TOEFL

STRUCTURE AND WRITTEN

EXPRESSION
 Skill I: BE SURE THE SENTENCE HAS A SUBJECT AND A
VERB

Example I
Example III
___________ was backed up for miles on the
freeway.
The boy_______ going to
(A) Yesterday the movies with a
(B) In the morning
(C) Traffic
friend.
(D) Cars (A) he is
Example II (B) he always was
Engineers _______ for work on the new space
program. (C) is relaxing
(A) necessary
(B) are needed
(D) will be
(C) hopefully
(D) next month
 Skill 2: BE CAREFUL OF OBJECTS OF
PREPOSITIONS
An object of preposition is a noun or a pronoun that
comes after a preposition, such as in, at, of, to, by
behind, on, and so on, to form a prepositional phrase.

Example
With his friend _______ found the movie theater.
(A) has
(B) he
(C) later
(D) when
 Skill 3: BE CAREFUL OF APOSITIVES
An appositive is a noun that comes before or after another noun and has the same
meaning

Example I
_______, George, is attending the lecture.
(A) Right now
(B) Happily
(C) Because of the time
(D) My friend

Example II
______, Sarah rarely misses her basketball shots.
(A) An excellent basketball player
(B) An excellent basketball player is
(C) Sarah is an excellent basketball player
(D) Her excellent basketball play
 Skill 4: BE CAREFULL OF PRESENT PARTICIPLES

A Present participle is the –ing form of the verb. It is part of

the verb when it is preceded by some form of the verb be.

Example
The child_______ playing in the yard is my son.
(A) now
(B) is
(C) he
(D) was
 Skill 5: BE CAREFULL OF PAST PARTICIPLES

The past participle is the form of the verb that appears with
have or be. A past participle often ends in –ed but there are
also many irregular past participles.

Example
The packages _______ mailed at the post office will arrive
Monday.
(A) have
(B) were
(C) them
(D) just
 U S ES
LE CL A
T I P
TH MUL
W I
N C ES
E NTE
S
 Skill 6: USE COORDINATE CONNECTORS
CORRECTLY
When you have two clauses in an English sentence, you must
connect the two clauses correctly. One way to connect two
clauses is to use and, but, or, so, or yet between the clauses.

Tom is singing, and Paul is dancing.

Tom is tall, but Paul is short.

EXAMPLE
The software should be used on an IBM computer, and this
computer is an IBM.
(A) then
(B) so
(C) and
(D) next
 Skill 7: USE ADVERB TIME AND CAUSE
CONNECTORS CORRECTLY

Study the clauses and connectors in the following sentences:

I will sign the check before you leave.
Before you leave, I will sign the check.

Example
_______ was late, I missed the appointment.
(A) I
(B) Because
(C) The train
(D) Since he
 Skill 8: USE OTHER ADVERB CONNECTORS
CORRECTLY
Adverb clauses can also express a number of other ideas,
such as contrast, condition, manner, and place.

Study the following examples:

I will leave at 7:00 if I am ready.

Example
You will get a good grade on the exam provided _______.
(A) studying
(B) study
(C) to study
(D) you study
 Skill 13: USE REDUCE ADJECTIVE CLAUSE
CORRECTLY
Adjective clause can appear in a reduced form. In the
reduced form, the adjective clause connector and the be-
verb that directly follow it are omitted.

Example
_______ on several different television programs, the
witness gave conflicting accounts of what had happened.
(A) He appeared
(B) Who appeared
(C) Appearing
(D) Appears
 USE REDUCE ADVERB CLAUSE CORRECTLY

Adverb clause can also appear in a reduced form. In

the reduced form, the adverb connector remains,
but the subject and be-verb are omitted.

Example
When _______ , you are free to leave.
(A) the finished report
(B) finished with the report
(C) the report
(D) is the report finished
 INVERT THE SUBJECT AND VERB WITH
QUESTION WORDS
They can introduce a question, and in this case the subject and
verb that follow are inverted.
What is the homework?
These words can join together two clauses, and in this case the
subject and verb that follow are not inverted.
I do not know what the homework is.

Example
The lawyer asked the client why _______ it.
(A) did he do
(B) did he
(C) he did
(D) did
 INVERT THE SUBJECT AND VERB WITH PLACE
EXPRESSIONS
Using single words expressing place, such as here, there, or nowhere

Here is the book that you lent me.

The subject and verb can also be inverted after prepositional phrases
expressing place.

Around the corner is Sam’s house.

Example
On the second level of the parking lot _______.

(A) is empty (C) some empty stalls are

(B) are empty (D) are some empty stalls
 INVERT THE SUBJECT AND VERB WITH
NEGATIVES
• Example
• Only in extremely dangerous situations
_______ stopped.
• (A) will be the printing presses
• (B) the printing presses will be
• (C) that the printing presses will be
• (D) will the printing presses be
 INVERT THE SUBJECT AND VERB WITH
CONDITIONALS
When the helping verb in the conditional clause is had, should, or were,
and the conditional connector if is omitted.

If he had taken more time, the results would have been better.
Had he taken more time, the results would have been better.

