Practice these TOEFL iBT listening tests to help you score high in the TOEFL Listening Section. Check the correct answers and audio transcripts below. This video is in the series of NEW TOEFL iBT Preparation: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2jvSGmpWX1UMjbc8Onae7i-R6Z8VcPbU.
Questions 1 through 3. Listen to part of a talk in a geography class.
Now we’ll turn our attention to a type of local wind known as the sea breeze. The sea breeze is the simplest, most widespread, and most persistent of local winds. The sea breeze results from the heating of land and sea along a coastline in near calm conditions.
The more rapid healing of the land during the daytime results in the development of a temperature gradient across the coast. This leads to ascent over the land and descent over the sea. Thus, a pressure gradient causes a flow of air from sea to land.
At the same time as the breeze flows from sea to land, there is a return flow higher up. from land to sea. The airflow forms a circular pattern, from sea to land, upwards, and back out to sea. The flow develops through the day. and by the middle of the afternoon, may extend several kilometers inland.
At night, the situation is reversed and the flow is from the colder land to the warmer sea. as a land breeze.
Correct answers:
1. B
2. D
3. A
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Questions 4 through 5. Listen to part of a talk in a music history class.
The simplest type of horn is made from an animal horn, and animal horns arc the model for other primitive horns made of shells, wood, animal hide, or clay. The sound is produced by vibrations from the player's lips. Now some horns arc blown at the end, and some are blown on the side. Most primitive horns are end-blown. Unless the horn has finger holes, it will have a limited melodic range.
Horns have been around since very early times. In the Middle Ages in Europe, they were used almost exclusively in hunting and warfare. From about the fourteenth century onward, metal horns with special mouthpieces were developed and this increased the horn s versatility. In the eighteenth century, the horn became a regular member of the orchestra.
Various types of horns arc still widely used for signaling and ritual. The bugle is a simple horn dating from the Middle Ages that was first used for hunting and signaling. Starting in the nineteenth century, it became standard in military bands.
Correct answers:
4. B & D
5. C
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Questions 6 through 10. Listen to a talk in an earth science class. The professor is talking about tsunamis.
The term “tidal wave“ is often inaccurately used for a tsunami. Tsunamis have nothing to do with the action of tides. A more accurate term is “seismic sea wave." There has to be a disturbance of the earth’s crust to produce a tsunami.
Large earthquakes with epicenters under or near the ocean are the cause of most tsunamis. Volcanic eruptions and undersea landslides are also responsible, but unless accompanied by movements of the ocean floor, their effects are usually localized. Possibly this was true about the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. A tsunami was responsible for most of the deaths caused by Krakatoa, yet this tsunami did not sink any ships. It did wash away several coastal villages and kill more than 36,000 people.
Tsunamis work in complex ways. Some pounce on coastal settlements like large breakers. Others produce a gentle wave that floats buildings off their foundations. But then a violent backwash may sweep buildings and people out to sea. The tsunami that wrecked Hilo, Hawaii, in 1946 was so forceful it folded parking meters. It caused needless deaths when people returned to save their belongings and got caught between waves.
The deeper the water, the lower the tsunami and the faster it moves. In the open ocean, it travels at about 700 kilometers per hour, but being sometimes no more than a meter in height, a tsunami often passes a ship unnoticed. This is what happened in 1896 during a catastrophic tsunami in Japan, which was the result of an undersea earthquake. Thousands of people were drowned onshore, while fishermen far out at sea didn’t notice the waves passing beneath their boats. But when they went home, they found their villages destroyed.
Correct answers:
6. B & D
7. D
8. A & C
9. B
10. A
