relative clause

How ETS Creates the TOEFL

The TOEFL iBT is a 3-hour test [1] ________________________________________. With Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing sections, the test focuses on language that is typical to an academic setting. Creating such a test is a complicated task, and the ETS employs a team of experts to ensure that the TOEFL accurately reflects the test-takers’ true abilities.

First, it is essential to remember that non-native speakers come from a wide range of backgrounds and have extremely different motivations for learning English. The ETS staff must make sure that the TOEFL is not biased towards the vocabulary or grammar patterns learned by one group of individuals. [2]Instead, anyone, who wants to take it, should have the opportunity of a fair analysis.

ETS therefore employs a small army of employees to find passages that can assess a test-taker’s ability to understand completely new material. The passages must have similar topics, complexity, and length as ones which a student might be given in a university or other higher education setting. As well as its regular staff, the ETS has an advisory board, called the Committee of Examiners, consisting of twelve professors from around the world. The board members consult on technical aspects of the test and confirm that the material is similar to what is currently being used in classrooms.

[3]Training the test-writing staff is also crucial to developing a test that is successful. Employees, [4] _______ skills usually include graduate-level English and prior test-writing experience, take on average one year to become fully trained. They are first instructed in the method to write questions for the Reading or Listening sections. Upon becoming proficient, the employees are then taught to review questions written by others. A single question on the TOEFL, [5] _____ can take a mere ten seconds to answer, may be reviewed by up to nine evaluators before it is considered acceptable for use.

Why does the ETS invest such time and energy into creating one test? The answer is simple: high stakes ride on the results. Test-takers want a fair assessment of their skills so they have a chance to enter their target institution. On the other hand, the institution also wants to ensure that the applicants really can perform as expected so that the student succeeds after being admitted. Neither side wants to experience the situation of having a student unable to understand lectures, texts, and tests. A student [6]who is not adequately prepared to cope in the English-language environment may even be sent back to the country [7]______ (where / that / who) he or she came from.

Considering such high stakes, it is therefore no wonder that the ETS does not stop development of the TOEFL after administering the test. That is merely the step when the test is evaluated by a team of researchers who determines areas of improvements for the next version. The ongoing process responds to changes in teaching styles and content in institutions around the world, making the TOEFL a test that is fair, reliable, rigorous, and accurate for both test takers and institutions considering potential applicants.

This passage is adapted from https://news.ets.org/stories/not-every-company-can-write-a-test-like-the-toefl-ibt-test/

[1]: the author wants to add a relative clause that explains the purpose of the test. If you were the author, what would you write?

[2] do you think the commas around words in bold are necessary? Why?

[3] Is there any relative clause that is unnecessary to the sentence?

[4] fill in the blank by choosing a word from who, whom , or whose?

[5] fill in the blank by choosing a word from that or which?

[6] do you think whether the author should add commas before and after the words in bold?

[7] fill in the blank by choosing a word from where, that, or who ?

[8] do you find any other relative clauses in the passage? And are they correct?