Reading Module -2

7/27/2019 Reading Module -2

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Skimming is when you quickly read for just the mainidea of a text, without thinking about specific details.

Skimming



Know what you want

Before you start skimming, ask yourself what you want

to get from the book or article under your nose. Thinkof two or three terms that describe what you want toknow, and as you skim, keep an eye out for those twoor three terms. Aimlessly skimming with no particular

purpose can cause drowsiness, and eventually, sleep.

Step-1



Read vertically as well as horizontally

When skimming, you move your eyes vertically as

much as you move your eyes horizontally. In other words, you move your eyes down the page as much as you move them from side to side. Skimming is a bitlike running down stairs. Yes, you should take one step

at a time, and running down stairs is reckless, but youalso get there faster by running.

Step - 2



Think like the authorEvery article, book, and Web page is written to make a pointof some kind, and if you can detect the author’s strategies

for making his point, you can separate the important fromthe unimportant material in the course of your reading. You can focus on the original, meaningful material andskip over the material that just supports the author’sargument without advancing it.Detecting the author’s strategies requires you to put

yourself in his place. Besides noticing the material on thepage, notice how he presents the material. See whether youcan recognize how the author places background material,secondary arguments, tangential information, and justplain frippery.

Step - 3



Preread before you start skimming

Examine an article before you read it. By prereading an

article before you skim, you can pinpoint the parts of the article that require your undivided attention andthe parts that you can skip.

Step - 4



Try to detect the main idea in the introductory paragraphs

The introductory paragraphs usually express the mainidea, argument, or goal of an article or chapter. Readthese paragraphs closely. They tell you what theauthor’s aim is, which can help you decide early on

whether the article or chapter is worth reading indetail.

Step - 5



Read the first sentence in each paragraph

The introductory sentence of each paragraph usually

describes what follows in the paragraph. When youskim, read the first sentence in each paragraph andthen decide whether the rest of the paragraph deservesa read. If it doesn’t, move on.

Step - 6



Don’t necessarily read complete sentences

When skimming, you don’t even have to read complete

sentences. If the start of a sentence holds no promiseof the sentence giving you the information you want,skip to the next sentence. Read the start of sentences with an eye to whether they will yield usefulinformation, and read them all the way through only if they appear to be useful at first glance. DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE WORDS YOU DON’TUNDERSTAND.

Step - 7



Skip examples and proofs

Authors often present examples to prove a point, but if

you believe the point doesn’t need proving, you canskip the examples.

Step - 8



Butterflies are one of the most beautiful and interesting

creatures on earth. Their attractive, brilliant colors catchinterest immediately. They have wings of varying shapesand sizes, and some even appear to have "eyes" on them!Some butterflies are cleverly camouflaged with coloursthat assist them in blending with the plant life in theirenvironments. The delicate physical structure of thebutterfly (along with hair-like legs and antennae) addsto its gentle beauty. Some of these curious insects vary distinctly in size, with the largest-known wing span at

four inches, and the smallest measured from wing tip totip at one-half inch. Without these glorious, artfulcreations darting about in the world, our lives wouldindeed be much more drab and boring.

Now try YOURSELF





Why mistakes are made

Scanning tells you where to find the answer, not

what the answer is The first step is to understand that scanning is a

limited skill in IELTS: it tells you where you can findthe answer, it does not tell you what the answer is. To

find the answer, you need a separate skill.

Very Important



you can scan the text for key words in the question,but before you answer you must read the wholequestion for meaning

don’t stop when you have simply word matched one word, here “ A particular word ”scanning is just onestep in the process: it tells you are in the right place, itdoesn’t necessarily tell you what the answer is

scanning is just one step in the process: it tells you arein the right place, it doesn’t necessarily tell you whatthe answer is

MORE TIPS

E



Examp e All these activities may have damaging environmental impacts. For example,land clearing for agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemicalfertilisers and pesticides may contaminate water supplies; more intensive

farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to exacerbate soil erosion;and the spread of monoculture and use of highyielding varieties of crops havebeen accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants whichmight have provided some insurance against pests or diseases in future.Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries.The United States, where the most careful measurements have been done,discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at arate likely to diminish the soil's productivity. The country subsequently embarkedupon a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest.Topsoil in India and China is vanishing much faster than in America.

Research completed in 1982 found that in the United States soil erosion A reduced the productivity of farmland by 20 per cent.B was almost as severe as in India and China.C was causing significant damage to 20 per cent of farmland.D could be reduced by converting cultivated land to meadow or forest.

You have 20 seconds Time up

E



Examp eGovernment policies have frequently compounded the environmentaldamage that farming can cause. In the rich countries, subsidies for

growing crops and price supports for farm output drive up the price of land. The annual value of these subsidies is immense: about $250billion, or more than all World Bank lending in the 1980s. To increasethe output of crops per acre, a farmer's easiest option is to use more of the most readily available inputs: fertilisers and pesticides. Fertiliser usedoubled in Denmark in the period 1960-1985 and

increased in The Netherlands by 150 per cent. The quantity of pesticides applied has risen too: by 69 per cent in 1975-1984 inDenmark, for example, with a rise of 115 per cent in the frequency of application in the three years from 1981.

By the mid-1980s, farmers in Denmark A used 50 per cent less fertiliser than Dutch farmers.B used twice as much fertiliser as they had in 1960.C applied fertiliser much more frequently than in 1960.D more than doubled the amount of pesticide they used in just 3 years.

You have 20 seconds Time up

E



Examp eIn the late 1980s and early 1990s some efforts were made to reducefarm subsidies. The most dramatic example was that of New Zealand,

which scrapped most farm support in 1984. A study of the environmentaleffects, conducted in 1993, found that the end of fertiliser subsidies hadbeen followed by a fall in fertiliser use (a fall compounded by the declinein world commodity prices, which cut farm incomes). The removal of subsidies also stopped land-clearing and over-stocking, which in thepast had been the principal causes of erosion. Farms began to

diversify. The one kind of subsidy whose removal appeared to havebeen bad for the environment was the subsidy to manage soil erosion.

Which one of the following increased in New Zealand after 1984? A farm incomesB use of fertiliser C over-stockingD farm diversification

Time up You have 20 seconds



SKIM // SCAN You look at a newspaper to see if there’s a film on TV

tonight.

You look at a train timetable to see when the next trainis due.

You need to decide if a long article will be useful forsome research you are doing.

You have a meeting in ten minutes, and you haven’t

read the report you are going to discuss.



Predicting Content Before you read a text in the IELTS exam, it is a

good idea to predict what you are going to read.One way is to use the information in the title ( or

main heading ), the summary paragraph and any subheadings.





After looking at the article which do you think best describes

the text??

1) Information about universities, promoting each institutionas a good place to study.

2) A holiday brochure, ‘selling’ the UK as a destination for aquick break.

3) A magazine article, giving advice on living and studyingabroad in different English-speaking countries.



Documents

Reading Module -2