Focus on Reading

Reading Selections ID1111

April-July 2016
9th edition
Focus on Reading
Compiled and authored by Rubena St. Louis and Silvia Pereira with Gilberto
Berros and Noela Cartaya.
Includes selections contributed by various teachers in the Departamento de
Idiomas.

Departamento de Idiomas
Universidad Simn Bolvar Apartado 89.000
Caracas 1080A, Venezuela
Phone (212) 906-3780

Copyright 2006 Rubena St. Louis

Interior design and production by Gilberto Berros

Editing and proofing by Gilberto Berros, Noela Cartaya, Yris Casart, Carlos
Mayora and Rubena St. Louis.

The 7th edition (2012) was adapted and edited by Silvia Pereira to comply with
the new English for Science and Technology Reading Program (2010).
Departamento de Idiomas Universidad Simn Bolvar.

The 8th edition (2015) has been revised, enriched and edited by Yris Casart,
Noela Cartaya, Nelly Fernndez, Marianella Quintero, Wilfredo Sequera and
Silvia Pereira. Departamento de Idiomas Universidad Simn Bolvar.

This 9th edition (2016) has been revised, enriched and edited by Yris Casart,
Noela Cartaya, Nelly Fernndez, Marianella Quintero, Wilfredo Sequera and
Silvia Pereira. Departamento de Idiomas Universidad Simn Bolvar.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Fonts used in the book: Arial Narrow 24 pt for chapter headings; Arial Narrow
18 pt and 16 pt for headings and subheads; Century Schoolbook 11 pt for the
body copy.

The materials in this book have been written and/or selected for their value in
helping university students become better readers of science and technology
English texts. Credit for selections is given to the respective copyright holders.
Please get in touch with us if you think credit is due for any particular section.
This handbook is solely intended for compulsory academic use in the courses ID-
1111, ID-1112 and ID-1113. Commercialization outside the USB is strictly
prohibited.

1
 Table of contents
Table of contents ................................................................................................... 2
Ingls cientfico y tcnico: Objetivos ................................................................ 5
Descripcin del curso ............................................................................................ 5
Objetivo general de ID1111 .................................................................................. 5
Objetivos especficos de ID1111 ........................................................................... 5
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 7
Focus on reading................................................................................................... 8
Focus on reading strategies.............................................................................. 10
How many of these reading strategies do you use? ........................................... 13
Exercise 1: Steps to faster reading ................................................................. 14
Focus on skimming and scanning ................................................................... 17
Exercise 2: Skimming ..................................................................................... 17
Exercise 3: Scanning....................................................................................... 18
Focus on the topic, main idea and text organization .................................. 21
Recognizing the topic and main idea ................................................................. 23
Exercise 4: Identifying the topic..................................................................... 24
Exercise 5: Identifying the topic sentence ..................................................... 24
Exercise 6: Identifying the main idea ............................................................ 25
Exercise 7: Identifying the details ................................................................. 27
Exercise 8: Distinguishing major and minor details ..................................... 28
Text organization................................................................................................ 29
Exercise 9: Text organization, topic, main idea ............................................. 30
Focus on reference words ................................................................................. 33
Exercise 10: Understanding personal pronoun references ............................ 34
Exercise 11: Understanding other references ................................................ 36
Focus on inferences ............................................................................................ 38
Exercise 12: Identifying inferable information .............................................. 39
Exercise 13: Justifying the logic behind your inference ................................ 40
Exercise 14: Identifying the correct inference ............................................... 41
Focus on lexical items ........................................................................................ 44
Becoming aware of cognate words ..................................................................... 45

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 Exercise 15: Identifying cognate words.......................................................... 45
Exercise 16: Would you recognize what type of cognate it is? ....................... 48
Exercise 17: Recognizing false cognates or false friends .............................. 50
Exercise 18: Some Latin words and their irregular plurals .......................... 53
Becoming aware of word function ...................................................................... 54
Exercise 19: Identifying parts of speech ........................................................ 55
Exercise 20: Using parts of speech to guess meaning from context .............. 56
Becoming aware of word structure .................................................................... 57
Understanding word form .................................................................................. 57
Affixation ............................................................................................................ 57
Prefixes ............................................................................................................... 57
Suffixes ............................................................................................................... 59
Exercise 21: Choosing the right prefix and suffix .......................................... 61
Recognizing word families .................................................................................. 62
Compound words ................................................................................................ 63
Phrasal verbs ...................................................................................................... 64
Words and their meanings ................................................................................. 65
Exercise 22: One word, several meanings ...................................................... 66
Exercise 23: One word, two meanings ........................................................... 68
Guessing meaning from context ......................................................................... 69
Using context clues ............................................................................................. 69
Exercise 24: Identifying context clues ............................................................ 70
Exercise 25: Using context clues to infer meaning ........................................ 71
Using synonyms and antonyms in context ........................................................ 73
Exercise 26: Using synonyms ......................................................................... 73
Exercise 27: Using antonyms ......................................................................... 73
Using definitions, restatements, examples, and explanations .......................... 75
Exercise 28: Using definitions ........................................................................ 75
Exercise 29: Using examples, explanations and restatements ..................... 75
Using the dictionary ........................................................................................... 77
Exercise 30: Putting words in alphabetical order .......................................... 77
Exercise 31: Using guide words...................................................................... 77
Exercise 32: Using phonemic transcription ................................................... 78
Exercise 33: Separating English words into syllables ................................... 78
Focus on compound nouns ............................................................................... 82
Exercise 34: Identifying the head noun ......................................................... 83
Exercise 35: Understanding the form of compound nouns ............................ 84
Exercise 36: Understanding the meaning of compound nouns ..................... 85
Exercise 37: Making and using compound nouns .......................................... 87
Exercise 38: Interpreting ing and ed in compound nouns ......................... 88
Focus on linking words ..................................................................................... 90
Emphasis words.................................................................................................. 90
Exercise 39: Recognizing emphasis words ..................................................... 90
Addition words.................................................................................................... 91
Exercise 40: Recognizing addition words ....................................................... 91
Change-of-direction words.................................................................................. 91
Exercise 41: Recognizing change-of-direction words ..................................... 92
Illustration words ............................................................................................... 92
Exercise 42: Recognizing illustration words .................................................. 92
Conclusion words ................................................................................................ 93
Exercise 43: Recognizing conclusion words.................................................... 93

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 Exercise 44: Identifying linking words .......................................................... 93
Exercise 45: Thinking about linking word role .............................................. 93
Exercise 46: Choosing time and sequence linking words .............................. 95
Exercise 47: Choosing addition and contrast linking words.......................... 95
Exercise 48: Choosing the correct linking word ............................................. 96
Final tips ............................................................................................................... 97
References ............................................................................................................ 98
Apndices ............................................................................................................. 99
Cuestionario sobre estrategias de lectura en ingls (CELI) .................... 100
No entiendo lo que leo en ingls!............................................................... 104
Aprender vocabulario en ingles ........................................................................ 104
Listas de Vocabulario ....................................................................................... 105
1-1000 Word List .......................................................................................... 106
1001-2000 Word List .................................................................................... 111
Academic Word List...................................................................................... 115
El computador manual de Leitner ................................................................... 118
Procedimientos para la utilizacin del computador manual de Leitner ..... 118
Reading Selections for ID1111 ....................................................................... 121
What are my Learning Strengths?................................................................... 123
Sound and Acoustics ......................................................................................... 127
Exercises ....................................................................................................... 128
Viruses .............................................................................................................. 131
Exercises ....................................................................................................... 132
Brain Donors..................................................................................................... 136
Exercises ....................................................................................................... 137
Drugs ................................................................................................................ 139
Exercises ....................................................................................................... 140
Poison Birds ...................................................................................................... 142
Exercises ....................................................................................................... 142
Electric Fish...................................................................................................... 144
Exercises ....................................................................................................... 145

4
 Ingls cientfico y tcnico: Objetivos

Descripcin del curso

Este programa est diseado para desarrollar destrezas de lectura en ingls

cientfico y tcnico. El presente es el primero de tres cursos de 48 horas cada uno
(Ingls Cientfico y Tcnico I, II y III: ID1111, 1112 y 1113). Los estudiantes
pueden eximir los tres cursos, o ingresar al programa en cualquiera de ellos, con
base en los resultados que obtengan en la prueba de ubicacin que se administra
a cada cohorte al inicio del ao acadmico. Los tres cursos que componen el
programa se consideran interdependientes: los objetivos y estrategias
especificados para cada uno constituyen la base para los cursos siguientes.

El programa est dirigido a los estudiantes de ingeniera y ciencias bsicas.

Forma parte del plan de estudios del Ciclo Bsico ya que se considera que las
destrezas de comprensin de lectura en ingls como lengua extranjera tendrn
una aplicacin inmediata para los estudiantes en las diferentes asignaturas que
corresponden al Ciclo Profesional de sus estudios universitarios.

Objetivo general de ID1111

Al finalizar el curso Ingls Cientfico y Tcnico I (ID1111), el estudiante habr

ampliado sus repertorios lingstico y estratgico iniciales a un nivel que le
permita enfrentarse como lector a la informacin contenida en textos de carcter
cientfico y tcnico en ingls.

5
Objetivos especficos de ID1111
El nfasis de este curso est en un enfoque de lectura intensiva, el cual plantea la
instruccin y prctica en destrezas especficas. A travs de la lectura de textos
cortos o fragmentos de texto, se espera que el estudiante:

1. Comprenda las unidades lxicas ms frecuentemente encontradas en

textos de carcter cientfico y tcnico. Para ello, el estudiante debe adquirir
un mnimo con el fin de que:

2. Reconozca automticamente el significado de unidades lxicas de la lengua

general que se encuentran con alta frecuencia en el discurso cientfico y
tcnico en ingls, y

3. Reconozca automticamente el significado del lxico semiespecializado o

acadmico de mayor frecuencia en el discurso cientfico y tcnico en
ingls.

4. Aplique la tcnica de lectura ms apropiada a sus propsitos como lector

en una situacin dada.

5. Desarrolle la metacognicin, o reflexin sobre el propio conocimiento, como

elemento para la aplicacin de estrategias de comprensin de lectura en
ingls como lengua extranjera.

6. Determine el significado de elementos lxicos desconocidos a partir del

contexto.

7. Deduzca las relaciones entre oraciones, y entre partes de un mismo texto,

mediante elementos cohesivos.

8. Entienda la informacin explcita y/o implcita que se presenta.

9. Distinga entre la idea principal y las ideas secundarias.

10. Identifique el propsito principal del autor.

11. Reconozca la organizacin de un texto.

12. Integre informacin para llegar a una conclusin.

13. Interprete la informacin de una tabla o un grfico.

14. Se familiarice con las expresiones de medida y magnitud para cuantificar

las diferentes unidades utilizadas en ingls cientfico y tcnico.

15. Aplique la informacin obtenida a travs de los contenidos del curso a

situaciones nuevas.

6
 Introduction
Welcome to our First Year Reading Program, the purpose of which is to help you
become an effective reader.

This handbook was prepared to be used in the First Year English courses.
Although its content will be covered in the first trimester, that is, in ID1111, the
handbook may be used by students in the second and third trimester to review
basic concepts and terminology that has been covered in the first term.

So get ready to start improving your reading skills. There is a lot you can do on
your own to do that, but your teacher will be there to help you as well.

The Departamento de Idiomas wishes you a very successful year. You may find
useful information in the following webpage:

http://usbideststudents.pbworks.com/w/page/39403695/FrontPage

Please contact us if you need any additional help or information.

Seccin de Ingls Cientfico y Tcnico

dep-id@usb.ve

December, 2014

7
 Focus on reading
The reason for writing a text is to communicate ideas. In your reading of scientific
and technical texts, knowing how the text is structured will help you to
understand what the writer has in mind, i.e., his/her purpose for writing. Most
academic writing is structured in the following way: an introduction where the
author states the topic to be discussed, a statement on the problem, etc.; the body
of the text, made up of several paragraphs, where the writer develops the main
idea stated in the introduction; and the conclusion which is a summary of the
content of the article and in which the writer may give his own opinion on the
subject or make predictions for the future.

In order to communicate his ideas, a writer will use and structure language in
different ways. He will use different functions of the language. For example, when
discussing New procedures in cloning the writer might first explain what
cloning is by defining the term. He may then go on to classify this scientific
term within the procedures used for the reproduction of species. The writer might
also give a short chronological summary of the events leading up to the
discovery and application of the new technique. Then he may proceed to explain
the steps to be taken, i.e., the process involved using description. He may then
compare and/or contrast this procedure with previous ones. This new technique
will undoubtedly lead to changes in our society and so the writer might discuss
the reasons the technique might be used and its consequences, i.e., the causes
and their effects, in the future. He may go further on and make predictions
based on this knowledge. Therefore, depending on the authors purposeto
narrate, describe, or explain, he will use the language in different forms.

To communicate his ideas, the writer must put them on paper in a coherent
manner so that you, the reader, can understand them. The different sentences
which make up a paragraph and the paragraphs themselves are linked together
in a logical manner through the use of connectives, like and, but, because,
which also focus the readers attention on specific information in the text. To

8
avoid repetition or words or even ideas, the writer also uses pronouns such as
that, it, and they. In this guide, these are called reference words.

Finally, the topic the writer wishes to discuss is referred to as the topic of the
text and the central idea is known as the main idea. The writer develops the
main idea throughout the paragraphs with details which add information to the
main idea. It is important that you recognize the main idea of the text, of the
individual paragraphs, and be able to extract the relevant details which support
the main idea.

Most of these aspects of the text will be explained in more detail in this reading
guide and there are exercises for you to practice recognizing and producing these
patterns. But lets look first at the way you the reader interact with the text.

9
 Focus on reading strategies
Some people are better readers than others. Why is this so? Effective readers read
for a purpose, summarize main ideas, reject ideas of lesser importance, organize
information, and monitor their comprehension as they read. They try to predict
the information they will meet in the text by using the text structure, their prior
knowledge of the theme, or using any graphic information that might be there.
When they dont understand what they are reading they will re-read unclear
sections and/or continue reading to try to connect information through visual
images or by using the text patterns and pronouns. These are called strategies
and all readers use them either consciously or unconsciously. Here are some
reading strategies. How many of them do you use?

1. Using the headlines or title to predict the content. The headline of a

text can give you a clue to the information you will find within the article.
You will then use your . . .

2. . . .background or prior knowledge of the topic. All of the information

you already have on the subject will help you to understand the new data
found in the article. You can also look at . . .

3. . . . photographs, graphics and charts. These will also give you an idea
of the content of the text and help predict the information you will find.
Afterwards, . . .

4. . . . quickly read the text to get a general idea of content. This can
either confirm or reject the predictions you made about the content of the
article. Was the content what you thought it might be? Was it different?
While reading the text you are constantly . . .

5. . . . asking yourself questions about the information and looking

for the answers. This is a good way to check your understanding of the
text. If you have problems, you can then try . . .

10
 6. . . . re-reading the parts of the text you dont understand. Maybe you
read too quickly and skipped over important words or there may be
unknown vocabulary that you might need to look up in the dictionary. To
check your understanding of the text you can also try . . .

7. . . . underlining important information found in the text. This will

help you locate the main idea and details used by the writer so that later
you can check your comprehension by . . .

8. . . .writing the topic and main idea in your own words, summarizing
the text or putting the information in another form like on a graphic
organizer.

Now practice using these strategies while you read the following article:

Fast Food Linked to Obesity, Diabetes

Attention, fast food devotees. If the start of a new

year wasnt enough to make you change your
eating habits, the results of new research might
be. A long-term study has specifically linked
consumption of fast food to obesity and type 2
diabetes.
Scientists writing in the current issue of The
Lancet report that study participants who visited
fast food restaurants twice a week or more gained
10 more pounds and experienced double the
increase in insulin resistance compared to
subjects who indulged less than once a week.
While there have been many discussions about
fast foods effects on obesity, this appears to be the first scientific, comprehensive long-
term study to show a strong connection between fast-food consumption, obesity, and
risk for type 2 diabetes, comments study co-author Mark Pereira of the University of
Minnesota. Pereira and colleague David Ludwig of the Childrens Hospital Boston
followed 3,031 African-American and white young adults ages 18 to 30 at the start of the
study for 15 years, monitoring their fast-food habits, weight and insulin resistance.
Taking into account television viewing, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking
and other lifestyle factors, the team determined that increases in body weight and insulin
resistance from fast-food intake seemed to be largely independent of those factors.
Kate Wong
Taken from http://scientificamerican.com/

Using the headlines of this article, think about all that you know about fast food,
obesity and diabetes. Here youre using strategies 1 & 2

If youre not sure what fast foods are, use the picture given. What other examples
of fast foods do you know? Strategy 3

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Quickly read the text. Were you given any new information that you did not
know? Strategy 4

Was there any part of the article that you didnt understand? Was it because you
did not understand special terms or because of unknown vocabulary? Did you
have to read it more slowly or several times? Strategy 6

What information did you underline? Did you do so because you thought the
information was important? Strategy 7

Did you underline information that answered a question you had asked yourself
while reading? Strategy 5

Can you summarize the information in your own words? Strategy 8

These are just a few reading strategies that you can use. Now, take the following
survey to find out the strategies you are using at present and those that you can
use in the future to make you a better reader.

12
How many of these reading strategies do you use?
Read the strategies listed below and indicate if you use them:

A = Always S = Sometimes N = Never

There are many different ways of doing things. Have you noticed
that some people manage to get all their studying done on time and others dont?
Being a good student doesnt only depend on what you know, but how you go
about learning it!

So, how do you read? Take a look at the strategies in this survey. How many of
them are you conscious of doing while you read? Take another look at those that
you should be using. Try them and see the result for yourself!

Strategy A S N
Using the headlines or title to predict the content
Quickly reading the text to get a general idea of content
Using any photographs or illustrations to get an idea of the content
Using the information you may have on the theme
Skipping over unknown words in the text
Looking up the unknown words in the dictionary
Trying to use the context to guess the meaning
Asking a friend for help
Using the new words in sentences
Learning the new words by heart (= de memoria)
Underlining important information in the text
Writing the topic and main idea in your own words
Re-reading the parts of the text you dont understand
Putting the information in another form (graphic organizer)
Asking yourself questions about the information and looking for the

answers
Writing a summary of the text in your own words

What other strategies do you use and how helpful do you think they are?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

13
Exercise 1: Steps to faster reading
Take some time and read through these steps to faster reading. Underline or
highlight what you consider to be the most important information. After reading,
summarize what youve learnt by putting the information on the graphic
organizer provided.

Step 1: Preview

When you read, do you start in with the first word, or do you look over the whole selection
for a moment? Good readers preview the selection first. This helps to make them good,
and fast, readers.

Read the title: The first thing to do when previewing is to read the title of the selection.
Titles are designed not only to announce the subject, but also to make the reader think.
What can you learn from the title? What thoughts does it bring to mind? What do you
already know about this subject?
Read the opening paragraph: If the first paragraph is long, read the first sentence or
two instead. The first paragraph is the writers opportunity to greet the reader. He may
have something to tell you about what is to come. Some writers announce what they
hope to tell you in the selection. Some writers tell why they are writing. Some writers
just try to get the readers attention, they may ask a provocative question.
Read the closing paragraph: If the last paragraph is long, read just the final line or
two. The closing paragraph is the writers last chance to talk to his reader. He may have
something important to say at the end. Some writers repeat the main idea once more.
Some writers draw a conclusion: this is what they have been leading up to. Some
writers summarize their thoughts; they tie all the facts together.
Glance through: Scan the selection quickly to see what else you can pick up. Discover
whatever you can to help you read the selection. Are there names, dates, numbers? If
so, you may have to read more slowly. Are there colorful adjectives? The selection
might be light and fairly easy to read. Is the selection informative, containing a lot of
facts, or conversational, an informal discussion with the reader?

Step 2: Read for meaning

When you read do you just see words? Are you so occupied reading words that you
sometimes fail to get the meaning? Good readers see beyond the words, they read for
meaning. This makes them faster readers.

Build concentration: You cannot read with understanding if you are not concentrating.
Every readers mind wanders occasionally; it is not a cause for alarm. When you
discover that your thoughts have strayed, correct the situation right away. The longer
you wait, the harder it becomes. Avoid distractions and distracting situations. Outside

14
 noise and activities will compete for your attention if you let them. Keep the preview
information in mind as you read. This will help to focus your attention on the selection.

Read in thought groups: Individual words do not tell us much. They must be
combined with other words in order to yield meaning. To obtain meaning from the
printed page, therefore, the reader should see the words in meaningful combinations. If
you see only a word at a time (called word-by-word reading), your comprehension
suffers along with your speed. To improve both speed and comprehension, try to group
the words into phrases which have a natural relationship to each other. For practice,
you might want to read aloud, trying to speak the words in meaningful combinations.
Question the author: To sustain the pace you have set for yourself, and to maintain a
high level of comprehension, question the writer as you read. Continually ask yourself
such questions as What does this mean? What is he saying now? How can I use
this information? Questions like these help you to concentrate fully on the selection.

Step 3: Grasp paragraph sense

The paragraph is the basic unit of meaning. If you can discover quickly and understand the
main point of each paragraph, you can comprehend the authors message. Good readers
know how to find the main ideas of paragraphs quickly. This helps to make them faster
readers.

Find the topic sentence: The topic sentence, the sentence containing the main idea,
is often the first sentence of a paragraph. It is followed by other sentences which
support, develop or explain the main idea. Sometimes a topic sentence comes at the
end of a paragraph. When it does, the supporting details come first, building the base
for the topic sentence. Some paragraphs do not have a topic sentence. Such
paragraphs usually create a mood or feeling, rather than present information.
Understand paragraph structure: Every well-written paragraph has purpose. The
purpose may be to inform, define, explain, persuade, compare or contrast, illustrate and
so on. The purpose should always relate to the main idea and expand on it. As you
read each paragraph, see how the body of the paragraph is used to tell you more about
the main idea or topic sentence. Read the supporting details intelligently, recognizing
that what you are reading is all designed to develop the single main idea.

Step 4: Organize facts

When you read, do you tend to see a lot of facts without any apparent connection or
relationship? Understanding how the facts all fit together to deliver the authors message
is, after all, the reason for reading. Good readers organize facts as they read. This helps
them to read rapidly and well.

15
 Discover the writers plan: Look for a clue or signal word early in the article which
might reveal the authors structure. Every writer has a plan or outline which he follows.
If the reader can discover his method or organization, he has the key to understanding
the message. Sometimes the author gives you obvious signals. If he says There are
three reasons . . . , the wise reader looks for a listing of the three items. Other less
obvious signal words such as moreover, otherwise, and consequently tell the
reader the direction the writers message will take.

Relate as you read: As you read the selection, keep the information learned during the
preview in mind. See how the ideas you are reading all fit into place. Consciously strive
to relate what you are reading to the title. See how the author is carrying through his
attempt to piece together a meaningful message. As you discover the relationship
among the ideas, the message comes through quickly and clearly.
Above text taken from Spargo, E. (1989). Timed Reading. Chicago: Jamestown Publishers.

Step 1
Step 4

Good readers

Step 3

Step 2

16
 Focus on skimming and scanning
Skimming and scanning are two important skills that you need when you have to
read quickly for information. Skimming means reading quickly for the
general meaning of the text, i.e., to find out about the topic, the main ideas
and the general organization of the text. Scanning, on the other hand, means
knowing what information is needed before reading so you read quickly
looking for that particular information.

There are some steps for skimming:

Read the main title of the chapter or text and all of the headings. Notice how
these relate to one another. For example, are the headings steps in a process,
categories into which the topic is divided, chronological events or some other
classification?

Examine pictures, charts and other illustrations in the chapter or text to get
information about the contents.

Look at all words and phrases in special print: italicized, boldface, SMALL CAPS
or underlined. Try to determine the authors reason for emphasizing them. They
may be important vocabulary, important ideas or words that have a special
meaning in this passage that is different from their usual one.

Rapidly read the first and last paragraph of the text and the first sentence of each
paragraph. Try to get the general idea of the text. Dont worry about the words
you dont know!

Exercise 2: Skimming

Passage 1. Skim this newspaper article. You should finish in less than 60
seconds. Then answer the questions.

17
 A New Drug for Heart Attacks

Doctors may now be able to stop many heart attacks. An important new study reports
that doctors have a new drug. This drug is called TPA. It may be better than any other
heart drug.

Many doctors now use a drug called streptokinase. But this drug sometimes causes
problems for patients. It can even cause bleeding in the brain. Some doctors do not use
streptokinase. Streptokinase can save about 1/3 of the people with heart attacks. But
TPA will save about 2/3. This means many people. About 1.5 million Americans have
heart attacks every year.

