BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ TP.HCM

READING 1

Biên Soạn:
ThS. Phạm Quỳnh Trang (Chủ biên)
ThS. Đỗ Thị Song Tuyến
ThS. Hoàng Kim Mai Khôi
ThS. Vũ Xuân Quang
ThS. Hồ Hải Tiến
READING 1

*9.2022.ENG_____*
Các ý kiến đóng góp về tài liệu học tập này, xin gửi về e-mail của ban biên tập:
tailieuhoctap@hutech.edu.vn
 CONTENTS

TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION TO READING STRATEGIES ................................................ 1

1.1 READING MYTHS ............................................................................................................ 2
1.2 THE GENERAL READING STRATEGIES FOR A TEXT ............................................ 6
1.2.1 Stage 1: Pre-reading Strategies – Getting you Started ............................ 6
1.2.2 Stage 2: While-reading Strategies – Using the Right Techniques ...... 14
1.2.3 After-reading Strategies .................................................................................... 19
TOPIC 2: MEANING OF WORDS.......................................................................................... 31
2.1 USING CONTEXT CLUES FOR UNFAMILIAR WORDS ........................................ 32
2.1.1 Definition Clue ....................................................................................................... 32
2.1.2 Synonym Clue ........................................................................................................ 33
2.1.3 Antonym Clue......................................................................................................... 34
2.1.4 Example Clue ......................................................................................................... 35
2.1.5 List or Series .......................................................................................................... 35
2.1.6 Cause and Effect Clue ......................................................................................... 35
2.1.7 General Context of a Sentence ........................................................................ 36
2.1.8 Clue from Another Sentence ............................................................................ 36
2.2 ANALYSING WORD STRUCTURE FOR MEANING OF WORDS ......................... 37
2.2.1 English Word Structure Analysis .................................................................... 37
2.2.2 Using Word Structure for Meaning ................................................................ 38
TOPIC 3: TOPICS AND MAIN IDEAS ................................................................................ 56
3.1 Distinguish a topic from a main idea .................................................................... 57
3.2 How to determine the topic ..................................................................................... 60
3.2.1 Heading or Title .................................................................................................... 60
3.2.2 Words in special print ......................................................................................... 62
3.2.3 Repeated Words or Phrases ............................................................................. 63
3.2.4 Words that are mentioned at the beginning and referred to by
pronouns or other words .............................................................................................. 64
3.3 How to identify the stated main idea sentence of a paragraph? ................ 65
3.3.1 The main idea is on the first sentence of a paragraph ........................... 65
3.3.2 The main idea is within a paragraph ............................................................. 67
3.3.3 The main idea is at the ending of a paragraph .......................................... 67
3.4 Skimming ........................................................................................................................ 68
3.4.1 What is skimming?............................................................................................... 68
3.4.2 Why to skim? ......................................................................................................... 68
3.4.3 How to skim? ......................................................................................................... 69
TOPIC 4: SUPPORTING DETAILS ....................................................................................... 90
4.1 MAJOR AND MINOR DETAILS .................................................................................. 91
4.2 SCANNING FOR DETAILS .......................................................................................... 96
4.2.1 What is scanning? ................................................................................................ 96
4.2.2 Why to scan? .......................................................................................................... 96
4.2.3 How to scan? .......................................................................................................... 96
4.3 Types of question for scanning skill ..................................................................... 98
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TOPIC 1:
INTRODUCTION TO
READING STRATEGIES

OBJECTIVES
When you finish this topic, you should be able to:
- be aware of common myths in reading and have the right mindset towards it;
- understand the typical structure of a paragraph, a reading passage and a book;
- grasp the basics of reading comprehension techniques;
- know the should do’s that follow reading comprehension;
- demonstrate the aforementioned understanding in an analysis of a chosen text.

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the very first topic which will give you a good grasp of this book as
a whole, and more importantly, of the reading skills you need for your university
years. Many of you will soon be taken aback by how much you are expected to read
to complete a course at tertiary level. As an undergraduate, you need to do far more
reading than you used to in high school. A book with 5 to 8 chapters or units can be
used for the whole academic year in high school but at tertiary level, students often
study each chapter a week, which means they can finish an 8-chapter book within 2
months. It can also be the case that two or three books are used in a 2-month
course. Reading is a must so that undergraduates can understand a previous lesson,
prepare for the next lesson, discuss a controversial view or do some self-study.
Especially, if a student decides to carry out a study on a subject of his/her discipline,
he or she is highly likely to do a lot more reading of previous research articles and
materials from various sources for the literature review.

Apparently, the importance of effective reading for university students’ academic

success can never be overemphasized. Equipped with good enough reading
comprehension skills, you will find knowledge acquisition at university level much
easier. This topic aims at bringing you a general picture of the reading skills by
helping you avoid some misunderstanding about reading, showing you how
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information is often organized in a text, introducing you to some basic techniques
used in reading comprehension and giving suggestions on useful post-reading
activities.

1.1 READING MYTHS

Facing increased workloads of reading course materials, you may have many
reasons to find the job impossible. Fortunately, many of the common beliefs about
reading that terrify you are just not true. Knowing the reading myths and
understanding why they are wrong should be the first step closer to dealing with a
large amount of reading with ease.

Myth 1: You always have to read every word of a text.

At beginner level, readers tend to read out loud every single word of a sentence,
pondering the meaning of each word and determining what role it plays in the
sentence structure. However, once the readers proceed to the next level, reading on
a word-by-word basis does more harm than good as it often slows down their reading
speed or makes them stuck when encountering new words. Let’s have a look at the
following example to see whether you can understand the conveyed meaning in
reduced versions of the original sentence.

Original sentence: “Depending on where you live, you will not have the same
health concerns as someone who lives in a different geographical region.”
(Cambridge-ESOL, 2017, p. 63)

Reduced version 1: Depending – where you live, you – not have – same
health concerns – someone who lives – different geographical region.

Reduced version 2: Depending – where you live – not – same health concerns
– someone – live – different – region.

Reduced version 3: Depending – where – live – not – same health concerns.

Figure 1.1. Example of understanding a sentence with several missing

words.

It is commonly known that in a sentence, besides content words which carry

significant meaning of a sentence, there are also many function words that give
readers limited or little information for their comprehension. The more you practice,
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the more you realize that you can actually skip some words while you read without
considerably affecting your comprehension. In the example above, if you can
basically understand the information communicated in the original sentence by
paying attention to only the words in versions 1, 2 or 3, then why bother to read
every word in the full sentence, right? Also, instead of spending ages scratching your
head over what “geographical” means (if it happens to be your unknown word), you
can just ignore it and move on. Being stuck with a new word is not worth it as you
may have to give up on your reading eventually.

Myth 2: You always have to go from the beginning to the end.

Does this sound familiar to you? If you have never skipped any sentence of
a paragraph, any paragraph of a passage or any page of a book when you read,
we suggest you reconsider the pros and cons of that approach. Whilst this ensures
you never miss any information included in the text, you may be just wasting a great
deal of time on the information you do not need. In other words, being selective
about which part of the text is worth reading can save you effort and time, especially
if you are taking a timed test on reading comprehension.

In order to do this, a good command of understanding about a text’s organization,

which will be presented in the next section of this unit, would be helpful.
For instance, if you read an argumentative essay, it is likely that you can find the
author’s position in the first and last paragraphs; if you read an email, the purpose
of correspondence can be found at the beginning after the greeting; and if you want
information on a city’s cuisine in a travel book, the table of contents will tell you
which chapter to read. In short, since different paragraphs in a passage and different
chapters in a book give information on different main points, we should read only
the relevant parts instead of taking the A-to-Z approach.

Myth 3: You always need a dictionary for new words.

Students often find that they can only read English comfortably with a dictionary
within their reach. When they encounter a new word, the first thing that springs to
mind is looking it up in the dictionary. However, little do they realize how relying on
dictionaries may impede their reading fluency. How can you read smoothly, easily
and quickly while having to look up unfamiliar words all the time? As we have
previously learned, sometimes ignoring some new words might not have
a tremendous impact on your understanding as you may think.
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Another important reason for less dependence on dictionaries is that you can
figure out an unfamiliar word’s meaning using different techniques and strategies as
you will be shown in Unit 2. The example below may give you the first glimpse into
this approach.

Example: The first thing they discovered is that music triggers the production of
dopamine – a chemical with a key role in setting people’s moods – by the neurons
(nerve cells) in both the dorsal and ventral regions of the brain. (Cambridge-ESOL,
2017)

Although there are many specialized words, it is totally possible for readers to
make guesses about their meaning and get the general information contained in the
sentence. The definition of “dopamine” and “neurons” are provided right after the
words while “dorsal” and “ventral” refer to different parts of the brain.

Myth 4: Provided with a dictionary, you are supposed to read with ease.

Another misconception concerning using dictionaries is that they can always help
you with your reading comprehension. In fact, you are possibly faced with the
following problems when using a dictionary:

1. You do not get the exact meaning of a word as it may have various meanings
and usages, so you have to decide which is the appropriate meaning
depending on the particular context. For instance, the word “present” can be
used as a noun, an adjective or a verb with different meanings. Similarly, in
the two simple examples below the word “sentence” is used with different
senses:

Example 1: Your essay is good but some sentences are too long and lengthy.
In this example, “sentence” means “a group of words, usually containing a
verb, that expresses a thought in the form of a statement, question,
instruction, or exclamation and starts with a capital letter when written”
(Walter,2008).

Example2: He is serving a life sentence for murder.

This time, “sentence” should be defined as “a punishment given by a judge
in court to a person or organization after they have been found guilty of
doing something wrong” (Walter, 2008).
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2. You do not realize when you need to look up a whole phrase rather than a
single word in that phrase. This often happens when you encounter a new
idiom or phrasal verb. Take “cost an arm and a leg” or “look up to” as an
example, hardly can you know what it means by considering the meanings of
individual words separately. It takes time before you learn to recognize such
collocations and find out their meaning effortlessly by including the entire
phrase at a time in the search box.
3. It takes time for new words to officially enter the dictionary, which means not
all new words used by native speakers in their everyday life can be looked up
in dictionaries. Every year we are seeing new terms referring to new concepts
and ideas in the modern world such as “blockchain”, “metaverse”, “space
tourism” or “selfie” which eventually make their way to an established
dictionary. It was not until 2019 that the word “cryptocurrency” was added to
the Oxford English Dictionary (New Words List October 2019, 2019) while
“vaccine passport” became a new sub-entry of it in 2022 (New Words List
March 2022, 2022) after becoming ubiquitous expressions for a period of time.
This means the dictionary had scarcely been able to tell you what such words
were in the previous years when you saw them in news articles.

The bottom line is that readers should acknowledge the complexity of the
semantics of a language and have the right mindset towards it. Instead of forcing
yourself to understand everything in the text with a dictionary, which is not always
feasible, you should flexibly deal with new words. Sometimes, rough guesses about
a word’s meaning are enough; and in the worst scenario, just ignore it and move on
as you would get its meaning anyway after more authentic encounters.

Myth 5: An average student understands a text after reading it once.

Do you often read a piece of writing again? Not many readers do so, as a matter
of fact. Instead, they force themselves to comprehend the text after reading it once
and assume that most of the other students never read it twice. The truth is
sometimes you have to read the same text a second time or even more. You should
give yourself another chance to comprehend it. It can also be a good idea that you
stand up and take a walk around to have your mind refreshed before coming back
with your reading especially when the passage is really challenging.
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1.2 THE GENERAL READING STRATEGIES FOR A TEXT

1.2.1 Stage 1: Pre-reading Strategies – Getting you Started

What do you often do first when you read a new text? Do you go through the text
very quickly to get an idea of what it is about or do you immediately dive into the
first paragraph then move on to the next ones? Even though many of you would do
the latter, the former is actually a better strategy. The best thing about this strategy
is it helps you get the organization of the text, which in turn allows better
understanding of it. Knowing how ideas in a text are organized also enables you to
quickly locate the information you need. The descriptions below of a typical structure
of a paragraph, a passage, a chapter and a book would make this process easier for
you.

1.2.1.1 Getting the Big Picture of a Paragraph.

There are three main types of sentences in a paragraph that you should be
conscious of.

a) Topic sentence:

A topic sentence is one with a topic and a controlling idea, reflecting the main
viewpoint which is presented and supported throughout the paragraph. It can
also be considered as a statement of the main notion of the whole paragraph.
The topic sentence can be found at the beginning of the paragraph, but
sometimes it is also located at the end or in the middle.

b) Supporting sentences:

Supporting sentences are those that elaborate on the main idea given in the
topic sentence by providing explanation, evidence, reasons, facts, quotations,
statistics and/or examples. To make the controlling idea fully developed and
convincing, the author needs to support it with many supporting sentences.
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c) Concluding sentence:

A concluding sentence is usually the last sentence of the paragraph, reminding

the readers of the controlling idea and possibly making a relevant prediction
or recommendation that might be connected with the next paragraph. It is,
however, worth noting that not all paragraphs include a concluding sentence.

Below is an example of a typical paragraph with the introduced structure.

Nonetheless, there should be various modifications in the paragraphs you read
throughout your academic life.

Example: Managing a farm, including its workforce, is changing. (Topic

sentence) On the one hand, automation of existing processes and new technologies
means that some workers will need to retrain or reskill as their jobs will become
obsolete. (Supporting sentence) On the other hand, as a farm increases capital
per worker, particularly as many of the new technologies utilize automation, it is
important to assess whether its employees have the right skills to fully take
advantage of new technologies. (Supporting sentence) Every job in the
ecosystem is being redefined, and so are the skills and capabilities that are required
to succeed in these professions. (Concluding sentence) (Itzhaky, 2021)

1.2.1.2 Getting the Big Picture of a Reading Passage.

A reading passage consists of many paragraphs on a general topic. It is hard to
identify exactly the pattern of organization in a passage because it varies
significantly depending on the type of text (e.g. narrative, descriptive or persuasive)
and the author’s style. In general, there are four parts in a passage.

a) Title
The title of the passage, if there is one, often summarizes what it is mainly
about. Sometimes the title is followed by a short text, offering a brief glance
at what is ahead.

b) Introduction
Normally, the first paragraph of a passage is its introduction. This is the
paragraph introducing the topic and also the main idea that the entire passage
will revolve around. It is possible sometimes that there is more than one
paragraph making up the introduction.
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c) Body paragraphs

The paragraphs that follow the introduction are body paragraphs. They give
more arguments, explanations or descriptions for the given view on the topic
presented earlier in the introduction. Each paragraph with one main idea
should play a role in the flow of ideas in the passage as a whole. There are a
wide array of patterns of organization for the body of the passage. Some of
them are listed below:
 Chronological sequence
 Cause and effect
 Comparison and contrast
 Problem and solution
 Combination of different patterns

d) Concluding paragraph(s)
One or two paragraphs at the end of the passage can constitute the
conclusion. The concluding paragraph(s) may summarize the
aforementioned main points and/or express some final thoughts on the
topic.

