TOEFL iBT Speaking Section Practice Online – FULL Test 2

This is an original TOEFLIBTee speaking practice set written in the style of the pre-2019 six-task Speaking section (see the note above). The current test doesn't use these tasks, so here is how to get value from the set today:

• Tasks 1 and 2: answer each one out loud in about 45 seconds. Describing your own experiences and giving a reasoned opinion is good practice for the kind of personal and opinion questions you may hear in the Take an Interview task.
• Tasks 3 to 6: have someone read the listening script to you (or read it aloud once yourself), take short notes, and then summarize it out loud. This trains the note-taking and academic listening you need for the Listening section.
• Listen and Repeat practice: choose five sentences from the scripts, have someone say them or record them, and repeat each one word for word. Accuracy matters more than speed.

Task 1

Which of the following after-class activities would you most want to join? Explain why you would choose it.

• a hiking club
• a cooking club
• a debate club

Task 2

Do you think this statement is accurate: people today spend too much time on their phones instead of talking with the people around them? Support your view with specific reasons and examples.

Task 3

Bike Lockers Near the Dorms

Right now, students who ride bikes to campus have to lock them to racks outside, where they're exposed to rain and, occasionally, theft. I'd like to propose that the university install a small number of enclosed bike lockers near each dormitory. Students could rent a locker for the semester for a modest fee, which would cover the cost of installation and maintenance over a few years. This would protect bikes from weather damage and make it much harder for anyone to walk off with one. It would also encourage more students to bike to class instead of driving or waiting for the shuttle, which would mean fewer cars competing for the limited parking spots near the dorms.

Sincerely, Renee Ashford

Listening script

W: Did you see that letter in the student paper about putting bike lockers near the dorms?

M: Yeah, and honestly, I think it's a great idea. My bike got stolen last semester, right off the rack outside Hendricks Hall.

W: Oh no, that's awful. So you'd actually pay to rent one?

M: Absolutely. Think about it — a decent bike costs a couple hundred dollars, and losing one because someone cut a cheap lock is way more expensive than a small rental fee.

W: I guess that's true. I was worried it would just be another fee nobody wants to pay.

M: I mean, it's optional, right? Nobody's forcing you to rent one if you don't have a bike. And for the people who do ride, it solves two problems at once — the theft issue and the fact that your seat is soaked every time it rains.

W: Fair point. I hadn't thought about the rain part, but that would honestly bother me more than the theft risk.

Question: Summarize what the letter proposes, then describe the man's opinion of the plan and the reasons he gives for it.

Task 4

The Mere-Exposure Effect

People often assume that their preferences come purely from reasoned judgment, but simple familiarity plays a much larger role than most realize. The mere-exposure effect describes the tendency for people to develop a more favorable attitude toward something simply because they have encountered it repeatedly, even without being consciously aware of those earlier encounters. This effect has been observed with images, sounds, faces, and even nonsense words, and it tends to be strongest when the repeated exposure happens without much conscious attention or effort. Repetition alone, separate from any new information about the quality of the thing being judged, can shift a person's attitude in a more positive direction.

Listening script

Here's an example that shows how strange this effect can get. In one study, researchers had two groups of people rate a set of unfamiliar geometric shapes and made-up words for how much they liked them. Before the rating, one group was shown some of those same shapes and words repeatedly — but so briefly, for a fraction of a second each time, that people couldn't consciously tell they'd seen anything at all.

Now here's the interesting result: when it came time to rate the items, people rated the shapes and words they'd been secretly shown more favorably than the ones they'd never encountered — even though they had no memory of having seen them before and swore they were rating everything for the first time. They didn't say, "I like this one because it's familiar." They said things like "I just like the way it looks." The familiarity was invisible to them, but it still shaped their judgment.

Question: Explain, using the shape-and-word study, how the mere-exposure effect changed the participants' ratings without their awareness.

Task 5

Listening script

W: You seem frustrated. What's going on?

M: My roommate and I were assigned a triple with a third person, but that person moved out two weeks ago and housing hasn't replaced them. Now housing says the two of us have to cover part of the empty bed's cost until someone new moves in, so we're each paying more than we signed up for.

W: Wait, can they do that?

M: Apparently. The housing office said room charges are only recalculated at the start of a new semester, not partway through.

W: That seems unfair. Have you asked if you two could just move into a double instead?

M: I did ask that. They said doubles are all full right now, so there's nothing open until next semester at the earliest.

W: What about asking them to refund the extra charge instead? It's not your fault the third person left.

M: I hadn't thought of putting it that way. I guess I could ask for a partial refund instead of a room change, since that might be easier for them to approve.

Question: Describe the housing problem the man is having, then say which of the two options you think he should pursue and why.

Task 6

Listening script

Today I want to talk about something you probably walk past without thinking about much: street trees. Cities plant them for looks, obviously, but researchers have found at least two benefits that go well beyond appearance.

The first is temperature control. A single mature tree can lower the surrounding air temperature by several degrees just through shade and a process called evapotranspiration, where water evaporates from its leaves and cools the air the same way sweat cools your skin. Multiply that by thousands of trees along city streets, and entire neighborhoods measurably cool down compared to areas with no tree cover, especially in summer, when a few degrees can mean the difference between a comfortable walk and a dangerous heat wave for older residents.

The second benefit is stormwater management. Tree roots and the soil around them absorb rainwater that would otherwise rush straight into storm drains. During heavy rain, a street lined with mature trees can hold back a noticeable amount of water, reducing flooding in low-lying areas and easing the load on the city's drainage system during the exact moments when that system is most likely to fail.

Question: Using the examples from the talk, explain two benefits that trees provide in cities.