One reason TPA can help more people is because of time. This new drug is easier and
faster to use. It will give doctors more time in hospitals. Then they can study the problem
well. People with heart problems can also keep some TPA at home. When a heart attack
starts, they can take some TPA right away. Then they will have time to get to the
hospital. This is important because about 860,000 people in the United States die before
they get to the hospital.

There is another reason why TPA is good news for people with heart attacks. According
to the study, it is much safer. It does not cause other problems like streptokinase. TPA
works only on the heart. It does not have an effect on the blood or cause bleeding, like
streptokinase.

Doctors plan to do more studies about TPA. They need to test this new drug on many
more people with heart attacks. But in a few years, many doctors and hospitals will
probably start using this exciting new drug.

1. The new drug is ___.

A. the same as streptokinase
B. better than streptokinase
C. called streptokinase
D. bad for people with heart attacks

2. The study says that TPA ___.

A. is safer and faster than the old drug
B. is very dangerous
C. is slower and harder to use than the old drug
D. causes many problems

3. This new drug may mean ___ will die from heart attacks.
A. more people
B. the same number of people
C. fewer people
D. no one

Above exercise adapted from Mikulecky & Jeffries, Reading Power, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1996.

18
Passage 2. Skim the following passage in 30 seconds. Then, read each question,
and circle the correct answer.

In marine habitats, a number of small creatures are involved in a cleaning

symbiosis. At least six species of small shrimp, frequently brightly colored, crawl
over fish, picking off parasites and cleaning injured areas. This is not an accidental
occurrence, because fish are observed to congregate around these shrimp and stay
motionless while being inspected. Several species of small fish (wrasses) are also
cleaners, nearly all of them having appropriate adaptations such as long snouts,
tweezer-like teeth, and bright coloration. Conspicuous coloration probably
communicates that these animals are not prey.

1. This passage is mainly about a ___.

A. process of marine life
B. place in the sea
C. species of marine life
D. mystery of marine life

2. The habitat described is ___.

A. an aquarium
B. an island
C. the ocean
D. a laboratory

3. The cleaning symbiosis described in the passage is ___.

A. unimportant
B. harmful
C. predatory
D. beneficial

Above exercise taken from The Heinemann TOEFL Preparation Course, Kathleen Mahnke & Carolyn B. Duffy,
Heinemann International, 1992.

Exercise 3: Scanning
Now, lets turn to scanning. Scanning is very high-speed reading. When you scan
a text, you usually have a question in mind so you dont read every word, but look
for the words that can answer your question. Lets practice scanning. First read
the question, decide on the information you need and then quickly go through the
text to find the answer.

19
Local pain-killer may help migraines

CHICAGO: Nose drops containing What drug does the nose drop contain?
lidocaine, a local anaesthetic commonly
used to treat sunburn, haemorrhoids and _________________________________________
other conditions, may offer quick relief
In what journal was the study published?
from migraine headaches, a study said
yesterday. _________________________________________
The drops provided rapid and effective
pain relief in approximately 55 percent of What symptoms disappeared?
patients with migraine headaches in our
_________________________________________
urgent care population, said the study by
Southern California Permanent Medical How many subjects were involved in the
Group in Woodland Hills.
study?
Most of the effect occurred within five
minutes, and nausea and photophobia _________________________________________
(sensitivity to light) were similarly
relieved, said the study published in this What percentage of the group did NOT have
weeks Journal of the American Medical a relapse?
Association.
_________________________________________
The researchers said 42 percent of those
who responded favorably to the drug had
a relapse to headaches of moderate or
severe intensity usually within an hour
but the rest of the group did not.
Lidocaine is not available commercially
as nose drops, the researchers said.
They also said the small size of the
study, involving 81 patients, indicated
that broader tests were needed.
Migraines affect about 17 percent of all
adult women and six percent of adult
men.

Newsday, Wednesday July 24, 1996.

20
 Focus on the topic, main idea and details
So, as weve said before, the topic is the general theme that the author is going to
discuss throughout his paper. The main idea is the most important point that
the author wants to make. It answers the question What is important about
the topic? Sometimes the main idea is stated in the topic sentence. In the
paragraphs which follow, the author supports his argument through explanations
which develop the ideas he has on the topic. This is done through details. Major
details tell you more about the main idea while minor details give you more
information about the major details. So an essay or article will have one topic and
many main ideas which are developed, through details, in their corresponding
paragraphs. Lets look at the topic, the main idea and details in the following
examples taken from Scientific American.

When the topic sentence is written at the beginning of the paragraph, the other
sentences explain, support, or give details about the main idea. This kind of text
organization is known as a broad statement followed by support. Look at the
example below.

Topic To help forestall todays catastrophic wildfires, some forest

sentence experts recommend that we return forests to yesterdays
or main idea conditions. William Wallace Covington, a forest restoration
expert at Northern Arizona University, suggests thinning
Supporting Western forests from their current density of 200 trees per acre
ideas or more to a pre-1800 level of about 30 or 40 trees per acre
the level determined by how many old trees or pre-1800 tree
stumps are counted on a given acre. With that goal
accomplished, prescribedor plannedfire or even natural fire
could be reintroduced to forests without the risk of a huge
blaze.
From The Natural Solution (Scientific American, November 2002 p. 87).

21
When the topic sentence comes in the middle of the paragraph, the supporting
sentences act as an introduction and then as support for the main idea. This type
of paragraph organization is known as an introduction, a main idea and
supporting sentences.

Introduction Hansford has the most complex hot refuse: it consists of a mix of
wastes from many nuclear fuel reprocessing projects. Engineers
are currently planning a two-stage ion exchange process to
Main idea extract radioactive cesium and technetium from the soluble
part of the alkaline tank waste. In this process, columns of
Supporting polymer resin beads attract the harmful elements, which are later
ideas removed from the beads with acid.
(details)
From Divide and vitrify (Scientific American, June 2002, p.18).

Finally, the topic sentence may be found at the end of the paragraph. Here the
details are used to explain, defend, reject or justify the main idea. This type is
called reasons leading to a conclusion. Look at the paragraph

Introduction The cloning process also appears to reset the aging clock in
cloned cells, so that the cells appear younger in some ways than
the cells from which they were cloned. In 2000 we reported that
Detail telomeresthe caps at the end of the chromosomesfrom cloned
calves are just as long as those from control calves. Telomeres
normally shorten or are damaged as an organism ages.
Main idea Therapeutic cloning may provide young cells for an aging
population.
From The first human cloned embryo (Scientific American, January 2002, p. 51).

However, there are times when there is no topic sentence and the paragraph is
just a list of equally important statements. Here the reader must infer the
main idea. Look at this paragraph.

Unusual grimaces are normally the first sign that something is wrong. Next, affected
people become more and more absent minded and begin to display involuntary
gestures, especially when under psychological or physical stress. As the disease
progresses, the dancelike movementswhich may be confused with drunkenness
occur more frequently and become disabling. People lose their capacity to perform
simple, everyday tasks and show impairments in intellectual abilities such as
planning. In the later stages, depression and aggressivenessand, in the most
severe cases, dementia and psychosistake over, reducing a formerly healthy, vital
family member, friend or co-worker to a miserable, bedridden shadow.
From The enigma of Huntingtons disease (Scientific American, December, 2002, p. 93).

So remember that the topic sentence usually appears at the beginning of a

paragraph, but sometimes, as we have seen, it may appear in the middle of the

22
paragraph or even at the end. Also remember that in some paragraphs it may not
be explicitly expressed at all and so you may have to infer it.

In the rest of this section, we will look at the topic, main idea and details more
thoroughly and practice locating them in texts.

Recognizing the topic and main idea

To find the topic of any text ask the question What is this about? Who or
what is being discussed? Who or what is the subject of this material?
Look for keywords or topic words, i.e., words that are directly related to the
theme. Lets try this example:

Sledding is no longer just a winter sport. In fact, its even becoming a popular sport
in deserts. Desert sledders just head for a sand dune. They slide on plastic
saucers, pieces of wood or just on their own two feet. No matter which kind of sled
is used, a great part of the fun is tipping over into the sand. And deserts arent the
only places where there are sand dunes. Many beaches have them, too. So, if
theres a dune near you, why not try sand sledding? One of the best things about it
is that you wont get cold.

If we ask ourselves what is being discussed, we can say that its sledding. So the
topic of the passage is sledding. The key words in the text are sand and sled.
If we ask ourselves What is the author trying to tell us about sledding the
answer would be that sledding can also be done on sand. The author gives
several examples of places with sand, like deserts and beaches, adding more
detail to the general idea of sledding. So, the main idea of the text is sledding can
be done on sand.

Lets look at another example.

Chances are youve never seen a California condor, and you probably never will.
These giant birds are becoming extinct. They are disappearing because of people.
As people use more and more of the land for farms, roads and buildings, land was
taken away from wildlife. The forests where the condors lived have been used up.
Some of the birds died from poisons that farmers used to try to kill other animals.
Fewer baby condors are born each year. Though they are now protected, many
people fear that by the year 2000 all the condors will be gone.

Which of the following options is the main idea?

A. People have caused the extinction of many animals.
B. People used up the forests in which the California condor lived.
C. The California condor is becoming extinct.

Examples adapted from Pauk, W. (1985). Single Skills. Main Idea. Level I. USA. Jamestown Publishers, Inc. pp.10-
11.

23
The phrase many animals in option A makes this statement too broad. The only
animal mentioned in the passage is the condor. The statement in option B tells us
nothing about the danger of extinction. So its too narrow. Option C is the main
idea of the passage because it is the most important point made about the condor.
All the facts and details support this idea.

Now, lets practice by doing these exercises.

Exercise 4: Identifying the topic

Read the following paragraphs. Check () the best topic. Write too narrow or
too broad after the other options.

The first people to grow coffee beans lived in the Middle East. The Persians, Arabs
and Turks were drinking coffee many hundreds of years ago. Then, in the 1600s,
Europeans learned about coffee. They quickly learned to like it. Soon there were
coffee houses in many European cities. Europeans took coffee with them when they
traveled to new countries. That is how people in other parts of the world learned
about coffee. Now coffee is very popular in North and South America, in Africa and in
parts of Asia.
A. The history of coffee
B. European coffee houses
C. Popular drinks
D. Coffee

All around the world large cities have the same problem. That problem is air pollution.
Mexico City has very bad air. The air there is dirty and very unhealthy. Cars are one
reason for the dirty air. Many Mexicans now own their own cars and drive in the city.
The factories in the area also cause air pollution. These factories put a lot of smoke
into the air. It is not easy to clean up the air in a large city. The government has to
make new laws and everyone has to help.
A. Mexico Citys air pollution
B. How factories cause air pollution
C. Life in Mexico City
D. Air pollution

Exercise 5: Identifying the topic sentence

Read the paragraphs below and underline the topic sentence. In the space
provided, explain how you decided on this particular sentence.

1. Modern man, in spite of his superior scientific knowledge, often seems as

superstitious as his ancestors. Astrology is a half-billion-dollar business. Intelligent
persons still believe that lines on their palm or the arrangement of tea leaves in a
cup predict the future. Airplanes do not have a row of seats numbered 13 and
buildings omit a thirteenth floor. Black cats, broken mirrors and spilled salt create
fear and anxiety in many people. And ouija boards continue to be a popular pastime.

24
 2. From Italian we get such words as balcony, cavalry, miniature, opera and
umbrella. Spanish has given us mosquito, ranch, cigar, and vanilla. Dutch has
provided brandy, golf, measles and wagon. From Arabic we have borrowed
alcohol, chemistry, magazine, zenith and zero. And Persian has loaned us
chess, checkers, lemon, paradise and spinach. It is clear that English is a
language that borrows freely from many sources.

3. There are four different tides, depending upon the position of the sun and moon in
relation to the earth. When the sun and moon are in direct line with the earth, they
exert their greatest gravitational force, causing abnormally high or spring tides.
When the sun, moon and earth are at right angles to each other, the gravitational
force is weak, causing abnormally low or neap tides. Between these two extremes
are high or perigee tides when the moon is closest to the earth and low, or
apogee tides when the moon is farthest from the earth.

Exercise 6: Identifying the main idea

Select the main idea of the passage from the options given.

1. One of the fastest swimmers of the seal family is the leopard seal, which is found
in the Antarctic seas. This animal is a powerful predator that preys on penguins
and other, smaller seals. Penguins are the fastest of all the swimming birds, so the
chases between penguins and leopard seals may reach speeds of twenty to
twenty-five miles per hour. Leopard seals also hunt penguins by leaping out of the
water and capturing them as they stand at the edges of ice floes. The explorers of
the South Pole had a healthy respect for the leopard seal, which could mistake a
human for a penguin and is said to have attacked unwary explorers.

25
 The main idea of the paragraph is that ___.
A. the leopard seal is a powerful predator that hunts penguins and
other seals
B. seals are fast and powerful hunters
C. the leopard seal is one of the fastest swimming seals

2. Shrews are famous for an appetite that is quite out of proportion to their size.
These small but fearless mammals are very active and need to eat constantly in
order to survive. They prey mainly on insects of all sizes and shapes, which they
hunt by crawling and wriggling under old logs, through the leaf litter of the forest
floor and even, in a few species, by diving into the water. One member of the
shrew family, the white-toothed pygmy shrew, which is found throughout the
African continent, is the smallest of all living mammals. This tiny predator rarely
reaches two inches in length (from its nose to the base of its tail) and can squeeze
through the tunnels created by large earthworms. It is so small and secretive that it
has rarely ever been seen by humans.

The main idea of the paragraph is that ___.

A. shrews are small but active predators
B. shrews are constantly hunting insects
C. small mammals eat constantly

3. Vitamin E can be found in a number of foods. Vegetable oils, margarine, eggs and
liver are especially good sources. This vitamin plays a role in the prevention of
certain blood disorders. It helps to prevent cell membranes from being destroyed
by substances that build up around the membranes and cause them to break
down. These substances tend to increase in quantity as a person grows older. For
this reason, vitamin E has been suggested as a remedy for the effects of aging.
However, doctors and researchers are still studying the vitamin to find out if there
is any real connection.

The main idea of the paragraph is that ___.

A. vitamin E may help to reverse the aging process
B. vitamin E, which is found in certain foods, prevents some blood
disorders and the destruction of cell membranes
C. the healthiest remedies can often be found in natural substances

4. Whether you are right-handed or left-handed is decided by your brain. The human
brain is divided into sections that control the functions of the body. One part of the
brain, the cerebrum, controls the muscular movements of the body. The cerebrum
is split into two halves, which are mirror-images of each other. One half controls
the right side of the body, and its twin controls the left side. Nerve messages travel
along pathways to reach the brain. These paths cross in the spinal cord, and
therefore the sensorimotor areas of each side of the cerebrum control the opposite
sides of the body. So the right side of the cerebrum controls the left side of the

26
 body, and vice versa. In most people, the left side of the brain dominates the right
side. It is because of this that most people are right-handed. So in people who are
left-handed, the right side of the brain is dominant.

The main idea of the paragraph is that the ___.

A. brain is a complex organ that controls the body.
B. nerve pathways to the brain cross in the spinal cord
C. brain controls whether you are right-or left-handed.

The above exercise was taken from Pauk, W. (1985). Single Skills,
Main idea, level I. USA: Jamestown Publishers, Inc. pp. 15, 16, 21 & 31.

Exercise 7: Identifying the details

The information that the writer uses to support his main idea is known as the
details. These are more specific than the topic or the main idea. Can you
recognize the statements which can be labeled details in the exercise below?

Quickly read the four statements in each group. Label each statement: T (=Topic),
MI (=Main idea) or D (=Detail).

Group 1

A. Electrical failure is a constant concern to both engineers and ground

control. ___
B. Problems with the NASA programme. ___
C. Technical problems have consistently delayed progress in the NASA
space programme. ___
D. Fuselage leaks caused postponement of the latest shuttle flight. ___

Group 2

A. The technique involves inserting genetic instructions into the bacteria

which follow the instructions. ___
B. Producing human insulin. ___
C. Humulin is the first substance made by gene-splicing approved by the
US government for human use. ___
D. The instructions involve creating the two necessary ingredients
to make insulin. ___

The above exercise taken from The Heinemann TOEFL Preparation Course, Kathleen Mahnke & Carolyn B. Duffy,
Heinemann International, 1992.

27
Exercise 8: Distinguishing major and minor details
In textbooks, you will find a lot of details which are sometimes very difficult to
remember. You must learn to differentiate between major and minor details and
only remember those that are significant in supporting the main idea. All details
are not of equal importance as they depend on what point the author is making
and what information is essential to develop, explain or prove that point. For
example, in a passage about communication by sound, the reason a bird sings
would be important but the age at which the bird learns to fly would be a minor
detail. To determine which details are of major or minor significance, identify the
authors main point and then ask yourself the following questions:

What details are needed to explain or prove the main point?

What details are just included to make the passage more interesting?

Study the paragraph below and the way in which it is divided. The paragraph
was taken from an article on hair growth.

1. The good biological news is that in the most common types of thinning, hair
follicles dont die. In classic male-female pattern hair loss (androgenetic
alopecia), for instance, follicles become miniaturized and their growing phase
abbreviated; they then produce extremely short, fine hairs. Even guys who are
bald still have little hairs on the top of their head, explains Bruce A. Morgan of
Harvards Cutaneous Biology Research Center. In a rarer condition, alopecia
areata (affecting nearly 2 percent of people), the follicles growth phase ends
prematurely under autoimmune attack, causing hair to fall out in patches or, in
extreme cases, all over the body. But, again, the follicles survive.

From Save the hairs! by Mia Schmiedeskamp. Scientific American, June 2001, p. 76.

In this paragraph, we can identify the main idea:

In most common types of thinning, hair follicles dont die.

Which is supported by two important details:

Androgenetic alopecia: follicles Alopecia areata: follicles

become miniaturized and growth phase ends prematurely
growing phase abbreviated. due to autoimmune attack.

Each major detail in turn has minor details which support it:

Extremely short, Typical male- Hair falls out in Only 2 % of

fine hair is female hair patches or all people affected.
produced. loss. over body.

28
Now do the same for the second paragraph. Find and underline the main idea and
write the letter D next to the details which support it.

2. Treatment for alopecia areata typically focuses on quelling the wayward immune
system, but treatment for male- and female-pattern hair loss must increase the
size of Lilliputian follicles as well as hair length. Minoxidilintroduced as
Rogaine in 1988was the first drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration for this purpose and is the only one licensed for use in both sexes.
Scientists still debate how minoxidil, which is applied topically, produces thicker,
longer hairs; perhaps it increases blood supply, better nourishing the follicles, or
perhaps it alters cellular concentrations of substances that regulate hair growth.

Text organization
Authors organize their writing using a pattern that allows them to achieve their
purpose for writing the text. Understanding the way in which writers organize
ideas and facts, help us identify main ideas and supporting details easier. We
have already mentioned three of these patterns: a broad statement followed by
support, reasons leading to a conclusion and a list of equally important sentences.
Lets look at a sample text and decide on the organization the writer has used.

There are many ways to build a fire. The basic rule to remember is that you set a
match to tinder. You light the tinder, and the tinder makes the kindling burn. The
heat from the burning kindling makes the larger firewood burn.

The following method usually works well. Place two logs together with tinder
between them. Paper, twigs and bark are good for tinder. Next, place above the
tinder a small handful of dry twigs or split softwood kindling. Then place small, dry
logs over this base. Generally, no more than four logs are needed to make a good
fire. To keep the fire going, push the ends of the logs into the flame from time to
time. Add new logs to keep a flaming fire burning. Before adding logs, rake coals
toward the front of the grate. Add the new logs at the rear of the fireplace. There
they will reflect light and heat into the room.

1. In the first paragraph, the author arranges details by ___.

A. order of importance
B. spatial order
C. cause and effect
D. contrast

2. In the second paragraph, the author arranges details by ___.

A. simple listing
B. comparison
C. cause and effect
D. time order
3. Tinder is the first material used in building a fire because it ___.

29
 A. is easy to find
B. gives off large amounts of heat
C. is less expensive to use than kindling
D. catches fire very easily

Examples adapted from Comprehension Skills Book, Second edition. No. 178 Understanding organization. 1074,
1993. USA: Jamestown Publishers, Inc. p. 16.

How has the author organized the information? Lets look at the details. In the
first paragraph, each sentence tells the way in which one part of the fire makes
the other burn. The pattern used here is cause and effect. On the other hand, in
the second paragraph, the author gives the steps for building a fire. Here, he is
using time order to describe a process. Finally, in the last paragraph, find the
details which support the statements. If you look back over the text, you will find
that the author says paper, twigs and bark make fine tinder and that these burn
easily.

Now, lets practice topic, main idea and text organization by doing the following
exercise.

Exercise 9: Text organization, topic, main idea

Read the paragraphs carefully and then select the best option from the ones
given. Remember to ask yourself What is being discussed? to find the topic,
What is important about this topic? to find the main idea, and What
information supports the main idea? to get the details.

1. Most gemstones used in jewelry must be cut to reveal their full brilliance. In ancient
times, a gemstone was treasured for its surface color rather than for its brilliance.
Therefore, gems were merely polished and left in their natural state. The oldest
type of gem cut that is still in use today is the cabochon, or rounded cut, introduced
by the Romans. The cabochon was used for colored stones, such as the emerald,
ruby, sapphire and garnet, but it is now used for starstones, cats eyes, opals and
imperfect stones. The art of faceting a gemstone, or cutting several flat surfaces on
a gem, originated in India in the 15th century. The first faceted gems were
diamonds that had been cut to disguise any flaws. In the early 17th century, the
rose cut was invented. It revealed the fiery brilliance of a diamond for the first time
and is still the standard cut for the diamond.

1. The topic of this paragraph as a whole is ___.

A. the mining of precious stones
B. gem cuts introduced by the Romans
C. the surface color of gems
D. the cutting of gemstones

2. The paragraph is organized as ___.

30
 A. a broad statement followed by support
B. reasons leading to a conclusion
C. introduction, main idea and supporting sentences
D. a list of equally important statements

3. The author supports the main idea with ___.

A. arguments in favour of using the cabochon cut
B. expert advice about buying diamonds
C. details about the history of gem cutting
D. a comparison of precious and semiprecious stones

2. Many forces have been at work for a long time changing the face of the land upon
which we live. These forces are the weather; water, both in the ground and on its
surface; and living things. By living things we mean plants, animals, insects,
worms and the very tiny creatures called bacteria, which make up for their
smallness by their large numbers. If it were not for these forces, the land would be
nothing but solid rock. It would not be able to support life. The work of all these
forces on the Earths surface is called erosion. One of these forces, however,
running water, as in rivers, has done the most to change the surface of the land.

1. In this paragraph the topic that the author discusses is ___.

A. landslides and rockslides
B. natural forces that wear away the land
C. peoples misuse of the land
D. the formation of rocks and soil

2. Which one of the following ideas supports the main idea?

A. Volcanoes add new rock to the Earths surface.
B. Water washes soil from the land.
C. Bacteria are the causes of some diseases.
D. Weather conditions vary enormously over the Earth.

3. The paragraph is organized as ___.

A. a broad statement followed by support
B. reasons leading to a conclusion
C. introduction, main idea and supporting sentences
D. list of equally important statements

3. To start a fire without matches, you can use sunlight, sparks, or the heat of friction.
First find some dry tinder. Shelter the tinder from the wind and dampness. Some
good tinders are lint from cloth, rope or twine, dry bark, powdered wood, birds
nests and wood dust made by insects under the bark of dead trees. To start the
fire with sunlight, use a camera lens, a lens from a binocular or a lens from a
flashlight. The lens will focus the rays of the sun on the tinder and produce heat.
To strike a spark, use flint and steel. Strike the steel against the flint. Let the
sparks fall into the tinder. There are two methods of making heat from friction. The
bow and drill method is a good one. Make a strong bow strung with a shoelace or
string. Use it to spin a dry, soft shaft in a small block. This forms a black dust that

31
 will catch on fire. Use the wood friction method as a last resort. For this method,
rub two sticks together as fast as possible until friction causes fire.

1. What is the topic of this selection?

A. Surviving in the woods
B. Starting a fire without matches
C. Planning for a camping trip
D. Keeping dry on a hike

2. The author develops the main idea by ___.

A. explaining how fires burn
B. proving that fire can be dangerous
C. suggesting ways to start a fire
D. warning the reader against traveling alone

3. The best title for the paragraph is ___.

A. The Many Uses of the Camera
B. How to Cook on a Campfire
C. Matchless Campfires
D. Play It Safe with Matches

Examples adapted from Comprehension Skills Book, Second edition. No. 178 Understanding organization. 1074,
1993. USA: Jamestown Publishers, Inc. p. 35, 45 & 49.

32
 Focus on reference words
You may understand all of the words in a sentence and still not understand what
the writer wants to say. This might be because you did not pay attention to words
which connect the ideas. We will call these reference words because they
refer us to other parts of the text.

