READING SKILLS.

READING SKILLS

Reading is one of the most essential skills for a student at university.  Consider (think about) the 4 basic ways in which we read.  

1. Scanning
2. Previewing / Predicting
3. Skimming
4. Intensive reading

1. Scanning

What is scanning?  Scanning is reading very fast, looking for specific information, e.g. times and dates in a schedule, page numbers in an index, or words in a dictionary.  When we scan, we do not read every single word.  This helps us to read as quickly as possible.

Example Practice 1

Scan the text in the box below and write the answer to this question: When was the report published?    ______________________________

US economic experts are divided as to whether the US economy is in recession or is on the road to recovery.  Consumer spending is on the increase, but, on the other hand, there has been little improvement in unemployment figures.  In a report published on 3rd February 2002, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, was cautiously optimistic that the US economy was improving.

Example Practice 2

Scan the text in the box below and write the answer to this question: What is the name of the Microsoft Internet browser?  ___________________________________________

The Microsoft company is the world’s largest producer of computer software.  In addition to its highly successful Microsoft Word software package, the company markets its own Internet browser called Microsoft Explorer.  The company has recently faced legal action from competitors who claim that Microsoft has an unfair monopoly.  The chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, may have to divide the software and Internet browser parts of his company

2. Previewing / Predicting

“Pre-” means “before”, so when we preview and predict we are already looking and thinking about what we will read before we start.  We can preview a text by looking at the title and any pictures or graphs and then we predict, or guess, what we will be reading about.

Example Practice 3

Read the newspaper headlines in the box below and answer the questions.

Permission For New Airport Not Given

SHARE PRICES JUMP

300 Workers Face Job Cuts

1. Will the new airport be built?   YES / NO

1. The price of shares increased, decreased or stayed the same?  ________________

1. The workers will probably lose their jobs.  YES / NO

3. Skimming

Skimming is perhaps the most useful reading skill for university students to develop.  After we predict what a text might be about, we skim quickly for the main idea.  To do this you should again read the title and look at any diagrams and then quickly read, by skimming, the first sentence of each paragraph and also most of the last paragraph.  The last paragraph often contains a summary of the whole text!

Example Practice 4

Skim the newspaper article in the box below and answer the questions which follow.

[pic 1]   Predict – what do you think the text will be about? (the topic)  __________[pic 2]

Big Macs in Russia

McDonald’s hamburgers came to Russia not long ago.  McDonald’s is a world-famous company xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Started in California xxxxxxxxxxxx in Paris, Tokyo and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, but not in Russia.

Then the Russian government changed xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx open some McDonald’s restaurants xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  near Red Square xxxxx

xxxxxxxxx “Big Mac”,  xxxxxxxxxxxxx a popular sandwich xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Some Russians are not happy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx eat only hamburgers and forget about traditional Russian food.

1. McDonald’s is a

    a)  kind of Russian food.

    b)  Russian company.

    c)  restaurant company.

2. There were no McDonald’s restaurants in Russia before because

    a)  Russians do not like hamburgers.

    b)  the Russian government did not want them.

    c)  there were McDonald’s restaurants in other countries.

3. The “Big Mac” is a

     a)  kind of Russian food.

     b)  restaurant.

     c)  kind of sandwich.

Example Practice 5

When you skim through a passage, it is also helpful if you can identify keywords which will give you the main idea.

Skim through the article in the box below.  Some keywords are underlined.  What is the main idea?  _________________________________________________

Macroeconomics is concerned with the interactions in the economy as a whole.  It deliberately simplifies the individual building blocks of the analysis in order to retain a manageable analysis of the complete interaction of the economy.  For example, macroeconomists typically do not worry about the breakdown of consumer goods into cars, bicycles, televisions and calculators.  They prefer to treat them all as a single bundle called “consumer goods” because they are more interested in studying the interaction between households’ purchases of consumer goods and firms’ decisions about purchases of machinery and buildings.

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