25 TOEFL questions about Reading Comprehensif with the answer

Questions 1-5
A distinctively American architecture began with Frank Lloyd Wright, who had taken to heart the admonition that form should follow function and who thought of buildings not as separate architectural entities but as parts of an organic whole that included the land, the community, and the society. In a very real way the houses of colonial New England and some of the southern plantations had been functional, but Wright was the first architect to make functionalism the authoritative principle for public as well as for domestic buildings. As early as 1906 he built the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, the first of those churches that did so much to revolutionize ecclesiastical architecture in the United States. Thereafter he turned his genius to such miscellaneous structures as houses, schools, office buildings, and factories, among them the famous Larkin Building in Buffalo, New York, and the Johnson Wax Company building in Racine, Wisconsin.
Terjemahan
Arsitektur khas Amerika dimulai oleh Frank Lloyd Wright, yang telah dikenal bahwa bentuk harus mengikuti fungsi dan siapa yang berpikir bangunan tidak dipisahkan oleh arsitektur tetapi sebagai bagian keseluruhan organik yang termasuk tanah, masyarakat, dan kumpulan masyarakat. Dalam cara yang sangat nyata ,rumah-rumah kolonial New England dan beberapa perkebunan Selatan telah berfungsi, tetapi Wright adalah arsitek pertama yang membuat fungsionalisme prinsip otoritatif untuk umum juga domestik. Sejak 1906, ia membangun Persatuan Candi di Oak Park, Illinois, gereja-Gereja yang pertama dari yang melakukan begitu banyak merevolusi arsitektur gereja di Amerika Serikat. Kemudian menggunakan kejeniusannya untuk struktur yang berbeda-bedaseperti rumah, sekolah, bangunan perkantoran dan pabrik-pabrik, di antaranya Gedung Larkin terkenal di Buffalo, New York, dan perusahaan bangunan Johnson Wax di Racine, Wisconsin.

1. The phrase “taken to heart” in line 1 is closest in meaning to which of the following?
Jawab : A → Taken seriously 
Pembahasan : Frasa taken to heart adalah bentuk ungkapan idiomatik dan memiliki arti “melakukan dengan sepenuh hati/serius”.

2. In what way did Wright’s public buildings differ from most of those built by earlier architects?
Jawab :  D → Their designs were based on how they would be used.
Pembahasan : Pada kalimat “…that form should follow function…” menunjukkan bahwa desain seharusnya berdasarkan pada fungsinya, untuk apa nantinya bangunan itu digunakan dan jawaban yang demikian ditemukan di pilihan D.

3. The author mentions the Unity Temple because, it 
Jawab :  B → influenced the architecture of subsequent churches 
Pembahasan :  Pada kalimat “…the first of those churches that did so much to revolutionize ecclesiastical architecture in the United States” menyatakan bahwa bangunan itu sangat mempengaruhi desain bangunan-bangunan selanjutnya. Jawaban yang mengandung ide serupa ada pada pilihan B.

4. The passage mentions that all of the following structures were built by Wright EXCEPT 
Jawab :  D → southern plantations 
Pembahasan :  Pada kalimat terakhir jelas bahwa offices, factories dan public building, termasuk churches adalah karyanya. Sedangkan South Plantations bukanlah hasil karyanya karena sudah didesain oleh orang terdahulu seperti yang disebutkan dalam bacaan.

5. Which of the following statements best reflects one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural principles?
Jawab : C → A building should fit into its surroundings.
Pembahasan : Kalimat “…as parts of an organic whole that included the land, the community, and the society” menyatakan bahwa bangunan seharusnya dianggap sebagai bagian dari keseluruhan lingkungan dan masyarakat sekitarnya sehingga dengan kata lain bangunan tersebut harus sesuai dengan lingkungannya.

