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I. READING COMPREHENSION & VOCABULARY

BIOLOGY

The word biology/comes from two Greek words/: bios, meaning life, and logos,
meaning a word or a discourse, /so/ biology is the study of life. /But what is life?/ What is
really meant by saying/ that one object is living /and another is nonliving?
Biologists, a person who is expert in biology,/ call living things organisms./ The
word organism means/ an individual living thing;/ whether it is a plant,/ an animal or/ a
microbe. /To try and see what is meant by ‘life’ and ‘living’,/ we will do what a biologist
normally does /as part of his or her research./ First, ask question. /What are living things
like? /What do they do? /In what ways/ are the things we call ‘living’ different from/ those
we call ‘nonliving’? /Secondly, collect evidence that might help/ answer those questions./
Evidence usually comes /by direct observation and measurement of living things, /and by
reading what others have found. /Thirdly, use the information obtained -the data- /to try
and answer the questions. /Some data collected by biologists in recent years/ can help you
answer these questions. /The first set of data concerns a fairly typical animal;/ the second
concerns some fairly typical plants.

A. Give a tick () to the correct statements and correct the wrong ones.
1. [ ] Biology is the study of nonliving thing.
2. [ ] There are two kinds of thing categories: living and nonliving things.
3. [ ] An organism is a living thing.
4. [ ] A biologist knows well about biology.
5. [ ] A plant is not an organism.
6. [ ] The steps of a research procedure done by a biologist are: 1) using the
information obtained, 2) asking, and 3) question collecting evidence.
7. [ ] Observation and measurement provides evidences.
8. [ ] The biologists’ data cannot help you answer the questions.

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B. Find the meanings of the words or phrases below.

1. comes from
2. comes by
3. a discourse
4. an expert in biology
5. living things
6. life
7. an evidence
8. the information obtained
9. in recent years
10. a set of data
11. a fairly typical animal
12. concern

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C. Complete the sentences with suitable words from the text.
1. Aristotle was the ancient …….. scientist.
2. Gregor Mendel was an ……… in biology.
3. The students of biology have to make a …….. in their projects
4. ……… consists of a plant, an animal and a microbe.
5. Human is the example of an …….. living thing.
6. Sometimes it is not easy to get …….. from an observation.
7. The biologists …….. data from research they do.
8. Science books provide useful……..
9. In ……. students can learn by themselves using internet.
10. The difficult questions are not easy to ……..

II. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:

The reading techniques: Scanning, Skimming, and reading with comprehension

Reading is an interaction between a writer and a reader in an active cognitive process of

meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols or the instantaneous recognition of
various written symbols, simultaneous association of these symbols with existing knowledge,
and comprehension of the information and ideas communicated.
To understand a text a student must have a good command of the vocabulary of the target
language, though learning language does not mean merely learning words. Besides,
understanding the target language also greatly depends on one’s knowledge of reading
techniques. The reading purpose obviously determines kinds of reading technique that will be
used in a reading activity. A student with his particular purpose of finding the flight schedule of
Lion Star to Jakarta, reading novel,or studying a book on biology will perform different ways of
reading.Therefore, the important of reading technique is helping students who want to read
efficiently. The suitable reading technique can facilitate their rapid understanding of the reading
materials. The reading techniques include skimming, scanning, and reading for
comprehension.

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A. Skimming
Skimming is a technique used to look for the “gist” of what the author is saying without a
lot of detail. It is used I you just want a review or an overview of the material. Skimming is also
used after a person has already carefully studied and he needs to review the major ideas and
concept.In preview skimming, you must read the introductory information, the headings, and
sub-headings, and the summary. Then, decide to read the material more thoroughly and rapidly.
Another procedure of skimming would be only read the key words. The key words could
be (1) the topic (place, people, dates), (2) the descriptive adjectives (negative, positive, effective,
impressive), (3) the abstract nouns (concept, power, love), and (4) the function words (and, but,
for, to). To skim by reading the key words means skip some unnecessary words, phrases, and
sentences and still continue reading. Skimming is a skill that requires concentration, adequate
knowledge of vocabulary, and comprehension skill. The example of skimming task: “How many
kingdoms are used to classify living?”

B.Scanning
Scanning is a technique used to locate specific information by scanning to find the
information you need. You do not need to read carefully. Scanning is a searching that requires a
reader over the material until you find what you need. Then you stop and read as much as
necessary in order to answer your questions.
To scan effectively, you should have a clear idea of what you are looking for, where you
are likely to find it, and how he can recognize the information when you see it. Looking for a
name, for instance, capital letter will be the clue. The example of scanning task: “What program
would be appeal to teenagers.”