The example passage below is a typical one as described above taken from a test
preparation book (Crosthwaite et al., 2017).
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1.2.1.3 Getting the Big Picture of a Chapter

In a course at the tertiary level, you may have to deal with a chapter or a number
of chapters of the coursebook(s) every week. Below are the different parts of a
chapter that you should be familiar with:

a) Chapter title

Similar to the title of a passage, the chapter title tells readers the main content
in it. It should include the key words, directly reflecting what readers can find
in the chapter. A good title can even arouse readers’ curiosity, encouraging
them to discover what is inside.
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b) Objectives
The objectives give you a much clearer idea of what to expect: what questions
can be answered or what problems can be solved in the chapter. Students,
later on, can also base on them to assess their grasp of knowledge and skills
once they have finished the chapter.

c) Introduction
The one or several paragraphs of the introduction again provide an initial
understanding of the chapter, but with more explanation and details. If you
find the objectives somewhat vague, you should not miss the introduction.

d) Chapter content
Following the introduction, the main points of the chapter will be presented
and discussed. A system of headings will help you gain the knowledge in
each part of the body.

e) Summary
The summary that follows the main part of the chapter summarizes the main
points discussed earlier. This is a precious opportunity to review the chapter,
especially in case you missed some important insights. Unlike the objectives
and the introduction which focus on “what” you can do by the end of the
chapter, the summary is more about “how” you do it.

f) Key terms
This part of the chapter gives you a list of important words and phrases
related to the topic addressed, especially discipline-specific vocabulary. It is
obviously good for your vocabulary review later.

g) References
If you have not known what a list of references is, you should, now, at the
university education level. This part shows you sources the author has used
to write the chapter as a way of maintaining academic integrity and avoiding
plagiarism. You can also know where to do further reading with suggestions
from the list.

Now, let’s go through several chapters of this coursebook to see whether each of
them is comprised of the above elements.
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1.2.1.4 Getting the Big Picture of a Book
Similar to a chapter, it is also beneficial to preview a book before you work hard
on any part of it. A book is made up of several chapters together with some other
elements as shown below.

a) Title page
On the title page, besides the title itself, you learn more information about
the book such as the author, edition, publisher and copyright information
which is very important when you want to refer to the book in your future
assignment or research paper.

b) Preface and/or Foreword

These two words can be confusing. While the preface is written by the
author himself/herself, the foreword is written by someone else who is likely
to be a big name in his/her field and who often knows the author well
enough. In general, the preface and foreword are both about the reasons for
writing the book, the significance of the book and how it can help interested
readers.

c) Introduction
The introduction gives you more information about the book’s content and
organization. It may also provide some suggestions on how you can use the
book effectively and highlight the advantages of the book compared to other
books of the same kind or compared to the previous edition.

d) Table of contents
Undoubtedly, this is what you need to have the comprehensive picture of the
book’s organization, including chapters, major headings and sub-headings.
It quickly tells you the page number to visit for what you are interested in.

e) Chapters
Following the table of contents is the main part of the book – the book
chapters. Depending on various factors, the chapters can be arranged in
different orders. Sometimes a few relevant chapters are grouped together
under a bigger part or section. Normally, the first chapters deal with more
basic and simple topics while the ones towards to end of the book are about
more complicated ones.
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f) Index
Not many of you are familiar with the index despite its tremendous benefits.
The index at the end of the book is actually a list of very important key words
in alphabetical order referring to different concepts and topics throughout the
book along with the page numbers where they are mentioned. This helps you
locate the relevant information to those key words in no time.

g) Glossary
The main difference between the index and the glossary is that the glossary
does not include page numbers but it provides the key terms’ meaning on the
spot, like a dictionary. But only one meaning of the terms in the particular
contexts of the book is given; thus, you do not have to worry about the
irrelevant meanings of a field-specific expression when you look it up in
a regular dictionary.

1.2.1.5 Critical Reading

Apart from the general understanding of a text’s structure, reading critically is
also a part of the pre-reading strategies. This section, compiled based on a similar
section in the book Advanced Reading Power (Mikulecky & Jeffries, 2007), will show
you how to read critically and gain more insights into the text even before you really
read the main parts.

The problem facing students today is not that they have few reading materials,
but they have too many to choose from. Obviously, it is impossible for them to read
everything published. That is why they have to be more selective about what to
read, which is viable through a look at the text’s organization as well as more
information on important factors such as the validity of the source, the author,
the purpose of writing and so on. Such information makes readers better aware of
why and how certain pieces of information in the text are presented, leading to
better comprehension in general. These are a few questions you should ask yourself
to be more critical in reading according to Mikulecky and Jeffries (2007, p. 216):

 “Where is this material from? Is this a valid source of information?

 Who is the writer? Is he or she qualified to write about this topic?
 Can I trust the information here?
 What is the writer's purpose in writing this?
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 What is the writer's point of view about the topic?
 How does this information compare to what I already know?
 Based on what I already know and believe, do I agree?”

Let’s take the article “Yuval Noah Harari: Lessons from a year of Covid” published
by the Financial Times as an example (Harari, 2021). The article is accessible via
the following link on 5th July 2022: https://www.ft.com/content/f1b30f2c-84aa-
4595-84f2-7816796d6841. Imagine you are interested in the impacts of the Covid-
19 pandemic and accidentally see this article shared by a friend on social media. Is
it worth reading? Let’s answer some of the questions above.

First of all, the article was published by Financial Times – an established British
daily newspaper with its first issue dating back to the 19th century. Although it
focuses on business and economic current affairs, it also covers the topic of “Life
and Arts”. In general, even though public health and mankind’s survival are not a
common topic addressed by this news agency, the article would be reliable anyway
because of the Financial Times’ credibility.

Next, Yuval Noah Harari, the author of this web article, is a public intellectual,
historian and a university professor. He is the author of the popular science
bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of
Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Apparently, he is a qualified writer
on this topic and readers like us have every reason to believe that we can gain
valuable insights from this article.

In terms of the facts and information provided in the article, they must have
come under close scrutiny by the editor. Also, as shown in the article, they were
taken from reliable sources. We, therefore, can trust them as the supporting details
for the writer’s viewpoints.

Finally, with the purpose of offering readers a realistic look at the world during
and after the pandemic from many aspects, the author can be anticipated to show
comprehensive and unbiased analysis on the discussed matters.

In conclusion, this is a should-read article that can bring readers beneficial

understanding of the topic they are interested in.
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1.2.2 Stage 2: While-reading Strategies – Using the Right
Techniques

1.2.2.1 Skimming
Many studies have pointed out the importance of skimming when reading, as it
is one of the key factors that help readers to read in a faster and more efficient
manner. To put it bluntly, skimming means seeking for the main ideas of a text, i.e.,
a general idea of what the text is about, and ignoring texts that give specific details
or data (Andersen, 2012). One of the best procedures that researchers usually
suggest is as follows:

(1) let’s begin with the title and headings

(2) run your eyes over the first paragraphs then the first and the last sentences
of each following paragraph very quickly.
(3) pay attention to graphs, pictures or unusual pieces of information (such as
information pulled out and put into boxes, images and their captions, italic or
bold type)
(4) read the final paragraph

Below is an example:

Are electric cars really eco-friendly?

Electric-car drivers are saving the planet, right? Their vehicles produce
none of the pollutants that dinosaur-burning, fossil-fuel-powered
machines do. That is the standard view, and governments around the
world provide incentives to encourage the uptake of this new technology.

That is why a Tesla owner got a rude shock when he went to import his
vehicle into Singapore - the first person to do so. The Tesla Model S is a
100% electric vehicle. It does not have an exhaust to emit from. So what
happened?

Instead of an expected rebate of around S$15,000 (US$10,800) he

received a fine of the same amount for being a gross polluter. The
company commented on the incident, "The Model S that our customer
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imported into Singapore left our factory only two years ago with energy
consumption rated at 181 Wh/km. This qualifies as the cleanest possible
category of car in Singapore and entitles the owner to an incentive rather
than a fine."

The Singapore authorities calculated the ‘carbon cost’ of generating the

electricity that will be used to charge the car. This is the elephant in the
trunk of electric vehicles. Where and how the power is produced is not
often considered, but perhaps it should be. Let’s move the elephant up to
the passenger seat and address it directly.

The authorities in Singapore apparently found the Tesla in question

consumes 444 watt-hours of electricity per km (Wh/km) in tests. Without
wanting to get too math-heavy, the number of 444Wh/km does seem high.
And as we still need power stations to produce such an amount of electric
energy, the environmental impact is not as small as it seemed to be.

But what about the bigger picture - should we be factoring in the emissions
of power stations when working out how green an electric car is? The
logical answer is yes. Emissions shifted elsewhere are still emissions, and
CO2 impacts the global atmosphere wherever it is released.

What is the aim of this text?

a) To discourage people from visiting Singapore

b) To prove that electric cars are less eco-friendly than fossil-fuel-powered
machines
c) To show that we need to count the emissions of power stations to see how
green an electric car is.

This question can be answered immediately after you skimmed over the text.
Here, you’re required to understand only the main idea of the passage.

Obviously, the correct answer is C. It’s also stated in the last paragraph:

But what about the bigger picture - should we be factoring in the emissions of
power stations when working out how green an electric car is? The logical answer is
yes.
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1.2.2.2 Scanning
Scanning is different from skimming, as it requires readers to pay attention to
some specific piece of information or an answer to a particular question (Andersen,
2012). Here are some tips that you should remember when scanning:

(1) Know what you are looking for.

(2) Look for one key word at a time
(3) Move your eyes quickly and ignore the new vocabulary
(4) Read the surrounding sentences carefully once you locate the key words

Below is an example:

Example: based on the passage Are electric cars really eco-friendly?, answer
the question below.

When the owner of the electric car went to Singapore, he received

a) a rebate of around US$10,800

b) a fine of around US$10,800
c) a fine of around US$15,000

And this question, unlike the previous one, requires specific detail: an amount of
money. To answer it, you should scan the text for words $10,800 and $15,000.
Don’t read the text again! Just search these two key words. Once you have found
the right sentence, read it attentively to get the answer.

1.2.2.3 Predicting
Before you read, think about what you are going to read by examining the title
and the pictures. Similarly, you should predict what comes next while reading the
passage. This can help you visualize and grasp a clearer picture of the reading text.
Below is an example:

Example: Read the following sentence and make predictions about what you are
going to read. Then read the passage and check whether your predictions were
accurate or not.
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1.2.2.4 Chunking Reading
Let’s compare the three versions of a sentence below. Which do you find easiest
to comprehend?

Version 1: “Depending on where you

live, you will not have
the same health concerns as
someone who lives in a
different geographical region.” (Cambridge-ESOL,
2017, p. 63)

Version 2: “Depending on where you live, you will

not have the same health concerns as someone
who lives in a different geographical region.”
(Cambridge-ESOL, 2017, p. 63)

Version 3: “Depending on where you live, you will not have

the same health concerns as someone who lives in a
different geographical region.” (Cambridge-ESOL, 2017, p. 63)

Figure 1.2. Example of reading in chunks.

When we read, we actually do not read individual words separately (version 1)

but we read in chunks (version 3). In other words, we read meaningful groups of
words at a time. This way, we can read faster and have a better connection between
the ideas in a sentence because many single words, when they stand alone, do not
carry any clear meaning. It is, of course, the worst when you read in meaningless
groups of words (version 2) as you will find it even harder to understand the
sentence than reading words separately. It is also worth noting that a more fluent
reader tends to read in longer chunks than a less fluent one.

1.2.2.5 Note-taking
Note-taking is the practice of recording the main information of a source such as
a long talk or reading passage in the written form. By taking notes, you can keep
better track of the flow of ideas in the text, and so, understand it more easily. There
are many possible formats for your notes such as the Cornell notes, Charting or
Mapping. Just choose one that suits your style and purpose.
 19
The Learning Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gives us some
useful guidelines on note-taking (The-Learning-Center, n.d.):

 For conceptual information, focus on the main points the author makes.

 Record questions and thoughts you have so you can follow up on later.

 Jot down keywords, dates, names, etc. so you can go back and define or

explain later.

 Use abbreviations and symbols to make your notes concise and brief.

 Be consistent with your structure.

1.2.3 After-reading Strategies

After you finish reading, most of you often find it compelling to stand up and
leave for something else, forgetting about what you have read. However, there are
several activities that we recommend you do to boost the effectiveness of your
earlier reading time, enabling you to retain more of the knowledge acquired.

1.2.3.1 Vocabulary Review

According to Willis (2008, p. 82), the vocabulary instruction process consists of
“resonate, reinforce and rehearse”. If the new words are not properly reinforced and
rehearsed, they may not make it to the reader’s long-term memory. That is why
vocabulary review plays a vital part in vocabulary building. After reading a text, it is
suggested that you review the vocabularies learned in the “Key terms” of a chapter,
the “Glossary” of a book or the notes you took. Sometimes, it is also a good idea
that you use the “Index” to go back to part related to the new word to really
understand the relevant knowledge. You can also make a few sentences with the
new word to master its usage, not just its meaning.

1.2.3.2 Summarizing
Summarizing means rewriting the main content of a text in a much more concise
way. Mikulecky and Jeffries (2007) believe that this is good for reviewing and
memorizing information for an exam as well as preparing ideas from various sources
to include in a report or paper. In fact, although most students may comprehend a
text, not many of them can effectively summarize it. In other words, not many of
them know which are the minor details and which are the major points of a text to
include in its summary. Being capable of summarizing a text means you have gained
 20
profound understanding of it so that you have the ability to look at the whole picture
the writer wants to show.

1.2.3.3 Reflection
A step further from writing a summary is offering a reflection. Writing a reflection
means you not only get the points given by the author but also contemplate them
and offer your opinions on them. How your emotions and thoughts change while you
read can also be a part of your reflection. It is one of the best ways to show how
much you are engaged in the reading, what you learn from the experience and it
might also offer valuable information to the next readers who are considering
reading the text.

1.2.3.4 Discussion
Similar to reflection, discussion is also a useful activity for broadening your
knowledge and experience on the text you have read. By exchanging ideas and
feelings with a group of readers, you have the opportunities to explore new aspects
of the text’s content that you might have failed to notice or understand. You may
also change your mind as you realize you have misunderstood or misinterpreted
some of the author’s ideas. After all, the discussion engages you more in the text
and gives you a chance to review and rehearse it.

SUMMARY
- Reading myths can prevent learners from reading effectively. Consequently, as
a reader, you have to be critical and selective while reading any texts.

- Depending on the reader’s intention, a text can be a reading passage, a

paragraph or a book. Each of them can be presented in different structures or forms.

- The following three steps can assist you to be an effective reader:

+ Pre-reading: aims to help you get the general ideas of a paragraph, a
chapter or a book
+ While-reading: serves to understand a text with suitable reading
strategies
+ Post-reading: assists you to thoroughly understand a text and transfer
the information into long-term memory
 21
PRACTICE
Exercise 1. Read the following paragraphs and identify its components,
i.e., topic sentence, supporting sentences and concluding sentence.

A.

Studying abroad has two main benefits. Firstly, people who study abroad can get
a better job when they return to their home country. This is because their
qualifications and experience mean that they tend to get jobs that are higher paid,
and they can also gain promotion quickly. Another advantage of studying abroad
is the independence students can gain. For example, students have to cope with
the challenges of living alone and meeting new people from different cultures. As
a consequence, they will become more confident in their life and in their
relationships with others. All in all, it is clear that studying abroad is a beneficial
experience.

B.

Encouraging people to use bicycles or public transport would have many benefits
for us as individuals and as a society. Firstly it would help us to be healthier and
happier. Cycling to work or walking between your home or place of work and the
nearest bus stop or train station will help you maintain or even improve your
fitness. They are also less stressful ways of commuting than sitting in a traffic jam
and cycling can even help you reduce your stress. Secondly, these ways of
traveling are better for our cities and more environmentally friendly. If more
people cycled or took public transport to work there would be a dramatic reduction
in traffic congestion making our cities less stressful places to be. Less traffic also
means less pollution and cleaner air. Encouraging greater use of cycles and public
transport could therefore improve our standard of living through better health and
a more pleasant, greener environment.

