![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2020\/09\/Mental-Floss.jpg\")
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\nWhat is Mental Floss? It’s website full of articles and videos. Many of the articles\u00a0cover subjects vocabulary that are good for TOEFL practice.<\/p>\n
\nIf you use Mental Floss for TOEFL practice, you’ll want to focus more on the articles than the videos. It’s the articles that are the most TOEFL-like. The videos\u00a0are fun, but tend to feature interesting footage rather than TOEFL-style speech.<\/p>\n
\nMental Floss has a maze of tagged subjects for its articles that never seems to end. Not every Mental Floss topic is suitable for the TOEFL–but a\u00a0lot\u00a0<\/em>of them are. I’ve looked over the website and found quite a few TOEFL-like articles you’ll want to check out. These articles are categorized in a few different ways.<\/p>\n \nMental Floss’s science tag<\/a>\u00a0is the most obvious category to check, since the TOEFL loves reading passages and lectures about the sciences. And Mental Floss has a mix of science subjects a lot like the ones on the exam. \u00a0Some of the most TOEFL-like science articles on the site cover subjects like the hunting habits of bats<\/a>,\u00a0the extinction of the dinosaurs<\/a>, and the chemistry of coffee<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThere are a few less TOEFL-like articles that\u00a0are not\u00a0quite as useful for TOEFL– covering subjects such as the science of hair and hairstyles or personal health tips, for instance. But these can be good\u00a0light<\/a>,\u00a0fun reading<\/a>\u00a0for general English skills practice.<\/p>\n \nThere are two other science-based article categories on Mental Floss— genetics and outer space. We’ll look at those next.<\/p>\n \nThis scientific topic on Mental Floss is almost 100% TOEFL-like in terms of subject matter and vocabulary. While nothing on Mental Floss’s\u00a0genetics web page<\/a>\u00a0(or the rest of the site) is\u00a0exactly<\/em>\u00a0like what you’d see on the TOEFL, pretty much every genetics article either focuses on or at least touches on a topic that would fit in well on the exam. And TOEFL vocabulary is everywhere in the readings from this category.<\/p>\n \nI’d like to highlight a few articles that are\u00a0especially<\/em>\u00a0TOEFL-like in this very useful category of Mental Floss articles. These readings on the genetic origins of\u00a0domestic dogs<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Scottish red deer<\/a>\u00a0are excellent for TOEFL practice. So is this passage on\u00a0natural selection in farmed fish<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nPassages and lectures about planets, stars, and so on are common on the TOEFL. Mental Floss also has a set of\u00a0space-related articles<\/a>. Again, you have some very TOEFL-like stuff–a reading about\u00a0early twentieth century astronomy<\/a>\u00a0and a study of\u00a0weather conditions on the surface of Mars<\/a>, to give two examples. And once more, we also see\u00a0some less TOEFL-like supplemental reading practice– I particularly enjoyed this article about\u00a0how to bake a cake that looks like the planet Jupiter<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nAnimals<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0vocabulary related to animals<\/a>\u00a0come up on the TOEFL a lot. And Mental Floss\u00a0has a tag for that<\/a>! Here again, you’ll want to stick with the articles that have the most TOEFL-like language, such as\u00a0this description of a species of salamander<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0this article about veterinary science<\/a>. You can skip the other articles on subjects such as pet care and animal-shaped toys… or save them for a light-reading<\/a> mental break.<\/p>\n \nVideos and pictures of the sea and the things in it look really cool. Mental Floss knows this, and they’ve filled their\u00a0ocean articles<\/a>\u00a0with pictures and film clips. As a result, the ocean-related article son this website are a bit short on text. Still, these shorter passages often contain the same kinds of information and vocabulary you’d find in TOEFL readings and lectures about the ocean.<\/p>\n \nThe article that accompanies\u00a0this stunning video of a giant swarm of crabs<\/a>\u00a0is short but still TOEFL-like. The same goes for the text in Mental Floss’s\u00a0collection of\u00a0photos and fun facts about oysters<\/a>. And the same can also be said for this\u00a0historical look at ancient maps of the sea<\/a>. Speaking of history, the next Mental Floss topic we’ll take a look at is….