Instead of repeating the same noun over and over again, writers use pronouns to
replace it. The pronoun must agree in number (singular / plural) with the noun it
replaces and, if it is a personal pronoun, also in gender (masculine / feminine).
Some of the most common pronouns used are: it, they, him, her, one, ones,
another, others. Look at the example below.

Modern technology has dramatically changed the way we view the world. With air
travel, satellite communication and computers, it seems a much smaller place
these days.

What does it refer to? In this context, the pronoun it refers back to the world in
the previous sentence, that is, the world is the referent for it.

Look at another example. The words in parentheses are the referents for the
words in italics.

I lose so many things that Im sure that they (things) just get up and walk away. I am
jealous of people who are so orderly that they (orderly people) never lose anything.

Notice here that the plural pronoun they replaces a plural noun (things, people).
If it were replacing a woman, the pronoun used would be she.
Now continue with the rest of the paragraph.

Pens and pencils are never there when I need them (_______________). I try to keep a
pen near the telephone so that I will use it when the phone rings. But it is never there
when I need it (_______________). The situation was getting so bad that I decided to do
something about it. I bought a large cupboard with a number of shelves. I then put ten
boxes on them (_______________). I put a label on each box: one (_______________)

33
 I labeled Pens and Pencils, another (_______________) I labeled Tools, another
Needles and Pins. I also bought an address book and put it in the corner of the
cupboard. Before this, I always lost all the addresses and phone numbers I needed.
Now I felt very proud of myself. But things did not change. Pens began to disappear, and
one day I found my hammer under the bed. There was only one solution. I locked the
cupboard and put the key on top of it (_______________). The cupboard was always
locked and I was the only one who knew where the key was. Then I lost it
(_______________).

Exercise 10: Understanding personal pronoun references

Part A. Read the paragraphs below. Find out what the pronouns in italics refer
to. Look for the italized pronouns and write their referent in the line provided.

1. In the United States, about 10 million computers are thrown away every year!
Because most unwanted computers are sent to a dump, they (1) have caused a
problem. The computer industry and the government are working on ways to solve
it (2). They (3) have concluded that there must be changes in the way computers
are built. They (4) must be made in ways that will allow their parts to be recycled.
These parts include the electronic parts, the glass screen of the monitor and parts of
the printer.

1. they ____________________ 3. they _____________________

2. it ____________________ 4. they _____________________

2. A pedicab is a small cab which is pulled by a bicycle. This human-powered

transportation has been popular in Asian countries for many years. Two years ago,
a local businessman decided to introduce it (1) in Denver, Colorado. So far, he (2)
has four of them (3) on the road. He explained that they (4) do not take the place of
taxis, because people use them (5) for short rides. The passengers are often people
who dont want to walk because they (6) are dressed in evening clothes.

1. it ____________________ 4. they _____________________

2. he ____________________ 5. them _____________________

3. them ____________________ 6. they _____________________

34
Part B. Read the story. Then decide what part of the text each underlined
pronoun refers to.

APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA
Somerset Maugham

There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his (1) servant to the market to buy
provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said,
Master, just now when I was in the market-place, I (2) was jostled by a woman in the
crowd and when I turned, I saw it was Death that jostled me. She (3) looked at me and
made a threatening gesture. Please lend me your (4) horse and I will ride away from this
city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.

The merchant lent him his horse and the servant mounted it (5) and he dug his (6) spurs
into its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.
Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he (7) saw Death standing in the
crowd and he came to Death and said, Why did you (8) make a threatening gesture to
my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture,
Death said. It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I
had an appointment with him (9) tonight in Samarra.
1. His refers to:
A. the servant B. the merchant C. Baghdad D. the market

2. I refers to:
A. the servant B. the merchant C. the reader D. the market

3. She refers to:

A. the servant B. the merchant C. Death D. Baghdad

4. Your refers to:

A. the servant B. the merchant C. the horse D. the woman

5. It refers to:
A. the servant B. the merchant C. Death D. the horse

6. His refers to:

A. the servant B. the merchant C. the horse D. the woman

7. He refers to:
A. the servant B. the merchant C. the market D. the woman

8. You refers to:

A. the servant B. the merchant C. Death D. the horse

9. Him refers to:

A. the servant B. the merchant C. Death D. the woman

35
Part C. Read the selection and answer the questions.

Thomas Jeffersons liberal views of democracy were first proposed in his draft of the
Bill of Rights in 1776. Unfortunately, the Virginia Convention used only the preamble
of this draft in the more conservative document that they accepted, which had been
drafted by George Mason. Much of what Jefferson wanted was, however, obtainable
as ordinary legislation and when he took his seat in the new legislature, it was with a
view of putting through a definite program of reforms. In this he had the support of
such men as Mason, George Wythe, and James Madison, against the strenuous
opposition of such leaders of the old order as Edmund Pendleton and Robert
Nicholas Carter. These men had much to lose if Jeffersons ideas were carried out.

1. The words this draft in line 3 refer to ___.

A. the draft Jefferson wrote
B. the draft that George Mason wrote
C. the preamble
D. the draft that was accepted

2. The pronoun he in line 5 refers to ___.

A. George Mason
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. a member of the Virginia Convention
D. a member of the legislature

3. The pronoun this in line 6 refers to ___.

A. the implementation of the Bill of Rights
B. the acceptance of Jeffersons original draft
C. putting through a program of definite reforms
D. carrying out Jeffersons liberal views

Taken from The Heinemann TOEFL Preparation Course,

Kathleen Mahnke & Carolyn B. Duffy, Heinemann International, 1992.

Exercise 11: Understanding other references

Besides pronouns, authors also use other types of words and even phrases to
make references. As long as these phrases mean the same thing in the context as
their referent does, they can be used as effective references. Look at the following
example:

The monkeys most extraordinary accomplishment was learning to operate a tractor. By

the age of nine, the monkey had learned to solo on the vehicle.

We know that a tractor is a kind of vehicle: the lexical equivalence between these
two concepts allows the author to use the vehicle as an adequate reference to a
tractor in the context.
Now look at the examples below and identify the referent of the italicized words.

36
1. They regularly get The Daily Courier. I wouldnt read such a paper.

2. She wrote a short novel in 1989. That very book was to bring her fame some years later.

3. Gerry Nichol and Bob Smith were at the conference. The former gave an outstanding
demonstration of his new theory. The latter, though, failed at convincing the audience about
his latest results.

4. Dr. Lees project got ten thousand dollars on grant money. Prof. Greens received a similar
amount.

Examples adapted from Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1972).
A grammar of contemporary English. London: Longman.

37
 Focus on inferences
Now that weve looked at the way the author communicates his or her ideas
through main ideas and details and their organization in the text, lets turn to
information that is not explicitly stated. Sometimes the author of a text does not
state an idea directly, but you, the reader, can understand that the idea follows
logically from what the writer does say. The inference is suggested from the
facts. Lets look at this example:

Mrs. Jones put on her rain coat and rain hat and picked up her umbrella before she went
out.

We know that _____________________________________________________

We can infer that __________________________________________________

Practice in recognizing logical inferences is important for good reading. You need
to be aware of the inferences you make while reading and learn to check them
automatically for support. Ask yourself What can I logically infer from this
information? Be careful; do not make assumptions that are not supported
by the explicit information in the text!

Lets look at some other examples.

Subsequent technological developments have replaced vacuum tubes by

transistors and then by printed circuits and microchips. Thus, the size of the
modern computers has been greatly reduced, and the speed greatly increased
from the ones that John von Neumann helped to develop.

What can we infer from this paragraph?

A. Transistors, printed circuits and microchips have replaced vacuum tubes

in computers.
B. Transistors, printed circuits and microchips are smaller and faster than
vacuum tubes.
C. Von Neumann helped to develop computers.

38
If you chose option B, you were correct. Both options A and C are stated in the
text. More importantly, if printed circuits and microchips have replaced vacuum
tubes in the first computers and if modern computers are smaller and faster than
the older ones, we can infer that printed circuits and microchips are indeed
smaller and faster than vacuum tubes. Now look at this other example:

According to Jared Diamond, the author of The Worst Mistake in the History of the
Human Race, one of the bad results of the adoption of agriculture is that people
became shorter than their ancestors were.

Which of the following can we infer?

A. After the adoption of agriculture, people were not as tall as their ancestors
were.
B. The author thinks that being as tall as, or taller than, other ancestors is
good.
C. Jared Diamond wrote the The Worst Mistake in the History of the
Human Race.
Which two options did you discard? ___ and ___.

Why? _______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Lets start by identifying statements that can be inferred from a passage.

Remember to ask yourself What information in the text supports this inference?

Exercise 12: Identifying inferable information

Read the following passages and circle all of the statements that can be inferred
from each.

1. A good source of vitamin B is kale. Spinach and escarole are other green leafy
vegetables that provide this essential vitamin. Enjoy your daily salad and youll
have your vitamin B as well.

A. Kale is a green leafy vegetable.

B. Vitamin B is the most essential vitamin.
C. Eating salad will guarantee good health.
D. Kale, spinach and escarole can be used in salads

2. The fossils that have led to this new view of dinosaurs as migratory creatures
have been found in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the former Soviet Union, as
well as in Antarctica and Southern Australia. At the time dinosaurs thrived near
the poles; conditions there were radically different from those today. The planet
was warmer, especially in these polar areas.

39
 A. Dinosaurs are usually thought of as sedentary creatures.
B. Dinosaurs migrated from Alaska to Australia.
C. The fossils have been found in Polar Regions.
D. The temperature at the poles today is cold.

3. Fundamental to the theory of plate tectonics is the assumption that while all the
plates seem to be moving at different relative speedsranging from a fraction of an
inch to a maximum of five inches a yearthe whole jigsaw puzzle of plates is
interlinked. No one plate can move without affecting others, and the activity of one
can influence another thousands of miles away. The Atlantic Ocean could not be
getting wideras it is with the spreading of the African Plate away from the South
American Plateif the Pacific sea floor were not being consumed in deep oceanic
trenches faster than it is created at the Pacific ridges. The plates move rapidly by
geological standards; two inches per yearto pick a typical speedup to 30 miles
in one million years. It took only 150 million years for a mere fracture in an ancient
continent to turn into the Atlantic Ocean.

A. As the Atlantic is getting wider, the Pacific Ocean is getting narrower.

B. Plate tectonics is a complex, interrelated system.
C. Where the Atlantic Ocean is today, there used to be a continent.
D. Geological standards of time are faster than normal standards of time.

The above exercise was taken from The Heinemann TOFEL Preparation Course,
Kathleen Mahnke & Carolyn B. Duffy, Heinemann International, 1992.

Exercise 13: Justifying the logic behind your inference

The following sentences were taken from a text entitled Euthanasia. Carefully
read each one and then circle the option that best expresses the inference that
can be made logically from the information given in the original sentence(s).
Explain your choice.

1. Various physicians oppose euthanasia on the grounds that it is contrary to the Oath
of Hippocrates that all doctors must take. Others suggest that the Hippocratic Oath
is outdated or easily misinterpreted.

The others mentioned in the quote ___.

A. support euthanasia because of the Hippocratic Oath
B. oppose euthanasia because of the Hippocratic Oath
C. dont think that the Hippocratic Oath is sufficient reason to oppose
euthanasia.

I chose this option because_______________________________________________

40
 2 Cardinal Villot, Vatican Secretary of State, summarized a letter to the International
Federation of Catholic Medical Associations in 1970 indicating that medicine is at
the service of man. Man, on the other hand, is not an instrument for medical
science. He thinks that ___.

A. doctors should learn more about medicine from patients who are kept
alive artificially
B. some doctors keep some patients alive partially so they can learn more
about medicine
C. doctors must do everything they can to keep their patients alive

I chose this option because _______________________________________

3 Dr. Robert Morse, a neurologist in charge of her case, maintained that Karen
Quinland was not brain dead. He referred to the Ad Hoc Committee of Harvard
Medical School Criteria as the ordinary medical standard for determining brain
death. Karen Ann Quinland satisfied none of these criteria. She reportedly did not
have a completely flat EEG, and she did exhibit involuntary muscle activity.

From this paragraph we can infer that ___.

A. Dr. Morse thinks that a person must not be considered alive if that
patient is not brain dead.
B. One of the criteria for being considered brain dead is to exhibit
involuntary muscle activity
C. A person considered brain dead has a completely flat EEG and no
involuntary muscle activity.

I chose this option because:

_____________________________________________

The above exercise was adapted from Laura Donahue Latulippe, Developing Academic Reading Skills, Regents
Prentice Hall, 1987.

Exercise 14: Identifying the correct inference

Now read the following extracts and select the best option.
1. As recently as two or three hundred years ago, visitors from space could have
landed on 90 percent of our planet and human kind would never have noticed it. If
one searches through old newspapers and local records, one can find many reports
of strange incidents that could be interpreted as visits from outer space. A
stimulating writer, Chares Fort, has made a collection of UFO (Unidentified Flying
Object) sightings in his book Lo! One is tempted to believe them more than any
modern reports, for the simple reason that they happened long before anyone had
ever thought of space travel. Yet at the same time one cannot take them too
seriously, for before scientific education was wide-spread, even sightings of
meteors, comets, auroras and so on gave rise to the most incredible stories, as they
still do today.

41
 You can infer that the author thinks that ___.
A. observations of UFOs are unreliable
B. visitors from space could not live on Earth
C. visitors from space have landed on Earth
D. no civilizations could exist on other planets

What certain inference can you make about the motives of interplanetary
visitors to Earth?
A. They would come to make war.
B. They would come to live in peace
C. They would come for scientific exploration.
D. No certain inference can be made.

The author suggests that modern education has ___.

A. decreased the tendency to interpret natural objects as UFOs
B. increased the number of UFO sightings
C. forced us to believe in UFOs
D. solved the age-old mystery of UFOs

2. Animals in the desert have a problem getting water and keeping it. Insect eaters get
their liquid from their food. Many desert animals have an additional source of water
through the breakdown of body fat. Lizards, for example, store fat in their tails much
as the camel stores fat in its hump. Most desert dwellers avoid the drying heat as
much as possible, spending their time in burrows, where the damp earth and the
coolness cut down the amount of evaporation from their breathing. With the exception
of the coyote, which is apt to have its home in the shelter of rocks or in dense
vegetation, nearly all mammals have burrows of one sort or another. All birds seek
whatever shade they can find. Reptiles have an added reason for avoiding the desert
sun. They are cold-blooded creatures that lack the protection of fur, feathers and other
cooling devices. They can be killed by a relatively short exposure to full sunshine.

As a whole the paragraph suggests that ___.

A. desert animals survive without water
B. desert animals are cold-blooded
C. animals adapt to their surroundings
D. heredity does not affect survival

The opening sentence supports the inference that in a desert ___.

A. animals live short lives
B. water cannot be found
C. rain never falls
D. water is scarce and evaporates quickly

The author suggests that in the desert ___.

A. reptiles are harmful during daylight
B. only birds hunt during the heat of the day
C. coyotes are vegetarians
D. insects store water in their bodies

42
3. Weather routing is, simply, a method of planning a course of travel around and
through bad weather. Generally, it means choosing the course that is shortest in
terms of time and lowest in terms of risk. Weather routing is an instrument of control
and efficiency in navigation, a means to greater safety and speed. In recent years
weather routing has been very much refined, yet as an idea, it is not new. People
have long been helpless before the weather and, like other creatures, have
withdrawn in fear and simply suffered through catastrophes. Those people most
exposed suffered most, and they were mariners. But centuries of ill-tempered skies
and quiet seas taught them both caution and courage. They understood the winds
message and faced with confidence or feared with reason the motions of the sea
and sky.

The paragraph suggests that the key to safe travel is ___.

A. understanding the weather and careful planning
B. simple luck and optimism
C. light winds and clear skies
D. a combination of fear and confidence

It can be inferred from the paragraph that weather routing ___.

A. does away with all known dangers
B. is opposed by pilots and navigators
C. is not a guarantee against all risks
D. was practiced by early mariners

It can be inferred from the paragraph that travel becomes safer as ___.
A. people learn not to fear storms
B. the science of weather forecasting progresses
C. people withdraw from their environment
D. mariners caution and courage increases

The above exercise was taken from Comprehension Skills Book. Second edition. No. 185 Making Inferences
Advenced Level. 1974, 1993. USA: Jamestown Publishers, Inc. pp. 30, 37 & 43.

43
 Focus on lexical items
A lexical item can be loosely defined as a word or groups of words with a meaning
that needs to be learnt as a unitary whole 1. When you read in English, you will
find some lexical items that you do not know. Not knowing those words makes
understanding what we read more difficult. This chapter of the handbook will
help you deal with unknown words you may encounter while reading. With these
tips and exercises, you will learn strategies and develop skills to figure out the
meaning of unfamiliar lexical items. Some of these strategies are:

Use your mother tongue to identify the meaning of words that are similar in
Spanish and English (cognates).
Be aware of word function and structure. That is, identifying the grammatical
function of a word (e.g. noun, verb, adjective, adverb), recognizing word
families (e.g. apply, application, applicable) and word formation (e.g. dis-
agree-ment), be familiar with compound words (e.g. weekend) and phrasal
verbs (e.g. go away).
Know that a word may have different meanings according to its context and
recognize the right one by using contextual clues (such as synonyms and
antonyms, definitions, restatements, examples and explanations).
Learn how to use an English-English dictionary.

Becoming aware of cognate words

Cognates are usually defined as words that share aspects of spelling, sound, and
meaning across languages (e.g. piano in Spanish and piano in English) 2. We are
going to focus only on similarities that concern spelling and meaning. The reason
why two words in different languages share similarities usually has to do with

1 Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. Oxford: Heinemann ELT.
2 Sunderman, G. y Schwartz, A. (2008). Using cognates to investigate cross-language competition in second
language processing. TESOL Quarterly 42, 527-536.

44
the fact that they also share an etymological origin (i.e. a pair of words that have
a common origin in ancient languages like Latin or Greek), but that is not always
the case.

In science and technology English texts there are lots of words that are similar to
words in Spanish: between 30 to 40% of content words are English-Spanish
cognates. Nice, isnt it? This means that only because you are a Spanish speaker,
a Romance language derived from Latin, you should be acquainted with at least a
third of the words in an English text. However, sometimes we fail to recognize the
similarities, or there are differences in meaning that might fool us. That is the
purpose of this section of the handbook. Lets take a close look at cognates so we
can benefit from their advantages.

Exercise 15: Identifying cognate words

Scientists have come to some surprising conclusions about the world and our
place in it. Are some things just better left unknown? Science can be glorious; it
can bring clarity to a chaotic world. But big scientific discoveries are by nature
counterintuitive and sometimes shocking. Lets take a look at three of the most
disturbing scientific discoveries. Read the following text and try to identify as
many English-Spanish cognates as you can. Circle them as you read.

Weve already changed the climate for the rest of this century.

The mechanics of climate change arent that complex: we burn fossil fuels; a byproduct
of that burning is carbon dioxide; it enters the atmosphere and traps heat, warming the
surface of the planet. The consequences are already apparent: glaciers are melting
faster than ever, flowers are blooming earlier (just ask Henry David Thoreau), and plants
and animals are moving to more extreme latitudes and altitudes to keep cool.
Even more disturbing is the fact that carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for
hundreds of years. We have just begun to see the effects of human-induced climate
change, and the predictions for whats to come range from dire to catastrophic.

This passage is 120 words long. How many cognates were you able to identify?
_____. Calculate the percentage of cognates in the passage: ____%.

Now, read the following passage and pay particular attention to English-Spanish
cognates.

There have been mass extinctions in the past, and were probably in one now.

Paleontologists have identified five points in Earths history when, for whatever reason
(asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions and atmospheric changes are the main suspects),
mass extinctions eliminated many or most species.
The concept of extinction took a while to sink in. Thomas Jefferson saw mastodon bones
from Kentucky, for example, and concluded that the giant animals must still be living

45
 somewhere in the interior of the continent. He asked Lewis and Clark to keep an eye out
for them.
Today, according to many biologists, were in the midst of a sixth great extinction.
Mastodons may have been some of the earliest victims. As humans moved from
continent to continent, large animals that had thrived for millions of years began to
disappearmastodons in North America, giant kangaroos in Australia, dwarf elephants
in Europe. Whatever the cause of this early wave of extinctions, humans are driving
modern extinctions by hunting, destroying habitat, introducing invasive species and
inadvertently spreading diseases.

Now, translate the following words into Spanish. Then, discuss your answers with
your teacher and classmates.

English cognates Spanish equivalent

history
suspects
large
inadvertently

Again, read the passage below paying attention to cognates.

The Earth is not the center of the universe.

Weve had more than 400 years to get used to the idea, but its still a little unsettling.
Anyone can plainly see that the Sun and stars rise in the east, sweep across the sky and
set in the west; the Earth feels stable and stationary. When Copernicus proposed that
the Earth and other planets instead orbit the Sun, his contemporaries found his massive
logical leap patently absurd, says Owen Gingerich of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics. It would take several generations to sink in. Very few scholars saw it
as an actual description of the universe.
Galileo got more grief for the idea than Copernicus did. He used a telescope to provide
evidence for the heliocentric theory, and some of his contemporaries were so disturbed
by what the new invention revealedcraters on a supposedly perfectly spherical moon,
other moons circling Jupiterthat they refused to look through the device. More
dangerous than defying common sense, though, was Galileos defiance of the Catholic
Church. Scripture said that the Sun revolved around the Earth, and the Holy Office of the
Inquisition found Galileo guilty of heresy for saying otherwise.

Did you find any false friends in the above passage? ____________. If the answer is
YES, write down the word or words you found:

Reading passages excerpted from: Helmuth, Laura (2010) The ten most disturbing scientific discoveries. Smithsonian Magazine (Online).

46
Do all cognates share the same features?

No, not all English-Spanish cognates are the same. They vary in the degree of
similarity they share. On one hand, we have orthographic similarities: they may
or may not have the same spelling. On the other, we have semantic similarities:
they may or may not mean exactly the same.

Based on the degree of graphic and/or semantic similarities that pairs of words in
English and Spanish may share, we can talk about four different types of English-
Spanish cognates:

True cognates are those that look alike and mean the same, like simple
simple, group grupo, and so on.

False cognates are those that look more or less alike, but do not mean the
same. For example: large is translated into Spanish as grande, not largo.

Deceptive cognates look more or less alike, but they share only some
aspects of meaning. For example: sound in Spanish as a noun is sonido,
but as an adjective is sensato, lgico.

Finally, spelling similarities in Potential cognates may not always be evident,

but they mean the same in the other language, as in the case of surface
superficie or pressure presin.

A graphic representation with the types of English-Spanish cognates (according to

varying degrees of similarity in terms of their orthographic and semantic
features) might be helpful to grasp the whole idea.

Orthographic Semantic
Examples
similarity equivalence

1 True = = group = grupo

large largo
2 False =/
large = grande

sound = sonido +
3 Deceptive =/
sensato, lgico

4 Potential = pressure = presin

47
Exercise 16: Would you recognize what type of cognate it is?

Read the following statements. Classify cognates in italics into the four different
types discussed. Write the corresponding number (1, 2, 3 or 4) in the space
provided.

1. ____ Companies are in the process of building a more competitive solar

power industry.
2. ____ Many thinkers firmly maintain that machines will never have
thoughts like ours.
3. ____ The interface electrons also turned out to be surprisingly mobile.
4. ____ It is difficult to find materials for a fusion reactor's inside wall,
which will be exposed to such an intense flux of high-energy neutrons.
5. ____ Fusion reactions are those in which various isotopes of hydrogen
fuse to become helium nuclei.
6. ____ Nuclear power is an expensive option in the short term. Another
constraint may be a lack of skilled workers.
7. ____ They have devised a method for collecting the product a sticky
film to which the algae adhere and are now working to increase
production.
8. ____ They are looking at getting algae to secrete hydrocarbons in a form
that can be continuously collected.
9. ____ At the heart of the hybrid engine is a rotor containing a number of
radial channels.
10. ____ The Portland Metro Climate Prosperity Project aims to increase
the region's stake in the green technology and design sectors.
11. ____ The camouflaged atom behaves chemically like hydrogen, but has
four times the mass of normal hydrogen.
12. ____ This site is the future home of the San Diego Consortium for
Regenerative Medicine.
13. ____ A synthetic biologist at the University of California, San Francisco,
is experimenting with the creation of membrane-bound compartments
that would insulate the genetic circuits.
14. ____ Even healthy adults acclimatized to heat will succumb if it stays
too hot and too humid for too long.
15. ____ Arrhenius did not consider that many aspects of space especially
ultraviolet cosmic rays, low temperatures, and a vacuum are hostile
to life.
16. ____ The actual model used does not simply inspect what the market
did yesterday or last week. It is in fact a more realistic depiction of
market fluctuations.
17. ____ These techniques do not come closer to forecasting a price drop or
rise on a specific day on the basis of past records.
18. ____ Although many educators have praised the report, critics say the
documents vague approach to mathematical analysis is reminiscent of
the NCTMs 1989 guidelines.

