TOEFL Reading 2026: the three task types, with sample questions and answers
TOEFL Reading since January 2026: Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage, the two adaptive parts, and a worked sample of each with answers.
Updated 6 November 2026 · 10 min read
The short answer
TOEFL Reading since January 2026 has three task types: Complete the Words, a paragraph with the second half of every other word missing; Read in Daily Life, short real-world texts such as emails and notices with two or three questions; and Read an Academic Passage, a 200-word passage with five questions. You see up to 50 questions in about 30 minutes, in two parts, and the second part is easier or harder depending on the first.
What changed
The old Reading section was two long academic passages of about 700 words with ten questions each, 35 minutes, and nothing else. The 2026 section is built from three task types, with many short texts instead of two long ones, and it is adaptive. The academic passage survives, at about a third of its old length.
| Before 2026 | Since January 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Texts | 2 academic passages, about 700 words each | Paragraphs with missing letters, emails and notices, academic passages of about 200 words |
| Questions | 20 | Up to 50, of which 35 count |
| Time | 35 minutes | About 30 minutes, in two timed parts |
| Adaptive | No | Yes: the second part depends on the first |
| Score | 0 to 30 | Band 1 to 6 |
ETS's 2026 specification describes the section as a measure of reading from everyday texts up to academic ones, from CEFR A1 to C2, so that one section can place a beginner and a graduate applicant on the same scale.
How the two parts work
Reading opens with a first part of moderate difficulty: one Complete the Words paragraph, a short and a long Daily Life text, and one academic passage, about 18 to 21 minutes. How you do on it decides the second part, about 9 minutes: a lower part with another paragraph and more everyday texts, or an upper part with a denser paragraph and a harder academic passage. The questions of both parts are scored by a model that knows which second part you took, so a candidate routed to the harder part is not punished for getting fewer of its questions right. The adaptive Reading and Listening guide goes through what that means for the clock and for guessing.
Within a part you can go back and forwards between questions; once the second part starts, the first is closed. The text stays on screen while you answer. Every question is worth one point. Some questions are unscored trial items, which is why the count can reach 50 when only 35 are scored; you cannot tell which is which, so treat every one as real.
Complete the Words
How it works
A paragraph of 60 to 90 words appears with its first sentence whole. From the second sentence on, the second half of every other word is deleted, ten gaps in all, and the paragraph ends with a whole sentence or two. Each gap shows one slot per missing letter, so "ani _ _ _ _" wants four letters. You type the missing letters.
The task looks like a vocabulary test and is really a reading test: the gaps fall on small words ("a|nd", "th|ese", "o|ne") as often as on content words, and each one has exactly one ending that fits both the grammar and the meaning of the sentence. Read the whole paragraph first; the last sentence often settles the gap you were unsure of.
A sample
Fill in the missing letters.
Many cities now plant trees along their busiest streets. The tr _ _ _ cool t _ _ air i _ summer, a _ _ their lea _ _ _ catch so _ _ of t _ _ dust th _ _ traffic thr _ _ _ into t _ _ air. A street with trees can be several degrees cooler than one without them, which is why planners count every tree they plant.
Answers: trees, the, in, and, leaves, some, the, that, throws, the.
Two things to notice. The first gap, "tr _ _ _", could be "trips" or "trees" by the letters alone, and only the sentence decides it. And "thr _ _ _" needs "throws", not "throw", because "traffic" is singular; the grammar is being tested as much as the word.
Read in Daily Life
How it works
A short text in a real-world format: an email, a chain of text messages, a poster or notice, a menu or schedule, an advertisement, a short news item, a form or a receipt. The text is 15 to 150 words. A short one gets two questions, a longer one three. The text sits on the left and one question at a time on the right.
The questions ask what the text is for, a specific fact inside it, and something it implies without saying: the earliest time in a range, a deadline a day before an event, what a short reply like "np" means. The distractors use other dates and names from the same text, so the skill is finding the detail the question actually asks for.
A sample
Read an email.
To: d.carter@dmail.com From: service.northlake@dmail.com Date: 03/09/2026 Subject: Heating repair
Dear Mr. Carter,
A technician will visit your apartment on Thursday, March 12, between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to repair the heating. Someone over 18 must be home to let the technician in, as our staff cannot enter an empty apartment. If that time does not work, reply by Tuesday with another weekday, and we will do our best. The repair usually takes about two hours, so please keep the rest of the morning free in case it runs late.
Regards,
Emily Brooks Northlake Property Services
- Why did Ms. Brooks write to Mr. Carter?
- To ask him to pay for a repair
- To tell him when a repair will take place ✓
- To explain why the heating stopped working
- To offer him a different apartment
- What is the earliest time the technician might arrive?