Questions 6-16
There are two basic types of glaciers, those that flow outward in all directions with little regard for any underlying terrain and those that are confined by terrain to a particular path.
The first category of glaciers includes those massive blankets that cover whole continents, appropriately called ice sheets. There must be over 50,000 square kilometers of land covered with ice for the glacier to qualify as an ice sheet. When portions of an ice sheet spread out over the ocean, they form ice shelves.
About 20,000 years ago the Cordilleran Ice Sheet covered nearly all the mountains in southern Alaska, western Canada, and the western United States. It was about 3 kilometers deep at its thickest point in northern Alberta. Now there are only two sheets left on Earth, those covering Greenland and Antarctica.
Any domelike body of ice that also flows out in all directions but covers less than 50,000 square kilometers is called an ice cap. Although ice caps are rare nowadays, there are a number in northeastern Canada, on Baffin Island, and on the Queen Elizabeth Islands.
The second category of glaciers includes those of a variety of shapes and sizes generally called mountain or alpine glaciers. Mountain glaciers are typically identified by the landform that controls their flow. One form of mountain glacier that resembles an ice cap in that it flows outward in several directions is called an ice field. The difference between an ice field and an ice cap is subtle. Essentially, the flow of an ice field is somewhat controlled by surrounding terrain and thus does not have the domelike shape of a cap. There are several ice fields in the Wrangell. St. Elias, and Chugach mountains of Alaska and northern British Columbia.
Less spectacular than large ice fields are the most common types of mountain glaciers: the cirque and valley glaciers. Cirque glaciers are found in depressions in the surface of the land and have a characteristic circular shape. The ice of valley glaciers, bound by terrain, flows down valleys, curves around their corners, and falls over cliffs.

Terjemahan
Ada dua jenis dasar gletser, yang mengalir ke luar dalam semua arah dengan kurang memperhatikan setiap daerah yang mendasari dan orang-orang yang dibatasi oleh medan untuk suatu jalan tertentu.
Kategori pertama gletser mencakup selimut yang besar yang mencakup seluruh benua, tepat disebut lembaran es. Harus ada lebih dari 50.000 kilometer persegi tanah yang ditutupi dengan es untuk gletser untuk memenuhi syarat sebagai lembar es.
Ketika bagian dari lembaran es menyebar samudera, mereka membentuk es rak. Sekitar 20.000 tahun yang lalu Cordilleran es lembar meliputi hampir semua pegunungan di Alaska Selatan, Kanada Barat dan barat Amerika Serikat. Itu adalah sekitar 3 kilometer yang mendalam pada titik tertebal di northern Alberta. Sekarang yang ada hanya dua lembar yang tersisa di dunia, orang-orang yang meliputi Greenland dan Antartika.
Badan domelike es yang juga mengalir keluar di segala penjuru tetapi mencakup kurang dari 
50.000 kilometer persegi yang disebut topi es. Meskipun ice caps langka saat ini, ada beberapa di timur laut Kanada, Baffin Island, dan di Kepulauan Ratu Elizabeth.
Kategori kedua gletser termasuk orang-orang dari berbagai bentuk dan ukuran yang umumnya disebut gunung atau alpine gletser. Gunung gletser biasanya diidentifikasi dengan bentang alam yang mengendalikan aliran mereka. Salah satu bentuk gunung gletser yang menyerupai topi es yang mengalir ke luar dalam beberapa arah disebut medan es. Perbedaan antara medan es dan topi es halus. Pada dasarnya, arus medan es agak dikendalikan oleh daerah sekitarnya dan dengan demikian tidak memiliki bentuk seperti topi. Ada beberapa bidang es di Wrangell. St Elias, dan pegunungan Chugach di Alaska dan British Columbia Utara.
Kurang spektakuler daripada besar es bidang yang paling umum jenis gunung gletser: cirque dan lembah gletser. Cirque gletser ditemukan dalam depresi di permukaan tanah dan memiliki bentuk melingkar yang khas. Es lembah gletser, terikat oleh daerah, mengalir ke lembah, kurva yang disudut-sudut mereka dan jatuh diatas tebing.

6. What does the passage mainly discuss?
Jawab  : D → The different kinds of glaciers 
Pembahasan : Ide pokok teks di atas dapat ditemukan pada paragraf pertama kalimat pertama yang menjelaskan dua jenis gletser yang berbeda dan selanjutnya masing-masing dijelaskan lebih lanjut pada paragraf berikutnya.

7. The word “massive” in line 3 is closest in meaning to 
Jawab :  A → huge 
Pembahasan :  Padanan kata massive adalah huge (sangat besar).

