Updated 2026-09-12upper

New TOEFL Reading: Read in Daily Life Practice #010 — A Housing Renewal, a Gym Tier, Home Equipment, and Moving Day

Free practice for the new TOEFL Reading section's short daily-life texts: 4 everyday texts and 12 questions with an answer key.

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How to use this practice: Each text is something you could actually receive — an email, a notice, a memo, a post. Read it once at normal speed, then answer the three questions under it. Watch the options that reuse a word from the text: matching words are the most common trap in this part.
1

Text 1 — Email

Read the text, then answer the three questions below it.

Subject: Renewing your room for the 2025-26 academic year

From: Hollis College Accommodation Office

To: Current residents, Ashgrove and Selby Halls

Renewal opens on February 3 and closes at noon on February 17. Read the order of steps carefully, because several students each year lose their room by doing them in the wrong sequence.

You must first clear any outstanding balance on your account. The renewal form will not submit while a balance shows, and payments made by bank transfer take two working days to appear. A card payment clears the same day.

Only then does the room choice open to you. Returning residents may keep their current room, move within the same hall, or enter the general ballot for another hall. Keeping your current room is confirmed immediately. The other two options place you in a queue and are confirmed in early March.

Note that students who enter the ballot give up their current room at the point of entry, not at the point of allocation. If the ballot gives you nothing, you return to the general waiting list, and we cannot restore the room you left.

Rooms held for students on placement are an exception and are managed separately by the placement office, not by us.

The deposit rolls over automatically unless you are changing hall, in which case it is refunded and a new one is charged.

Q1 · Inference
A student pays an outstanding balance by bank transfer on February 16. What is the likely result?
  1. A. The renewal form will accept the payment immediately.
  2. B. The payment may not clear before renewal closes.
  3. C. The balance will be added to next year's deposit.
  4. D. The placement office will hold the room instead.
Answer
Correct: B
Q2 · Purpose
Why does the email stress the order in which the steps are done?
  1. A. Because the deposit is refunded only in the correct sequence
  2. B. Because the placement office processes forms in that order
  3. C. Because students who follow the wrong sequence have lost their room
  4. D. Because card payments are processed before bank transfers
Answer
Correct: C
Q3 · Inference
What is the risk of entering the ballot?
  1. A. The deposit is lost even if a new room is allocated.
  2. B. The student cannot apply again the following year.
  3. C. Confirmation arrives only after the placement office agrees.
  4. D. The current room is given up before any new room is certain.
Answer
Correct: D
2

Text 2 — Notice

Read the text, then answer the three questions below it.

Notice: Membership changes at Fallow Street Gym, from May 1

Fallow Street Gym

From May 1 we move from one membership to three. Current members are placed on Standard automatically and do not need to act unless they want a different tier.

Off-Peak covers weekdays before 4:00 PM and all day Sunday. Standard covers all opening hours. Plus adds classes, which currently cost $6 each on top of Standard.

Members who already pay for four or more classes a month will save on Plus. Those who take two or fewer will pay more. We have not calculated this for you; your class history is in the app under Activity.

The classes included with Plus are those run by our own instructors. Two classes on the timetable, Thursday boxing and Saturday spin, are run by an outside provider and remain payable separately whatever tier you hold.

Changes of tier take effect at the start of the next billing month, except a change from Plus to a lower tier, which we apply immediately so that you are not charged for classes you have stopped using.

Anyone who joined before 2019 keeps their current price on Standard for a further twelve months. This applies to the person, not the membership, so it ends if you cancel and rejoin.

Q4 · Inference
A member takes one class a month and trains on weekday evenings. Which tier suits them?
  1. A. Off-Peak, because they train only once a month
  2. B. Plus, because any class use makes it cheaper
  3. C. Any tier, since evening access is included in all three
  4. D. Standard, since Plus would cost them more
Answer
Correct: D
Q5 · Detail
What is true of Thursday boxing?
  1. A. It is included for Plus members only.
  2. B. It is paid for separately at every tier.
  3. C. It moves to Sunday under the new timetable.
  4. D. It is free for members who joined before 2019.
Answer
Correct: B
Q6 · Inference
Why does the notice say the pre-2019 price applies to the person?
  1. A. To explain that the discount cannot be transferred or recovered after cancelling
  2. B. To show that family members may share one membership
  3. C. To confirm that the price is fixed for longer than twelve months
  4. D. To indicate that the discount also covers outside providers' classes
Answer
Correct: A
3

Text 3 — Workplace Memo

Read the text, then answer the three questions below it.