Example
The report would have been accepted _______ in checking its accuracy.
(A) if more care
(B) more care had been taken
(C) had taken more care
(D) had more care been taken
 INVERT THE SUBJECT AND VERB WITH
COMPARISONS
The inversion of a subject and verb after a comparison is optional,
rather tah required, and it is a rather formal structure.
My sister spends more hours in the office than John.
My sister spends more hours in the office than John does.
My sister spends more hours in the office than does John.

Example
The results of the current experiment appear to be more consistent
than _______ the results of any previous tests.
(A) them
(B) were
(C) they were
(D) were they
 S I O N
E X PRES
I TT E N
W R I O N S
THE QU E S T
 MAKE VERBS AGREE AFTER PREPOSITIONAL
PHRASES

• When a prepositional phrase come between the subject

and the verb, be sure that the verb agrees with the
subject
 MAKE VERBS AGREE AFTER CERTAIN WORDS

1. Among bees ________ a highly elaborate form of communication.

(A)occur (B) occurs (C) it occurs (D) they occur

2. ______ heated by solar energy have special collectors on the roofs to

trap sunlight.
(A) A home is (B) Homes are (C) A home (D) Homes
 AFTER HAVE, USE THE PAST PARTICIPLE

• Verb forms after have

• HAVE + PAST PARTICPLE
• My friend has sung in the choir.
BE, USE THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE OR THE PAST
PARTICPLE

• e.g: We are doing our homework. The book

was taken by Tom
AFTER WILL, WOULD, OR OTHER MODALS, USE
THE BASE FORM OF THE VERB

• e.g: The boat will leave at 3:00.

Exercise
 KNOW WHEN TO USE THE PAST WITH THE
PRESENT
• Often when a sentence has both a paste tense and a present
tense, the sentence is incorrect.
– He took the money when he wants it.
• The sentence can be corrected in several ways:
– He took the money when he wanted it.
– He took the money when he wants it.

• However, it is possible for a correct sentence to have both

past and present together.

• I know that he took the money yesterday.

 USE HAVE AND HAD CORRECTLY
• The present perfect (have + past participle) refers to
the period of time from the past until the present.

Sue has lived in Los Angeles for ten years.

• The past perfect (had + past participle) refers to a

period of time that started in the past and ended in
the past, before something happened in the past.

Sue had lived in Los Angeles for ten years when she
moved to San Diego.
 USE THE CORRECT TENSE WITH TIME EXPRESSIONS

• Time expression clearly indicates what verb tense is needed in the

sentence.
We moved to New York in 1980.
We had left there by 1990.
We have lived in San Fransisco since 1999.

• Some additional time expression that indicate the correct tense are
ago, last, lately.

She got a job two years ago.

She started working last week.
She has worked very hard lately.
 USE THE CORRECT TENSE WITH WILL AND
WOULD
• Combination of the simple present and will
I know that they will arrive soon.

• Combination of the simple past and would

I knew that he would arrive.

• There is a different modal would that is used to make polite

requests.
• This type of would is often used with the present tense.

• I would like to know if you have a pencil that I could borrow.

 USE THE CORRECT FORM OF THE PASSIVE

• The project will be finished by Tim.

 RECOGNIZE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE MEANINGS

• e.g:
• Active sentence: We mailed the package at the post
office.
• Passive sentence: The letter was mailed by us today.
 RECOGNIZE –LY ADJECTIVES

• Generally when a word ends in –ly in English,

it is an adverb.
•  However, there are few words ending in –ly
that are adjectives can cause confusion in the
written Expression section of the TOEFL test.
• e.g: The manager turned in his weekly report.
ADJ . NOUN
 USE PREDICATE ADJECTIVES CORRECTLY

• A predicate adjective appears after a linking verb

such as be. It cannot appear directly in front of the
noun that it describes
• e.g:
• - The snake on the rock was alive.
• - The live snake was lying on the rock.
 USE –ED AND –ING ADJECTIVES CORRECTLY

• Verb forms ending in –ed and –ing can be used

as adjectives.
• e.g:
The woman cleans the car.
The cleaning woman worked on the car.
The woman put the cleaned car back in the
garage
 USE ARTICLES WITH SINGULAR NOUNS

• A singular noun must have an article (a, an, the) or

some other determiner such as my or each. (A
plural noun or uncountable noun may or may not
have an article.)
• e.g:
• I have money. (uncountable – no article needed)
• I have books. (countable plural – no article needed)
• I have a book. (countable singular - article needed)
 USE DISTINGUSH A AND AN
• A is used in front of a singular noun with a consonant
sound.
• An is used in front of a singular noun with a vowel sound.
• Be careful of words beginning with letters such as u, o, e,
x, or h. They may begin with either a vowel or a consonant
sound.
• e.g:
a book, an orange
a man an illness
a page an automobile
a one-way street an x-ray machine
 MAKE ARTICLES AGREE WITH NOUNS

• You should never use a or an with a plural

noun.
• e.g: He saw a new movie. (singular) He saw
new movies. (plural)
DISTINGUISH SPECIFIC AND GENERAL IDEAS