Skimming and Scanning

Skimming
Skimming means quickly reading the text to get only its main idea. To skim effectively, you need to
read only a part of the material.
1. Read the first paragraph to get an idea of what will be discussed in the text.
2. Read the first (and sometimes the second) sentence of each paragraph in order to understand the
main idea of each paragraph..
3. Read the last paragraph attentively as it may contain the summary.
Scanning
Scanning means searching for specific phrases in the text to answer some questions.
1. Underline the important information while reading the text (dates, numbers, names etc.)
2. When you read the question, identify the key words and scan the text for it. Doing this way will
help you find the answers.
Practice:
1. When did the fatal enforced malnourishment in a temple in Sparta happen?
A Around 370BC C Around 570BC
B Around 470 BC D Around 670BC
2. Tom Holland says that Roman political combat
A was not very intense
B was a lot more intense than we can imagine
C was as intense as the political combat nowadays
D is not comparable to anything we know
3. Jason Goodwin is an expert on Ottoman affairs. (True-False)

4. In 1848 John Nugent received details of a treaty to end the war between the US and China. (True-
False)

5. Paul Lashmar says that the …………………………………technology made specific kind of leak
much rarer.

6. Heather Brooke believes that it is very complicated to……………………………………..digital

information.