TOEFL Questions

---

Read the following passage carefully and choose the most appropriate answer to the question out of the four alternatives.

In short, to write a good letter you must approach the job in the lightest and most casual way. You must be personal, not abstract. You must not say, 'This is too small a thing to put down'. You must say, 'This is just the sort of small thing we talk about at home. If I tell them this they will see me, as it were they'll hear my voice, they'll know what I'm talking about'. That is the purpose of a letter. Carlyle had the trick to perfection. He is writing from Scotsbrig to his brother Alec in Canada and he begins talking about his mother. Good old Mother, he says, 'she is even now sitting at my back, trying at another table to write you a small word with her own hand; the first time she has tried such a thing for a year past. It is Saturday night, after dark; we are in the east room in a hard, dry evening with a bright fire to our two selves; Jenny and her Barns are 'scouring up things' in the other end of the house; and below stairs the winter operations of the farm go on, in a subdued tone; you can conceive the scene! How simple it is and yet how perfect. Can not you see Alec reading it in his far-off home and his eyes moistening at the picture of his old mother sitting and writing her last message to him on earth?

'Scouring up things' means ________.

In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.

Indian corporates are _______________ influenced by the American style of management, including ______________ practices. The recent episodes in a couple of big and reputed corporates in India are prompting many to re-think the kind of compensation strategy that would be __________ for Indian corporates. Should it be more socialistic, as prevalent in Scandinavian, some European and Japanese companies? _______________ there be some law to govern the salary differentials? __________should different functions such as Finance be remunerated substantially higher for equivalent educational degree holders and similar efforts by individuals in other functions?

management, including ______________ practices.

In the following question, four words are given out of which one word is correctly spelt. Select the correctly spelt word.

In the following question, out of the given four alternatives, select the one which is opposite in meaning of the given word.

Arraign

In the following question, the sentence given with blank to be filled in with an appropriate word. Select the correct alternative out of the four and indicate it by selecting the appropriate option.

Going by her grades the teacher is sure that she ______ the exam.

In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.

Widespread liberalization of the economic ________________ regime was long overdue in 1991, and has played a positive role since, but its impact has ________________ its course and the policy has recognisable ___________________. Liberalization cannot address all aspects of the man­made environment and now climate change ________________ to change everything forever. We do not have another quarter century to deal ___________ these imperatives.

We do not have another quarter century to deal ___________ these imperatives.

In the following question, a short passage with one of the lines in the passage missing and represented by a blank is given. Select the best out of the five answer choices given, to make the passage complete and coherent (coherent means logically complete and sound).
There is a fairly universal sentiment that the use of nuclear weapons is clearly contrary to mortality and that its production probably so, does not go far enough. These activities are not only opposed to mortality but also to the law. If the legal objection can be added to the moral, the argument against the use and manufacture of these weapons will considerably be reinforced. Now the time is ripe to evaluate the responsibility of scientists who knowingly use their expertise for the construction of such weapons, which has a deleterious effect on mankind.
How appropriate it is that all this valuable skill should be devoted to the manufacture of weapons of death in a world of poverty is a question that must touch the scientific conscience.

A passage with three blanks, followed by five options, each containing one word, is given. Choose the word that can fill all the three blanks.
The ability of humans to ___________ the landscape and recognize the consequences of doing so puts us in a peculiar position. There are several animals on earth that show this same kind of intelligence. Some animals have extensions to ___________ their environment and some do not. As a species we are assigned the duty to provide and proliferate. Our goal is to achieve stability for ourselves and our kin. However, we also have an obligation to maintain the environment, as we depend on the resources and services it provides. The question then becomes:
what is our role in nature? Do we have the right to _________ the land, factory farm animals, and pollute waterways? Or do we have an obligation to reduce our numbers and merely subsist? In order to answer these questions, we must rely on our knowledge of Earth, evolution, and our influence on the environment.