A TOEFL Choose a Response Sample

This TOEFL Choose a Response sample is one original remark and four written replies, with the key and the reason the other three score zero. You hear a short campus remark once. The remark is not printed on the real task. You choose the reply that answers it, including what the speaker is doing. A reply that repeats a word and misses the point scores 0. There is no partial credit. A solo set on this site costs 1 credit when the exam starts, and it is the Listening task a new account can start.

In this guide

1. What you are allowed to use
2. The remark and the four replies
3. Why the other three lose
4. What to steal for the next clip
5. Try this yourself
6. Frequently asked questions

What this TOEFL Choose a Response sample uses

On the real item the remark is audio. This page prints it so the annotation has a text. Do not practice by reading remarks all week and then feel ready. Reading lets you rescan. The task does not.

The function comes first: asking, correcting, offering, or showing surprise. A noun you remember (“lab,” “key,” “noon”) is how the traps are built. Accents in the section include North American, British, and Australian speech. If the function was clear and a vowel was not, answer the function. The explainer uses a library remark. This page uses a key, so you cannot memorize one script.

How Listening is scored gives the point only to the keyed function. A grammatical campus sentence is not the score.

The remark and the four replies

Remark: “You still have the lab key, right? I need it before noon.”

The speaker is checking and requesting. The fitting reply confirms the key and the time.

A. “Yes. I’ll bring it to the lab office before noon.”
B. “The lab is down the hall, past the printers.”
C. “Noon is a busy time in the cafeteria.”
D. “I already returned the textbook yesterday.”

Key: A. It answers both parts: you have the key, and you will meet the deadline. B gives directions nobody requested. C comments on noon and ignores the key. D is a return story about a different object. All four could be said on a campus. Only A takes the remark as a request for that key by that time.

Reply	Words it shares with the remark	Job it actually does
A	key, noon, lab	confirms and complies
B	lab	gives directions
C	noon	comments on a time of day
D	returned	answers a different return

Why the other three lose

B is the echo of place. “Lab” is in the remark, so the directions feel relevant. The speaker did not ask where the lab is. They asked for the key. If your reason for choosing B is the repeated word, choose again.

C is the neighbor topic. Noon is a real word in the remark, and cafeterias are busy at noon in ordinary life. The remark used noon as a deadline, not as a comment about meals. Neighbor replies are why these items feel almost right. Almost scores 0.

D is a plausible campus errand with the wrong object. Returning something is in the family of the request, and the textbook is not the key. A reply can be responsible and still miss. The report will show the option you picked and the one that answers the remark. It will not give a point for responsibility.

None of these replies needs a note. The clip is too short to write on. Writing “key” while the sentence is still playing is how you miss “before noon,” which is the half A had to keep. Listen for the function, then look at the replies.

What to steal for the next clip

Steal the two-part check. Did the reply deal with the object and with the deadline, or only with a noun? Steal the rule that a negative or a correction has to be answered as a correction. This remark happens to be a request. The next one may be “Didn’t you already submit that?” which is surprise, not a request for directions.

Do not steal the lab script. A second item that also mentions a key only measures whether you remember this page. Common Listening mistakes calls the echo by name. Use that list when the report shows the same trap on a remark that is not about a lab.

Conversations add a second question about what to do next. Do not import that second question here. This task is one remark and one reply. The full Listening section costs 3 credits and mixes this task with conversations, announcements, and a short academic talk. Stay on the 1-credit set until the echo stops winning.

Say the function in three words before you look at A through D: “request, key, before noon.” If your three words do not mention the deadline, you are about to lose to reply C. If they do not mention the key, you are about to lose to a story about a textbook. The three words are the whole method. Politeness, grammar, and a repeated noun are not on the list. On the next remark, which will not be about a lab, keep the same three-word shape: what the speaker is doing, what object is involved, and whether a time or a correction was attached. Then pick the reply that matches those three words.

Try this yourself

Cover the key. Read the remark once, aloud, and do not look back. Pick a letter. If you picked anything but A, write the noun that tempted you. That noun is the note for the scored set.

Start Choose a Response so the remark is heard, not read. TOEFL Listening practice is the same first step if you are choosing a task. Compare the rationale with the noun you wrote down.

Frequently asked questions

Can I read the remark on the real task?

No. You hear it. This page prints it only so the wrong replies can be explained. Scored practice should be audio.

Is there partial credit if the reply is polite?

No. Each item is right or wrong. A polite sentence that answers a different question scores 0.

Should I take notes?

Not on this task. The remark is one short turn. A note competes with the deadline. Hold the function, then read the four replies.

Next steps

Hear a new remark and reject the first reply that only repeats a noun. Then open a conversation sample when the miss is no longer the echo and you need a longer exchange.