8. It can be inferred that ice sheets are so named for which of the following reasons?
Jawab  : B → They cover large areas of land.
Pembahasan : Frasa whole continents pada kalimat those massive blankets that cover whole continents appropriately called ice sheet menunjukkan bahwa daratan yang tertutup gletser mencakup wilayah yang sangat luas, hampir keseluruhan daratan.

9. According to the passage, ice shelves can be found 
Jawab :  C → spreading into the ocean 
Pembahasan :  Jawaban dapat ditemukan pada kalimat terakhir paragraf kedua bahwa jika ice sheet tersebar (spread out) di lautan akan terbentuk ice shelves.

10. According to the passage, where was the Cordilleran Ice Sheet thickest?
Jawab : C → Alberta 
Pembahasan : Jawaban dapat ditemukan pada baris ke-8: it was about 3 kilometers deep at its thickest point in northern Alberta.

11. The word “rare” in line 11 is closest in meaning to 
Jawab  :  B → unusual 
Pembahasan :  Rare berarti jarang atau tidak biasa ditemukan sehingga jawaban yang paling mendekati arti dari rare adalah unusual.

12. According to the passage (paragraph 5), ice fields resemble ice caps in which of the following ways?
Jawab : B → Their flow 
Pembahasan : Kalimat Mountain glaciers are typically identified by the landform that controls their flow dan dijelaskan lebih lanjut pada kalimat One form of mountain glacier that resembles an ice cap in that it flows outward in several directions is called an ice field menunjukkan bahwa pembentukan ice caps dipengaruhi oleh alirannya (their flow).

13. The word “it” in line 15 refers to 
Jawab  :  A → glacier 
Pembahasan :  It pada kalimat di atas merujuk pada mountain glacier atau gletser.

14. The word ”subtle” in line 16 is closest in meaning to 
Jawab  :  A → slight 
Pembahasan :  Padanan kata subtle adalah slight yang keduanya memiliki arti “tipis, halus, atau sedikit”.

15. All of the following are alpine glaciers EXCEPT 
Jawab :  B → ice caps 
Pembahasan :  Jenis alpine/mountain glacier adalah ice fields, cirque glaciers dan valley glaciers yang semuanya dipengaruhi oleh aliran dan tidak memiliki domelike cap seperti ice caps.

16. Which of the following types of glaciers does the author use to illustrate the two basic types of glaciers mentioned in line 1?
Jawab : D → Ice sheets and mountain glaciers 
Pembahasan : Ada dua jenis gletser yaitu ice sheet yang mengalir keluar ke segala arah dan mountain glacier yang arah alirannya terbatas hanya di aliran tertentu.

Questions 17-25
Tools and hand bones excavated from the Swartkrans cave complex in South Africa suggest that a close relative of early humans known as Australopithecus robustus may have made and used primitive tools long before the species became extinct 1 million  Line years ago. It may even have made and used primitive tools long before humanity’s direct ancestor, Homo habilis, or “handy man,” began doing so. Homo habilis and its successor, Homo erectus, coexisted with Australopithecus robustus on the plains of South Africa for more than a million years.
The Swartkrans cave in South Africa has been under excavation since the 1940’s. The earliest fossil-containing layers of sedimentary rock in the cave date from about 1.9 million years ago and contain extensive remains of animals, primitive tools, and two or more species of apelike hominids. The key recent discovery involved bones from the hand of Australopithecus robustus, the first time such bones have been found.
The most important feature of the Australopithecus robustus hand was the pollical distal thumb tip, the last bone in the thumb. The bone had an attachment point for a “uniquely human” muscle, the flexor pollicis longus, that had previously been found only in more recent ancestors. That muscle gave Australopithecus robustutJ an opposable thumb, a feature that would allow them to grip objects, including tools. The researchers also found primitive bone and stone implements, especially digging tools, in the same layers of sediments.
Australopithecus robustus were more heavily built- more “robust” in anthropological terms-than their successors. They had broad faces, heavy jaws, and massive crushing and grinding teeth that were used for eating hard fruits, seeds, and fibrous underground plant parts. They walked upright, which would have allowed them to carry and use tools. Most experts had previously believed that Homo habilis were able to supplant Australopithecus robustus because the former’s ability to use tools gave them an innate superiority. The discovery that Australopithecus robustus also used tools means that researchers will have to seek other explanations for their extinction. Perhaps their reliance on naturally occurring plants led to their downfall as the climate became drier and cooler, or perhaps Homo habilis, with their bigger brains, were simply able tomake more sophisticated tools.

