TOEFL Speaking Task 3 Practice Test #21

Instructions

You will read a short academic passage (usually about a concept from psychology, biology, business, etc.), and then listen to part of a lecture in which a professor explains the same concept using one or more examples. After that, you will be asked a question that connects the reading and the lecture. You will have 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak.

The question for TOEFL Speaking Task 3 typically asks you to explain how the example (or examples) from the lecture illustrate the concept described in the reading. In your response, briefly summarize the concept from the reading and explain how the professor’s example helps to clarify or demonstrate it. This format is consistent across tests.

Reading Passage

Phoresy

Animals frequently need to travel in order to access vital resources. While many animals rely on their own physical abilities to move from one location to another, some species lack the capacity to transport themselves efficiently. In such cases, these animals may rely on individuals from another species to carry them, enabling them to reach necessary resources. This arrangement, referred to as phoresy, is a temporary relationship in which the transported species benefits, while the host species remains largely unaffected and unharmed.

Listening

Transcript

Narrator: Now listen to part of a lecture on this topic in a Biology class.

Professor: So here’s a good example of this. Mites are very small insect-like creatures. Mites live in tropical climates and feed on nectar and pollen in flowers. But these tropical flowers don’t last long, they wilt and fall off quickly. And so the mites need to find new flowers in order to get more nectar and pollen to eat. But the mites can’t fly, and they are so small that it’d take them a while and a lot of effort to climb down one flower, crawl to another one, and climb all the way up again. So how do they get to the next flower? Well, there’s a bird, the hummingbird. Hummingbirds eat the nectar from the same flowers as the mites. So when a hummingbird comes around and sticks its beak into the flowers to get the nectar out, the mites quickly climb onto the hummingbird. Well, as I mentioned, mites are pretty tiny. So the hummingbird isn’t harmed in any way, and all they do is stick to the hummingbird. Since the hummingbird also goes from flower to flower for nectar, it takes the mites along. Once the hummingbird gets to the next flower, the mites climb off and eat some pollen and nectar there, on the new flower. Without the hummingbird carrying them from one flower to another, the mites would find it much more difficult getting food.

TOEFL Speaking Task 3 Sample Questions [Reading Passages & Audio]

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