Memo: Home working equipment, what we will and will not buy

To: All staff

From: Operations, Dunmore Analytics

Date: 14 November

We have had forty equipment requests since September and have approved twenty-nine. To save everyone time, here is how the decision is actually made.

We buy anything required to do the job safely for a full working day: a chair that meets our assessment standard, a second monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and a desk lamp. These do not need a manager's signature, only a completed workspace assessment.

We do not buy desks. This surprises people, so the reasoning is worth stating: desks are the item most often already owned, most expensive to ship, and least likely to be returned when someone leaves. Where an assessment finds the existing desk unsafe rather than merely unsuitable, we treat it as an exception and it goes to your manager.

Headsets sit between the two. One standard model is stocked and sent on request. A different model is bought only where the assessment records a hearing or medical reason.

Everything we buy belongs to the company and is listed against your name. On leaving, you return it or buy it at the written-down value, which after three years is usually small.

Requests submitted without an assessment are not refused; they are held, which is slower than being refused, because nobody tells you they are waiting.

Q7 · Purpose
Why does the memo explain the reasoning behind not buying desks?
  1. A. To address a decision staff find surprising
  2. B. To announce that the policy will change next year
  3. C. To ask staff to return desks they already own
  4. D. To compare shipping costs with those of chairs
Answer
Correct: A
Q8 · Inference
An assessment records that a staff member's desk is unsafe. What follows?
  1. A. The request is refused under the no-desk rule.
  2. B. Operations buys it without further approval.
  3. C. The staff member buys it and claims the written-down value.
  4. D. The request goes to their manager as an exception.
Answer
Correct: D
Q9 · Inference
Why is a held request worse than a refused one?
  1. A. Held requests are deleted after three years.
  2. B. A refusal can be appealed but a hold cannot.
  3. C. The person is never told, so they keep waiting.
  4. D. Held requests require a manager's signature as well.
Answer
Correct: C
4

Text 4 — Message Thread

Read the text, then answer the three questions below it.

Moving day - Saturday

Ines (6:12 PM): Van is booked 9 to 3. Anything still in the flat at 3 goes in my car, and my car is small.

Ines (6:13 PM): Lift booking is 9 to 11 only. The building will not extend it on the day; they said that twice.

Ruben (6:30 PM): So heavy things first, in the first two hours. Sofa, wardrobe, boxes of books.

Ines (6:32 PM): Yes. After 11 everything goes down the stairs, which is fine for the light stuff and impossible for the wardrobe.

Tomas (7:04 PM): I can only come from 12. Should I go straight to the new place instead of the old one?

Ines (7:09 PM): Please do. By 12 the problem is unloading, not loading, and there will be nobody there.

Ruben (7:15 PM): Keys? The agent said collection from 10, but they are closed 12:30 to 1:30.

Ines (7:20 PM): I will get them at 10 while the lift is running, so that gap does not matter. If I am not back by 11 do not wait; carry on with the stairs.

Q10 · Inference
Why must the wardrobe be moved before 11:00?
  1. A. The van has to leave the building by 11:00.
  2. B. After 11:00 the only route is the stairs.
  3. C. The agent's office closes between 12:30 and 1:30.
  4. D. Ines's car cannot carry it after 3:00.
Answer
Correct: B
Q11 · Expected Action
Where should Tomas go on Saturday?
  1. A. To the old flat, to help with the stairs
  2. B. To the agent's office, to collect the keys
  3. C. To the new place, because unloading is the problem then
  4. D. To the van, to wait for the last load at 3:00
Answer
Correct: C
Q12 · Inference
What can be inferred about the office closing from 12:30 to 1:30?
  1. A. It will not affect the move, because the keys come at 10.
  2. B. It is why Tomas cannot arrive before 12.
  3. C. It forces the group to finish loading before 12:30.
  4. D. It will delay the van's return by an hour.
Answer
Correct: A