Reading Strategies
TOEFL 2026 — the most practiced Reading questions, September 2026
How this list was measured
Every entry below is ranked by the number of different Reach120 learners who submitted an answer to it during September 2026 — not by how often the question was shown, and not by anything anyone chose to feature. One learner practicing the same question repeatedly counts once.
A question needs at least 3 different learners to appear at all, a task type needs at least 5 such questions before it is ranked, and Reading needs at least 10 learners in the month before this post is generated.
At most 8 questions per task type are listed.
Two things are removed before anything is counted, so that nothing in this order was put there by us: Reach120's own accounts — staff, test users and the internal harnesses that exercise the product — and the fallback questions the app hands out when there is no question bank to draw from, which measure our own placement rather than anybody's choice.
The exact learner counts are deliberately not published — the order is the finding, the headcount is not. This ranking measures practice, not opinion: it is not a vote and it is not a quality judgement by us or by ETS. Where a question has separately been rated by enough learners or tutors to carry a verification mark, that mark is shown next to it and explained at the end.
Try it — one real Reading item
This passage and question come from the same bank Reach120 learners practice against. Answer it here — Reading is free and unlimited on every account.
Caring for Objects in a Museum
Museum conservators work quietly to protect fra____ objects from the damage of time. Light, humidity, and dust can deter____ ancient paint if left unchecked. Before any repair, a conservator studies the piece care____, sometimes using X-rays to see beneath the sur____. The goal is to stab____ an object, not make it look new. Materials chosen must be rever____, so future experts can undo the work if better methods appe____. Every treatment is recorded in detailed not____. Through such labor, artifacts stay ava____ for visitors to appr____.
Why D is the answer: 'recorded in detailed notes' fits keeping a written history of care.
- A. 'notions' means vague ideas and does not fit 'detailed' records.
- B. 'notches' are cut grooves and do not mean written records.
- C. 'notaries' are officials and are unrelated to records.
Reading passages
1. Rivers of Ice on the Move
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: earth science
How it opens: Glaciers may look frozen and still, but they slowly cre____ downhill under their own eno____ weight. At the base, pressure and fri____ melt a thin film of water that lets the ice slide across the bed____. Higher in the glacier, the ice itself bends and def____ like thick putty, a process scientists call int____ flow.…
2. Islands Born From Fire
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: geology
How it opens: In the middle of the ocean, brand-new islands can rise from the sea____ through repeated volcanic eru____. Deep beneath the crust, hot mol____ rock forces its way upward through cracks and weak points. As the material reaches the cold water, it cools and har____ into solid layers of dark bas____. With each eruption,…
3. The Rise of Paper Money
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: economic history
How it opens: For most of history, people tra____ with heavy coins made of gold, silver, or copper. Carrying large sums was risky and exh____, so early Chinese merchants began dep____ their metal with trusted agents. In return they received printed notes that pro____ to repay the exact amount on demand. These lightweight cer____…
4. How Desert Plants Make Food
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: botany
How it opens: Desert plants face a harsh challenge: they must cap____ sunlight to make food while losing as little pre____ water as possible. Many suc____ solve this by opening their tiny pores only at night, when the cooler air reduces eva____. During darkness they abs____ carbon dioxide and store it as an acid inside their cells.…
5. How Memory Is Stored
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: Psychology
How it opens: Human memory does not work like a video recording that captures events exactly. Instead, the brain recon____ each memory partly from stored fragments and partly from expectation. This is why two witnesses can rec____ the same event quite differently. Psychologists distinguish short-term memory, which holds information…
6. Water's Endless Journey
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: earth science
How it opens: Water is never truly used up; instead it travels through the environment in a con____ loop. War____ by the sun, liquid from oceans and lakes rises as inv____ vap____ into the sky. High above, the cooler air causes this moi____ to con____ into tiny dro____ that gather as clouds. When the droplets grow heavy enough,…
7. Carrying Water Across Roman Valleys
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: engineering history
How it opens: Roman engineers built aqu____ to bring fresh water from distant hills into crowded cities. The channels sloped downward at a gentle, carefully calculated gra____ so that gra____ alone kept the water flowing. Where a valley int____ the route, workers raised tall stone arches to support the con____ high above the…
8. How Cells Obtain Energy
Task type: COMPLETE_THE_WORDS
Subject area: Biology
How it opens: Every living cell needs a steady supply of energy to grow, repair itself, and reproduce. Most of this energy is released inside tiny structures called mito____, often described as the powerhouses of the cell. There, sugar molecules are gradually broken down in a process that req____ oxygen. The energy set free is…
Practice Reading passages on Reach120
About the verification marks
No question in this list carries a verification mark yet. A mark is earned from learner and tutor ratings, which are still accumulating, so an unmarked question here means "not yet rated enough" — not "rated badly".
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