Reading

Strategies for reading

• Activate background knowledge to connect
the known and new information
• Drawing inferences
• Determining importance – prioritize
information
• Create mental images
• Repair the process of understanding when
meaning breaks down
 Key to rapid reading
• An efficient reader reacts to a number of
words at a single fixation: unit of
comprehension is a complete phrase, a
thought sequence.
• An inefficient reader responds to single words,
one at a time. If his reading is very poor he will
be able to recognize parts of words and
individual syllables
For instance
The word Morning, although it has a fuller
significance by itself than either one or bright,
contains less meaning than the complete
phrase, One bright Morning
• One key to rapid reading is the perception and
interpretation of large number of words at
each fixation
• Lets try reading… this time with care (word
document –sample reading material)
sample reading material.docx
 Reading is all about perception
Here are a few tips
• Eye movement
• Less fixations the better it is
• Try getting the gist of what the author is saying
or the paragraph saying
• skimming can be of great help
• Do not regress while reading
• Time your reading
• Concentrate on the basic theme and main ideas
 Reading Passages
• Passages present information about the topic
from more than one perspective or point of
view
• You will have to answer questions at the end
of a comprehension passage
• This allows you to show that you have
understood the general organization of the
passage
• Note: Paraphrase individual sentences in
passage, and then progress to paraphrasing an
entire paragraph.
• Most of the competitive exams expect you to
have the ability to recognize paraphrases
• The ability to paraphrase is also important for
the integrated tasks in the writing and
speaking sections of any competitive exam
 Common types of organization you should be able to recognize:

• Classification
• Comparison
• Cause/effect
• Problem/solution
• Narration
 Types of questions asked
• Global
• Inferential
• Analytical
• Vocabulary
• Rhetorical purpose
• Factual
• Recognize sentence simplification
• Basic Information
Type 1 – factual information
Such a question is often phrased in one of these
ways
According to the paragraph, which of the following is
true of x…
According to the paragraph, X did Y because…
The author’s description of X mentions which of the
following ?
• Type 2: Negative Factual Information Questions
This question expects you to verify what information
is true and what information is NOT true or not
included the passage based on information that is
explicitly stated in the passage
Note: You can recognize negative questions because
the word “NOT” or “EXCEPT” appears in the
question in capital letters
 Inferential question
• These questions measure the ability to comprehend an
argument or an idea that is strongly implied but not
explicitly stated in the text. For example, if an effect is
cited in the passage, an Inference question might ask
for the basis of the comparison
Words like infer, suggest, or imply
• which of the following can be inferred about X?
• The author of the passage implies that X…
• Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph
1 about X?
 Rhetorical purpose questions
• you are asked why the author has presented a particular
piece of information in a particular place or manner
• For example, Why does the author mention…
• The author discusses x in order to?
• The author uses X as an example of…

Note: Rhetorical purpose questions usually do not ask

about the overall organization of the reading passage.
Instead, the typically focus on the logical links between
sentences and paragraphs
 Vocabulary questions
• Tests your ability to grasp the meaning of the
word; they ask for the meaning as it is used in
the passage.
For example, The word X in the passage is
closest in meaning to …
In stating X the author means that…
 Global and Analytical question
• Global
Such a question expects you to understand the
entire passage
For example, The passage suggests that…
Analytical
The question expects you to think and analyze
the given statement or the argument in the
passage
 Sentence simplification questions
• Sentence simplification questions always look
the same
• A single sentence in the passage is highlighted
For example
Which of the following best expresses the
essential information in the highlighted
sentence?
Source: The official Guide to TOFEL Test