TOEFL Speaking Task 3 Practice Test #4

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

Ecosystem Resilience

An ecosystem is a localized environment in which a diverse community of organisms interacts and functions as a cohesive unit. Ecosystems can be disrupted by natural events or human activities, and ecosystems with low species diversity are particularly vulnerable. In such systems, the loss of even a single species can lead to lasting alterations. However, resilient ecosystems have the capacity to recover from disturbances and return to their original state. This resilience is more likely when the ecosystem is rich in species diversity, as the removal of one species allows others to fill its ecological role, preventing long-term disruption.

Listening

Transcript

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

Professor: Okay, this happened a few years back. There was this healthy coral reef in the Pacific Ocean. You know how gorgeous coral reefs are with all the red, pink, and orange. And it had a huge variety of species (um…) of fish and plants that it protected and provided with food. Then the sea water got polluted, because the ships built a large amount of diesel fuel. The pollution caused a species of fish to die out. And this fish that died out used to eat a particular type of ocean plant called algae. Now of course, if there aren’t any fish to eat algae, the algae will grow out of control. And there will be too much algae, which is very bad for coral. But that did not happen to this coral reef. Know why it didn’t happen? Because there were still many other species left that ate that same algae. So even though the algae increased at first, so did the population of the other fish species who ate the algae. Because there was more algae for them to eat. The other species took over for the fish that died out. And eventually the coral reef looked about the same as before. Now, think about what would have happened to this coral reef if there had not been a wide variety of different fish species. If that one species of fish that ate algae had died off, well you can imagine, soon the whole coral reef would have been covered in algae.

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

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