48
 19. ____ Gale wasn't really asking for a list of numbers; he wanted to know
what pattern underlies the numbers.
20. ____ We turned our collars up against the chill.

In theory, second language learners should take advantage of similarities

between a word in their native language and a word in the language they are
learning. Unfortunately, in some cases, what looks similar could be quite
different. As a result, you might end up having trouble understanding certain
reading passages, or even worst you might misinterpret their general
meaning.

False cognates are pairs of words in two languages that look alike but do not
share the same meaning (e.g. the English word exit means something completely
different from the word xito in Spanish). Good news: False cognates, only
represent less than 10% of all English-Spanish cognates. However, you have to
watch out. False cognates are similar to false friends: they appear to be what they
are not, and this can get you into trouble! Next, there is a list of some common
and very confusing English-Spanish false friends.

Incorrect
English English equivalent of
Spanish translation
word incorrect translation
equivalent into Spanish
actually de hecho, en realidad actualmente current, nowadays
application solicitud aplicacin effort, computer software
appreciate agradecer apreciar to esteem
assist ayudar, atender asistir attend
attend asistir (a un evento) atender assist
...and
carpet alfombra not... carpeta folder
embarrass avergonzar, apenar embarazada pregnant
library biblioteca librera bookstore
parents padres parientes relatives
realize darse cuenta de algo realizar carry out
sensible sensato sensible sensitive
sensitive sensible sensitivo sentient
success xito suceso event

49
Exercise 17: Recognizing false cognates or false friends

Read the following excerpts about the Earth and its age.

How old is Earth? About 4.55 billion years

Where are we? Earth is in the Solar System, on the outer edge of the Milky Way,
about 28,000 light years from the galactic center (Source:
European Space Agency). It takes the solar system 225 million
years to make one full trip around the Milky Way.

Earths Sun The Sun is a medium sized, yellow star. Scientists call it a G2 star.
It is the largest object in the solar system and contains 99.8
percent of the solar systems mass. It is located in the center of the
solar system.

Average distance About 92.96 million miles. Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
from the sun.

How much does 5.972 sextillion (1,000 trillion) metric tons. Thats
the Earth weigh? 5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons! Scientists call this
measurement the Earths mass. You can only weigh something if
there is gravitational pull on another object. And the Earth cant
pull on itself!

Excerpts from an article by Eric McLamb, September 14, 2010. Published by Ecology Global
Network at http://www.ecology.com/2010/09/14/earth-glance/

Look at the word in italics in the following sentences extracted from the text you
have just read. Taking context into consideration, circle the option that
corresponds to the correct meaning of that word.

1. It is the largest object in the solar system and contains 99.8 percent of the
solar systems mass.
A. having more than usual capacity or scope
B. extending for a considerable distance

2. Scientists call this measurement the Earths mass.

A. discreet, moderate
B. a figure, extent, or amount obtained by measuring

50
Now, look at the word in italics in the text below. Again, circle the option that
corresponds to the correct meaning of that word.

Team Claims It Has Found Oldest Fossils. A team of Australian and British geologists
have discovered fossilized, single-cell organisms that are 3.4 billion years old and that
the scientists say are the oldest known fossils on earth.
A. 109 B. 1012

Their assertion, if sustained, confirms the view that life evolved on earth surprisingly
soon after the Late Heavy Bombardment, a reign of destruction in which waves of
asteroids slammed into the primitive planet, heating the surface to molten rock and
boiling the oceans into an incandescent mist. The bombardment, which ended around
3.85 billion years ago, would have sterilized the earths surface of any incipient life. The
claim is also a new volley in a long-running conflict over who has found the oldest fossil.

A. to call loudly
B. to assert in the face of possible contradiction

The new microfossils are described in Sundays issue of Nature Geoscience by a team
led by David Wacey of the University of Western Australia and Martin D. Brasier of the
University of Oxford. The fossils were found in sandstone at the base of the Strelley Pool
rock formation in Western Australia.
The sandstone, 3.4 billion years ago, was a beach on one of the few islands that had
started to appear above the oceans surface. Conditions were very different from those
of today. The moon orbited far closer to earth, raising huge tides. The atmosphere was
full of methane, since plants had not yet evolved to provide oxygen, and greenhouse
warming from the methane had heated the oceans to the temperature of a hot bath. It
was in these conditions, the geologists believe, that organisms resembling todays
bacteria lived in the crevices between the pebbles on the beach. Examining thin slices of
rock under the microscope, they have found structures that look like living cells, some in
clusters that seem to show cell division.

A. only one organism B. many organisms

Cell-like structures in ancient rocks can be deceivingmany have turned out to be

artifacts formed by nonbiological processes. In this case, the geologists have gathered
considerable circumstantial evidence that the structures they see are biological. With an
advanced new technique, they have analyzed the composition of very small spots within
the cell-like structures. We can see carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus, all within
the cell walls, Dr. Brasier said. Crystals of fools gold, an iron-sulfur mineral, lie next to
the microfossils and indicate that the organisms, in the absence of oxygen, fed off sulfur
compounds, Dr. Brasier and his colleagues say.

Microfossilsthe cell-like structures found in ancient rockshave become a highly

contentious field, both because of the pitfalls in proving that they are truly biological and
because the scientific glory of having found the oldest known fossil has led to pitched
battles between rival claimants. The honor of having found the most ancient microfossil

51
 has been long been held by J. W. Schopf, a paleobiologist at the University of California,
Los Angeles. In 1993, Dr. Schopf reported his discovery of fossils 3.465 billion years old
in the Apex chert of the Warrawoona Group in Western Australia, about 20 miles from
where the new fossils have been found. Those would be some 65 million years older
than the new find, but Dr. Schopfs claim was thrown in doubt in 2002 when Dr. Brasier
attacked his finding, saying the fossils were not biological but just mineral artifacts.

A. a very large number B. a unit of distance

With the new discovery, Dr. Brasier has dropped the second shoe, claiming
to find microfossils that are or may be the oldest known, if and when Dr.
Schopfs are knocked out of the running.

WARNING! False cognates and irregular plurals

Irregular plurals in English are usually a source of misinterpretation. The pair of
words in English and Spanish bacteria bacteria is considered to be a pair of
false cognates, because the word in English is plural and the word in Spanish is
singular (and, therefore, they do not mean exactly the same thing). Most of these
irregular plurals are words that come straight from Latin and, as a result, they
are cognates. The problem is that in Spanish bacteria is singular and bacterias
plural, and in English bacterium is singular and bacteria is plural. Crazy, isnt it?
Here you have some cognates with irregular plurals so you can be aware of the
differences between English and Spanish and avoid misunderstandings.

When *** turns into a When us turns into i

SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL

bacterium bacteria alumnus alumni
corpus corpora cactus cacti
criterion criteria focus foci
curriculum curricula fungus fungi
datum data nucleus nuclei
genus genera radius radii / radiai
medium media
memorandum memoranda
phenomenon phenomena
stratum strata

52
 No change When a turns into ae

SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL

means means antenna antennae/antennas
offspring offspring formula formulae/formulas
series series nebula nebulae
species species vertebra vertebrae
stimulus stimulus

Exercise 18: Some Latin words and their irregular plurals

Fill in the blank with a singular or plural word, according to context.

1. In classical geometry, a _____________ of a circle or sphere is any line

segment from its center to its perimeter.
2. In US criminal law, _____________, motive, and opportunity is a popular
cultural summation of the three aspects of a crime needed to convince a
jury of guilt in a criminal proceeding.
3. _________________ are interstellar clouds of dust, hydrogen gas, helium
gas and other ionized gases.
4. __________________ are members of a large group of eukaryotic
organisms that include microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as
well as the more familiar mushrooms.
5. A __________________ is a standard or test by which individual things or
people may be compared and judged.
6. A __________________ is any observable occurrence. _________________
are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'.
7. In geology and related fields, __________________ are layers of
sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that
distinguish it from other layers.

Definitions retrieved from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)

53
Becoming aware of word function

Words have different functions within the sentence. This is what is commonly
known as parts of speech. Knowing the function of a word within the sentence can
help you determine its meaning. Let us have a quick review of the most common
parts of speech:

Part of Definition or explanation Examples

speech

Noun This represents a:

(n.) person participant, doctor
place London, school, park
thing nail, wire, wheel
idea freedom, hatred

Verb This is a word or group of words The settlers defend their town against invaders.
(v.) that indicate an action is taking
place.

Adjective This gives us more information It is time to give a definite answer to that
(adj.) about a noun or a pronoun. For question.
example, an adjective can
Simple examples of information-processing
describe, explain, limit, or
machines can be traced to ancient times
specify the noun.
Adverb An adverb describes or modifies He spoke deferentially. (modifies the verb speak)
(adv.) a verb, adjective or another
She is definitely rich. (modifies the adjective
adverb.
rich)
The job is very nearly completed. (modifies the
adverb nearly)
Conjunction Conjunctions connect individual I decided to go to the beach although it was
(conj.) words or group or words. raining.
Communication devices transmit information or
preserve it, but they do not modify it in any way.
Complex compounds may be broken down and
their parts recombined in new ways to yield new
compounds.
Preposition This is a word or a group of Paul parked the car under the bridge.
(prep.) words that shows the
relationship between the object
that follows the preposition and
another word in the sentence.
Pronoun This is a word used to replace a The students were anxious about their final
(pron.) noun, a group of nouns, some grade.
other pronouns, and even longer
Their teacher said she would speak to them after
phrases.
class.

54
Exercise 19: Identifying parts of speech
1. Sustainability is the practice of maintaining processes of productivity
without degrading or endangering natural biotic systems.

sustainability is a/an
practice is a/an
productivity is a/an

2. Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

sustainable is a/an
without is a/an
their is a/an

3. Fundamental human needs such as the availability and quality of air,

water, food and shelter are also the ecological foundations for
sustainable development.

needs is a/an
also is a/an

4. Unlike the fossil fuel that most of the countries think they need,
renewable energy only produces little or even no pollution.

need is a/an
produces is a/an

5. An "unsustainable situation" occurs when natural capital, the sum total

of nature's resources, is used up faster than it can be replenished.

unsustainable is a/an
of is a/an
faster is a/an

55
 Exercise 20: Using parts of speech to guess meaning from
context

In the following sentences, the words that appear in italics are nonsense words,
i.e. words that do not exist in English. Identify the part of speech for each
nonsense word and write a possible meaning. As you complete this exercise, think
about the way you figured out the part of speech of the nonsense words or their
meaning. Which questions did you ask yourself?

1. My father is a bodder. He can make beautiful things out of wood.

bodder is a/an , and it probably means

2. Anna is really gribb, but her sister is gribber, so it is easier for her to find
jobs.

gribb is a/an , and it probably means

3. Ben is quite grappy. He never lets anyone finish a sentence.

grappy is a/an , and it probably means

4. Last night, both Sherry and David became very gompered. They wouldnt
stop shouting at each other.

gompered is a/an , and it probably means

5. The sploony urdle departed.

sploony is a/an , and it probably means

urdle is a/an , and it probably means

Let us discuss how you made sense of these nonsense words. Look at the last
sentence: the gap between the and a verb is always filled with a noun, so either
sploony or urdle must be a noun. Sploony looks like an adjective because y is a
common adjective ending; in that case, urdle is the noun. If sploony were the
noun, urdle would also be a noun, because (a) only a noun or an adverb could
occur in that position (experiment with other sentences to prove that to yourself);
(b) it is unlikely to be an adverb as those which could occur in that position either
end in -ly or belong to a familiar restricted set (soon, then, etc.).

56
Becoming aware of word structure

Understanding word form

You may be able to determine the meaning of an unknown word by analyzing its
internal structure. This means breaking the word into its parts and using the
meaning of each part to give you clues to determine the meaning of the whole
word. Read the following example:

The terminology of the field has been enriched by scientists of various points of
view.

In this example, you can guess that the word enriched:

is a verb in the past tense because it has the suffix -ed

is related with the notion rich, which is this words root, and
implies the idea of transforming into because of the prefix en-

Therefore, you may guess that the above sentence means something like:

The terminology of the field has been made richer (= increased)

by scientists of various points of view.

Affixation
Many words are usually made up of three parts: a prefix, a stem and a suffix.
The stem is the central part of the word. It is also known as the root and it gives
the base meaning of the word. We add prefixes and suffixes to the root to make
new words. For example:

Non electron ic devices

prefix root or stem suffix

Prefixes
A prefix comes at the beginning of a word. It adds more meaning to the stem.
Here are some common prefixes, most of them similar to Spanish ones you
already know. Watch out! The last four prefixes (mis-, out-, over-, and under-)
are different from their equivalents in Spanish.

57
Prefix Meaning Examples
anti- against antinuclear, antisocial
co- together coexist, cohost.
ex- previously, formerly exdirector, exwife.
inter- between international, inter-city.
mini- small minidisk. miniskirt, minibus
mono- one monolingual, monotonous, monocellular, monoarticular
multi- many multicultural, multimedia
post- after postdated, postgraduate, postwar
pre- before prehistoric, premature, preschool.
pro- in favor of pro-government, proactive, pro-gay, pronoun.
re- again rewrite, redo, re-entered, remarried.
semi- half semi-conscious, semiannual, semicircle
sub- under, less subzero, subcell, subhuman
super- over, more superhuman, supersonic.
trans- across transatlantic, transcontinental, transform, transaction
mis- badly, wrongly misunderstanding, mislead, misconception, miscalculate
out- more, better outnumbered, outgrow, outrun
over- too much overweight, overdose, overflow
under- too little undercooked, undergraduate, understimate

There are some negative prefixes used to express an opposite of the idea
expressed by the stem.

Prefix Meaning Examples

un unhappy, unfair, unofficial, unplug, unemployed
in * inexact, independent, indirect, inexpert
dis negative, opposite dishonest, disagree, disappear, dislike, disadvantage
non nonalcoholic, nonstop, nonsmoker
de defrost, decentralization

* Note: We do not use in before l, m, p, or r. We use il, im, or ir instead: illegal, illogical;
immobile,immortal; impossible, impatient; irrelevant, irresponsible.

How do we know which negative prefix to use with a root? We learn each root
word with its appropriate negative form. There is no particular reason we say
unhappy instead of inhappy. At least not a reason that is relevant to discuss in
this course.

Another particularly useful prefix is en, which turns the root word into a verb:

en + danger = endanger (to put in danger)

en + large = enlarge (to make larger)
en + able = enable (to make capable)

58
Suffixes
A suffix comes at the end of a word. For example, we can add the suffix -ment to
the verb state to form the noun statement. Not all combinations are possible. We
can say statement, amusement, punishment, but we cannot add -ment to every
verb. There is sometimes a change in the stem: possiblepossibility.

Abstract nouns are formed by adding suffixes to:

Part of speech Suffix Examples

+ -ment payment, movement, development

+ -ion discussion
+ -tion correction, production
+ -ation information, invitation
1. Verbs
+ -ition addition, repetition.
+ -ance performance, acceptance
+ -ence existence, preference
+ -ing building, feelings
Note: Verbs with d/t change to sion. Examples: decidedecision, permitpermission

Part of speech Suffix Examples

+ -ty certainty, royalty

2. Adjectives + -ity stupidity, nationality, security
+ -ness happiness, illness, blindness
adj ending in ent ence silentsilence, absentabsence
adj ending in ant ance distantdistance, importantimportance

Nouns for people are formed by adding the following suffixes to:

Part of speech Suffix Examples

+ -er/-or walker, owner, driver, doctor, editor

1. Verbs + -ant/-ent applicant, assistant, student

2. n. / v. / adj. + -ist journalist, nationalist, tourist

+ -an/-ian republican, musician, Brazilian
3. Nouns + -ess waitress, princess, actress

Verbs are formed by adding the following suffixes to an adjective:

Part of speech Suffix Examples

+ -ize modernize, popularize, centralize

Adjectives + -en shorten, harden, brighten, widen

59
 Adjectives are formed adding the following suffixes to:

Part of speech Suffix Examples

+ -al national, industrial, cultural, original

Note: These adj. end with a single l but the adverb has two, e.g.: carefully

+ -ic heroic, artistic, energetic

1. Nouns + -ful careful, hopeful, peaceful, beautiful
+ -less careless, hopeless, powerless
+ -ous dangerous, famous
+ -y healthy, thirsty, wealthy
+ -ly friendly, monthly

2. Verbs / nouns + -ive active, effective, expensive

Common endings for nouns. If you see these endings on a word, then you
know it must be a noun:

-dom state or condition; domain, position, rank; a group with position, office, or rank
kingdom: king+dom means the domain or area belonging to a king
wisdom: wise+dom means the state of understanding what is good, right
and lasting
-ity condition or quality of
capability: capable+ity means the condition of being capable
flexibility: flexible+ity means the quality of being flexible
-ment act of ; state of ; result of
contentment: content+ment means the state of being satisfied (content)
-tion, -sion act of ; state of
celebration: celebrate+tion means the act of celebrating
-ness state of
toughness: tough+ness means the state of being tough
-ance, -ence act of ; state of; quality of
assistance: assist+ance means the act of giving help
-er, -or one who; that which
fighter: fight+er means one who fights
actor: act+or means one who acts
-ist one who; that which
violinist: violin+ist means one who plays the violin
-th Turns the root word into an abstract noun
growth: grow + th means the act of growing
truth: true + th means that which is true

60
Exercise 21: Choosing the right prefix and suffix

Part A. In the same way that we cannot make the negative of the Spanish word
posible by adding the prefix des- to say desposible in Spanish when we mean
imposible, English requires certain words to be learnt by heart. Complete the
sentences by putting the proper negative prefix in the blanks. The prefixes are:
un-, non-, in-, dis-, and mis-.

1. You agree with them, but I _____agree.

2. The surface was not even; it was _____even.
3. The results were not conclusive; they were _____conclusive.
4. He was qualified once, but they _____qualified him.
5. It is sometimes an advantage to live in a city, and sometimes a
_____advantage.
6. Please pay attention if you want to understand my explanation. I do not
want any _____understanding

Above exercise adapted from: McArthur, Tom. Patterns of English 2. Using Prefixes and Suffixes. Collins
1975.

Part B. Read the sentences below, and then complete them by adding the correct
suffix to the words in italics.

1. The art gallery is one of the citys main visitor ___________________ (attract).
2. Being a teacher can be a very ___________________ (stress) job at times.
3. We may never know the ___________________ (true) about what happened.
4. Someone who belongs to a country that is not your own is a _______________
(foreign).
5. All the major ___________________ (politics) parties support the idea.
6. Theres been enormous ___________________ (grow) in the area of e-commerce.

Part C. Complete the texts below with the appropriate form of the word in the
margin. To get the appropriate form, combine each word with one of the word
parts from the list in the box. The first one has been done for you.

-less -ify -able -ed under- im- -en -ist pre-

anti- re- over- un- sub- -er mis- -ing en-

1. design The university authorities were not pleased with the design for the new
wing of the library. So the architect was asked to redesign it.

2. use The new machine was frequently ______________ because no one in the
office had been trained to use it.

61
3. category Butterflies is not a major category. It is only a
_________________ under the major division Insects.

4. beauty One of the latest discoveries in industrial psychology is that pleasant

surroundings increase the output of workers. That is why several
businessmen are now trying to ____________ the places in which their
employees work.

5. home After a major flood, many people are left ______________ and the
government has to find new places for them to live in.

6. There are very few ___________________ in this country. This is because

neurology neurology is a difficult subject and few people are interested enough to
study it.

7. transfer Certain kinds of knowledge can be easily communicated from one person
to another. Other kinds of knowledge, however, are not easily
___________________. A person can communicate factual information
easily but it is difficult to tell someone what a potato tastes like or what
the petals of a rose feel like.

8. dream Often the contents of a dream appear to have no connection at all with
the immediate thoughts and interests of the ____________. A person who
has had a very pleasant day could easily go to sleep and have a horrible
nightmare.

Recognizing word families

It is time to put to work all your knowledge on word form and affixation! A word
family consists of a group of lexical items based on a collection of different forms:
a stem or root word, its inflections and derivations. For example, the English
words claimed, claiming or claims are forms of the same word family
conventionally written as claim.

An inflection expresses one or more grammatical functions with a prefix, suffix ,

or another internal modification such as a vowel change. For example, the plural
form of the noun car is made by adding a final s = cars.

Derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word,
e.g. happiness and unhappy from happy, or determination from determine. It
often involves the addition of an affix, such as -ness, un- and -ation in the
preceding section. Derivation stands in contrast to the process of inflection, which
means the formation of grammatical variants of the same word, as with
determine, determines, determining, determined.

62
An example of a word family, depicted as a word map:

wasting / wastings
*(v, gerund): Shes wasting her breath!
*(n) arrasador, devastador: The
ravages of a wasting war...
*(adj) reduccin gradual de la plenitud
y la fuerza del cuerpo: A wasting
wastefulness
disease. *(n) desperdicio;
derroche, despilfarro:
waster The wastefulness of
*(n, informal) waste missed
alguien o algo que opportunities...
desperdicia: He's a *(v) desperdiciar, malgastar
time waster. e.g. You waste a lot of water by
having a bath instead of a
shower. wasteful
wastefully *(n ) desperdicio, prdida;
despilfarro *(adj) derrochador,
*(adv) despilfarrador:
derrochadoramente, e.g. This city produces 20 million
Throwing away that
despilfarradoramente: tons of household waste each bread is wasteful.
Supermarkets year; (idiom) He's a total waste
wastefully throw away a of space, that man!
lot of unsold food.
wasted
wastes *(v) past tense of the verb 'to waste'
*(v) 3era persona del *(adj) desgastado: It was a completely
singular: He wastes time wasted journey; delgado, dbil:
and money; Underneath the blankets, I could see
her poor wasted body; slang, muy
* (v) terreno baldo, yermo:
borracho o drogado: He was too
the Artic wastes.
wasted to drive.

Compound words
Compound words are made by putting two words together to form another word
with a different meaning. A compound word is made up of two words that come
together to make a new lexical item. If you know the meaning of those two words,
you can figure out the meaning of the resulting lexical item. For example:

bed (cama) + time (hora) = bedtime (hora de ir a la cama).

There are many compound words in English. Below you will find some other
common examples:

backyard firewall northeast swimsuit

bookstore handshake railway toothpaste
craftsman lawsuit schoolhouse touchdown
dishwasher lifetime sidewalk underground

63
firehouse newspaper superpower widespread

Phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs are the combination of two or three distinct but related
constructions in English: a verb and a particle and/or a preposition. They co-occur
forming a single unit of meaning.

Be careful (or watch out)! This unit of meaning cannot be understood based upon
the meanings of the individual parts in isolation, but rather it has to be taken as
a whole. For example:

Watch out is not mirar afuera, but tener cuidado, vigilar.

e.g.: Watch out! The police are coming!

Unlike compound words, the meaning of a phrasal verb is usually unpredictable

and you have to learn them by heart. Below you will find some examples:

Who is looking after the experiment? (cuidando, ocupndose de)

They pick on Alex. (fastidian, critican, se burlan de)
Yesterday at the concert, I ran into my chemistry professor. (me tope con, me
encontr con)
John passes for an engineer. (parece, acta como, pasa por)
You should stand by your classmates. (debes apoyar, defender)
During the debate, they brought that viewpoint up twice. (sacaron a
colacin, sacaron a relucir, presentaron)
You should not give in so quickly. (rendirte, darte por vencido)
The teacher handed the departmental tests in. (reparti, entreg)
Who can put up with that? (soportar, aguantar)
She is looking forward to a rest. (esperando con ansia, con inters)
We loaded up on Coca-Cola and popcorn to watch the movie. (nos apertrechamos,
nos hicimos de grandes cantidades de)

Want to learn more about phrasal verbs? You can check some lists online, like:

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/phrasal-verbs/list.php

However, you will learn the meaning of the most common phrasal verbs just by
reading, by encountering them in texts.

64
Words and their meanings
You shall know a word by the company it keeps (Firth, J. R., 1957)

When you read in English perhaps you are used to trying to understand it word
by word, or to translate word by word. What happens? Lets see.

Match the English words in column A with their Spanish equivalents in column
B.

A B
hand abrigo
side mano
coat lado

Now translate the following expressions into Spanish:

On the other hand

Another coat of paint

You will see that hand is not always mano, nor coat, abrigo. Look at the above
expressions used within a context.

I hate living in this city but, on the other hand, its the only place where I can take this
specialized course.

I think the wall could use another coat of paint. The old color was a lot darker that the
new one.

When can you translate love by cero? _____________________________________

When is a ring a cuadriltero? ___________________________________________

We cannot see words in isolation. Words form relationships with other words and
these relationships determine the specific meanings of different contexts. We
cannot understand a text by translating the individual words in isolation. Word
by word translation involves danger. Words must be understood in their context.

