LECTURES

Lectures in TOEFL iBT represent the kind of language used when teachers teach in a classroom. The lecture excerpt may be just a teacher speaking, a student asking the teacher a question, or the teacher asking the students a question and calling on one student for a response. Each lecture is approximately 5 minutes in length and is followed by six questions.

The content of the lectures reflects the content that is presented in introductory level academic settings. Lecture topics cover a broad range of subjects. You will not be expected to have any prior knowledge of the subject matter. All the information you need to answer the questions will be contained in the Listening passage. The lists below are provided to give you an idea of the topics that typically appear in the Listening section. In general these topics are divided into four major categories:
•    Arts
•    Life Science
•    Physical Science
•    Social Science

Arts lectures may be on topics such as:
•    Architecture
•    Industrial design/art
•    City planning
•    Crafts: weaving, knitting, fabrics, furniture, carving, mosaics, ceramics, etc; folk and tribal art
•    Cave/rock art
•    Music and music history
•    Photography
•    Literature and authors
•    Books, newspapers, magazines, journals

Life Science structures may be on topics as:
•    Extinction of or conversation efforts for animals and plants
•    Fish and other aquatic organisms
•    Bacteria and other one-celled organisms
•    Viruses
•    Medical techniques
•    Public health
•    Physiology of sensory organs

•    Biochemistry
•    Animal behavior, e.g., migration, food foraging, defensive behavior
•    Habitats and the adaptation of animals and plants to them
•    Nutrition and its impact on the body
•    Animal communication

Physical Science lectures may be on topics such as:
•    Weather and atmosphere
•    Oceanography
•    Glaciers, glacial landforms, ice ages
•    Deserts and other extreme environments
•    Pollution, alternative energy, environmental policy
•    Other planets’ atmospheres
•    Astronomy and cosmology
•    Properties of light, optics
•    Properties of sound
•    Electromagnetic radiation
•    Particle physics
•    Technology of TV, radio, radar
•    Math
•    Chemistry of inorganic things
•    Computer science
•    Seismology (plate structure, earthquakes, tectonics, continental drift, structure of volcanoes)

Social Science lectures may be on topics such as:
•    Anthropology of non-industrialized civilizations
•    Early writing systems
•    Historical linguistics
•    Business, management
•    TV/radio as mass communication
•    Social behavior of groups, community dynamics, communal behavior
•    Child development
•    Education
•    Modern history (including the history of urbanization and industrialization and their economic and social effects)