Updated 2026-08-23intermediate

TOEFL Reading Practice #011 — The Snake With No Enemies

Free TOEFL Reading practice: The Snake With No Enemies. 11 questions with a full passage and answer key.

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How to use this practice: Read the passage once without a dictionary, then answer the questions on your own. Tap “Answer” under each question to reveal just the correct letter — no explanations, so you can keep testing yourself.
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Passage

Read the full passage. Bracketed letters like [A] mark the four positions for the insert-text question.

The Snake With No Enemies

¶1 The Everglades in southern Florida is home to a predator that can grow longer than a car and swallow a full-grown deer whole. Since 2000, state removal programs have caught and killed more than twenty-three thousand Burmese pythons in the park, yet the population keeps growing. Native to Southeast Asia, this snake can reach five meters in length and weigh over ninety kilograms. No one knows exactly how many pythons live in the Everglades today; estimates range from the tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands. Whatever the true number, an animal that did not exist here forty years ago now ranks among the park's most common large predators.

¶2 Burmese pythons likely entered the Everglades through the pet trade, escaping or being released once they grew too large to keep. [A] Florida's warm, wet climate closely matched their native range, letting them thrive and breed without difficulty. [B] A species that causes ecological or economic harm in a place where it did not evolve is called an invasive species. The python quickly became one of the most damaging invasive species in the country's history. [C] A female python can lay up to one hundred eggs at a time. Adult pythons have no natural predators in the Everglades to slow their spread. [D] Native mammals throughout the park had never shared their habitat with a hidden, ambushing predator this large. As a result, they had no inherited instinct to watch for one.

¶3 Park biologists soon noticed fewer raccoons, rabbits, and other mammals in areas where pythons had settled. Sightings can vary for many reasons, however, including rainfall and the season. To find out whether pythons were truly responsible, researchers needed a way to compare mammal numbers across areas with and without established python populations. Beginning in 2003, teams started driving fixed routes through the park at night and counting every mammal they saw. They repeated the same routes for years, comparing the results with surveys taken before pythons had spread into those areas.

¶4 The results, published in 2012, were dramatic. In areas where pythons had been established the longest, raccoon sightings had fallen by ninety-nine percent, and opossum sightings had fallen by nearly as much. Both figures were compared with counts taken on the same roads in the 1990s. Bobcat sightings had dropped by more than eighty percent. Rabbits and foxes, once common throughout the region, did not appear in a single survey. In areas of the park pythons had not yet reached, mammal numbers stayed roughly the same, which let researchers rule out drought, disease, and other causes and pin the decline directly on the snake's arrival.

  • ambush: a sudden attack made from a hidden position
  • opossum: a small nocturnal mammal native to North America
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Questions

11 questions — every TOEFL Reading question type, in test order.

Q1 · Vocabulary
The word range in paragraph 1 ("estimates range from the tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands") is closest in meaning to
  1. A. vary
  2. B. increase
  3. C. shrink
  4. D. measure
Answer
Correct: A
Q2 · Reference
The word they in paragraph 2 ("escaping or being released once they grew too large to keep") refers to
  1. A. the removal programs
  2. B. their owners
  3. C. Burmese pythons
  4. D. the pet trade
Answer
Correct: C
Q3 · Essential Term
Based on the information in the passage, the term invasive species can best be explained as
  1. A. any animal that is dangerous to humans
  2. B. a species that causes ecological or economic harm in a place where it did not evolve
  3. C. a species that has no natural predators anywhere it lives
  4. D. an animal capable of laying large numbers of eggs at once
Answer
Correct: B
Q4 · Factual Information
According to paragraph 2, why was Florida's climate well suited to Burmese pythons?
  1. A. It closely matched the warm, wet climate of the region where pythons naturally live
  2. B. It had no natural predators capable of hunting large snakes
  3. C. It changed dramatically after pythons entered the ecosystem
  4. D. It was cooler than the climates found throughout Southeast Asia
Answer
Correct: A
Q5 · Negative Fact
According to paragraph 3, all of the following are true EXCEPT
  1. A. Sightings of mammals can vary because of factors such as rainfall and the time of year
  2. B. Researchers began driving survey routes through the park at night starting in 2003
  3. C. Researchers used photographs from hidden cameras placed along the roads to count mammals
  4. D. The survey results were compared with counts taken before pythons had spread into certain areas
Answer
Correct: C
Q6 · Sentence Simplification
Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in paragraph 4? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

Highlighted: "In areas of the park pythons had not yet reached, mammal numbers stayed roughly the same, which let researchers rule out drought, disease, and other causes and pin the decline directly on the snake's arrival."
  1. A. In areas that pythons had not yet reached, mammal populations stayed stable, and this comparison let researchers conclude that pythons, not other factors such as drought or disease, caused the decline
  2. B. Researchers concluded that drought and disease, rather than pythons, were the most likely cause of the decline in mammal populations
  3. C. Mammal populations declined at the same rate throughout the park, regardless of whether pythons had reached a given area
  4. D. Only in areas without pythons did researchers find any evidence that drought or disease had affected mammal populations
Answer
Correct: A
Q7 · Inference
Based on the information in paragraphs 2 and 4, what can be inferred about native mammals in areas of the Everglades where pythons have not yet become established?
  1. A. They have already begun to develop an inherited fear response in anticipation of a future python invasion
  2. B. They are likely to experience the same sharp population declines once pythons become established there, since they share the same lack of natural defenses against the snake
  3. C. They are protected from python predation by unusually cold winter temperatures
  4. D. They have been relocated by park biologists to prevent future population declines
Answer
Correct: B
Q8 · Rhetorical Purpose
The author mentions that state removal programs have caught and killed more than twenty-three thousand pythons since 2000, yet the population keeps growing, in order to
  1. A. argue that Florida's python removal programs should be shut down because they have failed
  2. B. compare Florida's python removal efforts with similar programs in other states
  3. C. emphasize how large and persistent the python population has become despite active efforts to control it
  4. D. explain the specific techniques removal programs use to capture pythons
Answer
Correct: C
Q9 · Paragraph Relation
How does paragraph 4 relate to paragraph 3?
  1. A. It shows that the survey method described in paragraph 3 failed to produce reliable results
  2. B. It presents the actual results produced by the survey method described in paragraph 3
  3. C. It introduces an unrelated method for studying the park's mammal populations
  4. D. It contradicts the plan for comparing areas that is described in paragraph 3
Answer
Correct: B
Q10 · Insert Text
Look at the four squares [■] in paragraph 2 that indicate where the following sentence could be added.

This proved to be an unusually dangerous combination for the region's wildlife.

Where would the sentence best fit?
  1. A. Square A
  2. B. Square B
  3. C. Square C
  4. D. Square D
Answer
Correct: D
Q11 · Prose Summary Select THREE · 2 pts
Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Burmese pythons, an invasive species that entered Florida's Everglades through the pet trade, have caused sharp declines in native mammal populations that researchers have measured through systematic surveys.

  1. A. Burmese pythons can grow longer than a car and are native to the swamps and grasslands of Southeast Asia
  2. B. State removal programs have caught more than twenty-three thousand pythons since 2000, yet the python population in the Everglades continues to grow
  3. C. Adult pythons have no natural predators in the Everglades and can reproduce quickly, allowing their population to expand largely unchecked
  4. D. A 2012 study found that mammal sightings had dropped by as much as ninety-nine percent in areas where pythons had become established, while areas without pythons showed no such decline
  5. E. Beginning in 2003, researchers drove fixed routes through the park at night to count the mammals they observed
  6. F. Florida park officials have proposed introducing new predator species to control the python population
Answer
Correct: B, C, D