Academic Reading & Writing [Teaching English

to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL)]

Prepared by
Sidratul Moontaha Mitul
Lecturer, Department of English, FASS
Many a man______died at sea.

• MANY A is always followed by a

singular noun and singular verb.
• Ex:
Many a good man has been destroyed
by drink.
• 2. He is devoid common sense.

• ‘Devoid of’ means the absence of something in

someone. So it will be- He is devoid of common
sense.
 Had better
• We use had better to refer to the present or the
future, to talk about actions we think people
should do or which are desirable in a specific
situation. The verb form is always had,
not have. We normally shorten it to ’d
better in informal situations. It is followed by
the infinitive without to:
• It’s five o’clock. I’d better go now before the
traffic gets too bad.
 In spite of / despite
_______________the light rain, the game was not cancelled.
After in spite of and despite we use a noun or a pronoun. For
example,
• We enjoyed our camping holiday in spite of the rain.
• Despite the pain in his leg he completed the marathon.
• Despite having all the necessary qualifications, they didn’t
offer me the job.
Latter/Last
• Use latter to refer to the second of two
persons or things that have been
mentioned. When more than two have
been mentioned, use last. For example:
• He preferred oranges to apples, because
the latter were not as juicy.
• He saw Leathal Weapon 1, 2, and 3 and
liked the last one most.
 Neither of
• Neither/ neither of these doors lead to the hall.
• The singular number of neither is most likely to be ignored
when it is followed by of and a plural noun or pronoun, for
then both notional agreement and the principle of proximity
pull in the direction of a plural verb.
• Neither of them has/have a car.
I drove as/as much fast as I could.
• We use as + adjective/adverb + as to make
comparisons when the things we are comparing
are equal in some way:
• The world’s biggest bull is as big as a small
elephant.
• The weather this summer is as bad as last year.
It hasn’t stopped raining for weeks.
• You have to unwrap it as carefully as you can.
It’s quite fragile.
 We hanged/hung the picture on the wall.

• ‘Hanged’ is used to refer to hang (a person) in gallows.

And ‘hung’ refers to hang an object or thing. Both are the
past form of ‘hang’. So the answer will be- We hung the
picture on the wall.
He is senior than/to me by five years.

Latin comparatives (senior, junior, inferior,

superior, prior etc.) take ‘to’ after them
instead of ‘than’. So, here the answer will
be- He is senior to me by five years.
 Summarizing

• Summarizing is more than retelling; it involves

analyzing information, distinguishing important from
unimportant elements and translating large chunks of
information into a few short cohesive sentences.
Summary: Essential things to remember

• Size: The summary of a text is smaller in

size than the original text. (minimum 1/3
of the text but not longer that ½)
• A summary will not include new
information
• The main ideas need to be mentioned
• Redundant/repetitive information may be
omitted