Here are 2 toefl questions. Can you find the error?
Almost ninety per cent of [American] high school [students] claim they know [how to read], yet this figure is probably [somewhat lower].
[Architect and founder] of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson [built] his house Monticello [overlooking] the campus [in] Charlottesville, Virginia.[/b]
yes…? Did you lose the answer book or were you commenting on the difficulty of the test? 
Commenting on the irrelevancy of the test more like. You could be a highly educated, deeply read fluent native speaker and still not find these “errors.” Anyone care to try?
They aren’t questions ?
There’s only one of them ?
Too many square brackets ?
There’s more than one error ?
The second one has the same error repeated twice (well… one and a half times). Be careful with that error. It could cost you 2 million dollars.
Yes.
The question is, “what is the error,” Mr. smarty-pants.
Each sentence contains one mistake. The mistake can be found inside one of the brackets. Let’s try again shall we 
[quote=“beautifulspam”]The question is, “what is the error,” Mr. smarty-pants.
Each sentence contains one mistake. The mistake can be found inside one of the brackets. Let’s try again shall we [/quote]
I stand by my statement.
Miss Smartypants can PM you her hourly rate, if you like. 
I’ll give it a shot:
[quote=“beautifulspam”]
Almost ninety per cent of [American] high school [students] claim they know [how to read], yet this figure is probably [somewhat lower].[/quote]
somewhat low
(Lower than what?)
(Note: I prefer “percent” as one word)
, which overlooks
(Does the house overlook the campus, or was it Jefferson?)
[quote]
Miss Smartypants can PM you her hourly rate, if you like. [/quote]
Sorry, but I require a 10 minute demo 
Seriously though, these questions and answers come from TestMagic. I wondered whether other native speakers would consider these sentences incorrect.
I was also hoping we could all complain about the TOEFL together but it looks like that’s not gonna happen. Ah well back to work…
TOEFL is kind of stupid. I teach IELTS which is marginally more useful.
I’ve always hated how many of these exams have a “right” answer, and no other possibilities are accepted. I’ve certainly disagreed with quite a few of the official answers to Cambridge First Certificate exams (not that the answers they gave were wrong, just that there WERE other possibilities, which would have been marked wrong).
[quote]
I’ll give it a shot:
Quote:
Almost ninety per cent of [American] high school [students] claim they know [how to read], yet this figure is probably [somewhat lower].
somewhat low
(Lower than what?)
(Note: I prefer “percent” as one word)
Quote:
[Architect and founder] of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson [built] his house Monticello [overlooking] the campus [in] Charlottesville, Virginia.[/b]
, which overlooks
(Does the house overlook the campus, or was it Jefferson?) [/quote]
Good answers, but wrong (according to TestMagic).
The figure cited is not the percentage who can read, but rather the percentage who claim they can read. This percentage can only be what it is, and cannot be higher or lower. The percentage who actually can read could be lower, but that is not what is referred to by “this figure”.
That was my thought when I first read the question. Alas, we are wrong. In TOEFL-land.
According to TestMagic, in the first sentence we should say “90 percent of all American high school students” because the initial noun phrase lacks a determiner.
In the second sentence, we should change “overlooking” to “to overlook.” Why? The above sentence tells us Mr. Jefferson’s intention for the house in the future. A house that hasn’t been built yet can’t be said overlook anything.
Those poor children 
[quote=“Chris”]I’ll give it a shot:
[quote=“beautifulspam”]
Almost ninety per cent of [American] high school [students] claim they know [how to read], yet this figure is probably [somewhat lower].[/quote]
somewhat low
(Lower than what?)
(Note: I prefer “percent” as one word)
, which overlooks
(Does the house overlook the campus, or was it Jefferson?)[/quote]
Yes, I agree with Chris. If you say the percentage is 90 percent you cannot then claim the number is actually lower. “Incorrect” would be better. Also, he built the house “to overlook” the river.
The second sentence even when corrected is awful.
The first sentence is not even close to difficult since it logically makes no sense to say lower.
Work on the Monticello started in 1770. The University of Virginia was founded in 1819. So Monticello wasn’t overlooking it at the time, hahahahaha! 
That was my thought when I first read the question. Alas, we are wrong. In TOEFL-land.
According to TestMagic, in the first sentence we should say “90 percent of all American high school students” because the initial noun phrase lacks a determiner.
In the second sentence, we should change “overlooking” to “to overlook.” Why? The above sentence tells us Mr. Jefferson’s intention for the house in the future. A house that hasn’t been built yet can’t be said overlook anything.
Those poor children [/quote]
Wow. And what level is this exam?
Second sentence is missing 3 commas, btw.
[quote]Wow. And what level is this exam?
Second sentence is missing 3 commas, btw.[/quote]
They are just practice question from a test prep website. Dunno what level. Here’s the URL:
testmagic.com/Knowledge_Base … /index.htm
Looks like it’s based out of a cram school in california.