Reading comprehension success part 1 ppsx

INTRODUCTION How to Use This Book ixBUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION LESSON 1 Getting the Essential Information 19 How to be an active reader, picking up clues in what you read LESSON 2 Find

READING COMPREHENSION

SUCCESS

IN 20 MINUTES A DAY

N E W Y O R K

READING

COMPREHENSION

SUCCESS

IN 20 MINUTES A DAY

3rd Edition

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Copyright © 2005 LearningExpress, LLC.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions

Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Reading comprehension success in 20 minutes a day.—3rd ed

p cm

ISBN 1-57685-494-9 (paper)

1 Reading comprehension—Problems, exercises, etc I Title II Title: Reading

comprehension success in twenty minutes a day

LB1050.45.C45 2005

428.4—dc22

2005047184 Printed in the United States of America

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Third Edition

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INTRODUCTION How to Use This Book ix

BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION

LESSON 1 Getting the Essential Information 19

How to be an active reader, picking up clues in what you read

LESSON 2 Finding the Main Idea 27

Looking beyond the facts, considering the author’s motive

LESSON 3 Defining Vocabulary in Context 33

Dealing with unfamiliar words without a dictionary

LESSON 4 The Difference between Fact and Opinion 39

Distinguishing between what an author knows and what an author believes to be true

LESSON 5 Putting It All Together 45

Practice in combining the skills you’ve learned in Lessons 1–4

Contents

v

LESSON 6 Start from the Beginning: Chronological Order 53

Working through passages that start at the beginning and finish at the end

of a sequence of events

LESSON 7 Order of Importance 61

Using the order in the writing to determine what is most important to the author

LESSON 8 Similarities and Differences: Compare and Contrast 67

Using comparisons to determine the author’s attitude

LESSON 9 Why Do Things Happen? A Look at Cause and Effect 73

The relationship between action and reaction

LESSON 10 Being Structurally Sound: Putting It All Together 81

Reviews Lessons 6–9, including identifying the structure used;

practice with combined structures

LANGUAGE AND STYLE

LESSON 11 A Matter of Perspective: Point of View 89

Purposes of first-, second-, and third-person writing

LESSON 12 Diction: What’s in a Word? 95

Defining tone from the choice of words

LESSON 13 Style: It’s Not What They Say but How They Say It 101

Sentence structure; degree of detail, description, and formality

LESSON 14 How They Say It, Part Two: Tone 107

How tone influences meaning

LESSON 15 Word Power: Putting It All Together 111

Reviews Lessons 11–14

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

LESSON 16 Finding the Implied Main Idea 119

Making inferences, determining an unstated purpose

LESSON 17 Assuming Causes and Predicting Effects 125

Reading between the lines, implied action and reaction

LESSON 18 Emotional Versus Logical Appeals 131

Being aware of strong and weak arguments

– C O N T E N T S –

v i

LESSON 19 Finding Meaning in Literature 137

Identifying themes, working with poetry

LESSON 20 Drawing Conclusions: Putting It All Together 143

Reviews Lessons 1–19

APPENDIX A Preparing for a Standardized Test 169

APPENDIX B Additional Resources 175

– C O N T E N T S –

v i i

This book is designed to help you improve your reading comprehension skills by studying 20 minutes

a day for 20 days You’ll start with the basics and move on to more complex reading comprehension and critical thinking strategies Please note that although each chapter can be an effective skill builder

on its own, it is important that you proceed through this book in order, from Lesson 1 through Lesson 20 Each lesson builds on skills and ideas discussed in the previous chapters As you move through this book and your read-ing skills develop, the passages you read will increase both in length and in complexity

The book begins with a pretest, which will allow you to see how well you can answer various kinds of

read-ing comprehension questions now, as you begin When you finish the book, take the posttest to see how much

you’ve improved

The text is divided into four sections, each focusing on a different group of related reading and thinking strate-gies These strategies will be outlined at the beginning of each section and then reviewed in a special “putting it all together” final lesson

Each lesson provides several exercises that allow you to practice the skills you learn To ensure you’re on the right track, each lesson also provides answers and explanations for all of the practice questions Additionally, you will find practical suggestions in each chapter for how to continue practicing these skills in your daily life The most important thing you can do to improve your reading skills is to become an active reader The fol-lowing guidelines and suggestions outlined will familiarize you with active reading techniques Use these techniques

as much as possible as you work your way through the lessons in this book

How to Use This Book

i x

 B e c o m i n g a n A c t i v e R e a d e r

Critical reading and thinking skills require active

read-ing Being an active reader means you have to engage

with the text, both mentally and physically

■ Skim ahead and jump back

■ Mark up the text

■ Make specific observations about the text

Skimming Ahead and Jumping Back

Skimming ahead enables you to see what’s coming up

in your reading Page through the text you’re about to

read Notice how the text is broken down, what the

main topics are, and the order in which they are

cov-ered Notice key words and ideas that are boldfaced,

bulleted, boxed, or otherwise highlighted Skimming

through the text beforehand will prepare you for what

you are about to read It’s a lot like checking out the hills

and curves in the course before a cross-country race If

you know what’s ahead, you know how to pace

your-self, so you’re prepared to handle what’s to come

When you finish your reading, jump back Review

the summaries, headings, and highlighted

informa-tion in the text Notice both what the author

high-lighted and what you highhigh-lighted By jumping back,

you help solidify in your mind the ideas and

informa-tion you just read You’re reminded of how each idea fits

into the whole, how ideas and information are

con-nected When you make connections between ideas,

you’re much more likely to remember them

Marking Up the Text

Marking up the text creates a direct physical link

between you and the words you’re reading It forces you

to pay closer attention to the words you read and takes

you to a higher level of comprehension Use these three

strategies to mark up text:

1 Highlight or underline key words and ideas.

2 Circle and define any unfamiliar words or

phrases

3 Record your reactions and questions in the

margins

Highlighting or Underlining Key Ideas

When you highlight or underline key words and ideas, you are identifying the most important parts of the text There’s an important skill at work here: You can’t high-light or underline everything, so you have to distinguish between the facts and ideas that are most important (major ideas) and those facts and ideas that are help-ful but not so important (minor or supporting ideas) Highlight only the major ideas, so you don’t end up with a text that’s completely highlighted

An effectively highlighted text will make for an easy and fruitful review When you jump back, you’ll be quickly reminded of the ideas that are most important

to remember Highlighting or underlining major points

as you read also allows you to retain more information from the text

Circling Unfamiliar Words

One of the most important habits to develop is that of circling and looking up unfamiliar words and phrases

If possible, don’t sit down to read without a dictionary

by your side It is not uncommon for the meaning of an entire sentence to hinge on the meaning of a single word or phrase, and if you don’t know what that word

or phrase means, you won’t understand the sentence Besides, this habit enables you to quickly and steadily expand your vocabulary, so you’ll be a more confident reader and speaker

If you don’t have a dictionary readily available, try

to determine the meaning of the word as best you can from its context—that is, the words and ideas around

it (There’s more on this topic in Lesson 3.) Then, make sure you look up the word as soon as possible so you’re sure of its meaning

– H O W T O U S E T H I S B O O K –

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