C.

My first day of college was a disaster. First, I went to the wrong classroom for
math. I was sitting in the class, surrounded by people taking notes and paying
attention to how to do equations, which would have been okay if I was supposed
to be in an algebra class. In reality, I was supposed to be in geometry, and when
 22
I discovered my error, I had already missed the first twenty minutes of a one-hour
class. When I got to the correct class, all twenty-five students turned and looked
at me as the teacher said, "You're late." That would have been bad enough, but in
my next class my history teacher spoke so fast I could not follow most of what
they said. The only thing I did hear was that we were having a quiz tomorrow over
today’s lecture. My day seemed to be going better during botany class, that is,
until we visited the lab. I had a sneezing fit because of one of the plants in the lab
and had to leave the room. When I finally finished my classes for the day, I
discovered I had locked my keys in the car and had to wait for my brother to bring
another set. My first day of school was so bad that I know the rest will have to be
better.

Exercise 2. Read the following passages. Choose the main ideas of each
passage.

A.
Paragraph 1

Ạ. Many facts about your body are surprising

B. Your body is mostly made of water

Paragraph 2

Ạ. Your body is very complicated, like a machine

B. Your body can develop many different problems

Paragraph 3

A. Stress can cause many health problems

B. We do many things that can damage our bodies

Paragraph 4

A. Doctors can treat many health problems that come with old age

B. Modern machine helps people live longer than in the past

Paragraph 5

A. The most important habit for health is regular exercise

B. We can do many things to take care of our bodies

 23

B.
Paragraph 2
Ạ. Fashion reality shows have become very popular among wide audience
B. Fans follows each episode and even create blogs or write in online forums
about the show

Paragraph 3
Ạ. Fashion reality shows might lead people to think achieving success in the
fashion industry is easy
B. Many students want to take part in reality shows to be famous
24

Paragraph 4
A. Brands usually cooperate with established designers or celebrities
B. Brands are cautious about working with reality shows and their contestants

Paragraph 5
A. Many brands do not believe in and hesitate to work with unknown designers
from reality TV shows
B. People like fashion designer Calvin Klein do not respect these reality TV
shows
 25

Exercise 3. Select a book that has the basic components, i.e., preface,
introduction, content. Based on these components, list the information
that you can know about the book.
Exercise 4. Read the following passage in ten minutes. Remember to
read in chunks to help you improve your reading fluency.

Time you began to read: _______

26
FOR BETTER GRADES—USE YOUR BRAIN

If you’re like most students, you probably started this new academic year
with a resolution to study harder. Now, science can help you keep your
resolution. Recent discoveries in brain research point to better ways to learn.

How does the brain save new information? Think of the last time you looked
up the number in the telephone book and dialed it. Could you remember
that number five minutes later? Probably not! That’s because it’s in your
short-term memory.

Our memory actually has three components. Sensory memory takes in

information from our five senses, but these memories last just a few
seconds. Short-term memory works like a “holding area” for new
information̶ that’s where you keep the phone number while you dial it. But
if you can put the phone number into long-term memory, you’ll remember
that same phone number next week. This part of your memory holds
everything from irregular verbs to the names of all your cousins.

When you study, you transfer new information into long-term memory.
Every time we learn something new, the structure of the brain actually
changes, as we build new connections to information that we already know.
When there are more connections to the new information, it’s easier to find
it again. If you’re like most students, you probably started this new
academic year with a resolution to study harder. Now, science can help you
keep your resolution.

Brain researchers have discovered four key points for effective study.

• Make an effort. The brain remembers better when we are interested in the
subject, already know a little about it, and know we will need the information
in the future.

• Find the most important information and organize it. Your brain can
process only a limited amount of information at one time, so don’t try to
remember every detail. When studying a textbook, look for titles, heading,
and illustrations to show you the main ideas.
 27
• Make the new brain connections stronger. One technique is to recite the
ideas out loud in your own words. This is the most powerful way to transfer
information from short-term to long-term memory. Another method is
drawing a picture of the information, to activate the visual part of the brain.

• Give the new material time to soak in ̶ your brain has to build new physical
connections. For this reason, it’s better to study for several short sessions
than one long one. And cramming the night before a big test doesn’t help.

By understanding how the brain works, and following these four tips, you
can make this your most successful academic year ever.

Choose the correct answers for the following questions:

1. Which topic is NOT discussed in the passage?
A. Short and long-term memory
B. How to study for a test better
C. Why some people are very smart
2. According to the passage, what does drawing a picture do?
A. It puts information into short-term memory
B. It shows people you are trying to learn
C. It makes the connections in the brain stronger
3. Which sentence is most likely to be true?
A. Reciting idea out loud is better than drawing them
B. Brain researchers understand short-term memory best
C. It’s better to have information in your long-term memory while doing a test

Read the following statements. Check True or False.

Statement T F

1. When we learn new facts, we save them in our long-term memory.

2. You remember better when you start studying long before a test.

3. Our brains change physically when we learn new information.

4. Saying new information out loud is a good way to remember it.

5. You don’t have to memorize every small detail to learn a subject.

My time for completing the reading exercise: ________
28
Exercise 5. Choose a small section in a reading that you have a strong
opinion about. Write a couple of paragraphs giving a summary and then
expressing your opinion about the ideas in the reading.
Exercise 6. Read the following passage. Write down three more
reflection questions and discuss the questions with your partners.
 29
Example questions:

1. Which tips from the article would you give to visitors to your country? Why?
2. Write two more safety tips to tourists who want to visit your country.

Reflection questions of your own:

3. _________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________

REFERENCES
[1] Cambridge-ESOL. (2017). Cambridge IELTS 12 academic student’s book with
answers: Authentic examination papers. Cambridge University Press.

[2] Crosthwaite, P., Hutchison, S., Wijayatilake, C., Souza, N. De, Loewenthal, M.,
Uddin, J., Archer, G., & Passmore, L. (2017). Mindset for IELTS level 1
student’s book: An official Cambridge IELTS course. Cambridge University
Press.

[3] Harari, Y. N. (2021). Yuval Noah Harari: Lessons from a year of Covid. The
Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/f1b30f2c-84aa-4595-84f2-
7816796d6841

[4] Itzhaky, R. (2021). Modern farming is as much about data as digging. Here are
3 emerging agricultural skills. World Economic Forum.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/farming-data-new-agricultural-
job-skills/

[5] Mikulecky, B. S., & Jeffries, L. (2007). Advanced reading power: Extensive
reading, vocabulary building, comprehension skills, reading faster. Pearson
Longman.

[6] New words list March 2022. (2022). Oxford University Press.
https://public.oed.com/updates/new-words-list-march-2022/

[7] New words list October 2019. (2019). Oxford University Press.
https://public.oed.com/updates/new-words-list-october-2019/
 30
[8] The-Learning-Center. (n.d.). Effective Note-Taking in Class. The University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved July 5, 2022, from
https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/effective-note-taking-in-class/

[9] Walter, E. (2008). Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. Cambridge

University Press. https://books.google.com.vn/books?id=PDHCFSRmjSMC

[10] Willis, J. (2008). Teaching the brain to read: Strategies for improving fluency,
vocabulary, and comprehension. Hawker Brownlow Education.
https://books.google.com.vn/books?id=2D3OSAAACAAJ
 31

TOPIC 2:
MEANING OF WORDS

OBJECTIVES
When you finish this topic, you should be able to:
- recognize different types of context clues in a sentence or paragraph;
- use context clues to get the meaning of an unfamiliar word;
- identify different parts of a word, including prefixes, roots and suffixes;
- learn the meaning of an unknown word based on word structure.

INTRODUCTION
It would be true to say that you can hardly read a text without encountering
unfamiliar words at tertiary level. When you do, the first thing that often comes to
mind is looking up the new words in a dictionary, which can sometimes break your
concentration on the content of the text. While using a paper dictionary obviously
takes time, a dictionary software program, application or website may distract you
from your reading. This does not mean dictionaries should not be used when you
read, but relying on them all the time is not a good idea, and as a matter of fact,
they are not always available or allowed. When you find using a dictionary an
impossible or tiring option, you may decide not to bother with the new word’s
meaning at all without knowing that there are some other ways to get the meaning
of unfamiliar words.

In this topic, the book will present to you two methods which can help determine
unknown words’ meaning without using a dictionary or completely ignoring the new
words. First, you will learn to guess an unknown word’s meaning using clues from
the context. Context clues can be defined as the hints or pieces of information found
in a text that can help readers figure out the meanings of new words or phrases in
a particular circumstance. In other words, by having a look at other words or phrases
in the same sentence or paragraph in the general topic of the reading, you can
roughly guess what a new word means. Meanwhile, the second method will enable
you to determine an unknown word’s meaning by analyzing the different parts in its
structure. This is made feasible because in English, some roots, prefixes and suffixes
 32
tend to give valuable hints about the meaning of a word. Although these two
methods sometimes cannot provide readers with the exact meaning of unknown
words, they give them, at least, a general sense of the meaning, helping them
understand the text without having their flow of thoughts disrupted by using a
dictionary.

Definition clue

Synonym clue

Antonym clue

Example clue
Context clues
List or series

Cause and effect clue

General context of a sentence

Meaning of words
Clue from another sentence

Prefixes

Word structure Roots

Suffixes

Figure 2.1. How to get the meaning of an unfamiliar word.

2.1 USING CONTEXT CLUES FOR UNFAMILIAR WORDS

2.1.1 Definition Clue

Terminologies which are field-specific words or expressions used with particular

meanings in a particular subject are unavoidable in certain types of text, especially
in coursebooks used for teaching specialized knowledge at tertiary level. Such words
often look terrifying to students but not many of them know that their definitions
can often be found nearby.
 33
Here are some examples:

Example 1: In order to track temporal hours during the day, inventors created
sundials, which indicate time by the length or direction of the sun’s shadow.
(Cambridge-ESOL, 2011, p. 19)

It can be learned that “sundials” are a type of device that can “indicate time by
the length or direction of the sun’s shadow”. Basically, the definition is given in the
relative clause following the new word “sundials”.

Example 2: These made it possible for scientists to calculate that the creature
was at least 90 metres in length. The humerus (the bone of the upper arm), for
example, is longer than an adult man’s leg. (Elliott et al., 2015, p. 169)

In this example, “humerus” is defined as “the bone of the upper arm”.

Example 3: Tyrannosaurus rex, the enormous meat-eating dinosaur, for

example, seems to have got by with considerably fewer teeth. (Elliott et al., 2015,
p. 169)

This time, the definition of “tyrannosaurus rex” is given between the commas.
Even though the words “tyrannosaurus rex” may sound complicated, they just refer
to a species of dinosaur that eats meat.

It can be seen from these examples that definitions or descriptions of unfamiliar

words are provided in a relative clause, in parentheses or between two commas.
Besides, a dash or two dashes are also a common sign for definition clues.

2.1.2 Synonym Clue

Sometimes, to help readers understand a new term easily, the author follows it
with a synonym. Similar to definition clues, synonym clues can often be found after
a comma, a dash, in parentheses or in a relative clause. However, unlike a definition
clue, a synonym clue is shorter and more straightforward. With synonym clues, the
meaning of a new word is acquired through its more familiar equivalent(s).
 34
Here are some examples:

Example 1: And what is the role of the shinbashira, the central pillar? The best
way to understand the shinbashira’s role is to watch a video made by Shuzo Ishida,
a structural engineer at Kyoto Institute of Technology. (Cambridge-ESOL, 2009, p.
41)

“Shinbashira” is simply “the central pillar” of a structure.

Example 2: Orcas, also known as killer whales, are opportunistic feeders, which
means they will take a variety of different prey species. (Cambridge-ESOL, 2015, p.
23)

Although “orcas” and “killer whales” refer to the same species of animal, some
readers may find “killer whales” more familiar, and hence, including this synonym
after “also known as” would be definitely helpful.

2.1.3 Antonym Clue

Unlike definition clues or synonym clues, antonym clues give us hints about a
new term’s meaning when we know the meaning of the opposite word or phrase.
What may signal antonym clues, also known as contrast clues, are words such as
“however”, “nevertheless”, “but”, “although”, even though”, “on the other hand”,
“in contrast” or “on the contrary”.

Here are two examples:

Example 1: An example of this is the Dodola, a “ritual for rain” in the Balkans,
which used to be widespread, but is now limited to the Roma. (Crosthwaite et al.,
2018, p. 165)

It can be inferred from the conjunction “but” that what used to happen in the
past should be very different now. Hence, “widespread” is highly likely to be an
antonym of “limited”.

Example 2: Only a few baby turtles survived; all the others died. (Crosthwaite et
al., 2017, p. 146)

As you may guess, what happened to “only a few baby turtles” should be the
opposite of what happened to “all the others”. In other words, “survived” should
mean the opposite of “died”.
 35
2.1.4 Example Clue
It is also possible to determine an unfamiliar word’s meaning by looking at the
examples given to illustrate it. In this case, words that signal the clue are those used
to introduce an example such as “for example”, “for instance”, “to illustrate”,
“including”, “such as” or “like”. Let’s have a look at the example below:

Example: At degree level, companies have linked with universities to create

specialised qualifications, such as the BA in Distribution run between Middlesex
University and Asda Supermarket. Such partnerships also exist at Masters and even
doctorate level. (Crosthwaite et al., 2017, p. 48)

The example involves different educational levels, including “BA”, “Masters” and
“doctorate level”, implying that holding some “qualifications” means having
completed certain courses of study.

2.1.5 List or Series

When a new word is found in a list or series, it is easy to make guesses about its
meaning based on the other word(s) in the same list. Below is an example:

Example: A student can prepare for a career in resort management, engineering,

interior design, accounting, music, law enforcement, you name it. (Cambridge-
ESOL, 2017, p. 24)

A student may not understand what “interior design”, “accounting” or “law

enforcement” exactly means, but he or she at least can figure out that it is a possible
area for future career, similar to “resort management”, “engineering” or “music”.
Basically, knowing only one word in the list is enough to have some understanding
about the others.

2.1.6 Cause and Effect Clue

We learned that a word’s meaning can be determined by contrasting it with a
familiar word’s in the case of antonym clues. This section shows you that it is also
feasible to learn a new word’s meaning based on the cause and effect relationships.
The signal of context clues can be “because”, “since”, “as”, “therefore”, “hence”,
“thus”, “as a result” or “so”. An example can be seen below:

Example: Too many people spend more than they can afford and go into debt as
a result. (Crosthwaite et al., 2018, 194)
 36
With the context given, we know that “debt” is the result of people spending
“more than they can afford”, and hence, understand roughly “debt” as the
situation when one owes money that is not likely to be paid soon.

2.1.7 General Context of a Sentence

It can be the case that you do not have any clear clue belonging to any of the
types mentioned above, but you can still have a grasp of what a new term may refer
to using the general sense of the sentence as well as your general knowledge and
experience. The example below taken from a text about business meetings
illustrates this situation:

Example: Agendas can become overloaded and this can mean the time for
constructive debate must necessarily be restricted in favour of getting through the
business. (Cambridge-ESOL, 2017, p. 89)

Details such as “become overloaded” and restricted “time for constructive

debate” suggest that “agendas” mean things that need to be done and addressed
in a limited amount of time. This can be reaffirmed if the reader, with his general
knowledge and experience, knows that in a meeting there is usually a list of things
planned in advance to be discussed and implemented.

2.1.8 Clue from Another Sentence

Sometimes readers need to read across a few sentences, especially the preceding
and following sentence(s), to have a better idea of what a new word or phrase
means. This illustrates the importance of being conscious of the connection between
ideas in different sentences of a paragraph.

