TOEFL Reading: Prose Summary and Fill in a Table Question

✅ What is it about? 📍Prose Summary Question asks you to recognize the main ideas and relative essential information in a passage. You will have 6 answer choices and you need to...

✅ What is it about?

📍Prose Summary Question asks you to recognize the main ideas and relative essential information in a passage. You will have 6 answer choices and you need to identify 3 correct ones. They will represent the most important ideas. The other 3 answers will be incorrect and will misrepresent information or discuss minor points. The maximum score that you can get for this question is 2. In the table below, you can see the number of correct answers and points you receive for each.

During your actual test, you just need to drag and drop your answers into the box. Also, your answers do not need to be put in any specific order and you can change them as much as you want during the allocated time.

📍Fill in a Table Question asks you to identify correct answers for two-three different categories of concepts or ideas that were presented in a reading passage. You will also need to drag and drop your answers into specific categories which you choose. Your answers do not need to be put in any specific order and you can change them as much as you want during the allocated time. The maximum score that you can get for this question is 3.

Important to remember: each reading passage will have one Prose Summary Question or One Fill in a Table Question, but not both.

✅ How does the question sound?

Prose Summary Question

📍An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE (3) answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points. Drag your choices to the spaces where they belong. To review the passage, click on View Text.

Fill in a Table Question

📍Three of the answer choices below are used in the passage to illustrate (concept/idea), and two are used to illustrate (concept/idea). Complete the table by matching appropriate answer choices to the (concept/idea) they are used to illustrate. This question is worth 3 points. Drag your choices to the spaces where they belong. To review the passage, click on View Text.

✅ How to answer?

When you are answering these kinds of questions, you need to keep in mind several things:

📍Choose answers that are covered in the whole reading passage, not only a single paragraph or sentence.

📍Usually, those answers combine several facts and ideas in the passage.

📍Incorrect answers misrepresent information or are too narrow for the whole summary of the reading.

📍All your answers should be supported by the facts in the passage.

📍Your Answer choices should be focused on the most important ideas

✅ Sample question

Prose Summary Question

Inventions of the Neolithic era

The Neolithic Period had an important impact on the further development of various tools and the history of humans’ settlements around the world. To begin, it is essential to comprehend the main differences between the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras in order to carry out a perspective of how the revolutionary shift to agriculture was for all humanity. One of the examples which happened due to agriculture, including religion and trade, was the development of the class system. In the Paleolithic era, hunter-gatherers would divide tasks between each other like seed gathering, grinding, or toolmaking, etc. However, as the new era was coming, it started to bring more labor required projects like irrigation, plowing, and terracing to satisfy the needs of farming. Those projects called for "leaders" that would be in charge of controlling and managing inhabitants who would execute them. Task-dividing idea became old and needed a replacement as it did not meet the societies' demands. Therefore, the establishment of classes was inevitable. In the end, ruling elites appeared that were not part of the Paleolithic.

Violence was part of Paleolithic times; however, it was disorganized and haphazard. As people started to settle down and build large settlements, they became closer to each other and helped to increase population. An invention took place - organized warfare. Intensification of agriculture as well as social and economic pressures assisted with producing more food supplies and fine belongings that were wanted by the neighbors. In the 9,000s BCE period, populated settlements like Jericho began to construct defensive walls. Besides, wounds and injures from new kinds of projectiles (like the Khiam Point) were found on the skeletons unearthed in that place. Scientists believe those arms were invented during the Neolithic era.

The new period has brought changes to family life as well. Sedentary settlements began to spend less time with the community and focused more on building permanent houses that would allow nuclear families to live in. It gave them an opportunity to gather wealth and keep secrets.

The change in gender roles also took place. It has become even more pronounced that the role of women was raised and turned into an essential one during the Neolithic period comparing to the Paleolithic one. For instance, mothers needed to take care of their children, mostly breastfeeding, until their toddlers turned three or four years old. It did not let those mothers participate in hunting expeditions, especially, in long-distance ones without their young children. However, the new era brought new tasks that could be fulfilled even by breastfeeding females without leaving their houses for a long time and putting their toddlers in danger. Spinning, weaving, and sewing became ones of those that could be completed with a low concentration and repetitiveness, and with a possibility to interrupt work and take care of children. "Women's work" as we call it nowadays, including making food and clothing, was extremely essential for human survival. It is important to mention they were time-consuming too so mothers would spend most of their day completing them as well as nursing their children. Frequently, females received the men's help in accomplishing them.

Females in the period of Paleolithic learned how to distinguish between toxic and non-toxicmushrooms, assisted men in collecting eggs and berries with time. Furthermore, women became the main gatherers of mosses for sleeping mats and other plants for housings. They also helped men with the process of dressing and butchering freshly killed prey when it was delivered after the hunting expedition. Another reason why they were involved in the progress of hunting is that animals' sinews and fibers from plans that were used to rope a tie and fasten the hides and baskets. Also, those tools could be utilized to create netting for hunting and fishing, sometimes for transport too. In societies where hunting and horticulture elements were present, the female could grow and give a different variety of foods such as grains, legumes, and so on. Sewing and food gathering was a part of the activities that would be conducted outside, precisely in Mediterranean communities. They were usually associated with a preschool and apprentice system where women would take a leading role and educate young ones. It demonstrates another role of women in society such as teachers.

An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE (3) answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points. The Neolithic era introduced various innovations into human society, primarily, due to the intensification of agriculture.

Which one do you think is the right answer? Leave your explanations to the chosen answer in the comments below.

1. Agriculture brought humanity a new way of living and allocating resources that changed the perspective on war and roles and tasks within communities.

2. Developing new weapons helped neighbor settlements conquer others easier and without any resistance.

3. The gender roles in Neolithic communities have changed dramatically as women have become more engaged in hunting.

4. Building permanent homes and spending more time with families became more pronounced that made it possible of gathering more valuable artifacts and developing to ways of protecting them.

5. New tasks were introduced into Neolithic communities as the lifestyle of ancient people has become more stable due to agriculture and let women had more roles in societies.

6. In the 9,000s BCE, cities were in a need of protection as people started to develop new arms and ways of combating in order to receive the desired prey from their enemies.