Terjemahan
Alat dan tulang tangan yang digali dari kompleks gua Swartkrans di Afrika Selatan telah menjadi informasi bahwa kerabat dekat awal manusia yang dikenal sebagai Australopithecus robustus telah dibuat dan alat primitif telah digunakan jauh sebelum spesies punah 1 juta tahun lalu. Bahkan mungkin alat primitif telah dibuat dan digunakan jauh sebelum leluhur manusia langsung, Homo habilis atau ‘manusia pembantu’ mulai melakukannya. Homo habilis dan penerusnya, Homo erectus berdampingan dengan Australopithecus robustus di dataran Afrika Selatan selama lebih dari satu juta tahun. 
Gua Swartkrans di Afrika Selatan telah di bawah penggalian sejak tahun 1940-an. Fosil pertama yang mengandung lapisan batuan sedimen di gua berasal dari sekitar 1,9 juta tahun yang lalu dan berisi bangkai binatang, alat-alat primitif, dan dua atau lebih spesies hominid yang seprti kera. Penemuan baru-baru ini menemukan tulang dari tangan Australopithecus robustus, pertama kalinya seperti tulang telah ditemukan sebelumnya.
Fitur yang paling penting dari tangan Australopithecus robustus adalah ujung jari distal pollical, tulang di jempol. Tulang itu memiliki titik lanjutan untuk otot ’manusia unik ’, otot flexor pollicis longus, yang sebelumnya telah ditemukan hanya di jaman nenek-moyang yang terdahulu. Otot yang memberikan Australopithecus robustut jempol, bengkak fitur yang akan memungkinkan mereka untuk mencengkeram objek, termasuk alat. Para peneliti juga menemukan tulang primitif dan alat-alat batu, terutama menggali alat-alat, pada lapisan sedimen yang sama.

Australopithecus robustus yang lebih berat dibangun-lebih ’kuat’ dalam antropologi-daripada penerus mereka. Mereka memiliki wajah yang lebar, jaws berat, dan dapat penghancur besar dan penggilingan gigi yang digunakan untuk makan buah-buahan yang keras, benih, dan bagian berserat bawah tanah tanaman. Mereka berjalan tegak, yang akan memungkinkan mereka untuk membawa dan menggunakan alat-alat. Kebanyakan ahli sebelumnya telah percaya bahwa Homo habilis mampu menggantikan Australopithecus robustus karena lebih dahulu mampu untuk menggunakan alat-alat memberi mereka keunggulan bawaan. Penemuan bahwa Australopithecus robustus juga menggunakan alat berarti bahwa para peneliti harus mencari penjelasan lain untuk kepunahan mereka. Mungkin mereka ketergantungan pada tanaman alami yang menyebabkan kejatuhan mereka sebagai iklim menjadi pengering dan pendingin, atau mungkin Homo habilis, dengan otak mereka yang lebih besar, yang hanya dapat membuat alat-alat yang lebih canggih.

17. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that all of the following may have made and used tools EXCEPT 
Jawab :  D → Australopithecus robustus’ ancestors 
Pembahasan :  Paragraf di atas menjelaskan bahwa alat-alat primitif itu mulai digunakan oleh Australophitecus robustus bersama-sama dengan Homo Habilis dan penerusnya, Homo erectus. Berarti yang bukan adalah nenek moyang Australophitecus robustus.

18. The word “extensive” in line 9 is 
Jawab :  A → numerous 
Pembahasan :  Extensive memiliki arti luas atau dalam jumlah besar sehingga kata yang paling dekat artinya dengan kata tersebut adalah numerous.