<\/p>\n \nMental Floss’s\u00a0History category has some not-so-TOEFL-like articles on tourism (visiting historical places) and celebrity gossip (about famous people from past decades and centuries).<\/p>\n \nBut there are also quite a few articles with vocabulary and subject matter similar to the TOEFL exam. There’s a nice TOEFL-like reading about\u00a0units of measurement from past historical periods<\/a>. And there are plenty of\u00a0articles about\u00a0past political leaders<\/a>\u00a0in the United States<\/a>,\u00a0a topic that’s a big TOEFL favorite. In fact, both\u00a0Magoosh TOEFL<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mental Floss<\/a>\u00a0have offered reading practice about\u00a0American “founding father” Paul Revere!<\/p>\n \nMental Floss also has an additional separate history-related category of reading practice\u2014war. War is not quite as TOEFL-like as other historical topics. But Mental Floss\u2019s war articles are definitely useful for TOEFL practice. We\u2019ll look at this website\u2019s articles on war and a few other less TOEFL-like but still good topics in part 3 of this series.<\/p>\n \nTOEFL passages focus very little on war. This is because ETS tries to make TOEFL topics culturally neutral. And wars–even old ones– can bring up strong cultural feelings.<\/p>\n \nI still recommend using Mental Floss’s articles about war as TOEFL reading practice. This\u00a0website’s posts on war<\/a>\u00a0are the very scholarly and formal, with a tone that matches the TOEFL more closely than other Mental Floss articles. Additionally, these articles offer a lot of practice reading the\u00a0past tense forms<\/a>\u00a0that are common in various historical narratives on the TOEFL.<\/p>\n \nFor those who do have\u00a0a historical interest<\/a>\u00a0in war, there are subcategories for\u00a0World War I<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0World War II.<\/p>\n \nThe arts are covered in the TOEFL, although TOEFL materials usually limit limit art content to the history of art. In contrast, Mental Floss’s\u00a0art page<\/a>\u00a0focuses more on pop art and entertainment, or on art tutorials for people who want to learn how to draw.<\/p>\n \nStill, there is some TOEFL-relevant material in Mental Floss’s art section. This article about\u00a0famed American mural painter Thomas Benton<\/a>\u00a0is of\u00a0the most TOEFL-like Mental Floss art readings. But most of Mental Floss’s TOEFL-like art readings are hidden under a different category, which I’ll mention next….<\/p>\n \nArchitecture is a topic that can definitely come up on the TOEFL. And the types of historical write-ups and art analyses you’ll find in TOEFL Reading are also present in many of the\u00a0architecture articles<\/a>\u00a0on Mental Floss. Again, you’ll also find some content that is better for general reading practice and not TOEFL studies–write-ups on the homes of celebrities, tour guides for interesting landmarks, that sort of thing.<\/p>\n \nBear in mind that the readings in Mental Floss are not identical to what you\u2019d see on the TOEFL. Although the vocabulary and subject matter are often in line with the TOEFL exam, the writing style is less formal and more playful. But this entertaining tone can help you have fun and develop an interest in TOEFL topics<\/a> during your TOEFL practice.<\/p>\n \nReady to test out your reading skills in a test-like setting? Take our free TOEFL practice test today<\/a> to get a sense of where your score stands right now. Then consider a free trial of our Magoosh Premium Plan<\/a> to get more TOEFL reading practice with test-like questions and expert answer explanations!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is Mental Floss? It’s website full of articles and videos. Many of the articles\u00a0cover subjects vocabulary that are good for TOEFL practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13617],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTOEFL Practice: Science<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: Genetics<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: Space<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: Animals<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: Oceans<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: History<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: War<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: Art<\/h2>\n
TOEFL Practice: Architecture<\/h2>\n
The takeaway<\/h2>\n