I'm teaching a TOEFL course at the moment. So, if you're interested, I thought I would post up some material that we use in class.
First, we are studying the Reading Section. If you want to do well in the TOEFL you need to read English every day for about an hour. You can read any kind of book that you enjoy. Try not to use a dictionary and read quickly without stopping. Don't worry if you don't understand some of the words.
The Reading Section has 3 passages with about 15 questions on each, and it takes an hour. Here is an example. Try it and I'll post the answers next week.
Questions 1 - 10
The word laser was coined as an acronym for Light Amplification by
the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Ordinary light, from the Sun
or a light bulb, is emitted spontaneously, when atoms or molecules
get rid of excess energy by themselves, without any outside
intervention. Stimulated emission is different because it occurs
when an atom or molecule holding onto excess energy has been
stimulated to emit it as light.
Albert Einstein was the first to suggest the existence of stimulated
emission in a paper published in 1917. However, for many years
physicists thought that atoms and molecules always were much
more likely to emit light spontaneously and that stimulated
emission thus always would be much weaker. It was not until after
the Second World War that physicists began trying to make stimulated
emission dominate. They sought ways by which one atom or molecule
could stimulate many others to emit light, amplifying it to much
higher powers.
The first to succeed was Charles H. Townes, then at Columbia
University in New York. Instead of working with light, however,
he worked with microwaves, which have a much longer wavelength,
and built a device he called a “maser,” for Microwave Amplification
by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Although he thought of the
key idea in 1951, the first maser was not completed until a couple
of years later. Before long, many other physicists were building
masers and trying to discover how to produce stimulated emission at
even shorter wavelengths.
The key concepts emerged about 1957. Townes and Arthur Schawlow,
then at Bell Telephone Laboratories, wrote a long paper outlining
the conditions needed to amplify stimulated emission of visible
light waves. At about the same time, similar ideas crystallized in
the mind of Gordon Gould, then a 37-year-old graduate student at
Columbia, who wrote them down in a series of notebooks. Townes and
Schawlow published their ideas in a scientific journal, physical
Review Letters, but Gould filed a patent application.
Three decades later, people still argue about who deserves the credit
for the concept of the laser.
1. The word “coined” in line 1 could best be replaced by
(A) created
(B) mentioned
(C) understood
(D) discovered
2. The word “intervention” in line 4 can best be replaced by
(A) need
(B) device
(C) influence
(D) source
3. The word “it” in line 5 refers to
(A) light bulb
(B) energy
(C) molecule
(D) atom
4. Which of the following statements best describes a laser?
(A) A device for stimulating atoms and molecules to emit light
(B) An atom in a high-energy state
(C) A technique for destroying atoms or molecules
(D) An instrument for measuring light waves
5. Why was Towne's early work with stimulated emission done with microwaves?
(A) He was not concerned with light amplification.
(B) It was easier to work with longer wavelengths.
(C) His partner Schawlow had already begun work on the laser.
(D) The laser had already been developed.
6. In his research at Columbia University, Charles Townes worked with all of the
following EXCEPT
(A) stimulated emission
(B) microwaves
(C) light amplification
(D) a maser
7. In approximately what year was the first maser built?
(A) 1917
(B) 1951
(C) 1953
(D) 1957
8. The word “emerged” in line 20 is closest in meaning to
(A) increased
(B) concluded
(C) succeeded
(D) appeared
9. The word “outlining” in line 21 is closest in meaning to
(A) assigning
(B) studying
(C) checking
(D) summarizing
10. Why do people still argue about who deserves the credit for the concept of the
laser?
(A) The researchers' notebooks were lost.
(B) Several people were developing the idea at the same time.
(C) No one claimed credit for the development until recently.
(D) The work is still