B. Reading with Comprehension

Reading with comprehension means understanding what you have been read. It is an
active process that depends not only on comprehension skills but also on your experiences and
prior knowledge. Comprehension involves understanding the vocabulary seeing the relationship
among words and concepts, organizing ideas, recognizing the author’s purpose, making
judgments, and evaluating.

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 Specific comprehension skills cannot be completely isolated because they are so
interrelated that one skill depends to some degree on another skill. Comprehension can be
divided into three levels of skills: literal, inferential, and critical.
1. Literal reading refers to the ideas and facts that directly stated on the printed page.
Literal ideas and facts are usually so clearly that you can go back in the passage and
underline the information needed.
2. Inferential reading is to get inferences or implied meanings from the reading materials.
You should read between lines. Inferences are ideas you receive when you go beneath the
surface to sense relationships, put facts and ideas together to draw conclusions and make
generalizations, and detect the mood of the materials.
3. Critical reading requires a higher degree of skill development and perception. Critical
reading requires reading with an inquiring mind and with active, creative looking for
false statements by questioning, comparing, and evaluating.
One of the most important comprehension skills is finding the main ideas. The main idea is often
found in the first sentence in a paragraph followed by supporting details. Yet, some authors
prefer to give the supporting details first and end with the main idea. Sometimes, others give the
supporting details, the main idea, and then more details. For that reasons, you should have a plan
to find the main idea. These three questions can help you.
1. What is the subject of the paragraph?
2. What is the purpose of discussing the subject? (to inform, explain, define, etc)
3. What idea is the author trying to make the you/reader understands about the subject?
III. ADDITIONAL READING:

A. Underline the key words and find the main ideas in each paragraph

ARTICLE 1:
KINGDOM OF LIFE

ARISTOTLE RECOGNIZES PLANTS AND ANIMALS

Taxonomy, as the science of biological classification is called, began with the Greek
philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.). A keen observer of nature, Aristotle separated all living
things into two major groups: plants and animals. He grouped plants into herbs, shrubs, and

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trees, and classified animals on the basis of size, where they lived—on the land or in the water,
and how they moved. Although Aristotle’s system of classification did little to reveal natural
relationships among living things, it was widely accepted and used, with few modifications, into
the Middle Ages.

LINNAEUS IDENTIFIES TWO KINGDOMS

Modern classification began with the work of John Ray (1627–1705), an English
naturalist who outlined the idea of species. In the mid-1700s, Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus
(1707–1778) picked up on this idea and developed a classification scheme that formed the basis
of the system we use today. Linnaeus divided all living things between two kingdoms—plants
and animals. But he subdivided these kingdoms into a hierarchy of smaller and more specific
groups: classes, orders, genera, and species. Linnaeus placed organisms in these groups primarily
on the basis of their physical similarities and differences.

THE FIVE KINGDOM SYSTEM

A flurry of ideas for new classification systems followed close on the heels of the
discovery of prokaryotes. In 1969, American biologist R. H. Whittaker (1924–1980) proposed a
five-kingdom system (right) that soon became universally accepted. The five kingdoms were
Monera (bacteria), Protista (algae and other protists), Fungi (mushrooms, molds, and lichens),
Plantae (mosses, ferns, and cone-bearing and flowering plants), and Animalia (invertebrate and
vertebrate animals). The kingdom Monera included all the prokaryotes; the other four kingdoms
consisted of eukaryotes. Fungi, plants, and animals were easily distinguished by their modes of
nutrition. But the kingdom Protista was a grab bag, a diverse assortment of living things—some
plantlike, some animal-like, some fungus-like—that did not fit clearly into any of the other
eukaryotic kingdoms.

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THE SIXTH KINGDOM
In the 1970s, genetic tests showed that members of the kingdom Monera were far more diverse
than anyone had suspected. One group of bacteria, originally called archaebacteria (ancient
bacteria), seemed especially unusual. Archaebacteria, or archaeans, as most biologists now refer
to them, often live in extreme environments— very hot or salty places— such as the Grand
Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. In 1996, researchers sequenced the archaean
genome and discovered that these tiny cells are as different from bacteria as you are. A sixth
kingdom was formed.

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(Source: Biggs, A et al.. 2004. Biology: The Dinamic of Life. Glencoe Online Science. bdol.glencoe.com. The
McGraw-Hill Companies)

B. List the selected key words and use them in new sentences.

C. Work in group to write a summary of the article.