- 9:00 a.m. ✓
- 11:00 a.m.
- 1:00 p.m.
- Tuesday morning
- Why must someone be at home during the visit?
- The technician needs help with the repair
- The company does not allow staff into an empty apartment ✓
- The repair takes more than two hours
- Mr. Carter has to sign a form
The third question is the typical trap: three of the options use facts from the email (two hours, a form, help), but only one answers why.
Read an Academic Passage
How it works
A titled passage of about 200 words in three paragraphs, on history, art, business, life science, physical science or social science, written at the level of a secondary school or first-year university textbook. No background knowledge is needed. Five questions follow, drawn from a set of types: a word's meaning in context, a factual detail, a negative detail ("all of the following EXCEPT"), an inference, why the author mentions something, and the relationship between two paragraphs.
The passage usually has a shape worth knowing: the first paragraph introduces an idea and why it matters, the second gives a complication or the evidence, the third gives a response, a finding or an example. The relationship question is asking you to name that shape.
A sample
Why Some Cities Are Warmer Than Their Surroundings
A large city is often several degrees warmer than the countryside around it, especially at night. Scientists call this the urban heat island effect. Roads, roofs and parking lots absorb sunlight during the day and release the heat slowly after dark, while the fields and forests outside the city cool quickly once the sun sets.
The effect is more than a curiosity. Warmer nights mean more energy spent on cooling, more smog on still days, and more danger for older people during heat waves. In some cities the difference between the center and the suburbs has reached ten degrees on summer nights, and it tends to grow as the city does.
Planners have found that the effect can be reduced without rebuilding the city. Painting roofs white reflects sunlight instead of storing it, and trees shade the pavement while releasing water vapor that cools the air. One study found that a street lined with mature trees was cooler by midafternoon than a bare street two blocks away, a difference large enough to measure from a passing car.
- The word "release" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to
- absorb
- give off ✓
- measure
- prevent
- According to the passage, the countryside cools faster than a city at night because
- it has fewer people
- it receives less sunlight during the day
- its surfaces do not store heat the way roads and roofs do ✓
- its air is cleaner
- All of the following are mentioned as effects of warmer city nights EXCEPT
- higher energy use
- more smog
- a risk to older people
- lower property prices ✓
- Why does the author mention a street lined with mature trees?
- To show that trees are more useful than white roofs
- To give an example of how large the cooling effect can be ✓
- To argue that cities should be rebuilt
- To explain how the effect was first discovered
- What is the relationship between paragraphs 2 and 3?
- Paragraph 3 contradicts the claim made in paragraph 2
- Paragraph 3 gives the causes of the problem described in paragraph 2
- Paragraph 3 describes solutions to the problem described in paragraph 2 ✓
- Paragraph 3 repeats paragraph 2 with more detail
Question 3 shows the negative-detail pattern: three options are in the text, and the fourth is something true enough in the world that it tempts you, but the passage never says it.
How the section becomes a band
Each correct answer is one point, 35 scored questions, and the raw score is converted with a model that accounts for which second part you took. The result is a Reading band from 1 to 6 in half steps; it is averaged with the other three sections for your overall band. On ETS's concordance, a Reading band of 5 corresponds to 24–26 on the old 0–30 scale and a 4 to 18–21.
How to practise Reading
Practise the three tasks separately, because they want different habits: Complete the Words wants whole-paragraph reading and grammar, Daily Life wants scanning for the one fact asked, the academic passage wants paragraph structure. Skorway's practice sets cover each task type with the real on-screen layout and an explanation for every wrong answer, and the free mock runs the full adaptive section against the clock.
How many questions are in TOEFL Reading 2026?
Up to 50, of which 35 are scored. The rest are trial questions, and you cannot tell them apart.
How long is the TOEFL Reading section?
About 30 minutes: a first part of 18 to 21 minutes and a second of about 9, each with its own clock.
Are there still long passages in TOEFL Reading?
Yes, but shorter: about 200 words in three paragraphs, with five questions, instead of 700 words with ten. The harder second part uses denser passages than the first.
Can I go back to a question in TOEFL Reading?
Within a part, yes. Once the second part starts, the first is closed.
See your Reading band before test day
The samples above show the shape of the tasks; a timed section shows your band. Skorway's free mock runs the full adaptive Reading section, both parts with their own clocks, the real screens and task types, and scores it within minutes, with an explanation for every question you missed. It tells you which of the three task types costs you marks, which is what to practise first. No credit card.
Checked against ETS's 2026 specification and technical manual on 6 November 2026. The sample texts are Skorway's own, not ETS's. TOEFL® is a registered trademark of ETS. Skorway is not endorsed or approved by ETS.