65
Exercise 22: One word, several meanings
Below you will find two columns. Match the sentences in column A with the
corresponding definition in column B. Make sure you take the context into
account.

What does the word drop mean in the following sentences?

A B
1. The helicopters dropped
food and medicine.
2. The book dropped on the
floor.
3. The big drop frightened
him.
4. John has been dropped from
the team.
5. I felt a drop of water in my
face.
6. There was a sudden drop in
temperature.
a. A small round amount of liquid
b. A decrease in strength or intensity
c. To allow something to fall
d. A vertical distance down from a
place
e. To fall
f. To no longer include something or
somebody in something

1. ___ 2. ___ 3. ___ 4. ___ 5. ___ 6. ___

What does the word heart mean in the following sentences?

A B
1. Rare plants can be found in
the heart of the forest.
2. She has a kind heart.
3. I know you have got the queen
of hearts!
4. He is not working well because
his heart is not in the job.
5. He sent her a card with a big
red heart on it.
6. When you exercise your heart
beats faster.
a. Complete interest or attention
b. The center of a persons feelings
c. The organ inside the chest that
sends blood round the body
d. A symbol that is used to show
love
e. The most central part of
something
f. A playing card

1. ___ 2. ___ 3. ___ 4. ___ 5. ___ 6. ___

66
What does the word home mean in the following sentences?

A B
1. He began to run home from the
second base.
2. Greece is said to be the home of
democracy.
3. She left home at the age of 21.
4. They only win the home games.
5. These cars are made for the
home market.
6. If he gets worse, we will have to
put him in a home.
a. Playing at ones own sports field
b. The place where something
began
c. Connected with your own
country
d. A place that provides care for
people or animals
e. A place that a baseball player
must try to reach
f. The place where you live with
your family

1. ___ 2. ___ 3. ___ 4. ___ 5. ___ 6. ___

What does the word play mean in the following sentences?

A B
1. I play baseball on Saturdays.
2. Shall I play the tape for you
again?
3. It was a clever play that won
the football game.
4. The play produced by the
DramaClub was a success.
5. Mary will play the piano in the
concert.
6. The children like to play in the
afternoons.
a. To do something to enjoy yourself
or to have fun
b. Move in ones turn in a game
c. To make music with a musical
instrument
d. To turn on a record, tape, etc. so
that it produces sounds
e. A story that is written to be
performed by actors in a theater
f. To take part in a sport, game, or
match

1. ___ 2. ___ 3. ___ 4. ___ 5. ___ 6. ___

What have you learnt about word meanings from these exercises?

67
Exercise 23: One word, two meanings
Like in the previous exercise, the words below have more than one meaning. In
this exercise, you will see pairs of sentences with the same word missing. Read
the sentence and based on its context, choose the right word from the list to fill in
the blank.

bank service
change speaker
course star
head tank
note tap

1. a. We both had steak for the main ______________________.

b. My English ____________________ lasts for three months.

2. a. That hat wouldnt fit on his ___________________.

b. The ____________________ of the company is visiting us tomorrow.

3. a. The singer had difficulty reaching the top ___________________.

b. She left him a ___________________ saying shed be late.

4. a. We always get good ____________________ in this shop.

b. She went to the evening ____________________ at the church.

5. a. The guest ________________ at the conference gave a lecture on education.

b. I need a new ________________ for my car CD player.

6. a. I heard a soft ___________________ on the kitchen door.

b. There isnt any water coming from this _________________!

7. a. There were three men fishing from the river ________________.

b. I took out a $5,000 loan at the __________________.

8. a. The armys _____________________ has a new gun.

b. Fill up your ____________________ before your trip.

68
Guessing meaning from context
In order to be an effective reader, you should have a very good knowledge of
vocabulary. The more words you know and can recognize, the easier it will be for
you to understand the text. This does not mean, however, that you will
understand all the words you see. What do you usually do when you find a word
you do not know when you are reading? Do you ____?

A. look it up in a dictionary
B. ask someone to tell you what it means
C. try to guess its meaning

If you answered A or B, then you are not reading as effectively and efficiently as
you could be. The best strategy for dealing with an unknown word is to try to
guess what it means. This strategy is useful because:
it is fast as you dont have to interrupt your reading and you can enjoy
the text because you dont have to stop so often;
it helps your concentration because you stay focused on the general
sense of what you are reading; and
it helps build vocabulary because you probably remember the words.

In this section you will find some strategies that you can use to understand the
unknown words you might meet while reading. Some of them are:

context clues
synonyms and antonyms
definitions, restatements, examples and explanations

Using context clues

Examining the context of the word i.e., the words and phrases that come before
and after it is one way to make a logical guess about what the word means.
Even a very small context can sometimes be helpful. We may not know exactly
which word will be used, but we know which concepts tend to appear in the same
context. For example, in a text on agriculture we would expect to find words like
crops, soils, fertilizers, climate, and so on. We would not expect to find terms
taken from areas such as criminology or history of art. In the same way, we
expect the verb achieve to be followed by words with a positive connotation such
as success, aspiration, and aim.

Look at the example below:

Do you know what misogynist means? If not, try to guess.

A misogynist is a ___________________________________.

69
Read the sentences below. See if you can get the meaning from the general idea.

A. She realized that her boss was a misogynist soon after she started
working for him.
B. It is difficult for a woman to work for a misogynist. She is never sure of
the reason for his criticism.
C. She knew that no woman would ever get a top-level job in a company
owned by a misogynist.
Now, let us see what we know about a misogynist from the context. First of all, he
is a man (a) who criticizes womens work (b) and has negative feelings about
women (c). So we can probably say that a misogynist is a man who does not like
women.

The following exercises will help you develop the skill of guessing the meaning of
vocabulary from the context in which it is used. Remember, dont use your
dictionary!

Exercise 24: Identifying context clues

Identify the meaning of the italicized word. Then write the word(s) in the
sentence which worked as clues to help you.

1. The rock singer was very popular. A crowd was waiting at the park to
listen to her songs.
Crowd means a lot of people.
few people.
The word(s) which helped me were: __________________________________

2. There are many ships near our city, so there is a lot of tar in the water.
When there is tar in the water, the water is dirty.
clean.
The word(s) which helped me were: __________________________________

3. I helped my friend in math. He was very grateful. He thanked me again

and again.
A grateful person is appreciative of someones favor.
indifferent to someones favor.
The word(s) which helped me were: __________________________________

4. He ate large amounts of food, so he got very fat.

Large amounts of food is a little food.
a lot of food.

The word(s) which helped me were: __________________________________

70
 5. I expected a present from Danny, so I was surprised when he didnt give
me one!
To expect means to think something is going to happen.
isnt going to happen.
The word(s) which helped me were: __________________________________

6. They bothered me all the time. They had no consideration for my privacy
or my need to rest.
To have consideration means not to care about other peoples feelings.
to care about other peoples feelings.
The word(s) which helped me were: __________________________________

7. Excuse me, said the girl, I thought you were someone else. She was
very embarrassed.
When you are embarrassed you are expecting a baby.
uncomfortable.
The word(s) which helped me were: __________________________________

Adapted from Feuerstein, T., & Schcolnik, M. (1995). Enhancing Reading Comprehension in the
Language Learning Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Alta Books Center.

Exercise 25: Using context clues to infer meaning

Use the two sentences given after the question to help you guess the meaning of
the word. These words are more difficult, but remember: try not to use your
dictionary.

1. What does ravenous mean? _____________________________________

A. Could I have a piece of bread? I missed breakfast and Im simply
ravenous.
B. The poor horse was ravenous and it ate the leaves and bark off the
trees.

2. What does dike mean? _________________________________________

A. After so much rain, the river flowed over the dike and into the
fields.
B. People in this area began building dikes many centuries ago. It was
the only way to keep the sea out of their village.

3. What does pitch mean? ________________________________________

A. The singer was so terribly off pitch that it hurt my ears to listen.
B. The ambulance siren was at such a high pitch that we all jumped.

71
4. What does mold mean? _________________________________________
A. The liquid plastic was poured into a mold and left there until it was
hard.
B. The dentist first makes a mold of his patients teeth. From that he
makes a model of the teeth to decide how to correct any problem.

5. What does squall mean? ________________________________________

A. The squall arrived so suddenly that we all got wet when we ran
home from the beach.
B. When they saw the squall coming, the sailors took down the sail
and headed for the port.

6. What does gush mean? __________________________________________

A. When the fountain was turned on, the water gushed up several feet
into the air.
B. The blood gushed out of his wound until the doctor put on a tight
bandage.

7. What does soggy mean? __________________________________________

A. The study window had been left open during the storm, and my
papers were a soggy mess.
B. We gathered up the soggy towels and bathing suits and hung them
all in the sun to dry.

8. What does rugged mean? _________________________________________

A. Susan and her husband led a rugged life in the Alaskan mountains,
with no electricity and no running water.
B. The young mans face was rugged, but his smile was friendly and
the children soon forgot their fears.
9. What does stoop mean? ___________________________________________
A. The old man walked slowly along, all stooped over and leaning on a
stick.
B. When I stooped down to get a better look, I realized that it was a
dead rabbit. It must have been hit by a car.

10. What does wink mean? __________________________________________

A. George winked at me from across the room. It was a signal not to
say anything about what we had seen.
B. Ive only known one cat that could wink and that was Tinker. She
really could close just one of her eyes and she did it often.

Taken from Feuerstein, T., & Schcolnik, M. (1995). Enhancing Reading Comprehension in the
Language Learning Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Alta Books Center.

72
Using synonyms and antonyms in context

Writers can make their writing more interesting and enjoyable by using a variety
of words to refer to the same thing. Look at the example below.

Both Tallinn and Tartu were originally built to be fortresses. The two strongholds
were built on hills with good views of the surrounding countryside.

The words fortresses and strongholds are synonyms.

Exercise 26: Using synonyms

From the list below, choose a synonym for the italicized word in each sentence.
Write it on the line provided.

on the average customer

battle extremely angry
complicated lack
hardly useful
omit move forward
1. The Russian consumer has a particularly difficult time shopping in the
Soviet Union. ____________
2. The main reason seems to be the shortage of merchandise. ____________
3. Typically, a person in the Soviet Union spends two hours a day standing
in shopping lines. ____________
4. Some of the lines advance very quickly. ____________
5. Others seem to barely move at all. ____________
6. Shopping has always been a struggle in the Soviet Union. ____________

Exercise 27: Using antonyms

Sometimes antonyms may also provide clues to the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Complete each sentence with the opposite of the italicized word. Choose from the
following list. Use each word once only.

cry sharp light

increase reject present
hate shallow receive
borrow tight set

73
 1. The student you mentioned is _______________ today, but Mary is
absent.
2. He separated the _______________ knives from the blunt ones.
3. The water is pretty _______________ around here. But be careful around
the other end of the pool where it is deep.
4. If you have a heavy meal before exercising, youll feel ill. Please, have
something _______________ before going to the gym.
5. Are you sure your belt isnt too ______________? I really think it should
be loose to allow blood circulation.
6. Do you think hell _______________ your offer? I would accept it
immediately if I were in his place.
7. He really didnt want to _______________ so much money, although I had
no problem in lending it to him.
8. Although sales have decreased this year, I think they will _____________
in the next.
9. They were laughing about the new regulation, but they all began to
______________ when they realized it would affect them too.
10. I love classical music. Why do you ________________ it so much?
11. We hope to ________________ the letter tomorrow. Benny said hed sent
it today.
12. The sun rises in the east and ________________ in the west.

You will notice as well that some words have several opposites depending on the
context. For example, the opposite of old could be new or young depending on
the situation, as in the sentences below:

1. Pedro is very lucky; his English teacher is young and beautiful. Im

unlucky; my teacher is old and ugly.
2. Mary and Paul have just moved from an old house to a new flat.

Can you think of any more examples like this? Write them in the space below.
Compare them with your classmates.

74
Using definitions, restatements, examples, and
explanations
Sometimes we can guess the meaning of the word through an explicit definition
given in the context. The unknown word is followed or preceded by other words
which describe it. Look at this example:

A skyscraper, which is a tall building, dominates its surrounding.

The words following the unknown word, a tall building, tell us what a
skyscraper is.

Exercise 28: Using definitions

Read the following sentences. Underline the word that is being defined, and
double underline its definition in the context. The first sentence is done for you.

1. Camouflage, or protective coloring, helps the animal hide.

2. Motivationthat is, the willingness to actis the secret to a successful
career.
3. Literacy, defined as the ability to read with understanding, is a concern
for most educators.
4. He is mostly concerned with the formation and origin of the Earth; in
other words, he is a geologist.
5. A space stationa kind of platform floating in spacewill be used in
the future as a meeting place for space vehicles.

How did the definition given in the context help you to understand what the
unknown word means?

Exercise 29: Using examples, explanations and restatements

On other occasions, examples, explanations, and restatements can help you
understand the meaning of unknown words. Read the following sentences and
guess the meaning of the words in italics.

1. A sledge is used to carry people and goods in the snow.

A sledge is _______________________________________________.

2. He is a loner; he invites no one and keeps his address a secret.

A loner is ________________________________________________.

75
 3. To build the new club, they pooled their resources, each giving a small
sum of money.
To pool resources means to _________________________________.

4. This knife is so blunt that it does not cut at all.

Blunt is _________________________________________________.

5. Everyone can vote in our country: the educated and the ignorant, the
affluent and the poor.
Affluent means __________________________________________.

6. She likes warm colors such as red, scarlet, and vermilion.

Vermilion is ______________________________________________.

A final word on guessing

Weve seen the different ways in which we can guess the meaning of unknown
words that we come across in our reading. Nevertheless, it is important to
remember that this is just one strategy and should not be used as the only one.
You must build your vocabulary (using strategies like the ones presented in
the Appendix) so that when you read you can count on more context to facilitate
guessing the few words that you still dont know.

You have to learn to know when you can guess efficiently and when you need to
resort to other strategies such as using your dictionary. Here we want to
emphasize that you should not overuse the strategy of guessing meaning from
context. Some contexts (those where you feel you know enough vocabulary)
provide the best opportunities for successful guessing. If you feel you dont know
enough, work on building your vocabulary and learn to use your dictionary to
check your predictions. This will help build your confidence.

76
Using the dictionary
Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the
best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Samuel Johnson
With a bit of practice your dictionary can become a useful tool. Here are some
things to remember.

First of all, words are found in the dictionary in alphabetical order, so being
able to classify and alphabetize words are important skills for you to develop.

Exercise 30: Putting words in alphabetical order

To find words in the dictionary, you need to know alphabetical order. Place these
words in the correct order by numbering them.

teacher student textbook pen

classroom test pencil study
course learn blackboard revision

The guide words, the boldfaced words at the top of the pages, allow you to find
words quickly and efficiently. In our sample page (page 79), the guide words
defective / deg. indicate that the first word you will find on that page is defective
and the last, the abbreviation deg. So if you are looking for the word deflate, you
know you will find it on this page, but not the word desire.

Exercise 31: Using guide words

Lets practice taking advantage of guide words. Which of the following words may
be found within the range of the guide words in the sample page (defective / deg.).

defeat deficit
deduce definition
defrost delicate
dehydrate defendant

Dictionaries also give the phonetic transcription of words and if you know how
to read phonetically, this can help you learn to pronounce the words correctly.
Next, you will find a phonemic chart including phonetic symbols most commonly
used in English dictionaries.

77
Exercise 32: Using phonemic transcription
In the sample page, look at the way define is pronounced = dI'fain. Using the
phonemic chart, write the phonemic transcription of the following words and
practice out loud their pronunciation:

defendant
deficient
deflate
defuse

Affixes (prefixes and suffixes), like the ones you learned previously in this
chapter, are also indicated. These help you to expand your vocabulary. Here are
some examples from the sample page: defense-less, defense-less-ly, defense-less-
ness.

Your dictionary will show you how to separate words at the end of a line. For
example, the word defenselessly can be broken at any one of the points indicated
by hyphens as in the example: defense-less-ly. Although in todays world of word
processors this may seem unimportant, it is good for Spanish speakers to know
that Spanish separation rules do not apply.

Exercise 33: Separating English words into syllables

Separate the following words into syllables without looking at the sample page,
and write your answers under the first column. Then, go to the sample and check
if your answers were correct. Use the second column to write the correct form.

78
 deferential
defiance
deformity
definite

Words are also classified according to their part of speech, i.e., n (noun),
vt (transitive verb), etc. so its important for you to select the correct part of
speech when looking up a word. Common dictionary abbreviations and parts of
speech will be reviewed later on in this section.

Once you have found the word you are looking for, keep in mind that one word
may have several meanings. Good dictionaries usually give sample sentences
using the word. Look at the way the word defense is used on our sample page.

Although dictionaries give synonyms of words, there is always a slight difference

in meaning between them. Some words are more formal than others (seek as
opposed to look for) or words may be used as a different set expression (consider
the use of freedom and liberty). Look at these examples:

Columbus was seeking a new route to the East.

vs
We are looking for a new house.

They are fighting to protect their freedom of speech.

vs
You are at liberty to leave when you want.

Dictionaries can also help you with your spelling and irregular verbs (e.g. look
the verb differ in the sample page) and plurals (e.g. look the noun deformity in
the sample page).

79
Sample page from the The Oxford ESL Dictionary by A.S. Hornby and C.A. Ruse

80
Extra, extra important!!! Please keep in mind that:

The meaning of the word depends on the context in which it is

used. If you spend too much time looking for words in the dictionary,
you might forget the context and choose the incorrect meaning. If we
depend too much on the dictionary, we can lose the sense of the whole
text. If we concentrate on individual words we lose focus.
When we read we have limited time. Finding the meaning of every
word in the dictionary takes a lot of time.
Dictionaries play an important part in learning a new language
but remember that they are just a tool: You are the master and the
dictionary, your slave. Learn to use your dictionary well.

Online dictionaries
Here is a list of some of the most popular English Dictionaries online. They do
have several useful features, such as: you can listen to the way the words are
pronounced or have access to an immediate cross-referral system, some can be
downloaded as an application for your smartphone, and many more Feel free to
explore some of our recommendations:

Cambridge Dictionaries Online at:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Collins Online at
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

http://www.ldoceonline.com/

Merriam-Webster Online at
http://www.merriam-webster.com/

Oxford Dictionaries:
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english

81
 Focus on compound nouns
The English language makes frequent use of expressions in which a combination
of many ideas is condensed into a few words. These combinations produce a
structure that is extremely compact where a main noun or HEAD NOUN is
preceded by one or more words that give us more information about the
head noun, as in a heat control device, which is a device that controls heat.

We can solve possible problems of confusion or ambiguity by analyzing the order

of the words. The last word in the compound noun phrase says what the
thing is, while the words that precede describe it. Lets look at some
examples:

In computer science we talk about an address bus which is a bus dedicated to address
information while the memory capacity of a computer is the capacity of its memory.
We talk about food production when we refer to the production of food and earthquake
wave theories tell us about the theories concerning the waves of earthquakes.

We can find compound nouns written in three different forms:

1. Hyphenated: with a hyphen that separates the words.

Example: long-term = a long period of time.

2. Spaced or open: with a space that separates the words.

Example: computer science = the science that studies computation.

3. Solid or closed: there is no space or hyphen to separate the words.

Example: waterpipe = a pipe that carries water.

We can express a number of possible meanings through compound nouns. For

example, the first noun can give us information about the second noun, what it is
made of, its use or what it is part of. Lets look at the following:

1. Material: the first noun tells us what the second is made of.
Example: a silicon chip = a chip made of silicon

82
2. Function: the first noun tells us what the second noun is used for.
Example: a smoke alarm = an alarm which warns of smoke

3. Part: the second noun refers to a part of the first.

Example: a program feature = a feature of a program

4. Activity of person: the second noun refers to an activity or person related to

the first.
Example: aircraft engineer = an engineer specialized in aircraft

Multiple nouns: sometimes a compound noun will join together several other
nouns to form an expression that is three, four or even five words long.

Example: disease control methods = methods for the control of diseases

Look at these examples of this type of compound noun:

a signal generator = equipment for generating signals

a cassette player = equipment for playing cassettes

a battery tester = equipment for testing batteries

So what do we call equipment for . . .

. . . playing CDs? ______________________________________

. . . receiving radio (signals) ______________________________________

. . . synthesizing speech? ______________________________________

. . . sensing vibration? ______________________________________

Notice that those nouns describing the nucleus or head noun are usually singular.

Exercise 34: Identifying the head noun

Select the option that corresponds to the concept given.

1. Weather condition studies are a ___.

A. type of studies
B. certain kind of weather
C. variety of study conditions

2. An air cushion vehicle is ___.

A. some special kind of cushion
B. a vehicle that rests on a cushion of air
C. a cushion used for air vehicles

83
 3. Biology specimen collections are a ___.
A. type of specimen
B. type of collection
C. branch of biology
D. branch of science

4. Chicken cell embryos are ___.

A. chickens that have cells in their embryos
B. embryos that come from chicken cells
C. cells that come from chicken embryos

5. A radio wave emitting body would be a ___.

A. body that emits radio waves
B. radio wave that emits bodies
C. body that is emitted by a radio wave

6. My desktop publishing program is ___.

A. a computer program to create publications right from the top of my
desk
B. the publication about programming that I have on the top of my
desk
C. one of many programs that I have published from the top of my
desk

Exercise 35: Understanding the form of compound nouns

Express the following phrases more concisely by using appropriate compound
nouns.

1. The analysis of vectors ______________________________

2. The distribution of population ______________________________

3. A textbook about the analysis of vectors ______________________________

4. An indicator for the speed of air ______________________________

5. Failure of the crops ______________________________

6. Industry of the refining of oil ______________________________

7. Production of machinery for the farm ______________________________

8. Prices of the products of farms ______________________________

9. Methods of production ______________________________

10. Mechanics of fluids ______________________________

84
11. The production of machinery ______________________________

12. Interpretation of photographs ______________________________

13. Measurements of the transfer of heat ______________________________

14. Techniques for the breeding of plants ______________________________

15. Chemistry of the nucleus of cells ______________________________

16. Steel which contains carbon ______________________________

Did you notice how you worked from back to front in order to form your
compound nouns?

Exercise 36: Understanding the meaning of compound nouns

Part A. Explain the meaning of the following compound nouns in your own
words.

1. burglar alarm ____________________________________________

2. germanium diode ____________________________________________

3. assembly line ____________________________________________

4. cellphone ____________________________________________

5. wavemeter ____________________________________________

6. nobleman ____________________________________________

7. pipeline ____________________________________________

8. wallpaper ____________________________________________

9. toothbrush ____________________________________________

10. starlight ____________________________________________

11. goatskin ____________________________________________

12. riverbank ____________________________________________

13. wavelength ____________________________________________

14. fishbone ____________________________________________

85
Part B. Explain the difference between the following concepts.

communication satellite ___________________________________________

satellite communication ___________________________________________

a car battery ___________________________________________

a battery car ___________________________________________

the glass bottle ___________________________________________

the bottle glass ___________________________________________

a gas turbine ___________________________________________

a turbine gas ___________________________________________

an assault rifle ___________________________________________

a rifle assault ___________________________________________

my tea plantation ___________________________________________

the plantation tea ___________________________________________

light indicators ___________________________________________

the indicator light ___________________________________________

drainage system reconstruction _____________________________________

system reconstruction drainage________________________________________
drainage reconstruction system________________________________________

water treatment plant ___________________________________________

plant treatment water ___________________________________________
water-plant treatment ___________________________________________

86
Exercise 37: Making and using compound nouns

Part A. See how many compound nouns you can make by using the words on lists
A and B.

A B Your words Your words

cancer pump ________________________ ________________________
mercury fatigue ________________________ ________________________
air research ________________________ ________________________
vacuum level ________________________ ________________________
metal bottom ________________________ ________________________
sea pressure ________________________ ________________________

Part B. Join one word from column A and one from column B to make compound
nouns. Then, complete the sentences with one of the compound nouns formed.

A B Your words
screen case ________________________
earth moon ________________________
eye shield ________________________
brief quake ________________________
honey set ________________________
sun sight ________________________

1. The rock shattered the ________________________ of her car.

2. After the wedding we went to Australia for our ______________________.
3. Since his ________________________ is failing he has to wear glasses.
4. The ________________________ caused many buildings to collapse.

