Latihan Soal TOEFL Reading Skill 10: Menentukan Nada, Maksud, atau Bidang Studi Bacaan

Text 1

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1966) is a well-known example of the "nonfiction novel: a popular type of writing based upon factual events in which the author attempts to describe the underlying forces, thoughts, and emotions that lead to actual events, In Capote's book, the author describes the sadistic murder of a family on a Kansas farm, often showing the point of view of the killers. To research the book, Capote interviewed the murderers, and he maintains that his book presents a faithful reconstruction of the incident.

1. The purpose of this passage is to

(A) discuss an example of a particular literary genre

(B) tell the story of In Cold Blood

(C) explain Truman Capote's reasons for writing In Cold Blood

(D) describe how Truman Capote researched his nonfiction novel

2. Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?

(A) Cold

(B) Sadistic

(C) Emotional

(D) Descriptive

3. This passage would probably be assigned reading in which of the following courses?

(A) Criminal Law

(B) American History

(C) Modern American Novels

(D) Literary Research

Text 2

Up to now, confessions that have been obtained from defendants in a hypnotic state have not been admitted into evidence by courts in the United States. Experts in the field of hypnosis have found that such confessions are not completely reliable. Subjects in a hypnotic state may confess to crimes they did not commit for one of two reasons. Either they fantasize that they committed the crimes or they believe that others want them to confess.

A landmark case concerning a confession obtained under hypnosis went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the case of Layra v. Denno, a suspect was hypnotized by a psychiatrist for the district attorney; in a posthypnotic state the suspect signed three separate confessions to a murder. The Supreme Court ruled that the confessions were invalid because the confessions had been the only evidence against him.

4. Which of the following best describes the author's purpose in this passage?

(A) To explain the details of a specific court case

(B) To demonstrate why confessions made under hypnosis are not reliable

(C) To clarify the role of the Supreme Court in invalidating confessions from hypnotized subjects

(D) To explain the legal status of hypnotically induced confessions

5. The tone of this passage could best be described as

(A) outraged

(B) judicial

(C) hypnotic

(D) informative

6. This passage would probably be assigned reading in a course on

(A) American law

(B) psychiatric healing

(C) parapsychology

(D) philosophy

Text 3

The rate at which the deforestation of the world is proceeding is alarming. In !950 approximately 25 percent of the Earth's land surface had been covered with forests, and less than twenty-five years later the amount of forestland was reduced to 20 percent. This decrease from 25 percent to 20 percent from! 950 to !973 represents an astounding 20 million square kilometers of forests. Predictions are that an additional 20 million square kilometers of forest land will be lost by 2020.

The majority of deforestation is occurring in tropical forests in developing countries, fueled by the developing countries' need for increased agricultural land and the desire on the part of developed countries to import wood and wood products. More than 90 percent of the plywood used in the United States, for example, is imported from developing countries with tropical rain forests. By the mid-! 980s, solutions to this expanding problem were being sought, in the form of attempts to establish an international regulatory organization to oversee the use of tropical forests.

7. The author's main purpose in this passage is to

(A) cite statistics about an improvement on the Earth's land surface

(B) explain where deforestation is occurring

(C) make the reader aware of a worsening world problem

(D) blame developing countries for deforestation

8. Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?

(A) Concerned

(B) Disinterested

(C) Placid

(D) Exaggerated

9. This passage would probably be assigned reading in which of the following courses?

(A) Geology

(B) Geography

(C) Geometry

(D) Marine Biology

Kunci Jawaban

1. A

2. D

3. C

4. D

5. D

6. A

7. C

8. A

9. B