Updated 2026-09-12upper

New TOEFL Reading: Read in Daily Life Practice #016 — A Loan Repayment, a Recycling Centre, Shared Bills, and a Running Club

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: Your repayments start in April - read the threshold part

From: Student Loans Agency

To: Graduates of 2024

Repayments begin in the April after you graduate, but only from income above the threshold, which is currently 27,295 a year.

You repay 9 percent of the amount above the threshold, not 9 percent of your salary. On 30,000 you repay 9 percent of 2,705, which is about 20 a month. This is the single most misread line in our guidance and the reason people budget for far more than they owe.

Employers deduct it with tax, so most people do nothing. If you are self-employed you pay through your tax return instead, once a year, and you should set the money aside monthly because the bill arrives in one piece.

If your income falls below the threshold, repayments stop automatically and restart automatically. You do not apply for either. What is not automatic is a refund: if deductions were taken during months your annual income ended below the threshold, you have to ask.

Interest applies from the day the first payment reaches your university, not from graduation. This is why the balance is larger than the sum you borrowed even before your first repayment.

Voluntary extra payments are allowed and are not refundable. For most graduates the loan is written off after 30 years, so paying extra benefits only those who would otherwise clear the balance in full.

Q1 · Inference
A graduate earning 29,000 wants to estimate the monthly repayment. What should they calculate 9 percent of?
  1. A. 1,705, the amount above the threshold
  2. B. 27,295, the threshold
  3. C. 29,000, the full salary
  4. D. The balance of the loan including interest
Answer
Correct: A
Q2 · Detail
Which of these is NOT automatic?
  1. A. Stopping repayments when income falls
  2. B. Restarting repayments when income rises
  3. C. Deduction of repayments by an employer
  4. D. Refunding deductions taken in a low-income year
Answer
Correct: D
Q3 · Inference
Why does the balance grow before the first repayment?
  1. A. Because interest starts when the university is first paid
  2. B. Because repayments begin only in April
  3. C. Because voluntary payments are not refundable
  4. D. Because the threshold rises each year
Answer
Correct: A
2

Text 2 — Notice

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

Notice: Booking required at Fenn Road recycling centre

Waste and Recycling Service

From 3 March a booking is needed for every visit by car or van. Pedestrians and cyclists may still come without one.

Bookings open 14 days ahead and are free. Slots are 20 minutes and the gate reads your number plate, so bring nothing with you; there is no ticket to print.

The change follows a trial at two other sites where queues on the approach road fell from an average of 22 minutes to under 5. It is not a way of limiting how much you bring. There is no cap per visit and no cap on the number of bookings per household.

Vans and trailers need a permit as well as a booking. The permit is separate, takes five working days, and is checked at the gate; a booking alone will be turned away.

Missed slots matter. Three missed bookings in six months suspends the plate for a month, because in the trial around a fifth of slots went unused while people were queuing for them.

Items that were free remain free. Charges continue to apply only to soil, rubble, plasterboard, and tyres, at the rates on the price list, which has not changed.

Q4 · Purpose
Why does the notice mention the results of the trial?
  1. A. To justify the new booking requirement
  2. B. To explain why charges have increased
  3. C. To show that the other two sites will close
  4. D. To warn that slots are limited per household
Answer
Correct: A
Q5 · Inference
Someone books a slot for a van three days from now. What is the likely outcome?
  1. A. They will be admitted, since the booking covers the vehicle
  2. B. They will be turned away, as the permit takes longer to obtain
  3. C. They will be charged the rate for rubble instead
  4. D. Their plate will be suspended for a month
Answer
Correct: B
Q6 · Inference
Why are missed bookings penalised?
  1. A. Because each visit costs the centre money
  2. B. Because vans take longer than 20 minutes
  3. C. Because unused slots blocked people who wanted them
  4. D. Because the gate cannot read plates twice in a day
Answer
Correct: C
3

Text 3 — Message Thread

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

Flat 2 bills

Dani (19:40): Electricity bill came: 214 for the quarter, up from 148. Before anyone panics, the standing charge went up and so did the unit rate, so it is not only us using more.

Kwame (19:48): How much of it is the rate change?

Dani (19:55): I worked it out from the meter readings. Usage is up about 9 percent, the rest is price. So roughly 12 of the increase is us and 54 is them.

Lior (20:03): That 9 percent is probably the heater in my room. I will pay a bigger share this quarter.

Dani (20:07): You do not have to. We agreed equal shares and the flat is cold at the back; that is the building, not you.

Kwame (20:11): Agreed. But can we switch tariff? The fixed deal ends next month.

Dani (20:20): Yes, and that is the part worth our attention. If we do nothing we roll onto the variable rate, which is higher than every fixed deal I can see. Switching takes about three weeks, so we should decide this week, not next month.

Lior (20:24): Then let us decide Thursday. Send the three best options and I will read them properly.

Q7 · Inference
What does Dani's calculation show about the increase?
  1. A. The standing charge alone explains all of it
  2. B. Most of it comes from the heater in Lior's room
  3. C. Usage and price contributed about equally
  4. D. Most of it comes from higher prices rather than higher usage
Answer
Correct: D
Q8 · Purpose
Why does Dani tell Lior not to pay more?
  1. A. Because the heater uses less than Lior thinks
  2. B. Because the flat agreed on equal shares and the cold room is the building's fault
  3. C. Because the bill will be refunded after switching tariff
  4. D. Because Lior already paid more last quarter
Answer
Correct: B
Q9 · Inference
Why must the tariff decision be made this week?
  1. A. Because the bill is due at the end of the week
  2. B. Because fixed deals are withdrawn on Thursday
  3. C. Because switching takes about three weeks and the deal ends next month
  4. D. Because the variable rate rises at the end of the month
Answer
Correct: C
4

Text 4 — Social Media Post

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

slow_lane_sara @slowlanesara - 3h

Our running club had eleven people in January and has sixty-two now. Everyone asks what we did. It was one change, and it was not the training plan.

We stopped starting together. The old format was a single group leaving at 7pm, which sounds friendly and was not: the fastest waited at corners, the slowest ran alone and apologised for it, and the middle never met anyone new.

Now we run a handicap start. Slower runners leave first, the fastest leave last, and the route is set so the whole group finishes within about four minutes of each other. The effect is that everyone finishes together, which is the part people actually came for.

It took two weeks to work. The first attempt failed because we guessed the start gaps instead of timing people, and half the group finished ten minutes apart. Getting the gaps right is the whole method.

The thing nobody mentions about running clubs: the barrier is not fitness, it is the fear of being the reason everybody else has to wait. Remove that and people come back.

340 replies - 512 reposts - 6.7K likes

Q10 · Detail
Under the handicap start, who leaves first?
  1. A. The fastest runners
  2. B. The slowest runners
  3. C. Whoever arrives first at 7pm
  4. D. The club organisers, to set the route
Answer
Correct: B
Q11 · Inference
Why did the first attempt fail?
  1. A. Too many runners joined at once
  2. B. The route was too long for slower runners
  3. C. The start gaps were guessed rather than measured
  4. D. The fastest runners refused to start last
Answer
Correct: C
Q12 · Purpose
What is the writer's main point in the final paragraph?
  1. A. That fitness matters less than a training plan
  2. B. That clubs should recruit faster runners first
  3. C. That most people quit running within two weeks
  4. D. That people stay when they stop fearing they will hold others up
Answer
Correct: D