¿Quieres saber qué es el TOEFL iBT? Aquí te explicamos la estructura del examen, ejemplos de preguntas y la opción de hacer un test de nivel de inglés.

El TOEFL iBT (Test of English as a Foreign Language internet-Based Test) es un examen de reconocimiento internacional que evalúa la capacidad de las personas no nativas para usar y entender el idioma inglés en un entorno académico. Éste es administrado por Educational Testing Service (ETS) y es aceptado por miles de universidades, agencias y programas en todo el mundo, especialmente en países de habla inglesa.

Cada sección del examen TOEFL iBT se puntúa en una escala de 0 a 30, y la puntuación total de las cuatro secciones puede sumar hasta 120.

El examen TOEFL iBT se divide en cuatro secciones que evalúan las habilidades de lectura, escucha, habla y escritura en inglés.

La sección de lectura consta de 20 preguntas basadas en dos pasajes de texto, con un tiempo estimado de 35 minutos para su realización.

Los pasajes provienen de libros de texto universitarios y cubren una variedad de disciplinas, incluyendo ciencias naturales, ciencias sociales, artes y humanidades. Las preguntas requieren que los candidatos lean y comprendan los textos, identifiquen las ideas principales y los detalles, comprendan el vocabulario en contexto y hagan inferencias basadas en lo que han leído.

La comprensión de la estructura del texto y la capacidad de reconocer la relación entre las ideas también se evalúan en esta sección.

La sección de escucha consiste en 28 preguntas y tiene una duración estimada de 36 minutos.

En esta sección, los candidatos escuchan grabaciones de conferencias y discusiones en el aula que duran de 3 a 5 minutos. Las conferencias pueden ser sobre una variedad de temas y pueden incluir interacciones de estudiantes. Las discusiones pueden implicar una conversación entre dos personas o un monólogo.

Los candidatos deben demostrar su capacidad para entender la conversación o la conferencia, seguir el discurso, captar los puntos principales y detalles, reconocer la actitud o propósito del hablante, y entender el contenido y la organización de la información presentada.

La sección de habla incluye 4 tareas y tiene un tiempo estimado de 16 minutos.

Dos de estas tareas implican hablar sobre temas familiares y dos implican hablar en base a lo que los candidatos han leído y escuchado.

Los candidatos deben demostrar su capacidad para expresar sus ideas de manera coherente y efectiva en inglés, utilizando un rango adecuado de vocabulario y estructuras gramaticales. También deben mostrar su habilidad para sintetizar y transmitir información de manera efectiva.

Las respuestas se graban y son evaluadas por expertos en evaluación del idioma inglés.

La sección de escritura consiste en dos tareas con un tiempo total estimado de 29 minutos.

Una de las tareas es una «Tarea Integrada» que implica leer un pasaje, escuchar una conferencia o conversación sobre el mismo tema, y luego escribir una respuesta que combine información de ambos.

En la otra tarea, llamada «Escritura para una Discusión Académica», los candidatos deben expresar y respaldar una opinión sobre un tema en un contexto de discusión de clase en línea.

Los candidatos deben demostrar su capacidad para presentar y apoyar sus ideas de manera clara y efectiva, utilizando un rango adecuado de vocabulario y estructuras gramaticales.

Estamos encantados de ofrecerte la oportunidad de realizar un test de nivel de inglés totalmente gratuito. Este no es una simulación del TOEFL iBT, sino una herramienta diseñada para evaluar tu actual competencia en el idioma inglés.

Después de completar el test, tendrás una charla con uno de nuestros asesores académicos, que te ayudará a entender tus resultados y te dará una orientación personalizada sobre cómo mejorar.

Además, ofrecemos una variedad de opciones para ayudarte a prepararte para el TOEFL iBT. Ya sea que prefieras prepararte en grupo, el aprendizaje autodirigido con nuestro curso online, o la atención individualizada de nuestras clases particulares, tenemos la opción que mejor se adapta a tus necesidades.

Aquí encontrarás una selección de preguntas típicas que puedes encontrar en cada una de las secciones del TOEFL iBT: lectura, escritura, escucha y habla.