Example: Another change from the past is that people don't stay in the place
where they were born. They go to different cities and countries for education and
jobs. People are in general more geographically mobile nowadays. (Crosthwaite et
al., 2017, p. 11)

In this example, the information about people going to “different cities and
countries” instead of staying “in the place where they were born” should match the
description of what it is like to be “geographically mobile”.
 37

2.2 ANALYSING WORD STRUCTURE FOR

MEANING OF WORDS

2.2.1 English Word Structure Analysis

Context clues are useful. Yes, they are. Unfortunately, they are not always
available. The good news, though, is we have another way to determine, or at least,
make valuable guesses about the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Instead of looking
at the surrounding words, we can guess a new word’s meaning by looking at the
word itself, or to be more precise, we analyze its structure.

An English word often consists of different parts combined, including a prefix, a

root and a suffix. These can be called morphemes, the smallest meaningful units of
the language, with different origins such as Latin, Greek, Old English (Anglo-Saxon
language) and Middle English (Word Morphology, n.d.). Interestingly, each part of a
word often carries a certain meaning, which means by putting the meaning of each
word part together we may figure out the meaning of the whole word. Let’s take the
word “unreliability” as an example:

Figure 2.2. An example of different word parts in a word. (Word Morphology, n.d.)
 38
This means word structure analysis, together with context clues, can be a
powerful tool for you to get the meaning of a new word. They can be used separately
or together while you read for the best result. For a full list of word parts with their
meanings, we suggest that you use the ‘Word parts dictionary: Standard and reverse
listings of prefixes, suffixes, roots and combining forms (3rd ed.)’ (Sheehan, 2021).

2.2.2 Using Word Structure for Meaning

2.2.2.1 Prefixes
“A prefix is a syllable, group of syllables, or word united with or joined to the
beginning of another word to alter its meaning or create a new word.” (Sheehan,
2021, p. 3)

Some common prefixes are presented below along with their meanings:
Prefix Meaning Example
un-, non-, dis- not / without / negative unrealistic, nonstop, dislike,
, in-, im-, il-, inexpensive, impossible, illegal,
ir- irresponsible
pro- forward / forth proceed, progress
re- back / again / anew repeat, revisit
sub- below / under subtitle, subway
inter- between / among international, interpersonal
tele- far / at a distance telecommunication, telesales
trans- across / on the other side transfer, transmit
pre- earlier / prior to / in front prepare, precede
of
mini- smaller/shorter than miniature, miniskirt
usual
mono- one / single / alone monotone, monoacid
bi- having/every/using two bisexual, bilateral

Figure 2.3. Some prefixes with their meanings. (Sheehan, 2021)

2.2.2.2 Root Words

“A base is a stem or a root, a generally short letter combination that conveys a
recurrent meaning all by itself without being involved in a compound word. Prefixes
and suffixes may be added to it.” (Sheehan, 2021, p. 3)
 39
It would be worth noting that sometimes a part of the root is mistaken for
a prefix. For example, “mis” in “missile” should not be separated and misunderstood
as the prefix of this word. In fact, the whole word “missile” is one base word without
a prefix. In addition, the base word can be located at the beginning, in the middle
or at the end of the word. Many readers assume that the root must be in the middle,
which is a misconception.

Several common base words are given below along with their meanings:
Root Meaning Example
dict say / speak / tell dictation, predict, contradiction
tract pull / draw extract, attract, retraction
authen credible / genuine authentic, authenticate
pel push / drive propel, expel, repel
init begin / enter initiate, initialize
jud wisdom / law / justice judgement, judiciously
perpet unceasing perpetual, perpetuate

Figure 2.4. Some root words with their meanings. (Sheehan, 2021)

2.2.2.3 Suffixes
“A suffix is a syllable, group of syllables, or word added at the end of a word or
word base to change its meaning, give it grammatical form, or form a new word.”
(Sheehan, 2021, p. 3)

You may find some commonly used suffixes in English below together with their
meanings:
Suffix Meaning Example
-ness condition, quality of greatness, illness
-tion / -ation the act of, condition of being, the transition, position
result of
-ist practitioner, believer, person activist, scientist
skilled in
-less without / lacking / incapable of careless, cashless
being
-dom domain of, state of being freedom, kingdom
-ism doctrine, theory, principle of terrorism, perfectionism

Figure 2.5. Some suffixes with their meanings. (Sheehan, 2021)

 40

SUMMARY
- It is impossible to avoid jargons or unfamiliar vocabulary when you read and
you are not necessarily expected to know all of the words in a text in order to
comprehend it.

- Context clues (including definition clues, synonym clues, antonym clues,

example clues, clues from a list or series, clues from the general sense of the
sentence or another sentence) can be really helpful in determining a new word’s
meaning.

- Understanding of English word structure can also give you hints about an
unfamiliar word’s meaning.

- You can and you should combine different clues from the context and word
structure to best figure out new words’ meanings.
 41
PRACTICE
Exercise 1. Determine or make guesses about the meaning of the
underlined word(s) in each example below using different types of context
clues. Identify the context clue(s) that help(s) you.

1. For an unusual holiday you can stay in an igloo, a house made of ice. (Crosthwaite
et al., 2017, p. 26)

2. In California, in 2012, a BBC Planet Earth film crew filmed a group of humpback
whales who were protecting migrating grey whales from attacks by orcas (killer
whales) over a period of at least seven hours. (Crosthwaite et al., 2017, p. 147)

3. Then came the big day when they began to hatch, and the little hatchlings – as
the tiny baby turtles are called – were ready to make their long trek to the water.
(Elliott et al., 2015, p. 115)

4. Meanwhile, high amounts of sugar and sodium (one of the chemicals in salt and
other ingredients of fast food) cause a huge surge in blood sugar, pushing it to
unnatural levels. (Crosthwaite et al., 2018, p. 32)

5. This has given rise to a new form of superbacteria, a type which is able to fight
off antibiotic treatment with ease. (Crosthwaite et al., 2018, p. 35)

6. Antibiotics are nowhere near as lucrative as the drugs that treat long-term
disorders, such as diabetes or asthma. (Crosthwaite et al., 2018, p. 36)

7. In Asia, the Middle East, South America and Sub-Saharan Africa over 40% of
children live in families with other adults such as aunts, uncles and grandparents in
addition to their parents. In South Africa, it is almost 70%. On the other hand, in
Europe, Australia and North America, less than 25% of children live in extended
families. (Crosthwaite et al., 2017, p. 8)

8. The percentage of workers in energy companies plummeted by two thirds. In

contrast, the construction industry witnessed considerable growth by 30% over the
period.

9. Auroville – aka ‘the City of Dawn’ – claims on its website that it was planned and
built to create the ultimate model of unity, peace and harmony that can be projected
across all humanity. (Crosthwaite et al., 2018, p. 9)
 42
10. What is rather more significant is the finding that the dopamine neurons in the
caudate – a region of the brain involved in learning stimulus-response associations,
and in anticipating food and other ‘reward’ stimuli – were at their most active around
15 seconds before the participants’ favourite moments in the music. (Cambridge-
ESOL, 2017, p. 66)

11. Elsa's mother was killed by a game warden, a person whose job was to protect
wild animals. (Crosthwaite et al., 2017, p. 131)

12. Glass packaging is used for many products, many beverages are sold in glass,
as are numerous foodstuffs, as well as medicines and cosmetics. (Cambridge-ESOL,
2017, p. 81)

13. A: We’re having fried chicken and hamburgers for lunch. Would you like to join
us?

B: Thanks but not really. I’m not really into processed foods and I would prefer
something healthier today.

14. Internationally acclaimed track star David Fliers will endorse Cascade’s new
running shoe, TRAX. Cascade, which specializes in athletic footwear and sports
training gear, introduced its product two months ago in response to consumer
demand. (Cho, 2012, p. 361)

15. Finding that amount of land in suitable conditions would spell the end for many
of the earth’s remaining forests, peatlands and wild areas, and release the carbon
stored in them, hastening climate change (Harvey, 2019).

Exercise 2. Read the following sentences and choose the best option.
1. Make sure the directions are very explicit so that no one makes a mistake.
Explicit means
A. intricate, complex.
B. clearly and fully stated.
C. chronologically ordered.
D. ambiguous or implied.

2. The hotel is teeming with security personnel because the leaders of several
countries are here for a summit meeting.
 43
Teem means
A. to close down temporarily.
B. to lose business due to circumstances beyond one’s control.
C. to be full of, nearly overflowing.
D. to be under close scrutiny.

3. Karen was relieved to learn that the chemicals in her well water were all benign.
Benign means
A. natural.
B. dangerous.
C. of local origin.
D. harmless.

4. Although it was futile because he didn’t meet half of the requirements, Jensen
applied for the job anyway because it was his dream position.
Futile means
A. useless.
B. fruitful.
C. radical.
D. insane.

5. The editor, preferring a more terse writing style, cut 500 words from the 2,000-
word article. Terse means
A. elegant.
B. factual.
C. descriptive.
D. concise.

6. Victor Frankenstein spent the last years of his life chasing his elusive monster,
who was always one step of his creator.
Elusive means
A. Difficult to compare.
B. Difficult to capture.
C. Difficult to forget.
D. Difficult to avoid.

7. Xiu’s timely joke served to diffuse the tension in the room, and the rest of the
meeting was highly productive.
 44
Diffuse means
A. to refuse.
B. to intensify.
C. to create.
D. to soften.

8. I completely lost track of Tula’s point because she kept digressing to unrelated
topics. Digress means
A. to deviate, stray.
B. to regress, revert.
C. to change the tone.
D. to express concisely.

9. The senator evaded the question by changing the subject and accusing his
opponent of misconduct.
Evade means
A. to escape or elude.
B. to answer indirectly.
C. to refuse to answer directly.
D. to deceive.

10. Samantha hasn’t said why she’s been so withdrawn lately, but I would surmise
that it is because she is still upset about not being able to go to camp.
Surmise means
A. to confirm.
B. to surprise.
C. to believe.
D. to guess.

Exercise 3. Determine or make guesses about the meaning of the following

words by analyzing their structures.
1. bioluminescence 5. irregularity 9. qualified
2. rehabilitation 6. unquestionable 10. adolescent
3. deforestation 7. qualitative 11. malnutrition
4. cooperation 8. minimalist 12. counter-productive
 45
Exercise 4. Choose the best answer to each question using your
knowledge of prefixes and suffixes.
1. Antecedent means
A. Fighting against.
B. Looking after.
C. coming before.
D. under the authority of.

2. Multifaceted means
A. two-faced.
B. many sided.
C. uniform.
D. cut into parts.

3. Circumspect means
A. relating to the circus.
B. to examine thoroughly.
C. put forth in writing.
D. looking around carefully.

4. Consensus means
A. general agreement by a group.
B. an individual opinion.
C. a counting of individuals.
D. to issue a warning.

5. Supercilious means
A. less than the norm, disappointing.
B. exactly as expected.
C. speaking in a measured, exact tone.
D. haughty, with an air of superiority.

6. To presage means
A. to warn in advance.
B. to send a message.
C. to pressure.
D. to age gracefully.
 46
7. Dubious means
A. one who doubts, a nonbeliever.
B. to doubt or question.
C. doubtful, questionable.
D. to be uncertain.

8. Agrarian means
A. incapable of making a decision.
B. to cultivate.
C. to be out of date.
D. relating to land or land ownership.

9. Parity means
A. to make equal in status, amount, or degree.
B. the state of being equal in status, amount, or degree.
C. one who is equal in status, amount, or degree.
D. the act of making someone or something equal in status, amount, or degree.

10. Galvanize means

A. to be active or aware.
B. the state of becoming active or aware.
C. one who becomes active or aware.
D. to cause to become active or aware.

11. Nonchalant means

A. challenging.
B. done with the intent of harming another.
C. not showing anxiety or excitement; indifferent.
D. reversing a previous opinion or decision.
 47
Exercise 5. Read the passage and choose the correct answer.

Making time for science

Chronobiology might sound a little futuristic – like something from a science

fiction novel, perhaps – but it’s actually a field of study that concerns one of the
oldest processes life on this planet has ever known: short-term rhythms of time
and their effect on flora and fauna.
This can take many forms. Marine life, for example, is influenced by tidal
patterns. Animals tend to be active or inactive depending on the position of the
sun or moon. Numerous creatures, humans included, are largely diurnal – that
is, they like to come out during the hours of sunlight. Nocturnal animals, such as
bats and possums, prefer to forage by night. A third group are known as
crepuscular: they thrive in the lowlight of dawn and dusk and remain inactive at
other hours.
When it comes to humans, chronobiologists are interested in what is known as
the circadian rhythm. This is the complete cycle our bodies are naturally geared
to undergo within the passage of a twenty-four hour day. Aside from sleeping at
night and waking during the day, each cycle involves many other factors such as
changes in blood pressure and body temperature. Not everyone has an identical
circadian rhythm. ‘Night people’, for example, often describe how they find it
very hard to operate during the morning, but become alert and focused by
evening. This is a benign variation within circadian rhythms known as a
chronotype.

1. Futuristic means:
A. Advanced technology
B. Science fiction technology
C. Scientific

2. Marine life means

A. People living in boat
B. Animals living in the sea
C. Animals that come out at night
 48
3. Creature means
A. Insects
B. Animals
C. All living things

4. Nocturnal means
A. Animals that come out at night
B. Blind animals
C. Animals that come out in the day

5. Crepuscular means:
A. Animals that hibernate
B. Animals that come out at midday
C. Animals that come out at low light

6. The passage of means:

A. The amount of time
B. The length of time
C. The hours in a day

7. Identical means:
A. Exactly the same
B. Nearly the same
C. A pair

8. Alert means:
A. Confused
B. Sleepy
C. Very aware
 49
Exercise 6. Look at the reading below. Choose the correct answer.

Thai Museum Catalogues Opium Dreams and Nightmares

CHIANG SAEN, Thailand, Wednesday December 04 (Reuters).

1) First reactions to Thailand's giant new opium museum in the Golden Triangle
are confused: pleasant surprise at cool air after the intense tropical heat, but then
disorientation, shock, even fear. Visitors enter the 100-acre complex through a
long, dark, mist-filled tunnel, which winds into the base of a hill past bas-reliefs of
distorted human figures before emerging suddenly into bright sunlight in front of
a field of poppies. "This is the mystery, the contradiction of opium," says Charles
Mehl, head of research for the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, which has just
completed the $10 million museum. "Opium is one of the very best drugs we have
for treating chronic pain and bringing relief from suffering. But it can also be one
of the worst, destroying lives if it is used for recreation or exploited for commercial
gain."

2) Built into a hillside by the Mekong River on the northern tip of Thailand, the
museum lies at the heart of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Saen town is about 470
miles north of Bangkok, overlooking the junction of the borders of Thailand, Laos
and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Golden Triangle is a largely lawless
region that last year produced more opium and heroin than Afghanistan and more
synthetic stimulant pills than all the rest of the laboratories in Southeast Asia put
together, drugs agencies say.

3) Western backpackers and busloads of other day-trippers pour daily into the
picturesque Chiang Saen district, in Chiang Rai province, to buy souvenirs on the
Mekong's banks. Some try illicit puffs on opium pipes in nearby villages. The
museum, which will open officially early next year, aims to exploit this tourist
business, luring the curious with the promise of entertainment and impressive
audio-visual displays in English and Thai. But as visitors progress down the
labyrinthine corridors that stretch across three floors, the warnings against
narcotic abuse gradually become more powerful. "People think at first they know
what they will see -- a quaint presentation about hill tribes growing opium. But
that's only a small part of the story," said Mehl.