19. Which of the following does the author mention as the most important recent discovery made in the Swartkrans cave?
Jawab : D → Hand bones 
Pembahasan : Jawaban tersebut bisa dilihat pada paragraf 2 kalimat The key recent discovery involved bones from the hand of Australopithecus robustus, the first time such bones have been found yang menyatakan bahwa penemuan yang paling penting adalah hand bones.

20. What does the third paragraph ‘mainly discuss?
Jawab : A → Features of Australopithecus robustus’ hand 
Pembahasan : Jawaban sangat jelas ditemukan pada kalimat pertama paragraf tersebut yaitu membahas tentang ciri (feature) dari Australopithecus robustus.

21. It can be inferred from the description in the last paragraph that Australopithecus robustus was so named because of the species’
Jawab : C → build 
Pembahasan : Paragraf 4 kalimat pertama, Australopithecus robustus were more heavily built-more “robust” in anthropological terms-than their successors menjelaskan bahwa kata robustus berasal dari robust, istilah antropologi yang merujuk pada perawakan atau bentuk fisik (build) dengan ciri-ciri yang dijelaskan pada kalimat selanjutnya.

22. The word “supplant” in line 22 is closest in meaning to 
Jawab :  B → displace 
Pembahasan :  Kata supplant memiliki arti “menggantikan” sehingga kata yang paling dekat artinya dengan kata tersebut pada pilihan yang tersedia adalah displace (menggantikan).

23. The word “them” in line 23 refers to 
Jawab :  B → Homo habilis 
Pembahasan :  Them pada kalimat tersebut merujuk pada subjek yang disebutkan sebelumnya yaitu Homo habilis.

24. What does the author suggest is unclear about Australopithecus robustus?
Jawab   : D → Why they became extinct 
Pembahasan : Jawaban tersebut bisa ditemukan pada paragraf terakhir kalimat The discovery that Australopithecus robustus also used tools means that researchers will have to seek other explanations for their extinction yang menyarankan kepada para peneliti untuk mencari sebab-sebab lain kepunahan jenis manusia primitif tersebut.

25. The phrase “reliance on” in line 24 is closest in meaning to 
Jawab :  B → dependence on 
Pembahasan :  Reliance on memiliki arti kebergantungan yang bersesuaian dengan kata dependence on (ketergantungan).

Sumber :

http://www.geniustoefl.com/artikel-ilmu-kunci-toefl/artikel/reading-comprehension/contoh-soal-pembahasan-reading-comprehension-tes-toefl

https://www.scribd.com/document/348004362/Contoh-Soal-Pembahasan-Reading-Comprehension-Tes-TOEFL-Cara-Mudah-Belajar-Tes-TOEFL

https://www.prepscholar.com/toefl/blog/toefl-reading-tips-passages/

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25 TOEFL Questions About Reading Comprehension

Questions 1 - 4

The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean. It stretches southward across the largest and northernmost state in the United States, ending at a remote ice-free seaport village nearly 800 miles from where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely complicated to operate. The steel pipe crosses windswept plains and endless miles of delicate tundra that tops the frozen ground. It weaves through crooked canyons, climbs sheer mountains, plunges over rocky crags, makes its way through thick forests, and passes over or under hundreds of rivers and streams. The pipe is 4 feet in diameter, and up to 2 million barrels (or 84 million gallons) of crude oil can be pumped through it daily. Resting on H-shaped steel racks called "bents," long sections of the pipeline follow a zigzag course high above the frozen earth. Other long sections drop out of sight beneath spongy or rocky ground and return to the surface later on. The pattern of the pipeline's up-and-down route is determined by the often harsh demands of the arctic and subarctic climate, the tortuous lay of the land, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, or permafrost (permanently frozen ground). A little more than half of the pipeline is elevated above the ground. The remainder is buried anywhere from 3 to 12 feet, depending largely upon the type of terrain and the properties of the soil. One of the largest in the world, the pipeline cost approximately $8 billion and is by far the biggest and most expensive construction project ever undertaken by private industry. In fact, no single business could raise that much money, so eight major oil companies formed a consortium in order to share the costs. Each company controlled oil rights to particular shares of land in the oil fields and paid into the pipeline-construction fund according to the size of its holdings. Today, despite enormous problems of climate, supply shortages, equipment breakdowns, labor disagreements, treacherous terrain, a certain amount of mismanagement, and even theft, the Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating.