Es importante recordar que el TOEFL iBT es una evaluación integral del idioma inglés, que requiere una sólida competencia en todas las habilidades del idioma. Por ello, aunque estos ejemplos de preguntas te darán una idea general del examen, necesitarás una preparación más profunda y completa para abordar con éxito el examen.

En nuestra academia, ofrecemos diversas formas de ayudarte a prepararte para el TOEFL iBT. Puedes unirte a uno de nuestros cursos con profesor, donde recibirás lecciones en tiempo real y tendrás la oportunidad de interactuar con otros estudiantes y resolver tus dudas de manera inmediata. Si prefieres aprender a tu propio ritmo, nuestro curso online sin profesor te ofrece la flexibilidad de estudiar cuando y donde quieras, con materiales de estudio completos y actualizados. Para aquellos que busquen una atención más personalizada, nuestras clases particulares te proporcionarán la atención individual que necesitas para centrarte en tus áreas de mejora específicas.

Examining the Problem of Bycatch

1. A topic of increasing relevance to the conservation of marine life is bycatch—fish and other animals that are unintentionally caught in the process of fishing for a targeted population of fish. Bycatch is a common occurrence in longline fishing, which utilizes a long heavy fishing line with baited hooks placed at intervals, and in trawling, which utilizes a fishing net (trawl) that is dragged along the ocean floor or through the mid-ocean waters. Few fisheries employ gear that can catch one species to the exclusion of all others. Dolphins, whales, and turtles are frequently captured in nets set for tunas and billfishes, and seabirds and turtles are caught in longline sets. Because bycatch often goes unreported, it is difficult to accurately estimate its extent. Available data indicate that discarded biomass (organic matter from living things) amounts to 25–30 percent of official catch, or about 30 million metric tons.
2. The bycatch problem is particularly acute when trawl nets with small mesh sizes (smaller than-average holes in the net material) are dragged along the bottom of the ocean in pursuit of groundfish or shrimp. Because of the small mesh size of the shrimp trawl nets, most of the fishes captured are either juveniles (young), smaller than legal size limits, or undesirable small species. Even larger mesh sizes do not prevent bycatch because once the net begins to fill with fish or shrimp, small individuals caught subsequently are trapped without ever encountering the mesh. In any case, these incidental captures are unmarketable and are usually shoveled back over the side of the vessel dead or dying.
3. The bycatch problem is complicated economically and ecologically. Bycatch is a liability to shrimp fishers, clogging the nets and increasing fuel costs because of increased drag (resistance) on the vessel. Sorting the catch requires time, leading to spoilage of harvested shrimp and reduced time for fishing. Ecologically, high mortality rates among juvenile fishes could contribute to population declines of recreational and commercial species. Evidence to this effect exists for Gulf of Mexico red snapper and Atlantic Coast weakfish. Because the near-shore areas where shrimp concentrate are also important nursery grounds for many fish species, shrimp trawling could have a profound impact on stock size.
4. Once the dead or dying bycatch is returned to the ecosystem, it is consumed by predators, detritivores (organisms that eat dead plant and animal matter), and decomposers (organisms that break down dead or decaying organic matter), which could have a positive effect on sport fish, seabird, crab, and even shrimp populations. Available evidence indicates that 40– 60 percent of the 30 metric tons of catch discarded annually by commercial fishing vessels, and even more of the noncatch waste (organisms killed but never brought to the surface), does not lie unused on the bottom of the sea. It becomes available to midwater and ocean-bottom scavengers, transferring material into their food web and making energy available to foragers (organisms that search for food) that is normally tied up in ocean-bottom, deep-ocean, midwater, and open-ocean species.
5. Overfishing and overdiscarding may thus contribute to a syndrome known as “fishing down of food webs,” whereby we eliminate apex (top) predators and large species while transforming the ocean into a simplified system increasingly dominated by microbes, jellyfish, ocean-bottom invertebrates, plankton, and planktivores. The strongest evidence for the fishing down phenomenon exists in global catch statistics that show alarming shifts in species composition from high-value, near-bottom species to lower-value, open-ocean species. In the last three decades of the twentieth century, the global fishing fleet doubled in size and technology advanced immeasurably. Despite increased effort and technology, total catch stabilized, but landing rates (rates at which species are caught) of the most valuable species fell by 25 percent.
6. Conservation organizations have condemned the obvious and extreme waste associated with bycatch. Public concern over high mortality rates of endangered marine turtles captured in shrimp trawls led to the development of turtle exclusion devices (TEDs) in the 1980s. TEDs were incorporated into the shrimp net design with the purpose of directing turtles out of nets without unacceptably reducing shrimp catches. Marine engineers and fishers also developed shrimp net designs that incorporate bycatch reduction devices (BRDs), taking advantage of behavioral differences between shrimp and fish, or between different fishes, in order to separate fishes.