4) Mae Fah Luang has fought a 15-year battle against drug-taking and addiction
in Chiang Rai province, establishing what the United Nations Office on Drugs and
 50
Crime (UNODC) says is probably the best anti-drugs crop-substitution program in
Asia. Lessons from that program, which has succeeded in the nearby Thai
mountains of Doi Tung in part by offering farmers of opium poppies a better
income from alternative crops such as coffee and macadamia nuts, are built into
the museum. But it also offers a thorough lesson in the history of opium, its
derivatives such as heroin and laudanum, and explains how the drugs trade has
helped change the world for hundreds of years.

Tragedy and Trauma

5) Thought to have been used first along the coast of the Mediterranean,
archaeologists say the earliest evidence of opium was found in Switzerland dating
from the Neolithic period. It was a popular sedative in ancient Egypt and Greece
before spreading to northern Europe and Asia and becoming a key commodity that
was exchanged for Chinese tea and other spices by the British and Dutch. With
360-degree special effects, the museum traces the 19th century opium wars
between Britain and China before looking at prohibition in the 20th century and
official efforts, often spectacularly unsuccessful, to stop the use of illegal drugs.

6) The museum asks visitors to themselves decide what could be the best
approach to narcotics -- prohibition, drug eradication schemes, decriminalisation
or legalisation -- but it pulls no punches on the tragedy and trauma inflicted by
drugs on abusers. A final, heart-wrenching gallery recounts the powerful true
stories of victims of drug abuse around the world through intimate video
testimonies by their families.

7) "The feelings which develop through a visit to the museum change toward the
very end when there is evidence of the death and suffering that drug abuse
produces," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based
UNODC. "The end message is very strong, namely that use of drugs should be
fought. Society has to use all its instruments, which means law enforcement for
sure, but not only law enforcement. Prevention and treatment are equally
important."
 51
1. The word "disorientation" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:
A. Being introduced
B. Total confusion, not being clear
C. Happiness
D. Understanding

2. The word "distorted" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:

A. Famous
B. Extraordinary, very unusual
C. Bent, strange shape
D. Unclear

3. The word “poppies” in paragraph 1 is closest meaning to

A. Cattle
B. Flowers
C. Crops
D. Sheep

4. The word "contradiction" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:

A. Opposite of something else
B. Illegality
C. Beauty
D. Wonder

5. The word "exploited" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:

A. Firings, lots of jobs
B. Promotions, raises
C. Use unfairly, developed in a bad way
D. Employed

6. The word "synthetic" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to:

A. Fast
B. Cheap
C. Natural
D. Artificial
 52
7. The word "illicit" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to:
A. Unlawful
B. Free
C. Cheap, inexpensive
D. Exciting

8. The word "curious" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to:

A. Interested, eager to know
B. Middle class
C. Bored, disinterested
D. Rich and famous

9. The word "narcotic" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to:

A. Drug
B. Physical
C. Local
D. International

10. The word "addiction" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to:

A. Sales, export
B. Encouragement
C. Cruelty, meanness
D. Hooked, unable to stop

11. The word "alternative" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to:

A. New
B. Different
C. Fast growing
D. Legal

12. The word "prohibition" in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to:

A. Sales
B. Banning, stopping, making illegal
C. Promoting, encouraging
D. Increases, rises
 53
13. The word "eradication" in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to:
A. Making mistake
B. Removing completely, getting rid of
C. Explaining, giving information about
D. Nurture, propagate, grow

14. The word "tragedy" in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to:

A. Difficult
B. Damage, harm
C. Expense
D. Great sadness and pain

Exercise 7. Bring to your class a piece of written work that appeals to you.
It can be a reading passage from your book, a story, a poem or a news
article. Choose at least five new words. Without checking the dictionary,
complete the items below. Then share your opinion with the class.

No New Words Meanings Explanations for the

meanings

4
 54

REFERENCES
[1] Cambridge-ESOL. (2009). Cambridge IELTS 7 student’s book with answers:
Official examination papers from University of Cambridge ESOL examinations.
Cambridge University Press.

[2] Cambridge-ESOL. (2011). Cambridge IELTS 8 student’s book with answers:

Official examination papers from University of Cambridge ESOL examinations.
Cambridge University Press.
https://books.google.com.vn/books?id=C2KELnKdoY4C

[3] Cambridge-ESOL. (2015). Cambridge IELTS 10 student’s book with answers:

Official examination papers from University of Cambridge ESOL examinations.
Cambridge University Press.

[4] Cambridge-ESOL. (2017). Cambridge IELTS 12 academic student’s book with

answers: Authentic examination papers. Cambridge University Press.

[5] Cho, D. (2012). Hacker TOEIC reading. NXB Tong Hop TPHCM.

[6] Crosthwaite, P., Hutchison, S., Wijayatilake, C., Souza, N. De, Loewenthal, M.,
Uddin, J., Archer, G., & Passmore, L. (2017). Mindset for IELTS level 1
student’s book: An official Cambridge IELTS course. Cambridge University
Press.

[7] Crosthwaite, P., Hutchison, S., Wijayatilake, C., Souza, N. De, Loewenthal, M.,
Uddin, J., Archer, G., & Passmore, L. (2018). Mindset for IELTS level 3
student’s book: An official Cambridge IELTS course. Cambridge University
Press.
 55
[8] Elliott, S., Tiliouine, H., & O’Dell, F. (2015). First for schools trainer: Six
practice tests with answers and teacher’s notes (2nd ed.). Cambridge
University Press.

[9] Harvey, F. (2019). Can we ditch intensive farming - and still feed the world?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/28/can-we-ditch-intensive-
farming-and-still-feed-the-world

[10] Sheehan, M. J. (2021). Word parts dictionary: Standard and reverse listings
of prefixes, suffixes, roots and combining forms (3rd ed.). McFarland.

[11] Word morphology. (n.d.). Victoria State Government - Education and

Training. Retrieved May 6, 2022, from
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/disciplin
e/english/literacy/readingviewing/Pages/litfocuswordmorph.aspx

[12] 2007. Vocabulary for TOEFL iBT. New York: LearningExpress.

 56

TOPIC 3:
TOPICS AND MAIN IDEAS

OBJECTIVES
When you finish this topic, you should be able to:
- distinguish the topic from main ideas;
- identify the topic and the topic sentence of a paragraph;
- understand what, why and how of skimming skills;
- determine the main idea of a paragraph by using skimming skills.

INTRODUCTION
What first appears in your mind when the term “reading” pops up? Is it just an
act of reading word by word? Or more? Reading, actually, is a communication
between writers and readers in which the reader tries to comprehend messages the
writers want to convey. In doing so, people not only gain knowledge and experience
from the growth of mankind's history but expand their knowledge horizon.
Nevertheless, have you ever wondered why some people are capable of “digesting”
such a long article in a short period of time and still manage to catch the main
points? Or how some people can read many research papers in a day while
maintaining their reading comprehension? Unsurprisingly, effective readers have
efficient reading techniques and skills, which are discussed later in this chapter.

In the era of information explosion nowadays when the young generation have
so much to read in a limited amount of time, the ability to identify the topic and the
gist of any kind of text is utterly important for any students. There is a need to
differentiate these terms. Whereas a topic is the subject of a written material, which
can be a short or long passage, main ideas imply the central points of a whole article
or each paragraph.

To grasp the topic, readers need “a magnifying glass” to help them locate it. The
strategies include taking a glance at headings and titles, searching for words in
special print, noticing words or phrases repeated throughout the paragraph or words
mentioned at the beginning of a paragraph then are referred to by other pronouns
and phrases later in the paragraph.
 57
When it comes to main ideas, any discussion of the writers’ topic is bound to the
central idea lying in the topic sentence of each paragraph. In this chapter, three
ways of main ideas appearing in a paragraph are presented as tactics of identifying
the gist viewpoint embedded in every paragraph, which include the topic sentence
appearing at the beginning of a paragraph, within a paragraph and at the end of a
paragraph.

Last but not least, skimming skills, among many effective reading skills, stand
out as a helpful technique to fasten the readers’ reading speed and comprehension.
Skimming is when a reader looks for the gist of a reading material by gliding his
eyes throughout the text quickly and to know what and where to look at. The
purpose is to help readers read fast but also have an overall idea of the passage
without reading full details.

In this chapter, strategies for determining the topic sentence and the main idea
of a paragraph are discussed, followed by the brief introduction of skimming skills
and its application in different types of reading material.

3.1 Distinguish a topic from a main idea

3.1.1 What is a topic?

A topic is known as a subject or a subject matter of a reading material. It plays

as a key for the most vital question: “What is this article/ paragraph about?”.
The appearance of a topic can be one word/phrase appearing throughout a text or
a paragraph, or it may be more than one different word/phrase repeated all over an
article.

The first skateboard was created by a California surfer back in the 1950s. He
attached roller skate wheels to a piece of wood that resembled a small surfboard
so that he could surf on land as well as on the ocean. Since then, skateboarding
has become a sport, an art form, and a speedy mode of transportation. Today,
many young people compete in skateboarding competitions, where they show off
their skills and special tricks.

When you encounter any article or paragraph, you should ask yourself “What is
it about?”. In the paragraph above, you can easily find out “skateboarding” is the
answer since the word “skateboard” or “skateboarding” appears several times in the
entire paragraph, showing up at the first sentence to every sentence later in the
 58
section. Additionally, every sentence spins around the topic “skateboarding” to
support and clarify the topic. Therefore, as a reader we use these things as evidence
to support our assumption about the topic.

Let's do a small practice of defining the topic of the paragraph below:

Ask yourself: What is this paragraph about?

Your answer:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Explanation:
………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………
……………………….………………………………………………………………………………….………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
3.1.2 What is the main idea?

The main idea is the so-called controlling idea or a central idea of a paragraph in
which writers express their idea about the topic. Unlike the topic, a main idea is
written in a full sentence, including the topic and the chief point of the writer’s
primary message, namely a “topic sentence” - a statement sums up the main idea
of a paragraph. It can, thereby, form a formula for a topic sentence as follow:

Topic + main point = topic sentence

Below is an example indicating the difference between the topic and the main
idea.
 59
As can be seen in the example, the topic is about “bees”, and the main idea is
“people’s interest in bees” since the other following sentences clarify and bound back
to the idea “people’s interest in bees”. If you reckoned the main idea relates to honey
or/ and language used in expressing about bees, it would be good but not enough
because they are just a part of the paragraph or in other words they do not fully
state the writer’s expression. Moreover, one thing you may notice here is that the
first sentence is also the topic sentence since it inserts the topic “bees” and the main
idea “people’s interest in bees” at once.

Below is a short paragraph for you to practice finding the topic and the main idea:

Ask yourself: What is this paragraph about? What is the controlling idea of
this paragraph?
Topic: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Main idea: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Topic sentence: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Explanation:………………………………………………………………………………….………………………………
………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………..
……………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………
 60
3.2 How to determine the topic

Figure 3.1. Strategies for determining the topic of a paragraph (Source: Rogers, 2012)

Understanding ways to identify the topic of a paragraph is important. Why?

Because in some situations, you can catch the topic in just a glance; some, however,
are hidden like a gem. As mentioned earlier, the topic is the key subject; therefore,
to know the topic of a paragraph is to answer the question “What is this paragraph
about?” or “who is this paragraph about?”. There are four strategies, in case you
cannot easily answer these questions to search for the topic, presented in figure 1
that help you determine the topic of a paragraph.

3.2.1 Heading or Title

A heading or a title usually contains the keyword of the topic, and it gives a signal
to readers of what the paragraph is about. When you look at a paragraph, remember
to look for the glue the writer provides you through headings or titles. Let's take a
look at the headings of paragraphs below, can you guess the topic?
 61

Here are some paragraphs that you can practice more.

Topic: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Explanation: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
 62
3.2.2 Words in special print

Of the four strategies, the appearance of words in special print such as bold,
italic or in different colours is not only to draw the readers’ attention to new concepts
but also equip readers with hints to figure out the topic. In the following paragraph
you may notice some phrases printed in italic and bold types. What’s all this special
printed aim for? Try to connect them to find out the topic of the paragraph. It is
about the Newbery Medal, isn’t it?

Perhaps you have read and enjoyed books such as Caddie Woodlawn, Island of
the Blue Dolphins, and A Wrinkle in Time. These, and others you may recognize,
are among a select group of children’s books to receive the prestigious honour
known as the Newbery Medal. The Newbery Medal is an award given to honour
the most distinguished children’s literature book published in the previous year by
an American author. It was first awarded in 1922. The award was established by
Frederic Melcher, who at the time was chairman of the board of the publishers of
the Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly. Melcher named the award after John
Newbery, an 18th century English publisher and bookseller who is credited with
being the first person to put children’s literature in print.

It is noteworthy as a matter of fact that not all of the words in special prints are
connected to the topic. Thus, you still need to read the whole paragraph to confirm
what the paragraph refers to. Here is a “bonus” paragraph just in case you seek for
more. Can you guess the topic based on these hints? Don’t forget to read the whole
passage to confirm your prediction.

If you have ever walked along a rocky shoreline or a pier, you probably noticed a
crusty looking coating on the rocks or wood of the pilings. That “crust” is actually
a congregation of animals called barnacles. A barnacle is a small shellfish that,
when it reaches adulthood, permanently attaches itself to some surface. The only
thing that moves for the rest of its life are its feathery tentacles, which it uses to
draw in food. Once attached, barnacles are practically impossible to remove. They
have been a nuisance to seamen since there have been ships. A crust of barnacles
can slow a ship down and affect its steering and machinery.

Topic: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Explanation: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
 63
3.2.3 Repeated Words or Phrases

It has been rightly said that repeated words or phrases in a paragraph relate
certainly to the topic. In the following paragraph, for instance, you may recognize
the word “panda” appears in almost every sentence. Yes, the topic is about “panda”.

You should not forget either that sometimes these repeated words can be a
particular word or a phrase or any words or phrases are used purposely as reference
of the topic. In the following paragraph, you do not have to look far to recognize the
words “grief” “devastation” “unhappiness” and “sorrow” are connected to the topic
“sadness” because they all have the same meaning. Therefore, there is a need to
notice the repetition of words you encounter in any reading materials.

Below is an example of identifying the topic via repeated words that you may
want to practice with.

Topic: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Explanation: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
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3.2.4 Words that are mentioned at the beginning and referred to
by pronouns or other words

With regard to using different words or phrases related to the topic, one of the
ways to detect the topic is by looking at words that appear both at the beginning of
a paragraph and later in the paragraph in terms of pronouns or other words with the
same meaning. Let’s take a look at this paragraph:

The Shetland pony came from the Shetland Islands of Great Britain. It is the
smallest of all horses, standing only 32-46 inches high. People originally used
these stocky animals to pull coal carts. Later, they were imported into the United
States as pets. They were later bred with the Hackney pony to produce a lighter,
showier breed. Though still kept as pets, they are intelligent animals and must be
trained by experts to be suitable for children.

The phrase “The Shetland pony” shows up once in the first sentence of the above
paragraph. Also, you may notice some pronouns “it” and “they” and the phrases
“these stocky animals” are used to refer to the same thing - “the Shetland pony”.

Now, try to find the topic of the paragraph below by identifying the keyword in
the first sentence and its pronouns or other related words.

Topic: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Pronoun(s): ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Other related words/ phrases: ………………………………………………………………………………..

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3.3 How to identify the stated main idea
sentence of a paragraph?

