Reading Skills

Teaching purpose: To improve the students’ ability of reading

Teaching aids: multimedia computer

Step 1: Greeting

Step 2: Introduction:

Introduce something about Christmas Day, using some pictures.

Ask students whether they receive some gifts from their parents. Then tell them that I will give them a gift, that is, reading skills.

Before we talk about it, I will show you a picture. Can you guess who he is?

In Unit15 Francis Bacon described three methods of reading. What are they?

(tasting, swallowing, chewing-and-digesting)

Then also in the text he gives us more reading tips. Can you tell me the details?

(first, read a chapter to get a general idea./ Second, do not stop every time you come to a word or phrase you do not know.)

Why Bacon advised us not to use a dictionary every time ?

(Because we’ll find the unknown word appears again, perhaps several times, and by the end of the chapter you’ll have guessed its meaning.)

And we will feel very tired if we look up the new words every time.

Also can we use a dictionary to look up new words when you have an exam?

Step 3: Presentation.

So how to improve our reading ability?

Of course you should read more. Besides, knowing some reading skills is also helpful. Today let’s discuss some reading skills together.

First let’s discuss the ability of guessing. This ability is so important in reading every passage. I divided it into four parts. We’ll deal with it one by one.

Part 1:Guessing ability:

Is it true that we only don’t know the meanings of new words?

“a training leg” Do you know the meaning of leg here?…So guessing includes new words, learned words but new meanings, pronouns and some phrases and sentences.

A. new words

1. Robert is nine years old and Joanna is seven. They live at Mount Ebenezer. Their father has a big property. In Australia they call a farm a property.

“property” in Australia is a _______.(NMET89)

A. house B. school C. farm D. radio

Which sentence can support your answer?

They call a farm a property.

O OC

That means a farm is a property.

2. Shu Pulong has helped at least 1000 people bitten by snakes. It was seeing people with snake bites that led me to this career.” He said.(NMET92)

Which of the following words can take the place of the word “ career” in the first paragraph?

A. conclusion B. story C. incident D. job

From where can you get the meaning? –Helped at least 1000 people bitten by snakes—This means he was the person who did this work.

3.Will’s bike has a flat tire. He cannot ride it. He has taken out the inner tube. He has tested it and has found the puncture. The test is easy. You get a basin of water. You blow up the inner tube with a bike pump and put the tube into the water bit by bit. You mark the place where the air is coming out with a special pencil.

Will has marked the place where the puncture is……

The underlined word “puncture” in the text means____

A. a ball B. a rock

C. an especial cave D. a small hole made accidentally in a tire.

B. old words---new meanings

A bike tour and race will be held on August 26 and 27. At 5:30am, the riders will leave Tian’anmen Square and ride the first 35 kilometers as a training leg. Then the next 55 kilometers leg, from Yanjiao to Jixian, will be the first competitive part of the tour. The riders and their bikes will then be taken from Jixian to Changli.(NMET96)

The underlined word “leg” in “bike tour and race” probably means ________.

A. race B. practice C. part of the training D. part of the tour

Why can you get the right answer D.------From this sentence: the next 55 kilometers will be the first competitive part of the tour, we can know leg here means part of the tour.

C. Pronouns

One pioneer, in particular, who disagrees is David Tebburt, the founder of Computer town UK. Although many people see this as a successful attempt to bring people closer to the computer, David does not see it that way. He says that Computer town Uk was formed for just the opposite reason, to bring computers to people and make them “people-literate.”(NMET99)

The underlined word “it” in the second paragraph refers to the idea that Computer towns ______.

A .help to set up more computer clubs

B. bring people to learn to use computers

C. bring more experts to work together

D. help to sell computers to the public

What can support your answer?----Many people see this as a successful attempt to bring people closer to the computer.

D. Phrases:

“As I stood in front of the grave of President Richard Nixon, I was thinking about the time 25 years ago when this president helped bring the United States and China closer together. Young people of our two countries should help this relationship grow..”

… He was one of 80 middle-school students from China attending a month-long “Youth Summit”…

The Youth Summit was aimed at increasing understanding and friendship between young students of the two countries through visits and discussion…(NMET98)

The words “Youth Summit” refer to ______.

A. visits to the Nixon Library

B. the Chinese students’ visit to the U.S

C. a meeting discussing relations between China and the U.S

D. activities to strengthen the ties between the Chinese and American students.

----The youth Summit was aimed at increasing understanding and friendship between young students of the two countries through visits and discussion.

Sentences

Three lies in one day! Yet Dick Spivak is just an ordinary man. Each time, he told himself that sometimes the truth causes too many problems. Most of us tell us much the same white lies, harmless untruths that help to save trouble. How often do we tell white lies? It depends in part on our age, education, and even where we live. According to one U.S study, women are more truthful than men, and honesty increases as we get older. (NMET98)

When the writer says “Dick is just an ordinary man”, he means____

A. it is common that people tell white lies

B. Dick could do nothing about bad traffic

C. It is common that people delay their payment

D. Dick found it hard to deal with everyday problems

Most of us tell us much the same white lies, harmless untruths that help to save trouble. This sentence can tell us the right answer should be A.

How to improve your guessing ability?

1. pay attention to some words and sentences such as: that is, call+O+OC, in other words, that is to say, attributive clause different words refer to the same meaning and so on.

2. the most important thing is that you should guess the meanings from the situation.

Part 2:Long sentences

When reading you find some long sentences difficult to understand. Now let’s talk about how to analyze a long sentence..

