SKILL 4: FIND “UNSTATED” DETAILS

You will sometimes be asked in the reading section of both the paper TOEFL test and the computer TOEFL test to find an answer that is not stated or not mentioned or not true in the passage. This type of question really means that three of the answers are stated, mentioned, or true in the passage, while one answer is not.

You should note that there are two kinds of answers to this type of question: (1) there are three true answers and one that is not true according to the passage, or (2) there are three true answers and one that is not mentioned in the passage. Look at multiple-choice example from the paper TOEFL test that asks you to find the one answer that is not true.

“UNSTATED” DETAIL QUESTIONS
HOW TO IDENTIFY THE QUESTION	Which of the following is not stated…? Which of the following is not mentioned…? Which of the following is not discussed…? All of the following are true except…
WHERE TO FIND THE ANSWER	The answers to these questions are found in order in the passage.
HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION	1.       Choose a key word in the question. 2.       Scan the appropriate place in the passage for the key word (or related idea). 3.       Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully. 4.       Look for the answers that are definitely true according to the passage. Eliminate those answers. 5.       Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage.

	The passage :
Line (5)    (10)	In English, there are many different kinds of expressions that people use to give a name to anything whose name is unknown or momentarily forgotten. The word gadget is one such word. It was first used by British sailors in the 1850s and probably came from the French word gachette, which was a small hook. In everyday use, the word has a more general meaning. Other words are also used to give a name to something unnamed or unknown, and these words tend to be somewhat imaginative. Some of the more commonly used expressions are a what-d’ye-call it, at whatsis, a thingamabob, a thingamajig, a doodad, or a doohickey.
	The question:
(A) (B) (C) (D)	Which of the following is NOT true about the word gadget? It is used to name something when the name is not known. It was used at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It most likely came from a word in the French language. Its first known use was by British sailors. The answer : B, the one answer that is not true: the passage states that the word “gadget”…was first used by British sailors in the 1850s, which is in the middle of the nineteenth century, so answer B is the best answer to this question.

For more information watch the next video...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOr4mtCxu4A