功能题在托福听力考试中并不罕见，功能题经常考察教授与学生之间的问答，通常有两种方式，一是学生提出观点然后教授评价，觉得这个观点正确或者错误，但错误时通常教授不会直接指出，而是委婉的说，二是学生提出疑问，教授引导学生回答。下面留学360为考生举例分析：
例一：Why doesthe professor say this？
A. To offer a hint about the answer to a question he asked
B. To clarify a question that a student asked
C. To find out whether students understand question he asked
To find out whether students understand an important comparison hemade
Student:
Mostly iron？
Professor:
Yeah… iron andsome nickel, both of which are metals. And, if you‘re trying to find metal？
Student:
Oh! Metal detectors!
And, if you’re trying to find metal？”
教授抛出来了半句话，然后是升调，也就是问句语气，是在引导学生回答后半句，学生的确回答了：“Oh! Metal detectors!”就是为了引导学生得出答案，教授谈到一个奇怪的现象就是大量存在的石头陨石很难被找到，相比之下还有一种金属陨石容易被找到。教授引导学生希望学生得出相关答案。然后学生说出了金属探测器一说。
例二：Why doesthe professor say this？
A. To indicate that he understands why the student may be confused
B. To emphasize that the student has asked a very important question
C. To remind the student that she may know the answer to her ownquestion
D. To invite other members of the class to answer the question
Student:
But, professor, are you sure these are poems？ I mean I thought poemswere shorter; these were more like long stories. I mean one of them must allabout love, but the other one the Chan…Chan…whatever itcalled, the other one; it’s all about fighting and battles. I mean can both of them beconsidered to be poems？
Professor:
Well, think back to the very beginning of this course.
学生觉得文章的长度决定了它是否真正是诗歌，但教授否定这一观点，教授没有直接说他错了，知识委婉地让他回个一下讲座之前的内容，一来说明讲座谈到相关内容，二来说明学生的答案不是正确的，因为正确的答案在讲座中都会大肆鼓励的。
例三：What doesthe professor imply when he says this :
A. The current age estimates for the South Pole-Aitken Basin are based onincorrect assumptions.
B. The technology to analyze Moon rocks has not advanced much sincethe days of the Moon landings
C. Too few of the original Moon-rock samples were dated accurately
D. Only by testing samples from South Pole-Aitken Basin can its agebe precisely determined
Dian:
But if we know around how old the Basin is, I’m not sure that’s reason enough to go to the Moonagain.
Professor:
No…, but suchcrude estimates…um…we can do better than that.Besides, there are other
学生觉得没有必要深入了解spa盆地上的石头，登月没有必要因为别的方法也可以达到相同的效果，但是教授做出否定的回答，在他眼中这样的结果还是太crude，也就是不够准确。教授通过自己的回答评价了学生观点。
