Simulation Test
TOEIC Part 5: Overview And Tips To Get High Scores
1. Toeic part 5 overview
1.1. Description of the task
There are 30 questions in the TOEIC Part 5. For each question, you will see an incomplete sentence. Four words or phrases, marked A-D are given beneath each sentence. You are to choose the one word or phrase that best completes the sentence.
1.2. Types of questions in the TOEIC Part 5
– Meaning
– Preposition
– Word form
– Connecting word and Adverb-clause
– Relative Pronoun-
– Pronoun / Reflexive / Possessive adjectives
1.3. How to allocate time in the TOEIC Part 5?
The maximum time to complete part 5 and 6 is 12 minutes. For each question, you will have the maximum of 30 seconds to transfer the answer in your answer sheet. You can allocate time as follow:
– 10 seconds for each easy question
– 30 seconds for each difficult question
2. Tips to get high score in TOEIC part 5
– Determining part of speech: For questions related to part of speech, the first thing you need to do is to determine the form of word (noun, verb, adjective or adverb). This will make it easier for you to choose the correct answer.
You need to pay attention to the rules of parts of speech below:
+ After preposition is noun (or V-ing used as a noun)
+ Before noun is adjective
+ Before adjective is adverb
+ Between to be and Ving/ Ved is adverb
Besides, we can look at suffixes to determine the parts of speech. Words ending with -ment, -tion, -ity, -sion are often nouns, meanwhile, words ending with -ful, -less, -ous, -tive, -sive are often adjectives. Words in the forms of Ving or Ved may be adjectives or aspects of verbs.
– Pay attention to verb tense: To choose the best answer for the question about verb tense, you need to look at signals of time in sentences.
Below are some signals helping you to identify tenses in English:
| Tense | Signals |
| Present simple tense | everyday, sometimes, always, often, usually, seldom, never, etc. |
| Present continuous tense | now, at the moment, right now, at present, etc or Look! Listen, etc. |
| Present perfect tense | just, yet, never, ever, already, so far, lately, recently, etc. |
| Past simple tense | yesterday, last week, two months ago, etc. |
| Future simple tense | tomorrow, in three weeks, soon, next Monday, etc. |
– Manage time effectively: You should not spend more than 30 seconds on one question so that you can have enough time for Part 6&7. If you encounter a different question, don’t spend much time on it, quickly choose the answer that you think is the most correct. You can back to this question and change your answer.
3. Tricks in TOEIC part 5
In order to get a high score on TOEIC Reading test, you can look briefly on our guide below:
3.1. Tricks related to tenses
a. Present simple tense is used to talk about schedules and timetables
Example:
The train ________ at 3 p.m tomorrow.
A: will arrive
B: arrives
C: arrived
D: arriving
➨ Trick: Although there is the signal of future simple tense (tomorrow), the correct answer of the above question is B (arrives) instead of A (will arrive).
➨ How to avoid the trick: When talking about schedules, timetables and itineraries, the present simple tense is used to refer to a future event that is planned and is not likely to change.
b. Present continuous tense is used to talk about future plans
Example
My boss ______________ to Australia next month to open a new business.
A: travels
B: will travel
C: is travelling
D: travelled
➨ Trick: When seeing “next month”, many people will choose option B: will travel. However, this is action that is planned ahead (not action decided at the time of saying), so, option C is correct.
➨ How to avoid the trick: Present continuous tense not only is used to talk about actions or events that are happening now but also actions or events that is already discussed or planned ahead.
3.2. Adjective and participles
Example:
Sea Sapphire Cruises is _________ to announce the launch of their newest luxury ocean liner.
- pleased
- pleasure
- pleasant
- pleasing
➨ Trick: Comparing between options
Option A: Past participle
Option B: Noun
Option C: Adjective (used to describe a person, place or thing)
Option D: Present participle (passive form)
“The launch of their newest luxury ocean liner” makes Sea Sapphire Cruises “pleased”, so Sea Sapphire Cruises was affected and must be in passive form. The option A is correct.
➨ How to avoid the trick:
– This is one common trick in the TOEIC part 5. Many people think that a verb added “ed” will become an adjective. However, in fact, words with the ending “-ive, -able, -ible, -al, -ful” are also adjectives.
– If the blank requires word describing people, places or things, choose “standard” adjective. If the blank refers to the event affected, choose participle.
3.3. Words with the almost same pronunciation
Example:
Remember that work-life balance issues can _______ anyone in any stage of the life cycle.
A: effect
B: effective
C: affect
D: affection
➨ Trick: In the above example, “can” is a modal verb, so, the blank needs a V infinitive. Option C is the best answer. Many people will choose option A: effect because they mistake “effect” with “affect”. Effect is a noun, not a verb.
➨ How to avoid the trick: Remember words with the almost same or the same pronunciation but having different meanings.
3.4. Subject-verb agreement
a. A number of/ The number of
“A number of” and “The number of” make many people confused. Let’s look at the following example
The number of unemployed college graduates ____ increasing.
A: is
B: are
➨ Trick: Some candidates may think that graduates is a plural subject and need to go with tobe “are”. But the subject here is the phrase “the number of unemployed college graduates”, so it needs to go with “is”.
➨ How to avoid the trick: Remember the structures below:
| The number of + noun + singular verb |
| A number of + noun + plural verb |
b. Subject containing conjunction
Sentence structure will become more complicated with the appearance of conjunctions such as both, either …or…., etc.
Example:
Either he or his friends ______ you with your homework everyday.
A: help
B: helps
C: has helped
D: helped
➨ Trick: In the above example, should we conjugate the verb “help” according to “he” or “his friends”. The answer is conjugating according to the closest subject “his friends”. Therefore, option A is the best answer.
➨ How to avoid the trick: Remember structures
| Both A and B + plural verb |
| Either A or B/ Neither A or B/ Not A but B/ Not only A but also B + verb of the closest subject. |
>> Read more on: TOEIC listening part 4
Scroll more on our website for a wealthy source of exercise and get more interesting tips! It’s time to conquer TOEIC exam with our TOEIC practice test!