampur issaid to have written 101 books, mostly western.

All in all IMHO this isn't not standard at all.

Could you ERIN [tm] help me with this confusion?

First, be sure to read what I wrote above:

If it is possible to correct the sentence in two underlined places, then the sentence is a BAD TOEFL question. Since your correction is fine, this question is NOT good. In other words, you're right!

One of the hallmarks of "bad TOEFL" questions is being able to correct the sentence in more than one way. The author is typically thinking of some very obvious grammar point, but overlooks the fact that the question could be corrected in a place that s/he hasn't thought of.

Here is a very simple example of a "bad TOEFL question:"

The student want to meet with the professor to ask some important questions about the upcoming final.

There is NO correct answer to this question, at least if we're doing it in the TOEFL way--you could correct A by making "student" plural ("students"), but you could also make "want" agree with "student" ("wants").

Believe me, real TOEFL questions will not have this problem.

Make sense?

BTW, I'm going to make this into a FAQ, since it's a pretty common question.

[ttaann]

Thanks ERIN, [tm]

Last time I just skimmed the replies so I missed your point.

BTW the following question is not good either:

Dreams are [commonly] [made up of] [either] visual [and] verbal images.

Practice Test -- Peterson's