Dad, in a hurry to get home before dark so he could go for a run, had forgotten to wear his safety—a mistake 75% of the US population make every day.(NMET99)

Dad, in a hurry to get home before dark

n. the phrases of infinitive

so he could go for a run,

adverbial clause

had forgotten to wear his safety—

verb + object

a mistake 75% of the US population make every day. (NMET99)

noun + attributive clause

The adventure of the lost book began September 4 when Cory Luxmoore arrived from

England to deliver the diary of his ancestor to the library Company, which he and his wife considered to be the best home for the diary. (NMET99)

Analyze: 1. the main sentence

2. the structure of the sentence?

3. the purpose of each part?

The adventure( of the lost book) began

modify the subject

September 4 when Cory Lemoore arrived

time ttributive clause, modify the time

from England ( to deliver the diary of his ancestor)

the purpose of his arriving

to the library Company, (which he and his wife

attributive clause,

considered to be the best home for the diary. )(NMET)

modify the library Company OC of Library

Methods:

1.Seize the main sentence

2.Analyze the structure of the sentence.

e.g.: know the conj. Participle and some clauses

Also, it can help you to do some proof reading.

Since that we really needed was a good and quiet 1.------------

place for some conversation, so I selected one only for 2.------------

people including myself who belongs to a particular club. 3.------------

Ask student to do the proof reading using the structure of the sentence.

Part 3: paraphrasing

When doing reading ,you should have the ability of paraphrasing., that is to say, some sentences have the similar meaning. For example:

He does well in English. We can have other sentences to mean the same meaning. Can you tell me some?

He does well in English. 1.phrase change

He is good at English. do well ------ be good at

His English is very good. 2.the change of the part of speech

He learns English well. well( adv.)------good (adj.)

He studies English well.

When reading, you should change the sentence that the passage shows you into another sentence in the exercises.

A. Most of the diary is a recorded of big events in Philadelphia…..

…. Cory Luxmoore arrived from England to deliver the diary of his ancestor to the Library Company(of Philadelphia), which he and his wife considered to be the best home for the diary. (NMET99)

Philadelphia is thought the best home for the diary because_______________

A. it is written in Philadelphia B. it tells stories about Philadelphia

C. people in the city are interested in old things

D. the British and the Americans once fought in Philadelphia.

In the passage: …consider Philadelphia to be the best

home for the diary

In the exercise: …Philadelphia is thought the best

home for the diary

Verb change: consider-------think

Voice change: active voice------passive voice

Be a record of ------------tell stories about

.B. when Doug went out the third time, the woman looked out of the window because she was _____.

A. surprised at his being interested in the bin

B. afraid that he would discover her secret

C. unhappy that he didn’t enjoy the meal

D. curious to know what disturbed him

In the passage, we can find this sentence:

The third time he left, I went to the window to see what he was doing.

went to the window to see---- Looked out of the window

to see what he was doing ----She was curious to know what disturbed him

C. Maybe ten-year-old Elizabeth put it best when she said to her father, “ But, Dad, you can’t dead.”

Dad, in a hurry to get home before dark so he could go for a run, had forgotten to wear his safety belt--- a mistake 75% of the US population make every day. The big question is why.

62. Why sis Elizabeth say to her father, “ But Dad, you can’t be healthy if you’re dead”?

A. He was driving at great speed B. He was running across the street.

C. He didn’t have his safety belt on D. He didn’t take his medicine on time.

63. The reason Father was in a hurry to get home was that he_____.

A. wasn’t feeling very well B. hated to drive in the dark

C. wanted to take some exercises D. didn’t want to be caught by the police

Then ask students to choose the right answer and tell the similar sentences in the passage.

Had forgotten to wear his safety belt-----He didn’t have his belt on

So he could go for a run----to take some exercises

Part 4: Key words and topic sentences:

Just now we talked about guessing the meaning of some words, long sentences and paraphrasing. Now we will talk about the passage. Every passage has its topic so it contains topic sentences and key words. All these can help us to understand the clue , the meaning that the author wants to tell us. If you are good at this ability, you can do such kind of questions easily. For example:

1. The best title of the passage is ______

2. The passage mainly tells us that _______

3. From the passage we can conclude that_______

4. What the writer wants to tell us is mainly that____

5. What we have learned from the article is about____

6. From the passage we can draw a conclusion that_________

7. From the passage we can infer_________

8. The main purpose of the passage is ______

9. According to the passage, which of the following is true/not true?

10. In the writer’s opinion, _____________

So it is important for us to know the key words and the topic sentences.

Book, lose, search, discovery/find, deliver, leave, gain. (NMET99A)

From these words you can get a simple idea of the passage. And when reading, it is not easy for you to stop the clue. Ask the students to retell a story with these words.

And help the students to choose the right answer with these key words.

51. This article mainly tells about the story of ______

A. a lost diary B. Deborah Logan

C. Cory Lemoore D. the Library Company

52. From the text, we learn that the diary is now owned by____

A.Tom Brennan B. an unknown person

C. A Philadelphia magazine D. the Library Company of Philadelphia

(NMET2000C)

The subject discussed in this text is _________

the process of reaching decisions

the difference between poker and chess

the secret of making good business plans

the value of information is winning games

First get the students to tell the topic sentences of the passage. Then ask them to tell the idea of each paragraph with the help of the topic sentences.

Paragraph1 Paragraph 2

Decision-thinking is like poker. The founder of game theory.

The mental process is similar Perfect information----win by logic and skills

Imperfect information-----

not know in advance like poker

The process of

reaching decision decision-thinking

Paragraph 3

The mistaken idea about business is that it can be treated as a game of perfect information. In fact it is an imperfect information

From the passage we know the topic sentences and the key words: decision-thinking.

And the meaning of it is the process of reaching decisions.

If students can find out the key words and the topic sentences, they can choose the right answer easily.

Step 4: Homework

Students use these reading skills to do some reading comprehension.