As we have seen, compound nouns are used in scientific English because they are
concise: the compound noun is shorter than writing out the entire phrase.
Phrases can be turned into compound nouns and vice versa. When two or more
nouns are put together to form a compound, the first nouns act as adjectives for
the last one. When this occurs, adjectival nouns usually do not take their plural

87
form. Sometimes only the context helps you to understand whether the concept
behind the compound noun is singular or plural:

After the hurricane, the city had to get ready for very strict
disease control. (= control of diseases in general)

In the case of AIDS, we have not yet reached a stage of total

disease control. (= control of the disease called AIDS)

Exercise 38: Interpreting ing and ed in compound nouns

Look at the following compound nouns and pay attention to their meaning:

animal-trapping fungi = fungi that trap animals

animal-trapped fungi = fungi that are trapped by animals

As you know, ing and ed indicate the gerund and the past (or, as in this case,
the past participle) of verbs. When a compound noun includes words with these
endings, be careful to interpret them correctly. In the above examples you can see
that when the verb in the compound has an ing, the noun following it performs
the action of the verb. On the other hand, when it has an ed, the noun following
it is the object of the verbs action. Notice this is interpreted in the same way we
would regular adjectives as in the examples below:

a boring movie = a movie that bores the audience

a bored spectator = a spectator that is bored by a show

an interesting book = a book that interests readers

an interested reader = a person who is interested in a reading

Part A. Explain the difference between the following concepts.

fungus-caused disease _____________________________________

fungus-causing disease _____________________________________

oil-propelled engine ___________________________________________

oil propelling engine ___________________________________________

methane-powered engine ___________________________________________

engine-powering methane ___________________________________________

88
 ant-eating mammal ___________________________________________
ant-eaten mammal ___________________________________________
mammal-eating ants ___________________________________________

boa-feeding services ___________________________________________

rodent-fed boa ___________________________________________

Did you notice how irregular verbs (such as eat) do not take ed for their past
participle? Also please note that hyphens (-) may not always be used.

Part B. Explain the meaning of the following compound nouns in your own
words.

1. light-emitting diode ____________________________________________

2. salt-bearing strata ____________________________________________

3. reef-building ____________________________________________
organism

4. banana-splitting ____________________________________________
system

5. man-eating animal ____________________________________________

6. roach-infested attic ____________________________________________

7. lid-covered container ____________________________________________

8. horse-plowed field ____________________________________________

9. orange-squeezing ____________________________________________
machine

10 surface venting valve ____________________________________________

89
 Focus on linking words
Identifying the function or purpose of a text helps us to understand why the
author wrote this text and what he wants to tell us. Next, the reader should
understand how the author carries out his purpose.

Linking words help the reader to follow the direction of a writers

thought. They are like signposts on the road that guide the traveller. Common
linking words show emphasis, addition, change of direction, illustration, and
conclusion.

Emphasis words
Among the most valuable signals for you to know are emphasis words, through
which the writer tells you directly that a particular idea or detail is especially
important. The following list contains some typical words showing emphasis.

important to note a significant factor the most substantial

especially valuable remember that issue the chief outcome
the chief factor above all a distinctive quality
most of all a primary concern a key feature
most noteworthy a major event the principal item
a vital force a central issue especially relevant
the main value particularly
pay attention to clearly
should be noted undoubtedly
important to realize in fact

Exercise 39: Recognizing emphasis words

Read the selections that follow and underline the emphasis words.

1. One factor of great significance to the effectiveness of punishment is its severity.

A severe or restrictive punishment can be extremely frustrating. Because
frustration is one of the primary causes of aggression, it would seem wise to
avoid using frustrating tactics when trying to curb aggression.
90
 2. The narrowing of the pathways through the arteries by atherosclerotic plaque is
our nations most serious health problem. It can lead to a number of disorders.

Addition words
Addition words tell you that the author is going to continue in the same direction;
the author is going to add on more points or details of the same kind. Typical
examples of addition words are those indicating time and sequence, but they are
not the only kind. Look over the following addition words.

and in addition first, first of all finally

also furthermore second last of all
another likewise the third reason as well as
for one thing moreover next along with

Exercise 40: Recognizing addition words

Read the selections that follow and underline the addition words.

1. Involving the community and the larger society in combating child maltreatment
means getting people other than parents to help with child rearing. One form of
relief for abused and neglected children is to remove them from their parents
homes and place them in foster care. Another alternative is the use of
supplemental mothers who are available regularly to baby-sit with potential
maltreated children. Moreover, there are community-based crisis nurseries
where parents can take their children when they feel they need to get away for a
few hours. Ideally, crisis nurseries are open twenty-four hours a day and accept
children at any hour without pre-arrangement in order to relieve or divert a crisis
in the parent-child relationship.

2. The quality of our decisions is affected by the information we use in making

them. For one thing, if we fail to consider carefully all available information, we
can limit the number of alternatives or make a premature choice. Furthermore,
the information we use may be distorted because it is outdated or
misrepresented by its source. Also, we can unwittingly distort information
because of our personal beliefs, attitudes and values. Finally, new information
may change our decisions.

Change-of-direction words
Change-of-direction words prepare you for a change in the direction of the writers
thought. They tell you that the writer will probably reverse or modify a previous
statement. Look over the following change-of-direction words.

91
 but even though conversely
instead in contrast yet
on the contrary on the other hand still
however otherwise nevertheless

Exercise 41: Recognizing change-of-direction words

Read the selections that follow and underline the change-of-direction words.

1. Males have dominated movies to such an extent that from 1966 to 1972 every
movie that won the Academy Award for best picture did not have a major female
role. There is some evidence, however, that the myth of machismo best
exemplified by the Western and gangster movie is slowly receding in the movies.

2. The elderly age segment is another growing market that presents many
opportunities for marketers, and it will continue to grow as longevity increases.
Demand will rise for health care and services, books, nursing homes, travel,
retirement housing, and many leisure-time activities. But people in this age group
do not like to be stereotyped, and marketers must be sensitive in communicating
with them.

Illustration words
Illustration words tell you that an example or illustration will be given in order to
make an idea clear. Look over the following illustration words.

for example once thus

to illustrate for instance like
specifically such as including
that is namely

Exercise 42: Recognizing illustration words

Read the selections that follow and underline the illustration words.

1. Test markets are usually selected as being typical American cities with a good
cross section of income and ethnic groups. Columbus, Ohio, for example, has
long been known as an excellent city in which to taste new products and learn
consumers reactions.

2. The qualities of leadership in human societies are not as clear-cut and easy to
see as they are in animal societies. Most people, for instance, have certain
qualities that allow them to be leaders at one time or another, or in one situation
or another.

92
Conclusion words
Conclusion words tell you to expect the writers last and possibly most important
point within a paragraph or larger unit of thought. Look over the following
conclusion words.

therefore consequently last of all

thus in summary so
hence in conclusion at last
finally as a result at the end
in short in brief overall
on the whole

Exercise 43: Recognizing conclusion words

Read the selections that follow and underline the conclusion words.

1. When romance fades, all too often the marriage fades with it. Thus, by
celebrating romance so avidly, we may be simultaneously undermining the very
relationships we hope to promote stable, enduring, child-producing marriages.

2. Remember that even if you visit an individual and get a personal promise of a
reference, there may be forty other students doing the same thing.
Consequently, the professor may still have trouble identifying you without some
reference form from which to work. The rsum provides this.

More linking word exercises

Exercise 44: Identifying linking words
Underline the main linking words in the selections that follow. Then, write down
each linking word and identify whether it shows emphasis, addition, change of
direction, illustration or conclusion.

1. All of us desire approval, particularly from people we love and respect. But too
much reliance on the approval of others can do great damage to the self-
concept. We can never really know what other people think of us. Furthermore,
their opinions change. Therefore, if we rely on their approval in order to start
liking ourselves, we are doomed to wait eternally since their approval will never
be absolute or final.
_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

93
 2. It has tended to be true as a general rule, for example, that poor people vote
Democratic and rich people vote Republican. Yet if we ask each why, neither
usually connects his or her economic status with his or her vote. Nevertheless,
the combination is such a common phenomenon that we suspect that there is a
connection.
_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

3. There are several cultural reasons why the aged are stigmatized and oppressed
in American society. One is that the members of our society are obsessed with
youth. We have traditionally associated a number of highly valued traits with
youth, such as beauty, health, sexual vigor, happiness, usefulness, and
intelligence. As a result of this association, those considered old are typically
believed to be physically unattractive, sickly, asexual, useless, and incompetent.
Second, in our rapidly changing, highly technical society, old people are
considered to be unnecessary. Their wisdom represents another age that is
irrelevant now. On the other hand, in simpler societies where tradition is
paramount, the elderly are highly respected, admired, and even revered because
they are repositories of the groups accumulated wisdom.
_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Exercise 45: Thinking about linking word role

Read the statements below. Underline the words that join the phrases or the
sentences. What role do they play in the sentences? The first one is done for you.

1 Gold is a pure metal, whereas steel is made up of various metals.

This is used to __show the difference between gold and steel
2 It was believed that sound travelled in particles; in fact, it travels in
waves.
This is used to ______________________________________________________
3 Man and apes are similar physically. Correspondingly, their nervous
systems are alike.
This is used to ______________________________________________________
4 Even though they are small, ants are proportionally much stronger than
man.
This is used to ______________________________________________________
5 The experiment must be prepared correctly, otherwise it will not be
successful.
This is used to ______________________________________________________
6 An explosive reaction was expected, but, on the contrary, nothing
happened.
This is used to ______________________________________________________

94
 Exercise 46: Choosing time and sequence linking words

Select the correct answer. Sometimes both answers are correct.

as soon as
Ill give them your message I get there.
when

Id like to visit the gallery before leaving the city.

then

Mary cleaned the kitchen while I cleaned the bathroom.

just as

eventually
I had a lot of problems at the store, but they gave me a reward.
finally

I did my homework. After, I went out.

After that,

Exercise 47: Choosing addition and contrast linking words

Although
we left late, we still got there on time.
In spite of
although
It was a fantastic evening the terrible food.
in spite of

We decided to go in spite of the cost of the tickets.

despite
He thought the car was too
However, he still decided to buy it.
expensive.
On the other hand,

They enjoyed the course, even though it was very difficult.

whereas
most of my friends
I love the ocean furthermore
prefer the mountains.
whereas

it has its own swimming

We found a lovely bungalow In addition,
pool,
near the lake we can rent. However,
and we have free use of a
car.

95
Exercise 48: Choosing the correct linking word
Part A. Complete the following sentences with a word below. Discuss the
meaning the word gives to the sentence.

however in fact in the same way instead

rather than otherwise although on the contrary
similarly whereas still while
but in spite of on the other hand despite
even though nevertheless correspondingly likewise

1. Glass is still made according to the principles discovered by the ancient

Egyptians; ___________, the actual techniques are very different.
2. _________________ its fragility, glass can last for thousands of years.
3. Aluminium is not as heavy as steel. ______________, it has a wider variety of
uses.
4. Plastics pollute the environment ______________ glass does not.
5. Mathematics may be a pure or applied science. _________________, Physics can
be classified into pure and applied.
6. _________________ that nature attempts to maintain equilibrium, man is
always disturbing the natural balance.

Part B. From the list below, add a suitable word to the following statements in
order to make a coherent sentence. Some words mean the same, so please use as
many as possible for variety.

therefore as a result
in other words consequently
however at the same time
nevertheless in spite of

1. Many students find it difficult to read newspapers in English.

____________________ not many read one regularly.
2. Most students living abroad are interested in news of their own country.
____________________ they usually read the international news first in the
newspaper.
3. Helen finds languages quite easy. ____________________ she has little
difficulty in learning English.
4. Some of the examination questions were difficult. ____________________
Mary managed to answer them satisfactorily.
5. The project was very complicated. ____________________ Juan succeeded in
completing it on time.

96
 Final tips
Remember, becoming an efficient reader entails practice. So here are some final
tips!

1. Use the reading strategies you have learnt. Use the SQ3R technique:
Survey: Skim the text to make sure of its relevance and an overview of the
main points.
Question: Ask yourself questions that you want the text to answer.
Read: Read carefully, looking for the answers to your questions.
Recite: Read aloud the answers to your questions, fixing them in your mind.
Review: Think about what you have learnt, organize it in your mind, link it to
other information, assess its importance.
2. Look at the content, structure and purpose of the text.
Content: What is the text going to be about? What is the topic? What
particular aspect of the topic is covered?
Structure: How is the text organized? Is it a description, argument? Does it list
reasons, compare results or explain the steps of a process?
Purpose: Ask yourself What do I need to know after reading this? What will I
be expected to know? What should I remember?
3. Activate your schemata, make predictions while you read, try to picture and
develop images while you read the text. Relate your prior knowledge to the
new information you are obtaining. Monitor your understanding of the text, re-
read parts that may be difficult or confusing. Use the strategies you have been
taught.
4. After reading the text, recall what you have read. Talk to yourself and test your
understanding. Use metal maps, graphic organizers or write a summary of
what you learnt. Evaluate the new material; ask yourself What have I learnt
from this text? How has it changed or strengthened my view on this topic?

You are on your way to becoming a

GOOD READER

97
 References
Cambridge dictionaries. (2005). http://www.cambridgedictionaries.com
Cobas, L. (2003). La instruccin directa de vocabulario de vista de alta frecuencia y la comprensin de lectura en L2.
[Masters Thesis. Advisor: G. Llinares]. Caracas: Universidad Simn Bolvar.
Cobb, T. (n/d). The Compleat Lexical Tutor. [Last modified August 2005]. Retrieved from http://www.lextutor.ca/
Coxhead, A. (2000). A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238.
Cuesta College. Interpreting what you read. In Reading comprehension. [Last modified June 2003]. Retrieved from:
http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/AS/310.HTM
Departamento de Idiomas. (2001). Gua de Lectura ID-1112. Caracas: Universidad Simn Bolvar.
Departamento de Idiomas. (2002). Gua de Lectura ID-1112 (Paralelo). Caracas: Universidad Simn Bolvar.
Departamento de Idiomas. (2002-2004). Gua de Lectura ID-1111. Caracas: Universidad Simn Bolvar.
Departamento de Idiomas. (2003). Gua de Lectura ID-1111 (Paralelo). Caracas: Universidad Simn Bolvar.
Dobbs, C. (1989). Reading for a Reason. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
Donahue Latulippe, L. (1987). Developing Academic Reading Skills. Prentice Hall Regents.
Feuerstein, T., & Schcolnik, M. (1995). Enhancing Reading Comprehension in the Language Learning Classroom. San
Francisco, CA: Alta Books Center.
Gillett, A. (2005). Rhetorical functions in academic writing. In Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for
International Students. Hatfield, UK: School of Combined Studies,University of Hertfordshire. Retrieved from:
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/function/function.htm
Glendinning, E., & Glendinning, N. (1995). Oxford English for Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
Hornby, A.S., & Ruse, C.A. (1992). The Oxford ESL Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
Jordan, R.R. (1999). Academic writing course. Edinburgh: Addison Wesley Longman
Mahnke, K. & Duffy, C. B. (1992). The Heinemann TOEFL Preparation Course.
Mikulecky, B.S. & Jeffries, L. (1996). Reading Power. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Mikulecky, B.S. & Jeffries, L. (2004). More Reading Power. Longman.
Mondria, J.A. and Mondria-De Vries, S. (1994). Efficiently memorizing words with the help of word cards and hand
computer: Theory and applications. System 22 (1), 47-57.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1972). A grammar of contemporary English. London: Longman.
St. Louis, R. (2004). Reading Skills Guide. Caracas: Universidad Simn Bolvar.
Swales, John M. and Christine B. Feat. Academic Writing for Graduate Students, Essential Tasks and Skills. Ann
Arbor: U Michigan P, 1994. 105-130.
The Graphic Organizer. (2005). Graphic organizers. Retrieved from http://www.graphic.org/bubble.html
The Jamestown Comprehension Skills Series. (1993). Jamestown Publishers.
Wilson, B. (2005). Bob Wilsons Auto-English. Retrieved from http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish
Worsley School Online. (2005). Fact or opinion? Retrieved from
http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialarts/factopinion/factopinion.html
West, M. (1953). A General Service List of English Words. London: Longman, Green & Co.

98
Apndices

99
 Cuestionario sobre estrategias de lectura en
ingls (CELI) 3

Estimado Estudiante: El objetivo del presente cuestionario es que autoevales las

distintas tcnicas que utilizas cuando lees material acadmico en ingls (libros,
exmenes, artculos de revistas, textos de carcter tcnico, etc.).

Instrucciones: Despus de leer cada tem, responde, marcando con un crculo, la opcin que se corresponde con tu caso,
segn la siguiente escala:

1 = Nunca / 2= 3 = De vez en 4 = Por lo 5 = Siempre /

casi nunca Ocasionalmente cuando general casi siempre

Contesta todos los tems, selecciona una sola opcin en la escala. No existen respuestas
correctas o incorrectas. Tus respuestas son individuales y personales por lo tanto,
debes ser honesto al momento de responderlas. Esperamos que disfrutes esta actividad
y que tomes en cuenta la interpretacin de los resultados de tu autoevaluacin al
momento de aplicar estrategias de lectura cuando lees textos acadmicos en ingls a lo
largo de tu carrera universitaria.

3 El CELI es una adaptacin al espaol de Pereira y Ramrez (2006), basada en el Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS)
desarrollado por Mokhtari y Sheory (2002).

100
 Siempre o casi
Por lo general
cuando (50%)
Nunca o casi

Ocasional-

De vez en
tems

siempre
mente
nunca
Antes de comenzar a leer, hago una revisin del texto para ver de qu se trata. 1 2 3 4 5
Hago uso de mi conocimiento previo sobre el tema para comprender mejor lo
1 2 3 4 5
que leo.
Mientras leo, hago anotaciones a fin de comprender mejor la lectura. 1 2 3 4 5
Cuando leo, lo hago despacio y cuidadosamente para asegurar mi comprensin
1 2 3 4 5
del texto.
Antes de comenzar a leer, reviso el texto para identificar sus caractersticas
1 2 3 4 5
(tamao y organizacin)
Cuando leo y me desconcentro, trato de retomar el texto de nuevo. 1 2 3 4 5
Cuando leo, subrayo o remarco informacin en el texto para recordarla mejor. 1 2 3 4 5
Ajusto mi velocidad de lectura al nivel de dificultad del texto. 1 2 3 4 5
Cuando leo, decido qu partes voy a leer con ms cuidado y cules voy a
1 2 3 4 5
ignorar.
Cuando leo, anoto palabras claves del contexto para entender mejor el texto. 1 2 3 4 5
Cuando leo y el texto se me hace difcil, presto ms atencin a lo que estoy
1 2 3 4 5
leyendo.
Algunas veces me detengo y anoto ideas importantes de lo que estoy leyendo.
1 2 3 4 5
Cuando leo, consulto material de apoyo (ej. el diccionario) para tratar de
1 2 3 4 5
entender mejor la lectura.
Cuando leo, parafraseo (repito las ideas con mis propias palabras) para
1 2 3 4 5
comprender mejor el texto.
Cuando leo, analizo los dibujos y grficos que aparecen en el texto para
1 2 3 4 5
comprender mejor el texto.
Cuando leo, utilizo seales tipogrficas (signos, caracteres, etc.,) para
1 2 3 4 5
identificar informacin relevante en el texto.
Reviso el texto de arriba a abajo para encontrar la relacin entre sus ideas. 1 2 3 4 5
Antes de comenzar a leer, trato primero de adivinar de qu se trata el texto. 1 2 3 4 5
Cuando el texto se me hace difcil, lo releo para entenderlo mejor. 1 2 3 4 5
Me hago preguntas acerca del texto que me gustara saber responder. 1 2 3 4 5
Reviso para ver si mis predicciones sobre el contenido del texto eran ciertas o
1 2 3 4 5
falsas.
Cuando leo, trato de adivinar el significado de palabras o frases desconocidas
1 2 3 4 5
tomando en cuenta el contenido del texto.
Cuando leo, traduzco palabras y frases del ingls a mi lengua materna para
1 2 3 4 5
comprender mejor el texto.
Cuando leo, pienso en mis conocimientos del tema en ambas lenguas: mi
1 2 3 4 5
lengua materna e ingls.

Procedimiento para evaluar el cuestionario de estrategias de

lectura en ingls

101
Escribe el nmero que seleccionaste por cada repuesta (Ej.: 1, 2, 3, 4, o 5) en la
columna correspondiente.

Suma las cantidades de cada columna. Coloca el resultado en la lnea que aparece
debajo de cada columna.

Divide el resultado de cada sub-escala entre el nmero de tems que contiene cada
columna para as obtener el estimado de cada sub-escala.

Calcula el estimado total del cuestionario sumando el resultado de cada sub-escala y

dividindolo entre 24.

Interpreta tus resultados comparndolos con la los porcentajes que aparecen al final.

Reflexiona sobre tus resultados o disctelos con tu profesora y compaeros de clase.

Globales (GLOB) Resolucin de Apoyo (APO) Totales (TEL)

problemas (PROB)

1 _____ 4 _____ 2 _____

5 _____ 6 _____ 3 _____

8 _____ 11 _____ 7 _____ GLOB: _____

9 _____ 13 _____ 10 _____

17 _____ 19 _____ 12 _____ PROB: _____

18 _____ 23 _____ 14 _____

21 _____ 24 _____ 15 _____ APO: _____

22 _____ 16 _____

20 _____

Total GLOB / 8 Total PROB / 7 Total APO / 9 Total TEL / 24

_____ _____ _____ _____

Porcentaje GLOB Porcentaje PROB Porcentaje APO Porcentaje TEL

102
____ ____ _____ _____

Clave para interpretar tus resultados

3,5 o mayor = Alto 2,5 3,4 = Medio 2,4 o menor = Bajo

Interpreta tus resultados

El porcentaje total (TEL) indica la frecuencia con que usas estrategias de lectura
cuando lees textos acadmicos en ingls. El porcentaje de cada sub-escala muestra el
tipo de estrategia (Ej. Globales, Resolucin de Problemas, y de Apoyo) que utilizas con
ms frecuencia cuando lees material acadmico en ingls. Con esta informacin sabrs
tus resultados para cada grupo de estas estrategias de lectura. Recuerda, sin embargo,
que el mejor uso que puedes hacer de estas estrategias depende de tus habilidades de
lectura en ingls, del tipo de material que lees, y del propsito de tu lectura. Un
porcentaje bajo en cada una de las sub-escalas indica que deben haber algunas
estrategias que te gustara y / o deberas aprender y luego aplicar cuando lees material
acadmico en ingls.

Estrategias globales: estrategias intencionales y cuidadosamente planificadas que

permiten al lector monitorear y manejar el proceso de lectura teniendo un propsito en
mente.

Estrategias de resolucin de problemas: acciones y procedimientos que el lector utiliza

para comprender el texto mientras trabaja directamente con el mismo.

Estrategias de apoyo: mecanismos bsicos de ayuda que facilitan la comprensin del

texto.

103
 No entiendo lo que leo en ingls!
Aprender vocabulario en ingles
Numerosos investigadores han demostrado que el
conocimiento insuficiente de vocabulario impide la
comprensin de textos autnticos en una segunda lengua.
Adems, hemos podido determinar que, por lo general,
los estudiantes que comienzan el Programa de Ingls de
Primer Ao del Departamento de Idiomas en la USB no
poseen el conocimiento de vocabulario necesario para
comprender de manera satisfactoria los textos contenidos
en las guas de la asignatura Ingls Tcnico y
Cientfico. Es por ello que consideramos que es imprescindible que los estudiantes
emprendan, de manera autnoma e inmediata, una serie de medidas correctivas en lo
que respecta a esta carencia de vocabulario en ingls, puesto que esa deficiencia podra
afectar seriamente su rendimiento en esta asignatura.

Es obvio que no todas las palabras tienen la misma utilidad para los estudiantes,
entonces qu palabras se deben aprender primero? Para que el aprendizaje de
vocabulario en ingls sea lo ms eficiente posible, es preciso comenzar por memorizar
las palabras de ms alta frecuencia. Se han recopilado unas listas de palabras
seleccionadas de acuerdo a su frecuencia de aparicin en textos escritos en ingls, las
cuales tienen el potencial de suministrar al estudiante el conocimiento mnimo
necesario para leer con comodidad textos de carcter tcnico y cientfico en ese idioma.
En la prxima seccin se encuentra un glosario ingls-espaol que contiene cerca de
1100 palabras en ingls acompaadas de sus significados ms frecuentes en espaol
(dentro del mbito tcnico-cientfico), las cuales constituyen una seleccin de las
palabras que consideramos ms tiles para cumplir con el propsito de alcanzar el
conocimiento de vocabulario indispensable para tener xito en la adquisicin de
destrezas de comprensin de lectura en ingls.