You have learnt four strategies for determining the topic of a paragraph in the
previous section. Now you move to tastics of identifying the main idea. For a quick
recap, the main idea is different from the topic since it gives specific ideas of the
author's expression about the topic. Frankly speaking, you ask yourself the question
“What is the paragraph about?” to search for the topic while “What is the central
idea about this topic?” is a more relevant question to ask when it comes to looking
for the main idea. The stated main idea sentence, namely the topic sentence, plays
the sole important role as it embraces the writers’ chief point of the topic in a
paragraph. Figure 2 illustrates three common ways to identify the topic sentence,
which are discussed deeply later.

Figure 3.2. How to locate the main idea in a paragraph? (Source: Rogers, 2012)

3.3.1 The main idea is on the first sentence of a paragraph

In a paragraph, it is common to have a topic sentence and other sentences

holding the central idea and supporting ideas respectively. Besides, you may find
the topic sentence lying in the first sentence of the paragraph. This paragraph, for
example, demonstrates the idea of putting the topic sentence with its controlling
idea at the beginning of the paragraph.
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Topic: makeup artist

Main idea: more than making the lead actress look beautiful

Topic sentence: the makeup artist’s work sounds simple, but there is more to it than
making the lead actress look beautiful.

Let's challenge yourself with another example. Read the paragraph below and
determine its topic sentence and point out the topic and main idea within the
sentence.

Topic: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Main idea: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Topic sentence: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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3.3.2 The main idea is within a paragraph

As a reader, bear in mind that the topic sentence is not always in the first
sentence, but it may simply lie within the paragraph. In other words, the topic
sentences may be present in the middle or at any point in the paragraph as long as
it relates to the topic and states the central idea of the entire paragraph.

Let's grasp what you have learnt so far by reading the following example:

It is easy to recognize the word “television” or TV shows up repeatedly throughout

the paragraph, but the phrase “TV violence” is the topic indeed. Noticeably, the first
sentence is not the topic sentence but the second sentence “obviously, TV violence
has some negative effects” is the one. Why? Because it includes the topic (TV
violence) and the gist point (negative effects), and other sentences support the topic
“TV violence” in the rest of the paragraph.

In some cases, it might be even presented under the form of a question type.
The question is not the main idea but the answer itself. In this paragraph, can you
find the topic sentence?

3.3.3 The main idea is at the ending of a paragraph

 68

Instead of putting the main idea at the beginning of or within the paragraph,
some writers prefer to come up with the controlling idea at the very end of the
paragraph. The reason is that they may want to provide readers with all the
supporting information before giving the main idea. Hence, the topic sentence ends
up lying at the end of the paragraph to offer readers nothing less than a conclusion
of its aforementioned supporting details.

After reading the paragraph above, you may detect the structure of the
paragraph looks like a nabla - an upside down triangle in which from the first
sentence to the one right before the last sentence is used as supporters to clarify
the topic sentence which exists at the end of the paragraph. To be clearer, let’s take
a closer look. The first, second and third sentences post ways to avoid “sleep
problems” while the fourth one emphasises the importance of keeping in pace with
a sleeping and waking time schedule. Altogether leads to the central idea (simple
guidelines) to avoid “sleep problems” (topic). A nabla structure, isn’t it?

3.4 Skimming

3.4.1 What is skimming?

Skimming is a skill of looking over a text quickly to get the gist of the subject
matter in any written reading materials. When skimming, the readers move their
eyes throughout the text fast to search for the pointers or clues providing general
ideas of an article or a paragraph without reading sentences one by one. It is
considered one of the effective reading skills to save time. In short, skimming skills
enable a reader to be three to four times faster than normal reading speed in
catching the main idea by moving their eyes quickly to catch the hints from the text.

3.4.2 Why to skim?

In reading, there are certain sentences called the topic sentence that actually
hold the controlling idea of a paragraph while some are not really relating to the
main idea. As a reader, undoubtedly, we should not spend too much time reading
unnecessary information or all details of a paragraph when we are under the
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pressure of an examination. As a result, skimming is effective for readers to get the
overview of the text speedily based on its various strategies. There is much evidence
that has been shown on the positive effect of skimming skill in enhancing students’
comprehension as well.

In other words, students should consider skimming skills as an effective reading

tool in light of saving time and being able to identify the main idea of an article
without reading the whole text or paragraph.

3.4.3 How to skim?

Imagine being asked to read 20 research or 5 books in just a day to serve your
assignment, or you have 15 minutes to read a 5-paragraph article and answer a
bunch of questions. how would you cope with it? Unless you knew how to conduct
skimming, you would not be able to “survive” in the ocean of words, lines and ideas,
to say the least. Following are strategies that help you apply skimming skills
efficiently.

Titles and headings

As people usually say “small but mighty”, Skimming the titles and subheadings,
these short and “normal” words or phrases would give you a general view about the
text.

The article below is a clear example of the benefits that titles and subheadings
provide. By looking at them quickly, the title “scrapbooking” brings out the topic and
the headings “what is scrapbooking exactly?” “how did you get started?” “How did
you learn about new scrapbooking techniques and trends?” may give some hints
about the topic and even the main idea of each paragraph.
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 71
Here is another example of titles and headings for you to apply skimming
techniques. Can you guess the topic of the text and the topic of each paragraph?
Write down your answers here.
Topic: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Main idea: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Explanation: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
How do you use skimming skills to reach out the main idea and the topic?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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An introduction
In some articles, writers may write introductory paragraphs right after the title
or even without the title, there is still the presence of introduction. It is because
some writers want to draw your attention and give you some keys to what the article
is about.

Let read the short introduction below:

When skimming the title “Sudoku mind games” you may come across “Sudoku”
as the topic, but do you notice that it pops up another idea, more specific, in your
mind about the topic when you read that 3 short sentence introduction? You, then,
have a feeling or you can make a prediction that the article would mention the
negative impact of Sudoku. Is your gut telling you that or the introduction itself
gives you the hint?

One more example for you to practice

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Research

Above is an example of a research paper. A research paper might be around 5-7

pages or even more than 20 pages, and it has different sections including their
headings. You may skim the title and the headings so as to seek the topic and the
gist of the research; however, there is a better way for you to skim a research paper,
no matter how many pages and sections it has, which is called “abstract”. Abstract
is a brief summary providing a quick, yet concise overview of a paper’s research or
a thesis paper. By skimming the abstract in this research paper, its purpose,
research methodology, the results together with its suggestion are shown briefly and
wisely.
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Skim the abstract below. Can you guess its topic and main ideas of the research?

Ask yourself: What is the research about?

Topic: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Main idea: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Explanation: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

A book
Table of contents

You have, so far, learnt how to skim a reading text, an article in a newspaper and
a research paper. It is time to skim something “bigger” or you may say “longer”,
which is a book. To comprehend the structure of a book is important because it
paints a picture in your mind, or which content or section you may feel interested
in. Hence, skimming the table of content or the index is the thing you need in order
to grab up main ideas but still save time in deciding what you want to read first.

By sliding your eyes through the content of the example below, you can partly
understand the skeleton of the book and its highlights.
 76

In some books, the introduction is written at the beginning or on the back of the
book to shed light on the general ideas of the book or to get an idea of the foundation
of the book as well. After spending a few minutes to read all these sections, let’s try
to answer the following questions:
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1. For what kind of public was the book written?
2. The book is about ……………………………………………………………………………
3. What major writers are considered in this book?
4. The main theory of the author is that the form of the first English novels resulted
from: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
5. The different chapters are arranged chronologically or thematically?
6. What kind of influence did the literature described in this book have?
7. Does the book have an index?
8. Does the book have a glossary?
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Chapter objectives and chapter summary

Apart from the table of contents, there are chapter objectives and/or chapter
summaries for the type of academic books which help readers to acknowledge the
goals of the chapter in advance or to sum up the key information. Above are
examples of each type.
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SUMMARY

As a student you should be equipped to handle not merely unfamiliar, long

passages under the pressure of examination and in a limited amount of time, but
any types of reading materials you may encounter in your daily life. This chapter
aims to fully prepare you for these scenarios via strategies which are summarized
below:
1. The difference between the topic and the main idea
2. Four ways to determine the topic of a paragraph
3. Three ways to identify the topic sentence of a paragraph
4. Skimming and its techniques to find the gist of different types of reading
material
 80
PRACTICE
Exercise 1. Read the question and skim the review of Super Size Me. You
should skim only those parts of the text that help you answer the questions:
1. Does the writer have a positive or negative opinion of the movie?
2. Does the writer recommend the movie?
3. In which aspect(s) of the movie is this reviewer most interested?
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Exercise 2. Underline the sentences or words that best sum up the topic or
the main idea of each paragraph)
 82
Exercise 3. The passage below provides the title, the first sentence and
some phrases at the beginning of each paragraph of an article, namely
“Nuclear cloud spreads”. Skim them and tick the boxes corresponding to
the points that you think are mentioned.

Exercise 4. The sentences below are about Orb spiders. Arrange them in
order to write a paragraph. Begin with the one that is the main idea and
add a title.
 83
Exercise 5. Read the passage and choose the correct answer for each
question
 84
Exercise 6. Read and answer the questions by using relevant strategies
 85
Exercise 7. Using skimming skills to predict the topic and fill in the blanks

Exercise 8. Using skimming skills to predict the topic and fill in the blanks
 86
Exercise 9. Read and choose the correct answer for each question
87
 88
Exercise 10. Read and answer the questions

Answer the questions:

 89
1. How do you suppose the weatherman indicated there would be a lot of
snow?
2. Do you think he just said it, or did he use something else to show it?
3. What did the weatherman mean when he said cancellation of school was
inevitable?
4. Why did the narrator think the weatherman was exaggerating?
5. What does the narrator mean by saying that he knew the snow would
influence his day?
6. How do you think the narrator investigated igloo construction?
7. How do you think the inside temperature of an igloo is maintained?
 90

TOPIC 4:
SUPPORTING DETAILS

OBJECTIVES
When you finish this topic, you should be able to:
- distinguish between major and minor details;
- explain the purpose of scanning and techniques to scan;
- identify and handle different types of scanning questions.

INTRODUCTION
The necessity of supporting details will be discussed in Topic 4 of the course.
Because every reading content is made up of core concepts and supporting
elements, identifying supporting details is another important ability that any college
or university student should have. The key ideas will not be well-substantiated and
supported if there are no supporting details. Authors want specifics in order to fully
clarify the argument they want to make to their readers.

To simply see what the supporting details are, let us imagine that you have just
heard about the school’s new policy. Immediately, you would probably wonder in
your mind about it as “What is it? Who is it for? How is it different from the previous
one?”. You are expecting to have more information surrounding the new policy.
These details are the supporting details to explain or illustrate the main idea of the
new policy.

In short, supporting details add to the main idea by clarifying, proving, or

explaining it. The correctness of the primary premise is demonstrated by these
details. Parts, facets, phases, or illustrations of the core notion are frequently listed.
Alternatively, they may list the causes, impacts, or manner in which it occurs. It
demonstrates itself to be correct.
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Supporting
detail

Supporting Supporting
detail detail

Main
idea
Figure 4.1. The relationship between main idea and supporting ideas.

4.1 MAJOR AND MINOR DETAILS

Supporting details are divided into two types: major and minor (Figure 4.2). The
core structure of paragraphs is made up of the main idea and its major supporting
details. The major details are the supporting details to the main idea, and they might
take the form of:

 Reasons
 Points in an argument
 Points of a comparison
 Further elaboration of the main idea

Here is an example of paragraph with main idea and major supporting details:

Psychologists have concluded that human memory can improve by regular

training. (Main idea). People who takes part in the studies show that they can
remember and recall longer piece of information. Also, the level of difficulty is
successfully increasing as information is more and more complicated. (Major
supporting details)

Minor details are frequently included in paragraphs. Minor details provide extra
information about the key supporting details, whereas major details clarify and
 92
deepen the main idea. They are usually specific to demonstrate and support the
major details in the paragraph in the form of:

 Examples
 Specific details
 Statistic

Let’s take a look at a full paragraph with main idea, major details and minor
details:

Psychologists have concluded that human memory can improve by regular

training. (Main idea). People who takes part in the studies show that they can
remember and recall longer piece of information.(Major detail). For instance, they
can only manage about 10 digits at the beginning. However, the number of digits
they can remember has doubled after one month of training.(Minor detail). Also,
the level of difficulty is successfully increasing as information is more and more
complicated. (Major details). They start to train by memorise different house
number which is the easiest level. By the time, dealing with phone number, email
address, or even a random series of number are still manageable for them.(Minor
details)

Major
details

Minor
details

Figure 4.2. Major and minor details help to support the main idea.
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You could also use signal phrases to assist you distinguish between minor and
big features. Transitions, often known as signal words, are words or phrases that
show connections between ideas and can introduce supporting facts. Furthermore,
these words assist authors in organizing their ideas and readers in following the
author's train of thought. The transitions that introduce supporting details will be
the emphasis of this topic. Most of these are referred to as listing transitions.
However, you should be careful as not all major and minor details have signal words.

Major details Minor details

First, second, third … For example, for instance
One To be specific
Another This means
Moreover In other words
In addition, To illustrate
Next That is
Also …
Finally

Following are sample paragraphs to show you how topic, main idea, major and
minor details are connected:

PRACTICE MAKES MASTER

In this paragraph, I’m going to discuss a few reasons why practice is important to
mastering skills. Firstly, the only way to truly learn a skill is by actually doing what
you’ll have to do in the real world. For example, a football player cannot play well
if he just sits outside and watch the match. Secondly, I think practice can give you
meaningful lesson. An example is when you learn to cook a dish, you will recognize
the mistakes and avoid next time. Thirdly, and most importantly, it is said that
people tend to remember only 10-20% of what they read or hear, but that number
rises to as much as 90% when you put theory to practice. This means that real
action actually improves your final result. In conclusion, following up explanation
with practice is key to mastering a skill.

Topic: Practice makes master

Main idea: A few reasons why practice is important to mastering skills
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Major detail 1: Firstly, the only way to truly learn a skill is by actually doing what
you’ll have to do in the real world.
Minor detail 1: For example, a football player cannot play well if he just sits outside
and watch the match.
Major detail 2: Secondly, I think practice can give you meaningful lesson.
Minor detail 2: An example is when you learn to cook a dish, you will recognize the
mistakes and avoid next time.
Major detail 3: Thirdly, and most importantly, it is said that people tend to
remember only 10-20% of what they read or hear, but that number rises to as
much as 90% when you put theory to practice.
Minor detail 3: This means that real action actually improves your final result.

A NEW KIND OF TREATMENT

Video game therapy may help patients recover from a stroke at home. The video
game that was utilized for rehabilitation, Recovery Rapids, relies upon a motion
sensor and real life movement in order to initiate the movement of a character in
the game. As part of the system, a camera-based sensor captures the patient's
movements and a game character mirrors those movements. The game also
provides feedback about whether the patient is doing the movement correctly. If
the patient is not doing the movement to the best of their ability, their game
character is not moving. Additional challenges within the game include crashing
into a bush and moving the video game character's arms into a grab, grasp, and
release in an effort to collect as much food as possible.

Topic: A new kind of treatment

Main idea: Video game therapy may help patients recover from a stroke at home .
Major detail 1: The video game that was utilized for rehabilitation, Recovery
Rapids, relies upon a motion sensor and real life movement in order to initiate the
movement of a character in the game.
Minor detail 1: As part of the system, a camera-based sensor captures the patient's
movements and a game character mirrors those movements.
Major detail 2: The game also provides feedback about whether the patient is doing
the movement correctly.
Minor detail 2: If the patient is not doing the movement to the best of their ability,
their game character is not moving.
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Minor detail 2: Additional challenges within the game include crashing into a bush
and moving the video game character's arms into a grab, grasp, and release in an
effort to collect as much food as possible.

