A TOEFL Read in Daily Life Sample

This TOEFL Read in Daily Life sample is one original campus email and three questions, with the key and the reason each other option scores zero. The public task uses short practical texts: an email, a notice, a menu, a schedule, a receipt, a post, or a message thread. Questions ask for a purpose, a detail, or a next step that the text states. Outside knowledge does not score. A solo practice text on this site costs 1 credit when the exam starts.

In this guide

1. What the email is for
2. The email
3. The three questions
4. How a clean miss looks
5. Try this yourself
6. Frequently asked questions

What this TOEFL Read in Daily Life sample is for

Daily-life reading is not a shorter academic passage. The text is doing a job: telling you what changed, who must act, and by when. A familiar campus idea that is not in the text is a miss, even when it would be sensible in real life.

The explainer works a notice. This page works an email, so the same three jobs — purpose, detail, next step — have a second shape. Do not treat a perfect score on a notice you have reread as proof you can read an email under a clock. How Reading is scored still marks each question 0 or 1. There is no partial credit for a careful wrong option.

The email

From: Ceramics studio desk
To: Students with a Thursday wheel reservation
Subject: Thursday wheels move to Friday this week only

The studio is closed this Thursday for a kiln inspection. Your Thursday wheel time is moved to the same hour on Friday. Do not come Thursday. The inspection crew needs the room empty.

If Friday at that hour is impossible, reply to this email by Wednesday at 4 p.m. and ask for a Monday slot. Walk-in Thursday visits will not be added. Tools left in the Thursday cubbies will be moved to the Friday rack. They will not be held at the front desk.

The three questions

1. Why did the desk send the email?
A. To cancel wheel reservations for the rest of the term.
B. To move this week’s Thursday wheel time to Friday because of a kiln inspection.
C. To announce that students must buy new tools before Friday.
D. To invite students to watch the kiln inspection.

Key: B. The subject and the first sentence state a one-week move caused by the inspection. A invents a term-long cancellation. C invents a purchase. D invents an invitation. The inspection is the reason the room must be empty, not an event to attend.

2. What happens to tools left in Thursday cubbies?
A. They are thrown away before the inspection.
B. They stay in the cubbies until Monday.
C. They are moved to the Friday rack.
D. They are held at the front desk for pickup.

Key: C. The last sentences say the tools move to the Friday rack and are not held at the front desk. D repeats a place the email mentions in order to reject it. A and B are ordinary studio policies the email does not state.

3. What should a student do if Friday at that hour is impossible?
A. Come Thursday and ask the inspection crew for a different wheel.
B. Reply by Wednesday at 4 p.m. and ask for a Monday slot.
C. Wait at the front desk on Friday for a walk-in.
D. Ignore the email if the reservation was already paid.

Key: B. The email gives one action and one deadline. A contradicts “Do not come Thursday.” C contradicts the line that walk-in Thursday visits will not be added, and it also invents a Friday walk-in. D adds a payment rule that is not in the message.

Question job	Sentence that decides it	Tempting miss
Purpose	subject + kiln inspection	treating a one-week move as a term cancellation
Detail	“moved to the Friday rack”	the front desk, which the email rules out
Next step	reply by Wednesday at 4 p.m.	showing up on Thursday

How a clean miss looks

A purpose miss quotes a true noun and inflates it. “Kiln inspection” is true. “Watch the inspection” is not the purpose. The purpose is the move.

A detail miss chooses the place the email names in a negative sentence. “Will not be held at the front desk” puts the front desk on the page so that a skimmer can select it. Negative lines are often the key.

A next-step miss uses what a student would normally do. Asking a crew member who is already in the room feels practical. The email forbids Thursday arrival. Practical and forbidden is still 0.

On a real report you see your option, the key, and a short rationale. Copy the job, not the studio. “Negative line hides the detail” transfers to the next email. “Friday rack” does not. Common Reading mistakes sorts this habit with the other daily-life trap: answering from the topic instead of the text.

The full Reading section costs 3 credits and mixes this task with Complete the Words and a short academic passage. One email is 1 credit. Take the email until the next-step question is the one you get right because you found the deadline, not because two options sounded polite.

Try this yourself

Cover the keys. Answer the three questions in five minutes. Then mark which miss, if any, used a sentence the email had rejected. That mark is the note to take into a scored text.

Start Read in Daily Life so the message is one you have not studied. If you are choosing a task, TOEFL Reading practice starts on Complete the Words instead. Use this URL when the weakness is a short practical text.

Frequently asked questions

Are menus and notices the same task?

They are the same task type. The job is still purpose, detail, or next step. A menu asks what you can order or what a price includes. An email asks what changed and what you must do. The text type changes. The rule does not: the line has to be on the page.

How many questions does one practice text ask?

This sample uses three so each job appears once. A scored practice text may ask fewer. Count the questions on the attempt you took. Do not treat one email as the whole Reading section, which is about 50 items in about 30 minutes on the public exam.

Can I use what I know about studios?

Only to understand the words. The key has to be stated or directly required by the email. A usual studio rule that the message does not say scores 0.

Next steps

Open a daily-life text and write the deadline in the margin before you touch the choices. Then compare that line with the rationale if the next-step item is wrong.