104
Indiscutiblemente, no todos poseemos el mismo conocimiento de vocabulario en ingls.
As que el primer paso que se sugiere es determinar cules de las palabras que
aparecen en el glosario a continuacin nos son conocidas y cules nos resultan
desconocidas. Para ello, se recomienda utilizar una hoja de papel para ocultar la
columna de la traduccin al espaol antes de comenzar a revisar la lista de palabras
en ingls. Primero, el estudiante debe leer una palabra en ingls y tratar de recordar
su equivalente en espaol. Si cree recordar su traduccin, debe verificar la columna de
significados. Si record correctamente el equivalente en espaol, pasa a la siguiente
palabra. Si el estudiante no lo recuerda, debe colocar una marca al lado de la palabra
desconocida y continuar revisando la lista. Una vez revisadas todas las palabras del
glosario, el estudiante habr marcado un nmero determinado de palabras
desconocidas en ingls, las cuales constituyen la sub-lista de palabras que debe
aprenderse. La tercera seccin de este apndice ofrece recomendaciones sobre cmo
memorizar el significado en espaol de esa sub-lista de palabras desconocidas en
ingls.

Listas de Vocabulario
Las listas de vocabulario que encontrar a continuacin se componen de palabras
provenientes de la General Service List (West, 1953) la cual contiene las 2000
palabras ms frecuentes en ingls y la Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000)
compuesta por las 570 familias de palabras que aparecen con mayor frecuencia en los
textos de carcter acadmico en ingls. A las listas anteriormente mencionadas se les
han eliminado las unidades gramaticales como pronombres, conjunciones,
preposiciones, artculos, etc.; los verbos auxiliares y los adverbios. Tambin se han
dejado fuera de las listas la mayora de los cognados transparentes del espaol,
aquellas palabras que componen el vocabulario propio del ingls de bachillerato, y las
palabras que a pesar de ser frecuentes en ingls tengan una frecuencia
relativamente baja en textos de carcter tcnico-cientfico.

Podr observar que las palabras en ingls se presentan en orden alfabtico y

acompaadas de su traduccin ms frecuente al espaol dentro del mbito tcnico-
cientfico. Este glosario ingls-espaol est separado en tres sub-listas: (1) 1-1000
Word List, con 513 palabras; (2) 1001-2000 Word List, con 351 palabras; y, (3)
Academic Word List, con 217 palabras. Esperamos que sean de utilidad.

La versin electrnica completa de estas listas de vocabulario est disponible en

http://tinyurl.com/2ev85x2

105
1-1000 Word List born nacido
box caja
able capaz break romper
account cuenta, dar cuenta de bridge puente
actual real bright brillante
add aadir bring traer
address direccin broad amplio
advance avanzar build construir
advantage ventaja burn quemar
affairs asuntos business negocio
age edad buy comprar
agree estar de acuerdo call llamada, llamar
agreement acuerdo care cuidado
air aire carry cargar, llevar
all todo(s)-toda(s) case caso, estuche
allow permitir catch capturar
alone solo(a) change cambio, cambiar
amount cantidad charge cargar
ancient antiguo chief jefe, principal
another otro(a) choice alternativa
answer respuesta, responder choose elegir
appear parece aparecer circle circulo
apply aplicar claim alegar
appoint nombrar en un cargo clear claro, transparente
appointment cita, nombramiento close cercano, cerrar
arise surgir cold fro
arm brazo come venir
arrival llegada concern preocupacin, concernir
ask preguntar, pedir contain contener
attempt intento, intentar count contar
back trasero, respaldar cover cubrir
bad malo cross cruzar
ball pelota current actual
bank banco cut cortar
bar barra danger peligro
bear oso, sustentar dangerous peligroso
become convertirse dark oscuro
begin comenzar darken oscurecer
belief creencia darkness oscuridad
believe creer date fecha
belong pertenecer deep profundo
best el mejor de todos degree grado
better mejor destroy destruir
big grande detail detalle
blow soplar develop desarrollar
blue azul development desarrollo
board tabla, tablero discover descubrir

106
discovery descubrimiento front frente
distinguish distinguir full lleno
doubt duda, dudar gain ganar
drop gota, caer gather reunir
dry seco, secar get obtener
due (to) debido (a) give dar
early temprano go ir
earth tierra gold oro
east este good bueno
easy fcil great gran, excelente
employ emplear green verde
end fin ground tierra, molido
enter entrar group grupo, agrupar
entrance entrada grow crecer
equal igual growth crecimiento
every cada hand mano
example ejemplo hang colgar
exchange intercambiar happen suceder
expense gasto hard duro, difcil
expensive costoso harden endurecer
explain explicar hardness dureza
extent alcance have tener
face cara, enfrentar head cabeza
fact hecho hear or
factory fbrica heat calor
fail fracasar heavy pesado
failure fracaso help ayuda, ayudar
fair justo helpful de ayuda, beneficioso
fall cada, caer helpless indefenso
feel sentir high alto
field campo hold mantener
fight pelea home hogar
figure figura, cifra hope esperanza, esperar
fill llenar hot caliente
find encontrar hour hora
fine fino, excelente house casa
finish terminar inch pulgada
fire fuego increase aumento, aumentar
first primero iron hierro
fit caber, encajar join unir
fix arreglar joint juntar, unin
flow flujo judge juez, juzgar
follow seguir judgment juicio
foreign extranjero keep mantener
forget olvidar kill matar, eliminar
free libre, gratis kind tipo, clase
fresh fresco know saber

107
knowledge conocimiento measurement medida
lack falta member miembro
land tierra, aterrizar mere simple
large grande middle medio
last ltimo, durar mile milla
late tarde mind mente
latter ltimo mine mina
law ley miner minero
lay colocar(se) miss pasar por alto
lead plomo, dirigir money dinero
leader lder month mes
leadership liderazgo move mover
learn aprender movement movimiento
leave dejar name nombre, nombrar
left izquierdo, dejado need necesidad, necesitar
length longitud new nuevo
lessen disminuir next prximo
let permitir night noche
letter carta north norte
level nivel northern del norte
library biblioteca notice notar
lie yacer, mentir number nmero
life vida offer ofrecer
lift levantar oil aceite, petrleo
light luz, iluminar old viejo, antiguo
like similar, gustar open abierto, abrir
likely probable orange naranja, anaranjado
line lnea order orden, ordenar
listen escuchar ought to debera
little poco outward hacia fuera
live vivir owe deber
long largo own propio
look mirar owner propietario
lose perder ownership propiedad
loss prdida page pagina
lost perdido paint pintura, pintar
low bajo paper papel
lower ms bajo pay pagar
machine maquina payment pago
main principal people gente
make hacer picture foto
mark marca, marcar piece pedazo
mass masa place lugar, colocar
mastery dominio plain simple
matter materia play jugar
mean media, significar pleasant agradable
measure medir pleasure placer

108
point punto, apuntar rock roca
poor pobre. deficiente roll rollo, enrollar
post poste rolling rodante
pound libra room cuarto, habitacin
poverty pobreza rough spero, rudo
power poder, fuerza roughness aspereza
prevent prevenir rule regla
price precio safety seguridad
profit ganancia sale venta, ganga
proof prueba same mismo, igual
proper apropiado save ahorrar, guardar, salvar
property propiedad say decir
proposal proposicin, propuesta scarce escaso
propose proponer scarcity escasez
prove probar scene escena
provide proveer science ciencia
pull halar scientist cientfico
purpose propsito sea mar
put poner season temporada
quantity cantidad seat asiento
quarterly trimestral see ver
question pregunta, preguntar seem parecer
race raza, carrera sell vender
raise aumento, aumentar send enviar
rank clasificar sense sentido
rate tasa serve servir
reach alcanzar set conjunto, poner
read leer settle asentar
ready listo shake batir
reality realidad shape forma, dar forma
realization comprensin share compartir
realize darse cuenta shine brillo, brillar
reason razn ship nave, enviar
receive recibir shipment envo
receiver receptor shoot disparar
recognize reconocer short corto
red rojo shorten acortar
regard observar shoulder hombro
remain permanecer show mostrar
remark observacin side lado
remember recordar sight vista
reply contestar, responder silver plata
rest descansar single nico
right derecho, correcto sit sentarse
ring anillo size tamao
rise aumento, aumentar sky cielo
river ro small pequeo

109
snow nieve support apoyo, apoyar
society sociedad suppose suponer
soft suave sure seguro, cierto
soften suavizar surface superficie
softness suavidad surprise sorpresa, sorprender
some algn, alguno surround rodear
sort tipo, clasificar sweet dulce
sound sonido table mesa
south sur take tomar
space espacio talk hablar
speak hablar teach ensear
speaker hablante, alto-parlante tear rasgar
speed velocidad tell decir
spend gastar term trmino
spot mancha thing cosa, elemento
spread esparcir think pensar
spring resorte, primavera thought pensamiento
square cuadrado throw lanzar
stage etapa time tiempo, vez
stand levantarse together junto(s)
star estrella ton tonelada
start comenzar top tope
statement declaracin touch tocar
stay permanecer town pueblo
steel acero trade comercio
step paso train tren, entrenar
stock provision travel viajar
stone piedra tree rbol
stop detener trouble problema
store tienda, almacenar troublesome problemtico
strange extrao trust confiar
stream corriente truth verdad
strength fuerza try intentar
strike golpear turn girar
stroke golpe type tipo
strong fuerte understand entender
struggle lucha, luchar unfair injusto
study estudio, estudiar unit unidad
subject material, sujeto unite unir
succeed tener xito unpleasant desagradable
successful exitoso useful til
suffer sufrir usefulness utilidad
suggest sugerir useless intil
suggestion sugerencia user usuario
summer verano valley valle
sun sol value valor
supply provisin, proveer vessel barco

110
view punto de vista 1001-2000 Word List
voice voz advertise hacer propaganda
vote voto, votar advice consejo, aconsejar
wait esperar afford costear
walk caminar afraid con miedo
wall pared aim objetivo, apuntar
want querer alive vivo
war guerra angle ngulo
watch observar annoy molestar
water agua approval aprobacin
wave onda approve aprobar
way manera, camino arch arco
wealth riqueza argue discutir
wealthy rico arrangement arreglo
wear ponerse arrow flecha
week semana ash ceniza
west oeste attend asistir, estar presente
western occidental avoid evitar
white blanco awkward inapropiado, extrao
whole complete bag bolsa
wide ancho bare descubierto
widen ensanchar barrel barril
wild salvaje beam rayo, viga
win ganar behave comportarse
wind viento behavior conducta
window ventana bend doblar
winter invierno bind atar
wise sabio bit pedazo
wish desear blade hojilla
woman mujer block bloque, bloquear
wonder preguntarse boil hervir
wonderful maravilloso bold audaz
wood madera bone hueso
wooden de madera border borde
word palabra borrowpedir prestado
work trabajo, funcionar bottle botella
worker trabajador bottom fondo
world mundo bound limitar
worthless sin valor boundary frontera
write escribir brick ladrillo
wrong equivocado brush cepillo
year ao busy ocupado
yellow amarillo button botn
yield produccin, producir cap tapa
young joven card tarjeta, ficha
caution precaucin
chain cadena, encadenar

111
cheap barato height altura
clean limpio, limpiar hesitate dudar
coarse rugoso, burdo hide esconder
collect recolectar hinder impedir
complain quejarse hit golpear
confidence confianza hollow hueco, vaco
confident seguro hook gancho, enganchar
conscious conciente hurry apuro, apurarse
cool fresco ice hielo
corner esquina improve mejorar
crack grieta, agrietar improvement mejora
crash chocar inquireenquire averiguar
crush triturar inquiry investigacin
damage dao, daar insurance seguro
damp hmedo intend intentar
dare atreverse inward hacia adentro
decay decaer jump saltar
decrease disminuir key llave, clave
delay retraso, retrasar knot nudo
deliver enviar lamp lmpara
delivery entrega lean sin grasa
deserve merecer leg pierna
dirt suciedad lend prestar
dirty sucio lid tapa
discuss discutir load carga, cargar
disturb molestar lock cerradura, trancar
dot punto loose flojo, holgado
earn ganar loosen aflojar
edge borde loud a alto volumen
empty vaco, vaciar lump grumo
enclose incluir male masculino, macho
encourage estimular manage gerenciar
engine motor management gerencia
entire entero, completo match fsforo, combinar
fault falta melt derretir
faulty con errores mend remendar
fold doblar mild suave, leve
frame marco mistake error
freeze congelar mix mezclar
guard guardia, proteger mixture mezcla
guess suponer: narrow estrecho
guide gua, guiar needle aguja
hammer martillo, martillar neglect descuidar
handle manilla, net red
harm dao, daar nice agradable
harmful daino noise ruido
harmless inofensivo noisy ruidoso

112
noun nombre resign renunciar
nuisance molestia, fastidio review revisin, revisar
obey obedecer ripe maduro
pack paquete, empacar risk riesgo, arriesgar
package paquete rod barra
pain dolor roof tejado
pair par root raz
paste pasta, pegar rope soga, cuerda.
path va, trayectoria row fila
pattern patrn rub frotar
perform actuar rubber goma
performance desempeo rush apuro
pick seleccionar rust xido, oxidar
pile montn, amontonar sample muestra
pin alfiler, sujetar sand arena
pipe tubera scale escala
plate placa scatter esparcir
plenty bastante scent olor, esencia
pocket bolsillo screen pantalla
poison veneno, envenenar screw tornillo, atornillar
poisonous venenoso seed semilla
pool charco, grupo, agrupar seize agarrar, sujetar
pot olla, pote shade sombra
pour verter shadow sombra
powder polvo shallow poco profundo
print imprimir sharp afilado
printer impresora sheet hoja
pump bomba, bombear shelf estante
purple prpura shell concha
push empujar shelterrefugio, proteger
puzzle confundir shield escudo
qualify calificar shock choque
quick rpido shop tienda
quiet tranquilo shower ducha, ducharse
rail/railing baranda, riel shut cerrar
rain lluvia, llover signal seal, sealar
raw crudo sink fregadero, hundir
ray rayo skill habilidad
regret lamentar skillful hbil, habilidoso
relief alivio skin piel
relieve aliviar slide deslizar
remind recordar slight leve
repair reparar slip resbalar, deslizar
repeat repetir slow lento
replace remplazar smell olor, oler
request pedido, pedir smoke humo, fumar
rescue rescate, rescatar smooth liso, suave

113
soap jabn thin delgado
soil suelo thorough minucioso, exhaustivo
solve resolver thread hilo, hilvanar
sour amargo threat amenaza
spare de repuesto threaten amenazar
spill derrame, derramar throat garganta
spin girar thunder trueno
split dividir tide marea
spoil echar a perder tie atar
staff personal de trabajo tight apretado
stain mancha, manchar tin latn
stamp estampar tip punta
steady estable tire caucho, neumtico
steal robar title ttulo
steam vapor tongue lengua
steep empinado tool herramienta
steer conducir tough duro, difcil, resistente
stem base, tallo tower torre
stick pegar (se) a algo track carril, rastrear
stiff tieso translation traduccin
sting pinchar, picar (insectos) trap trampa, atrapar
stir remover tray bandeja
straight derecho trick truco
strap correa, atar trunk tronco
stretch estirar tube tubo
string cuerda delgada tune tono, entonar
strip tira, listn twist torcer
stuff material ugly feo
suck extraer uncomfortable incmodo
sudden repentino upper superior, de arriba
sugar azcar upright derecho, vertical
suspect sospechar upset molesto, molestar
suspicion sospecha urge exhortar
suspicious sospechoso waist cintura
swallow tragar wake despertar
sweat sudor, sudar wander caminar sin rumbo
swim nadar warm tibio
swing mecer warmth calor, calidez
tail cola warn advertir
tall alto wash lavar
tame dcil, domar waste desperdicio, desperdiciar
tap grifo, golpe ligero wasteful derrochador
tasteless inspido wax cera, encerar
tend tener tendencia a weak dbil
thank agradecer weaken debilitar
thick grueso, espeso weakness debilidad
thickness grosor, espesor weapon arma

114
weather clima attain lograr, alcanzar
weave tejer automate automatizar
weed hierba available disponible
weigh pesar aware consciente
weight peso benefit beneficio
wet mojado, mojar bias sesgo, parcialidad
wheat trigo bond vnculo, unin
wheel rueda brief breve
whisper susurro, susurrar bulk volumen
wine vino capable capaz
wing ala cease cesar, terminar
wipe limpiar frotando challenge reto
wire alambre channel canal, canalizar
wireless inalmbrico chapter captulo
witness testigo chart diagrama
wool lana chemical qumico (a)
worm gusano code cdigo
worry preocuparse collapse colapsar
worse peor commodity artculo de consumo
worst el peor de todos compile recopilar
wrap envolver complex complejo
wrist mueca (mano) compound compuesto
yard yarda comprehensive amplio
comprise incluir
conceive concebir
Academic Word List conclude concluir
accompany acompaar conduct conducir
accumulate acumular confine restringir
accurate exacto, preciso consent permitir
achieve lograr constrain restringir
acknowledge reconocer converse Inverso
acquire adquirir, comprar convince convencer
adequate adecuado core centro
adjust ajustar couple pareja
advocate defender create crear
aid ayuda., ayudar cycle ciclo
allocate colocar, asignar data datos
alter alterar decade dcada
amend corregir definite definido
append anexar deny negar
approach enfoque, acercarse derive derivar (se)
assemble ensamblar design diseo, disear
assess evaluar deviate desviar
assign asignar, encargar device dispositivo
assist ayudar devote dedicar
assure asegurar diminish disminuir
attach aadir, pegar displace desplazar

115
display exhibir, desplegar issue asunto
dispose disponer job trabajo, empleo, ocupacin
distort distorsionar journal publicacin (cientfica)
domain dominio justify justificar
draft dibujo, borrador label etiqueta, etiquetar
edit editar, corregir layer capa, estrato
enable capacitar lecture conferencia
encounter encuentro, encontrar link enlace, enlazar
enforce hacer cumplir locate localizar
enhance realzar maintain mantener
enormous enorme major principal, importante
ensure asegurar mature maduro, madurar
environment ambiente media medios de comunicacin
equate igualar mediate mediar
erode erosionar migrate migrar
establish establecer minor menor (en importancia)
evolve evolucionar negate negar
exceed exceder network red
exploit sacar partido obtain obtener
expose exponer occupy ocupar
feature caracterstica odd impar, extrao
fee pago ongoing continuo
file archivo, archivar outcome resultado
focus foco, enfocar output producto
forthcoming por venir overall suponer, solapar
found encontrado partner compaero (a)
foundation fundacin perceive percibir
framework marco de referencia percent porcentaje
gender gnero phase fase
goal meta phenomenon fenmeno
grade grado plus mas, extra
guarantee garantizar policy poltica
guideline pauta pose plantear
hierarchy jerarqua predict predecir
highlight destacar presume suponer
imply implicar previous previo
impose imponer principle principio
index ndice prior anterior
infer inferir, concluir proceed proceder
injure dao, daar promote promover
input entrada (de informacin) publish publicar
insight perspectiva purchase adquirir, comprar
inspect inspeccionar pursue perseguir
instance ejemplo, instancia random aleatoriamente
intervene intervenir range rango
involve involucrar ratio proporcin
isolate aislar react reaccionar

116
recover recuperar(se) ultimate ltimo, final
refine refinar undergo sufrir, experimentar
register registrarse underlie subyacer
reinforce reforzar undertake emprender
reject rechazar unique nico
release soltar, liberar vary variar
reluctance renuencia violate violar
rely confiar widespread extenso, diseminado
remove quitar
require requerir
research investigacin
resource recurso
restore restaurar
restrain restringir
restrict restringir
retain retener
reveal revelar
route rumbo, ruta
schedule horario
scheme esquema
scope alcance
secure seguro, asegurar
seek buscar
shift cambio, cambiar
simulate simular
site lugar
so-called as denominado
sole nico
source fuente
sphere esfera
statistic estadstico
straightforward directo al grano
stress tensin
style estilo
submit presentar
sum suma
summary resumen
survey encuesta
survive sobrevivir
sustain mantener
tape cinta
target objetivo
task tarea
team equipo
trace rastro, rastrear
trend tendencia
trigger desencadenar

117
El computador manual de Leitner
El computador manual de Leitner es un dispositivo de
baja tecnologa diseado para la memorizacin autnoma
y acelerada de grandes cantidades de vocabulario en una
segunda lengua. En su forma ms simple, consiste en una
caja de zapatos con una serie de compartimientos
internos colocados a intervalos pre-establecidos (1, 2, 5, 8
y 14 cms). El estudiante carga el computador con una
serie de fichas de vocabulario. Para obtener resultados
ptimos, se recomienda el uso del computador a diario
durante quince minutos, o de tres a cuatro veces por
semana durante no ms de media hora.

Procedimientos para la utilizacin del computador manual de

Leitner
1. Cada palabra a memorizar se escribe en una ficha la palabra en ingls por un
lado, y su traduccin al espaol por el otro. Se recomienda utilizar siempre el
mismo color para todas las palabras en ingls, y otro color diferente para todas las
palabras en espaol. El propsito es que quede inmediatamente claro que el frente
de la ficha corresponde a la palabra en ingls que se intenta memorizar y el revs
corresponde a su equivalente en espaol.

2. Las fichas se colocan en el compartimiento 1 (de 30 a 40 fichas a la vez). Se procede

a revisar las palabras de este compartimiento sacando ficha por ficha.

118
3. El estudiante lee la palabra en ingls y trata de recordar su equivalente en
espaol. Si cree recordarlo, la voltea para verificar. Si record correctamente,
coloca la ficha en el compartimiento 2.

4. Si el estudiante no recuerda el equivalente en espaol, debe repetir la palabra

tanto en ingls como en espaol dos o tres veces. Luego, debe colocar la ficha en la
parte de atrs del compartimiento 1.

5. Cuando quedan slo de tres a cinco fichas en el compartimiento 1, el

compartimiento debe rellenarse con de 30 a 40 nuevas fichas. De esa forma, se
pueden aprender nuevas palabras.

6. Despus de haber repetido los pasos anteriores varias veces, el compartimiento 2

tambin se llena. Entonces, es hora de revisar las palabras que all se encuentran.
Al revisarlas, aquellas palabras que el estudiante recuerda pasan al
compartimiento 3, aquellas que no recuerda se colocan en la parte posterior del
compartimiento 1. La revisin contina hasta que se desocupe por completo el
contenido del compartimiento 2.

7. El principio del uso del computador manual queda as establecido:

un compartimiento se revisa slo cuando est completamente lleno, todas las

palabras que el estudiante se sabe pasan al compartimiento siguiente, las
palabras que el estudiante no se sabe o que ya no recuerda deben regresar a la
parte posterior del compartimiento 1.

8. Despus de cierto tiempo, los compartimientos 3 y 4 tambin llegan a llenarse. En

ese caso, se procede de la misma manera que cuando se llen el compartimiento 2.
Es importante que el estudiante recuerde que slo se revisa el contenido de un
compartimiento cuando ste est completamente lleno.

9. Eventualmente, cuando el compartimiento 5 tambin est lleno, el estudiante

revisar esas fichas por ltima vez. Si se sabe las palabras que all se encuentran
(lo cual es lo ms probable) debe guardarlas en otro lugar, fuera del computador.
De esa manera, se hace espacio para seguir cargando el computador con nuevas
palabras desconocidas. Para el momento en que el compartimiento 5 se ha llenado,
el estudiante ha revisado esas palabras con una frecuencia tal (distribuida en el
tiempo) que podemos hablar de verdadero aprendizaje.

10. De vez en cuando, es recomendable tomar una muestra de diez palabras de ese
grupo de fichas que se sac del computador, con el objeto de verificar si todava se
recuerdan.

Finalmente, una vez que las palabras desconocidas que el estudiante escogi del
glosario han pasado por el computador y las ha aprendido, puede seguir cargando el
computador con otras palabras desconocidas que encuentre en sus lecturas. Sin

119
embargo, es conveniente que el estudiante est consciente de que este dispositivo le
ser muy til slo mientras sea un principiante. A medida que el uso sistemtico del
computador rinda sus frutos, y por ende su conocimiento de vocabulario en ingls
aumente, perder inters en el dispositivo puesto que ya no le ser necesario, y
comprender los textos en ingls de tal manera que comenzar a determinar el
significado del vocabulario desconocido a travs de otros mecanismos, como por
ejemplo, la inferencia a travs del contexto.

Texto sobre el aprendizaje de vocabulario en ingls preparado por la profesora Noela

Cartaya.

Listas de vocabulario adaptadas de Cobas (2003) por la profesora

Rubena St. Louis con la utilizacin del Web Vocabulary Profiler (Cobb, n/d.).

Introduccin y edicin a cargo de la profesora Noela Cartaya.