1. The passage primarily discusses the pipeline's

(a) operating costs
(b) employees
(c) consumers
(d) construction

2. According to the passage, 84 million gallons of oil can travel through the pipeline each

(a) day
(b) week
(c) month
(d) year

3. The author mentions all of the following as important in determining the pipeline's route EXCEPT the

(a) climate
(b) lay of the land itself
(c) local vegetation
(d) kind of soil and rock

4. Which of the following determined what percentage of the construction costs each member of the consortium would pay?

(a) How much oil field land each company owned

(b) How long each company had owned land in the oil fields

(c) How many people worked for each company

(d) How many oil wells were located on the company's land

Questions 5 - 15

      The work of the railroad pioneers in America became the basis for a great surge of railroad building halfway through the nineteenth century that linked the nation together as never before. Railroads eventually became the nation’s number one transportation system and remained so until the construction of the interstate highway system halfway through the twentieth century. They were of crucial importance in stimulating economic expansion, but their influence reached beyond the economy and was pervasive in American society at large.

      By 1804, English, as well as American inventors, had experimented with steam engines for moving land vehicles. In 1920, John Stevens ran a locomotive and cars around in a circular track on his New Jersey estate, which the public saw as an amusing toy. And in 1825, after opening a short length of a track, the Stockton to Darlington Railroad in England became the first line to carry general traffic. American businesspeople, especially those in the Atlantic coastal region who looked for better communication with the West, quickly became interested in the English experiment. The first company in America to begin actual operations was the Baltimore and Ohio, which opened a thirteen- mile length of track in 1830. It used a team of horses to pull a train of passenger carriages and freight wagons along the track. Steam locomotive power didn’t come into regular service until two years later.

      However, for the first decade or more, there was not yet a true railroad system. Even the longest of the lines were relatively short in the 1830’s, and most of them served simply to connect water routes to each other, not to link one railroad to another. Even when two lines did connect, the tracks often differed in width, so cars from one line couldn’t fit onto tracks of the next line. Schedules were unreliable and wrecks were frequent. Significantly, however, some important developments during the 1830’s and 1840’s included the introduction of heavier iron rails, more flexible and powerful locomotives, and passenger cars were redesigned to become more stable, comfortable, and larger. By the end of 1830 only 23 miles of track had been laid in the country. But by 1936, more than 1,000 miles of track had been laid in eleven States, and within the decade, almost 3,000 miles had been constructed. By that early age, the United States had already surpassed Great Britain in railroad construction, and particularly from the mid-1860’s, the late nineteenth century belonged to the railroads.

5. The word “stimulating” in line 5 is closest in meaning to

(a) helping
(b) changing
(c) promoting
(d) influencing

6. The word “their” in line 6 refers to

(a) railroad pioneers
(b) railroads
(c) the interstate highway system
(d) American society

7. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

(a) The United States regarded Great Britain as a competitor in developing the most efficient railroad system

(b) Steam locomotive power was first used in 1832

(c) American businessmen saw railroads as a threat to established businesses

(d) Steam locomotives replaced horses because of the distances across the country

8. The author concludes that for the first decade or more, there was not yet a true railroad system because

(a) passenger cars were not stable, comfortable or large

(b) locomotives were not powerful enough

(c) schedules were unreliable and wrecks were frequent

(d) lines were relatively short and not usually linked

9. The word “schedules” in line 23 is closest in meaning to:

(a) safety procedures
(b) employees
(c) timetables
(d) railroad tracks

10. Which of the following is NOT true about the 1830’s and 1840’s (line 24)

(a) passenger cars became larger
(b) schedules were reliable
(c) locomotives became more powerful
(d) tracks were heavier

