TOEFL Writing TASK-1
The writing section tests your ability to write essays in English similar to those that you would write in College courses.
The integrated Essay:
First you will read an academic passage and then you will listen to a lecture on the same topic. You may take notes as you read and listen, but notes are not graded. You may use your notes to write the essay. The reading passage will disappear while you are listening to the lecture, but the passage will return to the screen for reference when you begin to write your essay. You will have 20 minutes to plan, write and revise your response. Typically, a good essay for the integrated topic will require that you write 150-225 words.
Reading Passage
Time: 3 minutes
Stonehenge, located on the Salisbury Plain in England, is a circular arrangement of bluestones and sarsen stones. Each bluestone weighs several tons and each sarsen stone weighs ten tons, or more. The question is, what was the original purpose of this monument?
Many theories have been put forward, the most popular being that ancient astronomers may have used Stonehenge as a solar calendar, however, excavations by researchers from the Stonehenge Riverside Project Support a newer hypothesis. Evidence of burials and cremations dating back to 3000 B.C.E. influenced researchers involved in the Riverside Project to conclude that the real purpose of Stonehenge was to serve as a burial site.
More than 50,000 cremated bone fragments of 63 individuals were excavated and studied by the team, including about equal numbers of men and women, as well as an infant.
In addition to cremated remains, chalk dust in several holes suggested that fifty-six bluestones once stood in the circular arrangement. According to the lead researcher, Professor Mike Parker Pearson, bluestones have been closely associated with burials from similar time periods, and their presence service as further support for the burial ground hypothesis.
Finally, although few artifacts have been unearthed at Stonehenge, the head of a stone mace, an object similar to a scepter, supported the assumption that important persons were selected for burial in the site. A small bowl, burned on one side, may have been held incense, further suggesting that the dead could have been religious and political leaders and their immediate families.
Most prehistorical burials in England involved leaving the dead in the wild for animals to clean or throwing the bodies into the rivers, another indication that the Stonehenge burial site was reserved for leaders. Clearly, a possession like the stone mace would have belonged to someone of high rank and status among those who occupied the site and could have been buried with the body.
Now listen to a lecture on the same topic as the passage you have just read.
Question:
Summarize the main points in the lecture, and then explain how they cast doubt on the ideas in the reading passage.
Example Answer:
The lecturer refutes the three arguments presented in the reading passage, calling into question the new hypothesis to explain the purpose of Stonehenge.
According to the hypothesis, the site was constructed as a burial ground for elite members of society in approximately 3000 B.C.E. The researchers in the Riverside Project cited the discovery of human remains, the presence of bluestones, and several important artifacts as evidence for their claim.
However, the lecturer presents a counterargument for each assertion. First, he maintains that the discovery of human remains is not unique to this project. Excavations as early as 200 years ago provided evidence of burials in Stonehenge. Although the remains prove that ritual burials were performed at Stonehenge, it does not necessarily follow that the monument was built for the purpose of burials. Previous researchers evaluating the same evidence have not come to the same conclusion.
Moreover, the bluestones could have been brought to the area for purposes other than burial rites. Since, they have acoustical properties, ancient music could have been played on the stones. Some studies suggest that the stones may have had a magical purpose or could have been used for healing, In which case the burials could have been performed when healing was not successful.
In spite of the discovery of two significant artifacts that probably belonged to highly important people, the lecturer points out that the number of objects is insufficient to draw conclusions and, furthermore, that the current excavation may have been corruption by previous digs and theft.
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