Now, let’s make it yourself!

FOOD TO AVOID DURING COVID 19

In general, there will definitely some certain types of food that should be removed
from your diet when you are positive with Covid 19. Processed and high-sugar
foods like fast food, fried food, soda, and sweets promote inflammation in the
body, making it harder for your system to fight off sickness. To feel your best,
steer clear of foods in these categories. You'll also want to watch your alcohol
intake as your body works to recover from COVID-19. Consuming too much alcohol
can compromise your immune system, making it harder for it to defend your body
against foreign invaders, scientists said. In addition, alcohol can trigger
inflammation in the gut and have a negative impact on the good bacteria living in
there that keep your immune system healthy.

Topic: ………………………………………………………………………………………

Main idea: …………………………………………………………………………………

Major detail 1: …………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Minor detail 1: ……………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Major detail 2: ……………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Minor detail 2: ……………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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4.2 SCANNING FOR DETAILS

4.2.1 What is scanning?

Scanning a text means looking through it quickly to find specific information.

Scanning is commonly used in everyday life, for example when looking up a word in
a dictionary or finding your friend's name in the contacts directory of your phone.
Scanning and another quick reading skill, skimming, are often confused, though they
are quite different. While skimming is concerned with finding general information,
namely the main ideas, scanning involves looking for specific information.

4.2.2 Why to scan?

Applying scanning skill to your reading progress may bring various benefits.
Firstly, it is absolutely time-saving. Students can extract certain specific information
without reading through the whole text. Obviously, this process takes less time than
reading carefully from the beginning to the end. It is especially important to deal
with a test as time is usually limited, and students cannot read over and over the
whole passage whenever they start a new question. Secondly, scanning is greatly
useful in different steps to manage a passage. In prereading stage, it helps build
knowledge about the information from the text. For example, the use of scanning is
to check predictions that students make about the content of the text to be read.
Most questions appear to ask about details, so scanning is inevitable during while-
reading stage. Also, scanning is a useful strategy after having read a text as well
because students can use it to check for their understanding. Finally, scanning is
especially useful when the students deal with special type of information as
schedules, tables, charts and graphs.

4.2.3 How to scan?

Scanning involves three steps: determine what key words to look for, look quickly
through the text for those words, then read the sentences around them to see if
they provide the information being sought.

When scanning, we only try to locate the specific information and often we do
not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so. We simply let our eyes wander
 97
over the text until we find what we are looking for, whether it is a name, a date, or
a less specific piece of information.

Skimming is therefore a more thorough activity which requires an overall view of

the text and implies a definite reading competence. Scanning, on the contrary, is far
more limited since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our
purpose.

Scanning for research and study

Scanning, too, uses keywords and organizational cues. But while the goal of
skimming is a bird's-eye view of the material, the goal of scanning is to locate and
swoop down on particular facts.

Facts may be buried within long text passages that have relatively little else to
do with your topic or claim. Skim this material first to decide if it is likely to contain
the facts you need. Don't forget to scan tables of contents, summaries, indexes,
headings, and typographical cues. To make sense of lists and tables, skim them first
to understand how they are organized: alphabetical, chronological, or most-to-least,
for example. If after skimming you decide the material will be useful, go ahead and
scan:

1. Know what you're looking for. Decide on a few key words or phrases–search
terms, if you will. You will be a flesh-and-blood search engine.
2. Look for only one keyword at a time. If you use multiple keywords, do
multiple scans.
3. Let your eyes float rapidly down the page until you find the word or phrase
you want.
4. When your eye catches one of your keywords, read the surrounding
material carefully.

Scanning to answer questions

If you are scanning for facts to answer a specific question, one step is already
done for you: the question itself supplies the keywords. Follow these steps:

1. Read each question completely before starting to scan. Choose your

keywords from the question itself.
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2. Look for answers to only one question at a time. Scan separately for each
question.
3. When you locate a keyword, read the surrounding text carefully to see if it
is relevant.
4. Re-read the question to determine if the answer you found answers this
question.
Scanning is a technique that requires concentration and can be surprisingly tiring.
You may have to practice at not allowing your attention to wander. Choose a time
and place that you know works for you and dive in.

4.3 Types of question for scanning skill

As stated above, scanning purpose is to locate a specific piece of information.

Usually, there will be some types of information that are popular in scanning
question. In order to effectively find out the answer, you must pay attention to all
details relating to them, what is said about them in the passage.

1. Names
2. Time (date, year, century …)
3. Organizations
4. Places (country, city, town …)
5. Numbers
Questions that require scanning skill are diverse. They appear in all forms such
as multiple choices, true or false, matching, gap fill, or short answer. Depending
on the structure of the test, they frequently account for over 50% of total score.
That is why mastering scanning is such an important skill for readers.

A. Multiple choices and True/False

The following example consists of the two most popular type of scanning
questions, multiple choices and True/False.

The History of UFOs

Unidentified Flying Object (or “UFO”) is a term commonly used to describe lights
or shapes in the sky. It was first coined by the United States Air Force in 1952 to
describe sightings of mysterious objects in the sky that could not be explained
even after careful investigation. Nowadays UFOs are spotted frequently, and
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feature in numerous movies and TV shows. Another popular name for such an
object is, “Flying Saucer,” in reference to the round shape of many UFOs.

The first widely publicized UFO sighting was in 1947, by a pilot called Kenneth
Arnold. Following this event, public sightings of UFOs increased dramatically.
Movies and TV shows began featuring visitors from outer space, arriving on earth
in flying saucers. With the popularity of these images, many people claimed to
have seen lights in the sky. Some experts believe that people simply think they
see UFOs because of the influence of TV and movies.

However, experts estimate that as little as 5% of these sightings could be called

“unidentified.” Usually these lights are made by aircraft, satellites, or weather
balloons. Top secret air force activities during the Cold War may have been
responsible for many of the UFO sightings in America and Europe. Although not
actually aliens, the secretive nature of these flying objects is definitely
unidentified.

Another popular idea concerning UFOs concerns the role of world governments.
Specifically, people believe that the US government has discovered alien life and
operates a “cover-up” to hide the truth from the public. The most widely believed
cover-up is that of the Roswell Incident. In July, 1947, a UFO supposedly landed
in Roswell, New Mexico, and was examined and hidden by government agents.
There have been many investigations into the Roswell Incident, however, these
reports always claim that no such event occurred.

Circle the best answer for each question about the reading passage
1. Why is Kenneth Arnold famous among UFO believers?

a) He was at Roswell in 1947.

b) He found a UFO in 1952.

c) He saw a UFO in 1947.

d) He saw a UFO in 1952.

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2. How do experts explain many UFO sightings?

a) There are many alien visitors to earth.

b) TV and movies make people believe they see UFOs.

c) Government cover-ups make people paranoid.

d) They have no idea why there are so many sightings.

3. What influence did the Cold War have upon UFO sightings?

a) American pilots saw a UFO in the Cold War.

b) More UFO movies were made in the Cold War.

c) Lots of government cover-ups occurred.

d) Top secret air force activities caused more sightings.

State whether the following statements about the reading are true (T) or
false (F) according to the information in the passage.

4. Kenneth Arnold saw the first UFO.

5. The Roswell Incident occurred in 1952.

6. Experts say many normal things account for UFO sightings.

7. Flying saucers are square-shaped.

Question 1 – 3 require specific skill in order to pick up the best answer among
four options. Usually, the first step is to read the entire question and make sure that
you understand it clearly. Then we may try to give answer yourself first before
reviewing the options. This will help prevent you from talking yourself about the
correct answer. As your mind tends to follow the familiar idea, you must be double
careful if yourself answer is the same as one of the option. The next step is to identify
all the key words from the question and the choices. After that, it is now to apply
scanning skill and make final decisions.

Also, there are some tips which can be useful in order to deal with this type of
question. Firstly, using the process of elimination in which you cross out all of the
answer you know are incorrect is greatly effective. As a result, you will only pay
 101
attention to the remaining answers which save more time and increase the likelihood
of selecting the correct one. Secondly, there will sometimes be option “All of the
above” or “None of the above”. If you encounter them, you should avoid selecting
"All of the above" if you are pretty sure any one of the answers provided is incorrect.
The same applies for "None of the above" if you are confident that at least one of
the answer choices is true. Lastly, it is in case you cannot find the answer, the one
you choose should be an educated one. For instance, when there are seemingly two
correct answers, one is positive and one is negative, the positive option is probably
true in most cases. Another situation is good to know if you must guess the answer
is that the correct answer usually contains more information than the other options.

Beside the steps of scanning as in multiple choices, the True/False questions 4 –

7 need some specific consideration. The synonym is the first of them. Typically, the
keys words you find in the question are repeated in the text in a different form. That
is why knowing flexible words of the key words we are looking for is a big help. In
addition, there are some words appear in the question that may confuse you. Some
particular examples are not, some adverb of frequency such as always, hardly,
never, sometime … or quantifiers as all, none of, almost … If you find these words
in the question, you must be more careful. In most cases, statements that contain
absolute qualifiers like all, always, best, none… are false. Finally, some possible rules
can be effective in cases that you can only make a guess. The longer a true/false
statement, the greater the likelihood the statement will be false. It only takes one
part of a statement being false to make the entire statement false. The longer the
statement, the more chance one part will be false. Moreover, questions that state a
reason tend to be false. Words including "because, reason, since, etc." often indicate
a "reason" statement.

Sixteen - What now?

You’re 16 and finally you can leave school! By now, you’re probably sick of
teachers, desks, tests and exams. But don’t just run for the exit. You need to
think carefully about what to do next.
If you want a professional career, you will need to go to university and get a
degree. To do that, you need to stay at high school for another two years. But
you needn’t stay at the same place. There are several options in the district of
Northacre.
St. Leopold’s School has the best pass rate of all the high schools in the district.
 102
It offers a wide range of subjects in the humanities and sciences. St Leopold’s
is, of course, a private school, so may be too expensive for you. But don’t worry,
there are several other options if you want to follow the academic route. Knowle
Grammar School is a state school, so there are no fees, and it has excellent
tuition and facilities. It is a boys’ school from the ages of 11-16, but from 16-18
it is co-educational. But it is selective, so you’ll have to pass an exam to get
in. If you’re interested in going into Business, check out Wyle River
Academy. This school specializes in subjects like Business Studies, Management
and Economics. If you prefer the arts, look at the courses on offer at Northacre
College. Here you can study woodwork, art, textiles and much more.
Northacre College also offers a wide range of vocational qualifications. You can
do a 1-year certificate or a 2-year diploma in subjects like electrics, plumbing,
roofing and hairdressing. If you’d prefer to work outdoors, look at Milldown
College, where there are courses in Farm Mechanics, Land Management, Animal
Management and much more.
A final option is to get an apprenticeship with a local or national company. You
will get on-the-job training, gain certificates or diplomas and start earning
straight away. But be warned - places are limited! Find out more at the Jobs
Fair on 26th May at Northacre College.

1 The aim of the article is to…

A. advise young people about how to get to university.
B. tell young people about the options available.
C. advise young people to stay in education.

2 The article advises readers who want a professional career to…

A. go to university immediately.
B. stay at the same school for two more years.
C. go to high school for two more years, then get a degree.

3 St Leopold’s is the best school for…

A. good exam results.
B. humanities and sciences.
C. facilities.
 103
4 You can only attend St Leopold’s school if you…
A. pay tuition fees.
B. pass an exam.
C. study both humanities and sciences.

5 You can only attend Knowle Grammar School if you…

A. pass an exam.
B. are a boy.
C. can afford the tuition fees.

6 Anna wants to work with horses. Where is the best place for her to study?
A. Wyle River Academy
B. Northacre College
C. Milldown College

7 Harry wants to be a builder. Where is the best place for him to study?
A. Wyle River Academy
B. Northacre College
C. Milldown College

8 Kevin wants to be a fashion designer. Where is the best place for him to study?
A. Wyle River Academy
B. Northacre College
C. Milldown College

9 Caroline wants to run her own company. Where is the best place for her to
study?
A. Wyle River Academy
B. Northacre College
C. Milldown College

10 What is the problem with apprenticeships?

A. There are few available.
B. They are expensive.
C. They don’t give you any qualifications.
 104

Bray is a beautiful village about fifty kilometers west of London. An English man
named Howard Bonnier opened a restaurant there called the Palace three and a
half month ago. Not many people in Britain know his name but he's already quite
famous in France. This is because he has written in French magazines about
almost the best restaurants in that country. He's only 29 years old.
When Howard was a teenager, he often went to restaurants with his Mom and
Dad. He liked doing this so much that he decided not to buy lots of clothes and
CDs; instead, he used his money to visit France and eat in good restaurants. He
also bought a lot of French and English cookbooks - he says he has more than
two hundred and fifty!
He decided to open a restaurant because simply he loves cooking. Has it been an
easy thing to do? He says it's expensive to open your own restaurant and it's
much more difficult to cook for fifty people in the restaurant than cook for your
family, but he's sure he's done the right thing.

True or False?
1. There is a village about 50 kilometers east of London named Bray.

2. Howard's restaurant's been opened for less than a year.

3. Howard is French and he's famous in France.

4. He often writes about well-known restaurants in French magazines.

5. His parents took him out to restaurants when he was young.

6. He didn't spend much money on clothes and CDs so that he could have
money to eat in good French restaurants.

7. He has bought more than 250 French and English cookbooks.

8. He says cooking is easy and he can cook for everybody.

 105
B. Matching
Here is an example of matching question in which you are required to match
the name of restaurants with suitable people.

Food and restaurants

Are you looking for somewhere special to go this weekend? Do you want to try
something new? Check out one of these hot new restaurants.

Last Days of the Raj

A centrally located Indian restaurant, perfect for eating before or after the
cinema or a show. In summer enjoy your meal in the beautiful garden. The most
popular dishes are lamb and chicken cooked with mild, medium or hot spices.
For brave customers there is extra hot!

A Taste of Tuscany

Whether you’d like a great value-for-money lunch or a relaxed evening meal in

stylish surroundings, this is the place for you. The chefs have all been trained in
Italy and they make both traditional and contemporary dishes. We recommend
the pasta and seafood.

Your Local Caff

Remember when cafés served full English breakfasts – sausages, beans, fried
bread, bacon and eggs – with a strong cup of tea? Well, this place still does and
you can have your breakfast at any time you like during the day while you listen
to your favorite tunes from the 1980s.

The Lemon Tree

This pretty restaurant serves healthy food that’s tasty too. Come in for a
vegetarian snack at lunchtime or a great fruit smoothie or a cappuccino and a
delicious piece of cake in the afternoon. Food is bought from local producers
whenever possible.

Fast Best

Fast food doesn’t have to be junk food, as this café proves. Do you fancy a really
good hamburger made with the best ingredients, or old-fashioned fish and chips
fried to perfection, all on the table in super-quick time? Speed and quality are
important here, and the prices aren’t bad either.

