Critical Reading – Locating

Main Idea and Inference

KUS1101_English I_MR_Week 9

Monalisa Pasaribu, S.S., M.Ed (TESOL)

Institut Teknologi Del
Jl. Sisingamangaraja, Sitoluama-Laguboti
Toba Samosir, 22381 Sumatera Utara
Outline

▷ Review - UTS
▷ Week Topic : Critical Reading – Locating Main
Idea and Inference
▷ Practice

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Review
1. UTS Score is available in e-course
2. Answers are available until 24th October 2023
3. Questions for UTS answers and score are to be addressed
the latest on 25th October 2023

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Outcome of the lesson
▷ You will be able to locate the main idea of an
engineering-related text.
▷ You will be able to make an inference of an
engineering-related text.

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 Critical Reading

Source: https://www.thestatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Untitled-design-2022-10-
10T092230.597.jpg 5
Strategies in Critical Reading

▷ Previewing
▷ Annotating
▷ Outlining
▷ Summarizing
▷ Paraphrasing
▷ Synthesizing
▷ Contextualizing
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Strategies in Critical Reading (1)

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Strategies in Critical Reading (2)

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Finding Main Ideas
Critical Reading
Outline to describe pie chart(s)

• Author’s main • In the • Identify each

purpose in a beginning or paragraph’s main
idea
text the end of a • Identify the
paragraph keywords that
appear repeatedly
Text with more
What Where than one
paragraph ..

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Making an inference
Critical Reading
Outline to describe pie chart(s)

• Demonstrate • It can be a • It should be based

your conclusion, on the idea or
evidence in the
understanding prediction, or text
about the text connections • Making inference
between ideas is not guessing

What Where How

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 Common Paragraph Structure

• Main idea/ topic sentence.

• Supporting sentence(s).
• Concluding sentence.

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 Practice 1 – Reading
DNA fingerprinting is any of several techniques used to analyze and
compare DNA from separate sources. Law enforcement officers use
DNA fingerprinting to identify suspects. Hair, fingerprint and other
biological materials found at the scene of a crime are used for DNA
fingerprinting. No two people, even identical twins, have exactly the
same DNA sequence. Thus, although only partial segments of a
person’s DNA are studied in the procedure, those segments will be
unique. Next, the DNA fingerprint of a suspect or other body
materials are compared to that of the evidence from the crime scene
to see how closely they match.

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 Practice 1 – Finding main ideas
What does the passage mainly discuss?
a. The confirmation of a crime suspect
b. The use of DNA fingerprinting in law enforcement
c. The uniqueness of DNA fingerprints
d. The procedure to use DNA fingerprinting

What is the subject of the passage?

a. DNA fingerprinting
b. Law enforcement
c. Identical twins
d. Biological materials

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 Practice2 – Reading
"In 1914, Henry Ford introduced the assembly line to produce
automobiles. An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which
parts are added as the semi-finished product moves from workstation
to workstation, where parts are added in sequence until the project is
complete. The assembly line had a revolutionary impact on society. It
allowed for a fast and continuous flow of work that cut production
time for an entire automobile from 12 hours to 93 minutes. This
change allowed Ford to increase his profit margin and lower the cost
of the vehicle to consumers. The cost of the Model T, Ford's
innovative automobile, would eventually drop to $260, the equivalent
of approximately $3,500 today. Suddenly, owning an automobile
went from being a luxury of the rich to being affordable for the
average family
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 Practice 2 – Making Inferences
It can be inferred from the passage that before 1914:
a. Everyone owned an automobile
b. Nobody owned an automobile
c. Henry Ford invented other interesting inventions
d. No one helped Henry Ford in his invention

After the introduction of assembly line to produce automobiles, it can

be inferred that:
a. Automobile price was more affordable
b. Automobiles were mostly owned by the wealthy
c. No one could afford to buy automobile
d. The invention has no impact to society
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 Critical Reading

• Check the reading available in CIS

• Find the subject matter and the main ideas of the
reading!

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 Next Week:
Critical Reading (2) –
Locating Stated Details and
Inferences

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 Mid-term Exam
1. Test is conducted via e-course
2. 50 questions (easy level : 20 questions, medium level : 20
questions, difficult level: 10 questions) – for 90 minutes
3. Questions about the vocabulary, reading, grammar and
descriptions of pie chart
4. Any form of cheating is intolerable and will result in 0 for your
mid-test.

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 References
Glendinning, E. H., Lansford, L., & Pohl, A. 2013. Oxford English for Careers:
Technology for Engineering & Applied Sciences (Special Edition) Student’s Book,
Oxford : Oxford University Press
https://www.thestatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Untitled-
design-2022-10-10T092230.597.jpg
https://www.verbling.com/articles/post/master-the-inference-questions-
on-the-toefl-ibt-reading-561d51f4f069d8fe38cebba3
https://www.academia.edu/10238966/TOEFL_1_READING_COMPREHE
NSION_MAIN_IDEA_TOPIC_and_TITLE_QUESTION

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