11. The word “stable” in line 26 is closest in meaning to

(a) fixed
(b) supportive
(c) reliable
(d) sound

12. By what time had almost 3,000 miles of track been laid?

(a) 1830
(b) 1836
(c) 1840
(d) mid-1860s

13. The word “surpassed” in line 29 is closest in meaning to

(a) exceeded
(b) beaten
(c) overtaken
(d) equaled

14. Where in the passage does the author outline the main conclusions about the importance of railroads in America?

(a) Lines 3-7
(b) Lines 14-18
(c) Lines 19-21
(d) Lines 29-31

15. Why does the author include details about Great Britain in the passage?

(a) To compare developments in both the United States and Great Britain

(b) To illustrate the competitiveness between the two countries

(c) To show where Americans got their ideas and technology from

(d) To provide a complete historical context

Questions 16 - 25

Although management principles have been implemented since ancient times, most management scholars trace the beginning of modern management thought back to the early 1900s, beginning with the pioneering work of Frederick Taylor (1856-1915). Taylor was the first person to study work scientifically. He is most famous for introducing techniques of time and motion study, differential piece rate systems, and for systematically specializing the work of operating employees and managers. Along with other pioneers such as Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Taylor set the stage, labeling his philosophy and methods “scientific management’. At that time, his philosophy, which was concerned with productivity, but which was often misinterpreted as promoting worker interests at the expense of management, was in marked contrast to the prevailing industrial norms of worker exploitation.

      The time and motion study concepts were popularized by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. The Gilbreths had 12 children. By analyzing his children’s dishwashing and bedmaking chores, this pioneer efficiency expert, Frank Gilbreth, hit on principles whereby workers could eliminate waste motion. He was memorialized by two of his children in their 1949 book called “Cheaper by the Dozen”.

      The Gilbreth methods included using stop watches to time worker movements and special tools (cameras and special clocks) to monitor and study worker performance, and also involved identification of “therbligs” (Gilbreth spelled backwards) – basic motions used in production jobs. Many of these motions and accompanying times have been used to determine how long it should take a skilled worker to perform a given job. In this way an industrial engineer can get a handle on the approximate time it should take to produce a product or provide a service. However, use of work analysis in this way is unlikely to lead to useful results unless all five work dimensions are considered: physical, psychological, social, cultural, and power.

16. What is the passage primarily about?

(a) The limitations of pioneering studies in understanding human behavior

(b) How time and motion studies were first developed

(c) The first applications of a scientific approach to understanding human behavior

(d) The beginnings of modern management theory

17. The word “ which” in line 9 refers to

(a) scientific management
(b) philosophy
(c) productivity
(d) time and motion study

18. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that

(a) workers welcomed the application of scientific management

(b) Talor’s philosophy is different from the industrial norms

(c) by the early 1900s science had reached a stage where it could be applied to the workplace

(d) workers were no longer exploited after the introduction of scientific management.

19. The word “prevailing” in line 10 is closest in meaning to

(a) predominant
(b) broadly accepted
(c) prevalent
(d) common

20. According to the passage, Frank Gilbreth discovered how workers could eliminate waste motion by

(a) using special tools such as cameras and clocks

(b) using stop watches

(c) applying scientific management principles

(d) watching his children do their chores

21. The basic motions used in production jobs were given which one of following names by Frank Gilbreth?

(a) dimensions
(b) gilreths
(c) therbligs
(d) monitors

22. According to the passage, the time it takes a skilled worker to perform the motion of a given job can be measured by using:

(a) stop watches
(b) all 5 work dimensions
(c) special tools
(d) therbligs

23. The word “motions” in line 20 is closest in meaning to

(a) stop watches
(b) habits
(c) actions
(d) special tools

24. The word “ dimensions” in line 24 is closest in meaning to

(a) sizes
(b) extents
(c) aspects
(d) standards

25. All of the following are true except

(a) scientific management was concerned with productivity.

(b) the beginnings of modern management thought commenced in the 19th century.

(c) Frank Gilbreth’s fame was enhanced by two of his children writing a book.

(d) analyzing work to increase productivity is not likely to be used unless all of the dimensions are considered.

Sumber :

https://www.etsglobal.org/Tests-Preparation/The-TOEFL-Family-of-Assessments/TOEFL-Sample-Tests/TOEFL-ITP-Sample-Test-Questions/Section-3-Reading-Comprehension

https://www.google.co.id/amp/toefl-ibt.online/toefl-reading-01/amp/

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-score-well-in-the-TOEFL-reading-section

https://magoosh.com/toefl/2014/common-toefl-reading-difficulties/

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