The Chocolate Box

The owner of this small café used to cook all kinds of food, but then she realized
she preferred desserts to anything else. If you want meat or fish, don’t come
here. They only do desserts! Lots of different kinds of sweets. Chocolate lovers
will be excited by the range of chocolate cakes.
 106
Matching:
1. 'My girlfriend and I are vegetarian. Could you recommend a suitable
restaurant for us?' Tom, aged 18
2. 'My friend has a sweet tooth and I want to take her somewhere special this
weekend.' Lucy, aged 16
3. 'My mates and I all love spicy food. Can you recommend somewhere good
for us to go tonight?' Dino, aged 21
4. 'I only get 30 minutes off for lunch and I'm in a hurry. Where can I get
something quick to eat?' Melissa, aged 27
5. 'Breakfast is the most important meal of the day in my opinion. Do you know
anywhere that serves a good brekkie?' Micky, aged 38
6. 'We love Italian food, especially pasta. Everyone loves Italian, don't they?
Any good Italians near here?' Momo, aged 22

This kind of question is difficult in some ways. It is time-consuming as we have

to read all of the small paragraphs carefully and this step is repeated over
questions. Furthermore, a wrong answer can lead to a series of incorrect choices
so that it is really easy to lose score. In some test, the matching can be more
challenging if they give more options than the questions.

As a result, the strategies to deal with this type is different from the multiple
choice or True/False. In order to deal with the problem of time when you have to
read all paragraphs, we must start with effective skimming. This is because
skimming will help map the paragraphs in your mind as you know what they are
about. Therefore, after you identify key words in questions, you will jump into the
paragraph that might contain the information you want. Then you only need to scan
a single paragraph to check your answer. This process takes much less time than
scanning from the beginning paragraph. To sum up, the key to sufficiently manage
this type of question is a combination of skimming and scanning skills.

C. Gap fill

Gap fill questions can vary a lot in form and difficulty. There are some common
types of gap fill such as filling in chart, table, diagram, sentences and summary.
Also, the level of difficulty will increase a lot if it has no words given, words limit and
the order of gaps do not appear as the order of information from the text. To deal
with this type, one of the most important thing to do at the beginning is to decide
 107
the part of speech that is needed particular blanks. This method will narrow down
possible answers, so the decision is much easier. Another tip is to figure out the
structure of the passage as it gives the map of flow of information. Then following
the map and apply scanning skill will take much less time. In order to do that, you
should notice the change of ideas from paragraph to paragraph and the use of linkers
that connect different information in the passage. Last but not least, you should
double check your answer because the correct one must meet all requirements:
meaning, part of speech, word limit and spelling.

Tips for being a super-organised student

I have always admired students who hand their homework in on time and never
forget to do it. Me, on the other hand, … OK, I admit. I’m terrible at getting
myself organized!
But lately I’ve started keeping a small study diary. I write down everything I
need to do and when it needs to be done by. Then I write a reminder a few days
before the date just in case. It’s helping.
So I was wondering, what are your tips for getting organized? Post a comment
below. I’m hoping we can all share some tips to teach us all better study skills.
Comments
Hana
Good question, Amy. I always spend about five minutes at the end of the day
tidying up the desktop on my computer. I make a backup of important
documents. I delete things I don’t need any more and put everything into the
correct folder.
Amy
Nice tip, Hana. I think it’s a good idea to do a little bit of tidying up every day.
Then it becomes a habit and your desktop is always organized.
Gloria
The most important thing is to start studying a few weeks before the exams and
not leave it until the night before! That’s just common sense, I think.
Amy
Thanks, Gloria! I agree.
Lou
Hi, Amy. My tip is to have a big noticeboard in your bedroom, divided into
different sections. I’ve got one. It’s a whiteboard. I’ve got a section for each
school subject and another one for other stuff. I use board pens to write
reminders and I make sure I look at it every day. The best part is when I remove
something from the board!
Amy
Great tip, Lou. I’ve got a cork board with pins. I use it in the same way.
 108
Write ONE word to fill the gaps:
Amy is asking for (1)……………….. about organizing school work. She keeps a (2)
……………… with a record of her homework. She also writes a (3) ……………….. in case
she forgets.
Hana thinks it's important to keep your computer (4) …………………………..… clean and
tidy. She deletes things she doesn’t need and puts her work into separate (5)
……………...
Gloria says it's important to start studying in plenty of time and not to leave things
until the night (6) …………………….
Lou’s tip is to use a noticeboard, divided into sections for each (7) ……………………….
He thinks the best thing about this idea is the feeling he gets when he (8)
…………….... an item.

SUMMARY
 There are always a main idea and supporting details in every effective
paragraph.
 Supporting details are aimed at providing facts, illustrations and proof
that support the main idea of the paragraph.
 There are mainly two types of supporting details: major details and
minor details.
 Minor details provide further explanation or illustrations of major details.
 Scanning technique is to look for position of specific information.
 Scanning is important as most questions in reading passage require scanning
skill.
 There is a wide range of question types in scanning and each of them need
particular process and tips to deal with.

PRACTICE
Exercise 1. For each of the paragraph, identify its main idea, major and
minor detail.

Main _________________________________________________________
idea
 109

Major 1._______________________________________________________
detail
2._______________________________________________________

3._______________________________________________________

Minor 1._______________________________________________________
detail
2._______________________________________________________

3._______________________________________________________

Topic:
Main idea:
Major details Minor details
110
 111
When students feel confident and supported by the tools they’re using, it
changes the game for everybody. It allows teachers and students to personalize
education with assistive tools and built-in accommodations that can help every
student achieve success. It also adds an extra component to the lesson that
encourages students to develop their learning skills. Eventually, students ask
themselves “How can I be self-directed and how can I use this device to find
what I need to support my learning?”. We are letting students problem solve and
engage themselves in ways that they never thought possible. They are now able
to navigate through programs to help find their lessons and the resources they
can use for digital assistance, like Immersive Reader, for example.

Natural disasters seem to be a growing concern as of late. The impact of these

disasters is felt in communities around the world and very close to home for
many students. By studying natural disasters, students examine themes in
global citizenship, learning about the threats people on Earth face and how these
threats are managed. Reading books that focus on disaster readiness and tell the
stories of disaster survivors allow students to develop awareness about how
governments, organizations, and ordinary citizens are affected by natural
disasters and take action to reduce those effects. Through this awareness,
students are encouraged to consider their roles as responsible global citizens,
asking themselves what steps they can take to promote disaster readiness in
their local and global communities.

There’s a problem with special education. In addition to educating special needs

kids, teachers are asked to manually track their symptoms and behaviors
throughout the school day. It’s time to help teachers manage this responsibility
so they can get back to doing what they truly love—teaching—but how? A better
data tracking tool is the answer. In special education, missed symptoms and
behaviors mean missed IEP goals, and that’s a problem for school districts. But
how can one special education teacher be expected to track up to 10 kids for a
total of 60 – 80 symptoms, and recall all of that data for end-of-day reporting?
It’s simple: Special education teachers need an easy way to track symptoms and
behaviors in the moment.
 112
Exercise 2. Multiple choice & True/False
The hardest language

People often ask which is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy
to answer because there are many factors to take into consideration. Firstly, in a
first language the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother
tongue naturally, so the question of how hard a language is to learn is only
relevant when learning a second language.

A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to
learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very
similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect
learning a second language. The greater the differences between the second
language and our first, the harder it will be for most people to learn. Many
people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced
by the thought of learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of
Chinese does appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners. However, for
Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language,
learning writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the
Roman alphabet.

Some people seem to learn languages readily, while others find it very difficult.
Teachers and the circumstances in which the language is learned also play an
important role, as well as each learner's motivation for learning. If people learn a
language because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster
than people studying a language that has no direct use in their day to day life.

Apparently, British diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the
second hardest language is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to
many, but the language that they have found to be the most problematic is
Hungarian, which has 35 cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is
subject, object, genitive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest
language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who
are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulty. However,
Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it might cause more
difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it.
 113
Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages
more difficult. In the case of Hungarian for British learners, it is not a question of
the writing system, which uses a similar alphabet, but the grammatical
complexity, though native speakers of related languages may find it easier, while
struggling with languages that the British find relatively easy.

No language is easy to learn well, though languages which are related to our first
language are easier. Learning a completely different writing system is a huge
challenge, but that does not necessarily make a language more difficult than
another. In the end, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the
most difficult language in the world.

1. The question of how hard a language is to learn is relevant to both first and
second language acquisition.
2. Portuguese is definitely easier than Chinese.
3. A Japanese speaker may well find the Chinese writing system easier than a
speaker of European language.
4. The Hungarian alphabet causes problems for British speakers.
5. Hungarian is the hardest language in the world.
6. Hungarian has as many cases as Tabassaran
7. Many British diplomats learn Tabassaran.
8. The writer thinks that learning new writing systems is easy.

The Effects of Stress

There is a famous expression in English: "Stop the world, I want to get off!" This
expression refers to a feeling of panic, or stress, that makes a person want to
stop whatever they are doing, try to relax, and become calm again. 'Stress'
means pressure or tension. It is one of the most common causes of health
problems in modern life. Too much stress results in physical, emotional, and
mental health problems.

There are numerous physical effects of stress. Stress can affect the heart. It can
increase the pulse rate, make the heart miss beats, and can cause high blood
pressure. Stress can affect the respiratory system. It can lead to asthma. It can
cause a person to breathe too fast, resulting in a loss of important carbon
114
dioxide. Stress can affect the stomach. It can cause stomach aches and
problems digesting food. These are only a few examples of the wide range of
illnesses and symptoms resulting from stress.

Emotions are also easily affected by stress. People suffering from stress often
feel anxious. They may have panic attacks. They may feel tired all the time.
When people are under stress, they often overreact to little problems. For
example, a normally gentle parent under a lot of stress at work may yell at a
child for dropping a glass of juice. Stress can make people angry, moody, or
nervous.

Long-term stress can lead to a variety of serious mental illnesses. Depression, an

extreme feeling of sadness and hopelessness, can be the result of continued and
increasing stress. Alcoholism and other addictions often develop as a result of
overuse of alcohol or drugs to try to relieve stress. Eating disorders, such as
anorexia, are sometimes caused by stress and are often made worse by stress.
If stress is allowed to continue, then one's mental health is put at risk.

It is obvious that stress is a serious problem. It attacks the body. It affects the
emotions. Untreated, it may eventually result in mental illness. Stress has a
great influence on the health and well-being of our bodies, our feelings, and our
minds. So, reduce stress: stop the world and rest for a while.

1. Which of the followings is not a common problem caused by stress?

A. Physical problems
B. Anecdotal problems
C. Metal problems
D. Emotional problems
2. According to the essay, which of the following parts of the body does not
have physical problems caused by stress?
A. The arms
B. The stomach
C. The lung
D. The heart
3. Which of the following show how stress can affect emotions?
A. It can make people feel nervous
B. It can cause panic attacks
 115
C. It can make people feel elated
D. It can make people feel angry
4. Which of the following can result from long-term stress?
A. Bliss
B. depression
C. alcoholism
D. whimsy
5. Choose the best answer to explain how alcoholism is caused by stress?
A. Alcohol is used to relieved stress
B. Alcohol is popular
C. Alcohol is a chemical
D. Alcohol is similar to medicine
6. Which of the following is not caused by long-term stress
A. Bloating
B. Addiction
C. Anorexia
D. Alcoholism
7. Stress can affect respiratory system by _________________
A. Causing stomach problems
B. Causing asthma
C. A lot of carbon dioxide
D. Causing breathing problems
8. Symptoms of emotional stress include __________________
A. Feeling joyous
B. Feeling hungry
C. Feeling thirsty
D. Feeling tired

Amundsen’s Expedition to the South Pole

A) The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14
December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as
part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their
base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return
journey.
 116
B) Amundsen’s plans had focused on the Arctic and the conquest of the North Pole
by means of an extended drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use of Nansen’s
polar exploration ship Fram, and undertook extensive fundraising. Preparations for
this expedition were disrupted when, in 1909, the rival American explorers
Frederick Cook and Robert E. Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole.
Amundsen then changed his plan and began to prepare for a conquest of the South
Pole; uncertain of the extent to which the public and his backers would support
him, he kept this revised objective secret. When he set out in June 1910, even
most of his crew believed they were embarking on an Arctic drift.

C) The expedition’s success was widely applauded. The story of Scott’s heroic
failure overshadowed its achievement in the United Kingdom, unable to accept
that a Norwegian had been the first person to set foot in the South Pole, but not
in the rest of the world. Amundsen’s decision to keep his true plans secret until
the last moment was criticised by some. Recent polar historians have more fully
recognised the skill and courage of Amundsen’s party; the permanent scientific
base at the pole bears his name, together with that of Scott.

Questions 1-6

In which paragraph (A-C) is the following information found.

1. The success of Roald Amundsen was celebrated worldwide, except in one

country.

2. Amundsen only heard about the death of Scott after he had reached the South
Pole.

3. The base at the South Pole bears both Amundsen’s name and Scott’s.

4. Amundsen had originally planned an expedition to the North Pole.

5. When Amundsen decided to aim for the South Pole he did not reveal his
intentions.

6. The British did not celebrate Amundsen’s success as did other countries due to
the death of Scott.
 117
Air Rage

The first recorded case of an airline passenger turning seriously violent during a
flight, a phenomenon now widely known as “air rage”, happened in 1947 on a
flight from Havana to Miami. A drunk man assaulted another passenger and bit a
flight attendant. However, the man escaped punishment because it was not then
clear under whose legal control a crime committed on plane was, the country
where the plane was registered or the country where the crime was committed.
In 1963, at the Tokyo convention, it was decided that the laws of the country
where the plane is registered take precedence.

The frequency of air rage has expanded out of proportion to the growth of air
travel. Until recently few statistics were gathered about air rage, but those that
have been indicate that passengers are increasingly likely to cause trouble or
engage in violent acts. For example, in 1998 there were 266 air rage incidents out
of approximately four million passengers, a 400% increase from 1995. In the same
period American Airlines showed a 200% rise. Air travel is predicted to rise by 5%
internationally by 2010 leading to increased airport congestion. This, coupled with
the flying public’s increased aggression, means that air rage may become a major
issue in coming years.

Aside from discomfort and disruption, air rage poses some very real dangers to
flying. The most extreme of these is when out of control passengers enter the
cockpit. This has actually happened on a number of occasions, the worst of which
have resulted in the death and injury of pilots or the intruder taking control of the
plane, almost resulting in crashes. In addition, berserk passengers sometimes
attempt to open the emergency doors while in flight, putting the whole aircraft in
danger. These are extreme examples and cases of air rage more commonly result
in physical assaults on fellow passengers and crew such as throwing objects,
punching, stabbing or scalding with hot coffee.

Fill in the blanks with the given words:

The first time that an (1) ………. of air rage was recorded was in the 1940’s, but the
passenger was never actually charged for an offense because there were no clear
rules in place to specify where to prosecute. It was later (2) ………. that it would be
the country where the plane is registered. Air rage has (3) ………. significantly since
this time, growing by a staggering 400% from 1995 to 1998. Air rage is (4) ……….
to be a major problem in the future as air travel increases, as do levels of aggression.
 118
Angry (5) ………. can put everyone in danger including the pilots, the crew and the
other passengers, with some form of (6) ………. being the most common
consequence.

predicted rose incident passenger found assault

established occurring hoped increased injury passengers

REFERENCES

[1] Neil, A. J. (2002). Active Skills for Reading 2 (3 rd). National Geographic
Learning.

[2] Solis-Moreira, J. (2022, April 6). Study: Video game therapy may help
patients recover from a stroke at home. Health. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from
https://www.health.com/condition/stroke/video-game-therapy-stroke-patients-
recover

[3] Reading comprehension exercises - testing. UsingEnglish.com. (n.d.).

Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/

[4] Better Data Tracking Can Rescue Special Education. Education for Today
and Tomorrow | L'Education Aujourd'hui et Demain. (2019, June 5). Retrieved
July 27, 2022, from https://teachmag.com/archives/10931