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Unit 1 Previewing and Predicting: Objectives
Unit 1 Previewing and Predicting: Objectives
Objectives
Pre-reading Activities
Reading Selection
Text 1
There are two skills that are essential for a good reader: previewing and predicting. When
you gather information about a book by examining its cover, you are previewing. The aim of
previewing is to help you to predict or make some “educated guesses” about what in the book. You
should develop the habit of applying these skills whenever you read.
Previewing and predicting before you read can make a big difference. You can get some
ideas about what you will read. That way you will begin to process the information far more quickly.
You will also be able to follow the writer’s idea better. Though it takes a few minutes to preview and
predict, those few minutes are well invested. You will find that later you save reading time and gain
comprehension.
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3. Look at the way the text is organized; is it divided into parts? Are there sub-titles? If so, what do
they tell you about the way the subject is presented?
4. Read very quickly the first line of each paragraph or sub-division; can you tell what the passage
is about? Do you already know something about it?
5. Notice names, numbers, dates, and words that are repeated; do you recognize any of them?
6. Read quickly the last few sentences in the final paragraph; what is the author’s final point? Is it
a conclusion or a summary?
Predict what will come next in each story. Choose the sentence that could be next.
Example:
Yesterday, there was a big snowstorm in Detroit. Many schools were closed, and people had to stay
home from work.
2. John and Alice Babson are not happy with the school in their town.
A. Their children love to go to school.
B. The classrooms are too crowded.
C. It is a beautiful building.
5. Alex had trouble falling asleep last night. He was awake until 3:00A.M.
A. This morning he feels tired.
B. This morning he feels rested and ready to work.
C. This morning he is hungry.
6. The roads were covered with ice and were dangerous today.
A. Sam drove home quickly.
B. Sam took a long time to drive home.
C. Sam enjoyed driving home.
From http://www.eltplanet.net/forum/
Grammar Focus
Verb action or state (to) be, have, do, like, EnglishClub.com is a web site. I
work, sing, can, must like EnglishClub.com.
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Noun thing or person pen, dog, work, This is my dog. He lives in my
music, town, London, house. We live in London.
teacher, John
Adjective describes a noun a/an, the, 69, some, My dog is big. I like big dogs.
good, big, red, well,
interesting
Adverb describes a verb, quickly, silently, well, My dog eats quickly. When he is
adjective or adverb badly, very, really very hungry, he eats really
quickly.
Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.
Preposition links a noun to another to, at, after, on, but We went to school on Monday.
word
Conjunction joins clauses or and, but, when I like dogs and I like cats. I like
sentences or words cats and dogs. I like dogs but I
don't like cats.
Interjection short exclamation, oh!, ouch!, hi!, well Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are
sometimes inserted into you? Well, I don't know.
a sentence
Source: www.uottawa.ca/academic
Verbs
The verb is the main part of speech. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a
one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Stop!" You cannot make a one-word sentence
with any other type of word. In simple terms, we can say that verbs are words that tell us
what a subject does or is. Verbs can be divided into action verbs (verbs that give the idea of
action, of “doing” something, e.g. run, fight, do and work all convey action and state verbs
(verbs that give the idea of existence, of state, of “being”, e.g. be, exist, seem and belong all
convey state ). For examples:
We divide verbs into two broad classifications: helping verbs (verbs that have no meaning on their
own) and main verbs (verbs that have meaning on their own; they tell us something).
In the following table we see example sentences with helping verbs and main verbs. Notice that all
of these sentences have a main verb. Only some of them have a helping verb.
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You lied to me.
We must go now.
Nouns
The simple definition is: a person, place or thing. Here are some examples:
Nouns can be countable and uncountable. Countable nouns have a singular and plural form. They
are things which occur in individual units or parts of a whole thing: bottle-bottles. Uncountable
nouns usually have only one form (without an -s). They are often words to describe materials,
substances or abstract things: wood, air, love. Sometimes, the same noun can be countable and
uncountable, often with a change of meaning.
There are two hairs in my coffee! hair I don't have much hair.
There are two lights in our bedroom. light Close the curtain. There's too much light!
Have you got a paper to read? I want to draw a picture. Have you got some
paper
(= newspaper) paper?
Our house has seven rooms. room Is there room for me to sit here?
We had a great time at the party. time Have you got time for a coffee?
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Exercise 1: Are these nouns usually countable(C ) or uncountable (U)? Which can be either (E)?
1. information ………….. 7. news …………………
2. furniture ………………. 8. computer ……………..
3. country …………….. 9. advice ……………..
4. luggage ……………….. 10. equipment ……………..
5. hair …………………….. 11. chocolate ………………..
6. watch …………………. 12. noise …………………….
Exercise 2: Underline the proper nouns and circle the common nouns in the following sentences.
1. The house is in Africa.
2. The Ford truck is missing one door.
3. I am from Belize.
4. Jaime lives at 108 Spring St.
5. Monaco is an expensive city.
6. The Bulls won the game last night.
7. Basketball is so fun.
8. “Mrs. Peach needed to know my phone number,” said Juan.
9. Alamance Community College is a nice school.
10. Birds are my favorite animals.
Writing Practice
Summarizing
Here are the steps to summarize.
In a summary, you should include only the information your readers need.
1. State the main point first.
2. Use a lower level of technicality than the authors of the original article use. Do not write a
summary your readers cannot understand.
3. Make the summary clear and understandable to someone who has not read the original
article. Your summary should stand on its own.
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4. Write a summary rather than a table of contents.
Wrong: This article covers point X. Then the article covers point Y.
Right: Glacial advances have been rapid as shown by x, y, and z.
5. Add no new data and none of your own ideas.
6. Use a simple organization:
main point
main results
conclusion/recommendation
7. Unless the examples in the article are essential, do not include the examples in your
summary. If you include them, remember to explain them.
Practice: Write a summary of the following paragraph. Your summary should not exceed 20
words.
Edwin Hubble was an American astronomer whose research led to discoveries about
galaxies and the nature of the universe. He settled a long debate by demonstrating that the
Andromeda nebula was located outside the galaxy, establishing the islands universe theory,
which states that galaxies exist outside of our own. His study of the distribution of galaxies
resulted in Hubble’s Constant, a standard relationship between a galaxy’s distance from the
earth and its speed of recession.
Summary
1. Previewing and predicting are necessary to help us predict what the text is about by reading its
title, reading fast the first sentence of each paragraph and the last sentence of the final
paragraph. By doing this you can gain the information about what you are going to read.
2. In summarizing, rewrite only the important information using your own sentences. Quotation is
not recommended, but if you quote, make sure you mention the page number of the quotation.
3. Verbs and nouns are the most essential parts of speech. An English sentence may consist of only
one word- verb and a simple sentence may consist of a subject (noun) and a verb.
Reflection
In this unit, you have learned how to preview and predict the text, to identify verbs and nouns, and
to summarize a short paragraph. Put a check on the column based on your own self-assessment.
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To identify proper and common
nouns
To summarize a short paragraph
For more practice, you can go to the following sites on how to preview and predict the texts:
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/predict.htm http://www.eltplanet.net/forum/
More practice on verbs and nouns can be obtained from the following site:
www.uottawa.ca/academic