Vocabulary · Free lesson
TOEFL reading: why is this example included?
Practice a reading skill useful for the current TOEFL iBT Read an Academic Passage task. This original, imagined classroom scenario is a short teaching passage, not an official item or a report of real research.
Professor Scott MendozaThe short answer
To identify an example’s function, ask what idea it helps the reader understand. A tray comparison may illustrate how surface features guide water. Repeating that one tray had grooves tells you the example’s content, but not its role.
Explain what the example does, not only what it says.
Read the statement before the example and the sentence after it. Decide whether the example illustrates, contrasts or challenges an idea. In this paragraph it illustrates the first claim through a comparison. Use the actual relationship; an example does not always support the preceding statement.
Original teaching passage
Surface features can guide the path of water.
In a classroom model, water on a flat tray spread in several directions, while water in a grooved tray followed the channels.
The comparison illustrates how the shape of a surface can influence where water goes.
The paragraph compares water movement. It does not compare tray prices or tell readers how to buy equipment.
Connect detail and purpose
Find the general idea
surface features → path of water
Explain the example’s role
two tray surfaces → a concrete illustration of that relationship
Try it now
What does the example do?
Read all answers and explanations
Why does the paragraph compare the trays?
To illustrate how surface features influence water movement.Different surface features produce different paths in the supplied example. Price and universal claims are absent.
Which note states only a detail, rather than the example’s role?
The grooved tray had channels.Channels are a detail. The other notes explain how the example helps the reader understand the claim.
Which claim stays within the passage?
The example links different surfaces to different water paths.The passage supports a connection in the example, not claims about all spills or usefulness.
Put it into practice
Improve a function note
Replace a copied detail with a note explaining the example’s purpose.
The example is included because one tray had grooves.
See a model answer
The example illustrates how surface features can guide water movement.
A good function note names what the example helps explain; it need not repeat every detail.
A little more clarity
Common questions
A few useful details before you move on.
Does an example always support the previous sentence?
No. It can also contrast with or challenge an idea. Read the surrounding sentences to identify its actual role.
An example can illustrate a claim or show an exception.
Is a correct detail enough for a function answer?
No. A detail may be accurate but still fail to explain why the writer includes it. Link it to the idea it serves.
It had grooves. → The grooves illustrate how surface features guide water.
Take it into your day
An example’s function is its contribution to the paragraph’s meaning.
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