SELF-CHECK 3

Here are two texts and some examples of exercises which have been written to improve students' reading skills. Study them carefully - which sub-skills are being taught? Who are they suitable for?

EXAMPLE TEXT 1

(The student would have a diagram to go with this text)

Exercise 1

Read through the text quickly and say whether it

describes what a typical English house looks like

describes how a typical English house has changed in the recent decades

describes the writer's attitude to a typical English house

THE TYPICAL ENGLISH HOUSE

A detached house stands on its own. A semi-detached house is joined to the house next door along the central wall. The ‘semi’ is the most typical kind of English house. It has front and back gardens and often a garage at the side.

The outline on the next page shows the ground floor of a typical ‘left-hand’ semi. It has a lot of rooms, but if you look at the rooms you will see that they are all quite small. People often ‘live’ in the dining room, keeping the lounge for visitors. This means that they spend most of their time in a room only about 11' 6" x 10' 6". The dining room in this house is connected to the lounge by a room divider, and the kitchen is connected to the dining room by a hatch in the wall. Both the lounge and the dining room have open fireplaces. The kitchen has a sink unit on the back wall of the house and the back door is on the left. The front door opens into the hall. There is one other way in and out of the house and this is through French windows which open onto the garden to the rear of the dining room. The house from front to back measures 24' 6", the lounge being 13' in length.

Exercise 2

Now read the text more carefully and answer the following questions about the house.

1. [diagram] Put in the dimensions which you know.

2. [diagram] Mark with a cross the location of the attached "semi".

3. [picture] - which room is this?

Exercise 3

Fill in the blanks based on the diagram.

1. Figure 1 marks the position of a ......

2. Figure 2 marks the position of a ......

3. Figure 3 marks the position of a ......

4. The two figures 4 mark the position of the ......

5. Figure 5 marks the position of the ......

6. Figure 6 marks the position of the ......

7. Figure 7 marks the position of the ......

EXAMPLE TEXT 2

Pre-reading question

The following words will be used in the text. What do you think the text will be about? What events will happen in the text? Make notes of your ideas.

careless

criticized

violation

freeway

damage

Exercise 1

Read the following text and answer the question after each paragraph. Then read on and find out if your guesses are correct. [Note: the text is projected onto a screen. Students are not shown the next part of the text until the teacher has elicited their answer to the question on the previous part].

1 Colleen was in a hurry, which made her driving even more careless than usual. Her boyfriend Simon had already criticized her many times for failing to stop completely at stop signs. That's what they call a “California, or rolling, stop,” he told her.

5 “If the cops catch you sliding through a stop like that,” he said, wagging a finger at her, “they'll give you a ticket for running a stop sign. That's a moving violation. That means at least a $100 ticket, plus eight hours of driving school for another $30.”

What do you think Colleen said in reply?

9 “I know, I know,” she replied. “But I never do it when they're around, so how can they catch me?” Simon was about to tell her that cops have a habit of suddenly appearing out of nowhere, but Colleen told him to stop thinking so negatively. “You are bad luck,” she said. “When you talk like that, you make bad things happen.” He told her that life doesn't work that way.

Why do you think Colleen was in a hurry on that particular day?

15 Colleen was in a hurry because she needed to drop off a package at the post office. It had to get to New York by Wednesday. She exited the freeway and pulled up at the stop sign. No cars were coming. It was safe to pull out. She hit the gas pedal.

What do you think happened next?

19 Bang! The car in front of her was still sitting there. The driver was a young woman, who got out of her car, walked back to look at the damage to her new car, and started yelling at Colleen.

“What were you waiting for?” Colleen demanded.

From

Now read the notes you made before you read the text. Were any of your initial guesses about the text correct?

Exercise 2

Make notes of the expressions and structures used in the text to

a) warn somebody

b) reply to a warning

Exercise 3

Are the following statements true or false?

1. It was the first time that Simon criticised Colleen for her driving style.

2. Colleen believed that if she couldn't see any cops when going through a stop sign, she wouldn't be caught.

3. Colleen was in a hurry to get to New York.

4. The young woman reacted calmly to the incident.

5. The young woman's car was damaged.

Exercise 4

Explain what is meant by the following words ie what the author is referring to.

1. that – line 3

2. it – line 9

3. they – line 9

4. it – line 16

5. there – line 19

Unit 3Module 2