TOEFL Reading Strategy: How to Spot “Decoy” Answer Choices
Hi everyone! 👋
Today, I’m going to show you an elimination strategy for spotting definitely wrong choices in TOEFL Reading Information questions.
When it comes to these questions, finding the wrong choices is just as important as finding the right one. One of the trickiest traps the TOEFL sets is something called a decoy.
What’s a Decoy?
Think Star Wars. Remember Queen Amidala? She had a body double. At first glance, the double looked exactly like the queen—same outfit, same presence. But she wasn’t the real queen.
TOEFL decoys work the same way.
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They look correct because they repeat a sentence from the passage almost word-for-word.
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They feel safe and familiar.
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But here’s the catch: they don’t actually answer the question.
It’s just a body double—a trap.
Quick Self-Check
👉 If you see an answer choice that copies a sentence from the passage but doesn’t answer the question, should you pick it?
(Spoiler: Nope! That’s the decoy at work.)
Practice Questions
Let’s test this out with two TOEFL-style examples.
Question 1
A wide translocation of red howler monkeys, which have been the subjects of intense study by many biologists, was conducted on neotropical fauna in French Guiana during the filling of a hydroelectric reservoir. This translocation was essential to ensure the survival and well-being of these primates. By relocating them to suitable habitats away from the reservoir’s inundation zone, the aim was to prevent their habitat loss and potential endangerment, thus preserving the local neotropical fauna and maintaining the ecological balance.
Why were red howler monkeys translocated?
A. because red howler monkeys were the subjects of intense study by many biologists
B. because of the construction of a dam
C. because their habitats were destroyed by natural disasters
D. because maintaining the ecological balance is essential
✅ Notice how choice (A) is a decoy: it repeats part of the passage, but it doesn’t answer the question.
Question 2
Chondrites, the most abundant meteorite class, formed about 4.56 billion years ago as part of the formation of their parent asteroids. The great age of the chondrites suggests that these meteorites retain a record of processes that happened in the solar nebula before and during the phase of planet formation. Chondrites are primarily composed of various minerals and mineraloids, with the most abundant components being silicate minerals like olivine and pyroxene. Chondrites also contain smaller amounts of metal, sulfide minerals, and organic compounds. One distinctive feature of chondrites is the presence of chondrules. Chondrules are tiny melted droplets of silicate material embedded in chondrites. They provide critical clues for the formation of the solar system since some of them contain grains that survived the melting event. The chondrules that contain the grains suggest that they must have formed when compact masses of nebular dust were fused at high temperatures and then cooled before these surviving grains could melt. Since gargantuan heated nebulae could not possibly have lost heat so fast, chondrules must have been melted in small pockets of the nebula that were able to lose heat rapidly.
According to the passage, what does the presence of grains inside some of the chondrules indicate?
A. The chondrules were formed of silicate material.
B. The chondrules can be found in chondrites, the most abundant meteorite class.
C. The chondrules were formed about 4.56 billion years ago.
D. The grains were formed before the chondrules were formed.
✅ Here, (D) is the correct answer. Choices (A), (B), and (C) are decoys—they all repeat information from the passage, but none of them answer the specific question.
Final Tip
Whenever you see an answer choice that feels too familiar because it copies text from the passage—pause and ask yourself:
👉 Does it really answer the question, or is it just a body double?
Train your eye to catch these traps, and you’ll eliminate wrong choices faster and raise your accuracy in TOEFL Reading.