iguh_budi Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harbinger Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 I agree with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 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! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iguh_budi Posted March 10, 2003 Author Share Posted March 10, 2003 Dear Erin and Harbinger Than you for your quick answer Regards from Indonesia iguh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iguh_budi Posted March 10, 2003 Author Share Posted March 10, 2003 Sorry I miss the letter "k" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 You're welcome! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttaann Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iguh_budi Posted March 11, 2003 Author Share Posted March 11, 2003 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttaann Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bataa Posted March 21, 2003 Share Posted March 21, 2003 Dear Erin If once TOEFL produced Bad question like that you mentioned before, will they score this question. I mean will they accept both answers as correct ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted March 21, 2003 Share Posted March 21, 2003 I believe TOEFL simply won't count that question toward your score; in other words, the question gets "cancelled." But it's highly unlikely that such a question would show up on your test--by the time a question appears on an actual test, it's already been tested over and over to ensure that it's a valid test question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wawien Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 Dear Erin and Harbinger, Would you mind to send me some example of question in TOEFL?? Would you be my supervisor to learn English? Thank you so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 Originally posted by wawien Dear Erin and Harbinger, Would you mind to send me some example of question in TOEFL?? Would you be my supervisor to learn English? Thank you so much. There are many, many practice exercises available for free here on TestMagic.com. Check here: Free TOEFL Test. If you have any other general questions about the TOEFL please post them here: Free TOEFL Test Forum. I'm going to lock this topic now to keep our test questions organized. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.