READING PRACTICE: IDENTIFYING MAIN IDEAS

Exercise 1

Choose the correct headings for the paragraphs.

List of headings
i The effects of early exposure to music
ii The skills involved in musical activity
iii The effect of emphasis on short-term educational goals
iv Benefits for health
v Music without instruments
vi The creation of The Voices Foundation
vii A method for training singers
viii A playwright’s perception of music

A. Playing an instrument requires a degree of concentration and coordination which brings into
play a plethora of mental and physical skills which are being eroded in our push-button world.
Socialization and team-work are also involved. Schools with wind bands, string ensembles, jazz
groups, and orchestras are tight up there at the top of the league tables. In excelling in musical
activity, the students' performance in many other fields of learning is refocused and radically
improved.  ii

B. There are medical aspects too. Long before British primary schools discovered the recorder -
that most basic of all modern woodwind instruments - Australian Aborigines had developed the
didgeridoo. Like the darinet and the flute, this haunting and beautiful instrument helped to
overcome both upper and lower respiratory tract problems and encouraged better sleep. In
playing a wind instrument, abdominal muscles are used to support the breathing system. And
these are the very muscles which come into play when an asthmatic is experiencing an attack.

 iv

C. But what of those individuals and schools which simply cannot afford a musical instrument?
What of those institutions where not a single member of staff can read music? This is where the
human being's most primitive form of music-making comes into its own. Singing is free.
Everyone possesses a voice. And, with it, the body expresses itself in the most fundamental and
organic way.  v

D. The Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly knew this, and developed his own system of training
ear and voice within a simple yet comprehensive system of body language. Today, an
organization called The Voices Foundation adapts and applies Kodaly's methods, aiming to give
children back their singing voices, and to make our schools ring with music-making once again.
Their advisors and leathers have already achieved extraordinary turn-around effects the length
and breadth of Britain and in schools in the troubled areas of South Africa.  iii

Exercise 2

The proliferation of book clubs, some 50,000 in the UK alone and who knows how many more
worldwide, is quite a remarkable literary phenomenon. Participants of different ages and
backgrounds gather on a weekly or monthly basis ostensibly to discuss books chosen by the
members, but the primary attraction for most people, and the factor behind the explosion in the
number of groups, is not literary, but social. Human interaction with some added mental
stimulation in a relaxed environment is integral to their success.

The social aspect apart, the spread of book clubs can also be attributed to the low cost and the
availability of books, and the fact that compared to, say, the cinema or theatre, the clubs provide
cheap entertainment. The Internet has played its part as well. Once seen as foreshadowing the
end of reading, not only does the Internet allow people even cheaper access to books, but it also
acts as a conduit for readers hungry to join a particular reading club. A further draw is the
number of people who read for pleasure. With reading being listed as the most popular major
leisure activity according to a survey carried out over a four-week period in 2002 in the UK
(65% constant since 1996), there is no shortage of willing participants.

The clubs vary, ranging from cosy get-togethers in friends’ houses, with or without set rules and
with or without food and drink, to more formal, official set-ups in educational-literary
establishments like libraries, sometimes with literary functions with guest speakers. The
overwhelming majority are of a more unthreatening easy-going nature. People come and go, but
the cohesion of the groups seems to live on with new ones springing up to replace those which
have faded away.

From the literary point of view, the focus of each group is different as it turns solely on the
make-up of the members and their predilections. There are reading clubs which specialise in
football, romance, horror, science fiction and so on. Groups can focus on one type or they can be
eclectic, combining different types of fiction like romance with, for example, cricket. Some may
even dress up in the style of the characters or the time that a story took place to bring a mystery
or an old classic to life. With such a variety of choices, book clubs are sure to survive and
expand.

1/ Using ONE word only from the passage, complete the summary.

Most people join book clubs for (1) __social _ reasons. The official reason is to discuss books,
but members principally enjoy interacting with others in a (2) relaxed___ atmosphere. Another
reason for the popularity of book clubs is that reading is a (3) _cheap___ pastime compared with
cinema or theatre going. Some book clubs may focus on a particular genre, or they may decide to
be eclectic in their choice of reading material. It all depends on the interest of the participants.
Research suggests that the popularity of reading has remained (4)_constantly___ since 1996, and
it seems likely that the number of book clubs will (5) _expand__ in the future.
2/ Choose the correct answer the question.

(1) The increased in book clubs has occurred mainly because they

A. perform a social function

B. fulfill an intellectual need

C. cater for people from a variety of backgrounds

D. solve the social problems of the participants

(2) Books for discussion in groups are

A. restricted to one type

B. dependent on member preference

C. limited to several different authors

D. dependent on the chairperson’s reading list

Exercise 3

This Marvellous Invention'

Of all mankind’s manifold creations, language must take pride of place. Other inventions – the

wheel, agriculture, sliced bread – may have transformed our material existence, but the advent

of language is what made us human. Compared to language, all other inventions pale in

significance, since everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from

it. Without language, we could never have embarked on our ascent to unparalleled power over

all other animals, and even over nature itself.

But language is foremost not just because it came first. In its own right it is a tool of

extraordinary sophistication, yet based on an idea of ingenious simplicity: ‘this marvellous

invention of composing out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite variety of expressions

which, whilst having in themselves no likeness to what is in our mind, allow us to disclose to

others its whole secret, and to make known to those who cannot penetrate it all that we imagine,

and all the various stirrings of our soul’. This was how, in 1660, the renowned French
grammarians of the Port-Royal abbey near Versailles distilled the essence of language, and no

one since has celebrated more eloquently the magnitude of its achievement. Even so, there is just

one flaw in all these hymns of praise, for the homage to language’s unique accomplishment

conceals a simple yet critical incongruity. Language is mankind’s greatest invention – except, of

course, that it was never invented. This apparent paradox is at the core of our fascination with

language, and it holds many of its secrets.

Questions 1 – 4

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-G, below. Write the correct letter, A-G, in
boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

The importance of language

The wheel is one invention that has had a major impact on 1 ……E…… aspects of life, but no

impact has been as 2 ……G…… as that of language. Language is very 3 …B……… , yet

composed of just a small number of sounds. Language appears to be 4 ……A…… to use.

However, its sophistication is often overlooked.

A difficult

B complex

C original

D admired

E material

F easy

G fundamental