1.- Why does the author provide the information that “Available data indicate that discarded biomass (organic matter from living things) amounts to 25–30 percent of official catch, or about 30 million metric tons”?

1. To disprove the claim that it is difficult to accurately estimate the extent of the bycatch problem.
2. To illustrate the extreme effectiveness of the longline and trawling methods.
3. To suggest that uncertainty about the true extent of bycatch does not leave in doubt that it is a problem.
4. To indicate that data about bycatch are available only from fisheries having the right kind of gear.

2.- According to paragraph 2, why have larger mesh sizes not provided a practical solution to bycatch in shrimp fishing?

1. Larger openings increase the risk that nets will get tangled or damaged as they are being hauled over the sides of the vessel.
2. Openings large enough to prevent the capture of juvenile and other undesirable fish would also release the shrimp.
3. Large mesh sizes are more likely to result in fish getting stuck partway through, causing more deaths within the catch.
4. When nets grow full, they still trap fish that cannot reach the mesh openings.

3.- Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in paragraph 5? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

1. Overfishing and overdiscarding of jellyfish, ocean-bottom invertebrates, plankton, and planktivores are transforming the ocean in a process known as fishing down of food webs.
2. Overdiscarding bycatch simplifies the food web by favoring the kinds of predators that feed on such prey as jellyfish, ocean-bottom invertebrates, and planktivores.
3. Fishing down of food webs may occur if overfishing and bycatch disposal result in the disappearance of species at the top of the food web and the dominance of species near the bottom.
4. Overfishing and overdiscarding is a syndrome that affects not only top predators and large species but also microbes, jellyfish, ocean-bottom invertebrates, plankton, and planktivores.

Listen to Track 1. Give yourself 3 minutes to answer the questions in this practice set.

1.- Why does the student come to the library?

1. To learn about the library’s resources.
2. To ask about interlibrary loans.
3. To attend the new student orientation.
4. To start work on a research project.

2.- Why does the librarian point out the history section to the student?

1. She wants to point out the closest area containing copy machines.
2. She assumes that he will need to do research there.
3. The student is looking for a book he used at his last school.
4. Students sometimes mistakenly assume that the section contains literature books.

3.- What does the student imply about the interlibrary loan service at his last school?

1. He never used it.
2. He came to appreciate it.
3. It was inconvenient.
4. It was expensive.

4.- What does the student need to do before he can use any rare books? Choose 2 answers.

1. Purchase a card.
2. Obtain permission.
3. Put on gloves.
4. Try interlibrary loan first.

Online or Classroom

State whether you agree or disagree with the following statement. Then explain your reasons, using specific details in your explanation.

Learning through online courses is more effective than learning in the traditional classroom setting.

If this were an actual test question, you would have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to speak.

1.- Your professor is teaching a class on sociology. Write a post responding to the professor’s question.

In your response you should:

• express and support your opinion.
• make a contribution to the discussion.

An effective response will contain at least 100 words.

Dr. Diaz
Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at lots of different materials about the role of television programs and television watching in people’s lives. But first, I want to know what you think about this topic. So here’s a question for the class discussion board:

What do you think is the most significant effect that watching television has on people? Why do you think television has this effect?

Kelly
I know that one way that television influences people’s behavior is that when you are watching television, you are not moving around or exercising. This is especially true for children. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that when children spend a lot of time watching television, they have a greater tendency to be overweight.

Paul
I think the main effect that television has on people is to broaden their experience. There are so many programs devoted to nature and travel. Think of all the different places in the world you can experience through television! Last night I watched a program about life in Antarctica, and it was fascinating!

Write your answer
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