Texto sobre el computador manual de Leitner adaptado por las profesoras Noela
Cartaya y Silvia Pereira del original de Mondria y Mondria-De Vries (1994) y de su
traduccin al espaol realizada por la profesora Genoveva Llinares.Sartenejas,
septiembre de 2009

120
Reading Selections for ID1111

121
Reading selections for ID-1111
Selections compiled and exercises adapted by Rubena St. Louis, Carlos Mayora and
Silvia Pereira

Original exercises contributed by

Dan Bailey
Gilberto Berros
Noela Cartaya
Leticia Esteves
Dafne Gonzlez
Genoveva Llinares
Silvia Pereira
Magaly Rodrguez
Mara Luisa Rosenblat
Rubena St. Louis

Departamento de Idiomas
Universidad Simn Bolvar
Apartado 89.000
Caracas 1080A, Venezuela
(212) 906-3780 phone

Copyright 2005 Rubena St. Louis for the compilation and adaptation
Editing and proofing by Gilberto Berros, Noela Cartaya, Carlos Mayora, Silvia
Pereira and Rubena St. Louis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The materials in this reading guide have been written and/or selected for their value
in helping university students become better readers of science and technology
English texts. Credit for selections is given to the respective copyright holders. Please
get in touch with us if you think credit is due for any particular section.
This guide is solely intended for compulsory academic use in the course ID-1111.
Commercialization outside the USB is strictly prohibited.

122
What are my learning strengths?
Research shows that all human beings have at least eight different types of
intelligence. Depending on your background and age, some intelligences are more
developed than others. This activity will help you find out what your strengths are.
Knowing this, you can work to strengthen the other intelligences that you do not use
as often.
Now take the Multiple Intelligence survey to find out your type of intelligence. The
test has several statements which describe each of the 8 intelligences. Place an X next
to the statement which best describes you. Put the total for each section next to the
corresponding intelligence at the end of the test. How do you think this information
could help you become a better learner?
Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
___ I enjoy telling stories and jokes
___ I have a good memory for trivia
___ I enjoy word games (e.g. Scrabble & puzzles)
___ I read books just for fun
___ I am a good speller (most of the time)
___ In an argument I tend to use put-downs or sarcasm
___ I like talking and writing about my ideas
___ If I have to memorize something I create a rhyme or saying to help me
remember
___ If something breaks and won't work, I read the instruction book first
___ For a group presentation I prefer to do the writing and library research
Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
___ I really enjoy my math class
___ I like logical math puzzles or brain teasers
___ I find solving math problems to be fun
___ If I have to memorize something I tend to place events in a logical order
___ I like to find out how things work
___ I enjoy computer and any math games
___ I love playing chess, checkers or Monopoly
___ In an argument, I try to find a fair and logical solution
___ If something breaks and won't work, I look at the pieces and try to figure out
how it works
___ For a group presentation I prefer to create the charts and graphs

123
 Visual/Spatial Intelligence
___ I prefer a map to written directions
___ I daydream a lot
___ I enjoy hobbies such as photography
___ I like to draw and create
___ If I have to memorize something I draw a diagram to help me remember
___ I like to doodle on paper whenever I can
___ In a magazine, I prefer looking at the pictures rather than reading the text
___ In an argument I try to keep my distance, keep silent or visualize some solution
___ If something breaks and won't work I tend to study the diagram of how it works
___ For a group presentation I prefer to draw all the pictures
Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
___ My favourite class is gym since I like sports
___ I enjoy activities such as woodworking, sewing and building models
___ When looking at things, I like touching them
___ I have trouble sitting still for any length of time
___ I use a lot of body movements when talking
___ If I have to memorize something I write it out a number of times until I know it
___ I tend to tap my fingers or play with my pencil during class
___ In an argument I tend to strike out and hit or run away
___ If something breaks and won't work I tend to play with the pieces to try to fit
them together
___ For a group presentation I prefer to move the props around, hold things up or
build a model
Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence
___ I enjoy listening to CD's and the radio
___ I tend to hum to myself when working
___ I like to sing
___ I play a musical instrument quite well
___ I like to have music playing when doing homework or studying
___ If I have to memorize something I try to create a rhyme about the event
___ In an argument I tend to shout or punch or move in some sort of rhythm
___ I can remember the melodies of many songs
___ If something breaks and won't work I tend to tap my fingers to a beat while I
figure it out

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___ For a group presentation I prefer to put new words to a popular tune or use
music
Interpersonal Intelligence
___ I get along well with others
___ I like to belong to clubs and organizations
___ I have several very close friends
___ I like helping teach other students
___ I like working with others in groups
___ Friends ask my advice because I seem to be a natural leader
___ If I have to memorize something I ask someone to quiz me to see if I know it
___ In an argument I tend to ask a friend or some person in authority for help
___ If something breaks and won't work I try to find someone who can help me
___ For a group presentation I like to help organize the group's efforts
Intrapersonal Intelligence
___ I like to work alone without anyone bothering me
___ I like to keep a diary
___ I like myself (most of the time)
___ I don't like crowds
___ I know what I am good at and what I am weak at
___ I find that I am strong-willed, independent and don't follow the crowd
___ If I have to memorize something I tend to close my eyes and feel the situation
___ In an argument I will usually walk away until I calm down
___ If something breaks and won't work, I wonder if it's worth fixing up
___ For a group presentation I like to contribute something that is uniquely mine,
often based on how I feel
Naturalist Intelligence
___ I am keenly aware of my surroundings and of what goes on around me
___ I love to go walking in the woods and looking at the trees and flowers
___ I enjoy gardening
___ I like to collect things (e.g., rocks, sports cards, stamps, etc)
___ As an adult, I think I would like to get away from the city and enjoy nature
___ If I have to memorize something, I tend to organize it into categories
___ I enjoy learning the names of living things in our environment, such as flowers
and trees

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___ In an argument I tend to compare my opponent to someone or something I have
read or heard about and react accordingly
___ If something breaks down, I look around me to try and see what I can find to fix
the problem
___ For a group presentation I prefer to organize and classify the information into
categories so it makes sense
TOTAL SCORE
_______ Verbal/Linguistic
_______ Logical/Mathematical
_______ Visual/Spatial
_______ Bodily/Kinesthetic
_______ Musical/Rhythmic
_______ Interpersonal
_______ Intrapersonal
_______ Naturalist

Now, compare the scores for each type of intelligence. The higher scores indicate
your preferred intelligence.

Source: J. Ivanco, 1998

126
Before reading
Look at the title of the text. Then, look at the source from which it was taken. What
particular aspects of the topic do you think the author will discuss in the article?

______________________________________________________________________

In what areas of work would sound and acoustics be important?

______________________________________________________________________

Number the paragraphs and then quickly skim the text to find the main idea of each.

Paragraph Main idea presented by the author

1 ___________________________________________________________
2 ___________________________________________________________
3 ___________________________________________________________
4 ___________________________________________________________

Sound and Acoustics

Sound is a vibration or mechanical disturbance in an elastic medium such as a gas, a
liquid, or a solid. This mechanical disturbance, which is defined as a physical change
(i.e., density, pressure, or particle displacement) in the medium, is propagated by the
medium as a sound wave. The area of knowledge which concerns the production,
propagation, reception, and control of sound waves is called acoustics. A wide range of
phenomena is included in the science of acoustics, far wider than implied by the
everyday meaning of the word sound which is limited to what is heard by people. A
sound wave in the general sense used here, may or may not be susceptible of hearing;
it may be inaudible because its frequency lies outside the range to which the human
ear responds, or because it is being propagated in a medium, such as a solid which is
inaccessible to the ear or when its energy is dissipated. Thus the familiar process of
hearing is to be considered only one part of the subject of acoustics: it is a special case,
although clearly the most important one, of the reception of a sound wave.

A sound wave is a vibratory disturbance which passes through a material medium

because of the medium's elasticity. The disturbance travels as a wave because when
one part of the material is forced to move, a motion is communicated to adjacent parts
of the medium at a definite speed. The elasticity of the substance, which is the
tendency to resist deformation, makes the various parts of the material return to
their former positions after the disturbance passes.

To use a familiar example: if a drumhead is set into vibration by striking it, its motion
is communicated to the air immediately in contact with the drumhead, this vibration

127
being passed through the air at the speed of sound. As the wave passes any one point,
the air particles vibrate to and fro, imitating the motion of the drumhead. Such a
sound might be received directly by a listener's ear. Consequently, there are at least
three distinct processes involved with a sound wave: its generation (the vibrating
drumhead), its propagation through a medium (the air), and its reception (the
vibrating element in the microphone or ear).

The centralness of sound in our lives scarcely needs emphasis. Sound is our principal
means of communication and expression. Because man has a direct sense
acquaintance with sound, and because speech, music, and noises are to such a great
extent the ingredients of civilized society, the subject of sound has always interested
people who wished to understand it or exploit it. The past few decades, however, have
seen an enormous increase in the uses of sound and parallel growth in acoustics as a
science and technology. Much of this growth has been closely tied to development in
other fields, especially in broadcasting, recording, and communication.

Taken from: Shores, L. (Ed.). (1966). Colliers Encyclopedia. Vol. 21. Crowell Collier &
Macmillan, Inc.

Exercises
Understanding the text.
Read each statement and select the best option.

1. The main idea presented in the text is:

a. There are at least three distinct processes involved with sound wave:
generation, propagation and reception.
b. Sound is a vibration or mechanical disturbance in an elastic medium such as a
gas, liquid or solid.
c. A sound wave might not be heard by human ear
d. Sound is propagated as a wave, and its production, propagation, reception and
control are studied within the field of acoustics.

2. Which of the following statements support the main idea?

a. Acoustics is concerned with the propagation of sound through a medium

b. A sound wave may or may not be audible
c. The process of hearing is just a part of acoustics
d. There has been a great increase in the uses of sound and acoustics

3. After reading the text one can conclude that _____.

a. sound and acoustics are being increasingly used in Science and Technology
b. sound is our principal means of communication and expression.
c. sound and acoustics are used in broadcasting, recording and communication
d. a sound wave can be heard from any place in the universe.

128
4. The authors purpose in this text is to _____.

a. classify the different kinds of sounds

b. define and describe sound and acoustics
c. recognize the importance of acoustics
d. explain the process of sound waves

References.

What do the following words in italics refer to in the text?

Paragraph Line Word Answer

1 9 because its frequency ___________________________

2 6 return to their former ___________________________

3 1 its motion is communicated ___________________________

4 5 or exploit it ___________________________

Vocabulary.

Selecting the most appropriate meaning for the word.

An important skill in using your dictionary is selecting the correct meaning for a word.
Look at the word in bold and select the most appropriate meaning based on its use in
the context. The phrase in which the word is used is given.

1. A wide range of phenomena is included in the science of acoustics, far wider

a. The extent to which, or the limits between which, variation is possible
b. The extent or scope of the operation or action of something.
c. The distance to which a projectile is or may be sent by a gun etc.
d. The distance of something to be located from some point of operation, as in
sound ranging.

2. It may be inaudible because its frequency lies outside the range to which the...
a. False statement made with intent to deceive; an intentional untruth
b. To speak falsely or utter untruth knowingly: as with intent to deceive
c. To be in a recumbent or prostrate position, as on a bed or the ground
d. To be placed or situated.

3. the subject of sound has always interested people who wished to understand.
a. Something that forms a matter of thought, discourse, investigations etc.
b. The theme or melodic phrase on which a music work or movement is based
c. One who is under the dominion or rule of a sovereign
d. One who or that which undergoes or may undergo some action

129
4. developments in other fields, especially in broadcasting, recording, and
a. A piece of open or cleared ground, esp., one suitable for pasture
b. A piece of ground devoted to sports or context
c. The scene or area of active military operations
d. A sphere, or range of activity, interest, opportunity etc.

Vocabulary.

Understanding word form.

In the chart below you will find some words taken from the text. Indicate the part of
speech. Then, provide a word derived from the one given with its corresponding part
of speech.

Word Part of New word Part of

speech speech

motion ______________ ______________ ______________

reception ______________ ______________ ______________

communication ______________ ______________ ______________

limited ______________ ______________ ______________

defined ______________ ______________ ______________

vibratory ______________ ______________ ______________

elastic ______________ ______________ ______________

propagation ______________ ______________ ______________

density ______________ ______________ ______________

displacement ______________ ______________ ______________

130
Before reading
Use the concept organizer below and write the words you associate with the topic of
the reading Viruses. Compare your map with a classmate. What words do you have
in common? What new words can you learn? Add these to your map.

Viruses

Look at the source from which the text was taken. What particular aspects of the topic
do you think the author will discuss in the article?

______________________________________________________________________

Now skim the text to get the main idea.

Viruses
The term virus (L., poison) was long used as a synonym for infectious agent, but it
became restricted some decades ago to agents smaller than bacteria (hence separable
by filtration) and unable to multiply outside a living host. These characteristics,
however, overlap with those of some especially small bacteria (rickettsiae,
chlamydiae). Viruses are now sharply defined in terms of their characteristic structure
and their mode of replication, i.e., dissociation into components within a host cell, use
of host machinery to synthesize the components coded for by the viral genes, and
formation of new units by reassembly rather than by cellular enlargement and
division.

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The first virus to be recognized as filterable was a plant pathogen, tobacco mosaic
virus, discovered independently by Ivanovski in Russia in 1892 and by Beijerinck in
Holland in 1899. Filterable animal viruses * were first demonstrated for foot-and-
mouth disease of cattle by Lffler and Frosch in 1898, and for a human disease, yellow
fever, by the US Army Commission under Walter Reed in 1900. Viruses that infect
bacteria (bacteriophages) were discovered by Twort in England and by d'Herelle in
France in 1916-1917.

For the first third of this century viruses could be detected only by their pathogenic
effects on living hosts, and progress was slow. Eventually sophisticated physical and
chemical methods were developed for purifying and characterizing viruses, while the
development of the electron microscope and the advance of molecular genetics made it
possible to analyze their mechanism of reproduction. Precise quantitative studies
became possible with the development of monolayer cultures of host cells, in which
viruses can form discrete plaques analogous to the bacterial colonies formed on solid
media.

With the resulting dramatic expansion of virology it has been recognized that the
agents of acute viral diseases are only the most conspicuous members, but not the bulk
of the viral kingdom: more and more viruses are being identified that have delayed
effects or no apparent effect at all. In addition, the genetic discontinuity between virus
and cell has become blurred, with the finding that viruses can become integrated into
host chromosomes and can also pick up host genes. These developments suggest that
viruses have evolved from cellular chromosomes, and that they have evolved not
primarily as parasites but as agents for transmitting blocks of genetic material from
one organism to another.

Taken from: Davis, B. et al. (1980). Microbiology. (3rd edition). Philadelphia: Harper & Row.

Were your predictions correct? If so, how? ________________________________________

Exercises
Understanding the text

Read each statement and select the best option.

* It is curious that though the most dramatic part of Pasteurs work in the 1880s on the
development of vaccines was performed with tissues containing rabies virus, he did not
recognize the filterability of the agent.

132
 1. According to paragraph 1, viruses are _____.
a. especially small bacteria not separable through filtration
b. generally smaller than bacteria
c. agents that are able to multiply outside a living host
d. agents that have specific structure and mode of replication
2. Chlamydiae are given in this text as examples of ______:
a. characteristics of viruses
b. small bacteria
c. agents smaller than bacteria
d. viruses
3. According to the latest definition, an agent is a virus on the basis of its _____.
a. filterability
b. ineffective capacity
c. peculiar replication mode
d. need for a living host

Scanning.

Scan paragraph 1 to find the answers to these questions.

1. What is a virus? ________________________________________________________.
2. How has this term changed over the years? _______________________________.
3. The purpose of paragraph 1 is to_________________________________________.

Look at the chart and then scan paragraph 2 for the information needed to complete
it. Some information has already been entered for you.

Year Place & Scientist Discovery

1892______ ________________________ ____________________________________

____________ ________________________ ____________________________________

____________ ________________________ ____________________________________

____________ ________________________ ____________________________________

1916-1917_ England Twort____ ____________________________________

The purpose of paragraph 2 is to __________________________________________

133
Scan paragraph 3 and look for the information needed to complete the chart below.

Development Effect on scientific area

New physical and chemical methods ______________________________________

______________________________ ______________________________________

______________________________ Precise quantitative studies now possible

The purpose of paragraph 3 is to___________________________________________

In paragraph 2, the author arranges details by:

1. spatial order
2. order of importance
3. time order

Focusing on the text.

Vocabulary.
Reviewing prefixes
What do the following prefixes add to the meaning of a word? Write your answer next
to each prefix.

Re ___________________ Un ____________________ Inter ___________________

En ___________________ Dis ____________________ Trans __________________

Which of these can be added to these root forms to make a new word? Check your
answers by scanning the text. With this information, can you guess the meaning of the
word? Can you find any others? Include them in the chart.

Prefix Root Par. & line Meaning

able

assemble

product

134
associate

continue

135
Before reading
Fill in the map with the information required. How can these three be related? Use
that to predict what you will find in the text.

Text title:

The text will deal with:

Area of study:
Evolution

Illustration:

Number the paragraphs and then quickly skim the text to find the main idea of each.

Paragraph Main idea presented by the author

1 ___________________________________________________________
2 ___________________________________________________________
3 ___________________________________________________________
4 ___________________________________________________________
5 ___________________________________________________________

Were your predictions correct? ______________________________________________.

Brain Donors
TO ANYONE WHO HAS STARED INTO the deep and unwavering blankness of a house cats
eyes, or has watched his beloved pet stand motionless in the center of a room, waiting
for a thought to enter its plum-size brainto such a person, the news will be no
surprise: compared with its wild ancestor, the domestic cat has about one third fewer
neurons. The cats brain has shrunk during the course of evolution, and it has shrunk
by losing neurons.

To say Robert Williams of the University of

Tennessee at Memphis and Carmen Cavada and
Fernando Reinoso-Suarez of the Universidad
Autonoma de Madrid. They compared the brain of
Felis catus with that of the Spanish wildcat. Spanish
wildcats are living fossilsrare survivors of the
species that gave rise to domesticated cats 15,000 to
20,000 years ago. While the domestic cats line has

136
evolved rapidly since then, the Spanish wildcat has barely changed.

Williams and his colleagues found that the domestic cats brain is 20 to 30 percent
lighter than a Spanish wildcats brain. (Its whole body is about half the size of the
wildcats body.) To find out whether the domestic cat had smaller neurons, more
tightly packed neurons or simply fewer neurons, the researchers decided to actually
count the number of neurons in a small section of the feline brain the visual
pathway.

They found that the Spanish wildcat had half again as many cone cells the cells that
allow for daytime and color vision in the retina; 50 percent more signal-transmitting
axons in the optic nerve; and 50 percent more cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus, a
clump of neurons in the brain that sorts the signals from the optic nerve. If one
extrapolates these findings to the whole brain, says Williams, this means that
domestic cats have lost about a third of their neurons during evolution.

The intriguing thing is that each domestic cat seems to start out with all its ancestral
neurons: comparing a fetal wildcat and a fetal domestic cat, the researchers found that
both make the same number of retinal ganglions (the cells whose axons make up the
optic nerve.) A larger number of the domestic cats cells, however, die as the fetus
develops. The death of brain cells often happens in mammals, says Williams. The
human retina initially has 2.5 million ganglion cells, and then half are lost. But the
domestic cat makes close to a million and keeps only 160,000. If youre going to evolve
a smaller brain, he adds, the cats strategy is probably a good one: It has a built-in
flexibility. If conditions were to change rapidly in a few thousand years, an animal
could take advantage and stop losing as many cells.

Taken from: (1993, May). Discover.

Exercises
Understanding the text. Scan the text to determine if the following statements
are True or False. Tick the correct option.
T F
The Spanish wildcat and the domestic cat share a common
1.
ancestor.
The Spanish wildcat has half the number of cone cells in the
2.
retina that the domestic cat has.
3. Cone cells make it possible for the cat to see colors.
The fetus of the domestic cat has as many retinal ganglions
4.
as that of the wildcat.
5. Humans lose as many retinal ganglion cells as domestic cats.

How does the author present the information to support the main idea of the text?

_____________________________________________________________________________

137
Referents.

What do the following words in italics refer to in the text.

Paragraph Line Word Refers to:

1 4 ...its wild ancestor _______________________________

2 9 ...since then... _______________________________

4 1 They found.... _______________________________

4 6 ...their neurons _______________________________

5 3 ...that both make... _______________________________

Vocabulary
Read Brain Donors again and find four (4) compound nouns. Then write out the
meaning in full. One is done for you.

Compound noun Paragraph & line Meaning

plum-size brain 1, line 1 a brain that is the size of a plum

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

Discussion
Do you think that the findings of the researchers in this article can also be true of
other wild animals, or even human beings who live in different social groups?

138
Before Reading
What do you know about drugs? Can you think of the effects of drugs on your body?
Write down key words to express your ideas in the figure below.

Some kinds of drugs What they can do to us

drugs

Why we take them

As you read the text, check your ideas against the authors.

Drugs
A drug is any substance, other than food and water which, when taken into the body,
alters its function either physically and/or psychologically. There are two types of
drugs: legal drugs like alcohol, caffeine and tobacco, or illegal, such as cannabis,
ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. Legal drugs are those that a person can buy without a
prescription. However, some legal drugs, like tranquilisers, can only be given out by
doctors.

Two popular nonprescription drugs are caffeine and alcohol. Caffeine is found in
coffee, tea, chocolate, and cola drinks. It is a mental stimulant; it stimulates the
central nervous system and makes people feel alert. Students, for example, often find
they can study better if they have a cup of coffee. On the other hand, caffeine can also
make people nervous and irritable. If people drink too much caffeine, they may have
trouble sleeping.

Alcohol is a depressant; it depresses the central nervous system. When people drink,
they have less control over their actions. They cannot walk in a straight line and they
cannot drive as well as when they do not have alcohol in their blood. People who drink

139
a great deal sometimes fall into a deep sleep. Later, they may wake up with a strong
headache which is called a hangover.

In addition to these nonprescription drugs, there are two major categories of

prescription drugs: stimulants and depressants. The depressants include barbiturates
and morphine. Barbiturates are used as sleeping pills. Morphine is used as a pain
killer. The most common stimulants are amphetamines. Doctors used to prescribe
amphetamines as diet pills; however they found that amphetamines can have serious
side effects. They can make a patient very nervous, and when the drug wears off, the
patient may feel very depressed. Doctors still give amphetamines to people with
narcolepsy, an illness that causes sudden, uncontrollable attacks of sleep.

Some illegal drugs are also stimulants and depressants. These include cocaine and
crystal meth. Cocaine is a stimulant which makes the heart beat faster and blood
pressure and body temperature go up. It is so dangerous that using it just once can
sometimes lead to a heart attack or stroke. Finally, the largest class of illegal drugs
are hallucinogens, drugs that change the way a person thinks and cause
hallucinations, or visions. LSD and mescaline are both strong hallucinogens. For some
people, marijuana is a mild hallucinogen which generally brings a pleasant feeling.
However, when people smoke marijuana, they sometimes cannot concentrate very well
on their activities, such as their work or driving. On the other hand, marijuana is
sometimes also prescribed by doctors to help cancer patients.

Adapted from: Sonka, A. (1981). Skillful Reading, New Jersey: Regents Prentice Hall, pp. 110-
112.

Exercises
Understanding the text.

Now read the questions below and then scan the text to find the answers.

1. What are the two non prescription drugs mentioned in the text?

2. What happens if you drink too much coffee?

3. Name three effects of alcohol in humans.

4. Which drug is used as a pain killer?

5. Name two effects of amphetamines.

6. What illegal drugs are examples of a stimulant?

7. Which drug could be considered an example of a mild hallucinogen?

8. What is the authors purpose for writing the text?

140
9. Which conclusion can be drawn from the text?

a. All legal drugs require a prescription.

b. All stimulants are illegal drugs.
c. All strong hallucinogens are illegal drugs.

References: What do the following words in italics refer to in the text?

Paragraph Line Word Answer

1 2 alters its function ___________________________

2 2 It is a mental stimulant ___________________________

2 4 if they have a cup of coffee ___________________________

3 2 over their actions ___________________________

4 1 these nonprescription drugs ___________________________

4 5 They can make a patient ___________________________

5 6 are both strong hallucinogens ___________________________

5 8 such as their work ___________________________

Linking words
What function do these linking words in bold and italics play in the text?

Linking words Function Paragraph & line

Finally, the largest class of

However, when people smoke

In addition to these

legal drugs like alcohol,

On the other hand, caffeine

such as cannabis

141
Before reading
Discuss the following questions with your classmates:
What poisonous animals are found in Venezuela? Are there any which are not
snakes?
Venezuela has a great variety of bird species. Have you ever heard of any kind of
poisonous bird?
Why would a bird be poisonous?
Now skim the text below. What is the name of this bird? Where was it found?

Poison Birds
In the feathers of an orange-black songbird common in New Guinea, Jack Dumbacher
struck scientific gold. Dumbacher licked his cut fingers after freeing feisty hooded
pitohuis from nets meant for birds of paradise. The result was numbness, burning,
and sneezing and the discovery that the skin and feathers of the hooded pitohui and
two related species contain a nasty nerve agent called homobatrachotoxin.

Dumbacher, a University of Chicago graduate student, is the first to identify a poison

in a bird. His discovery is forcing astounded ornithologists to view birds brilliant
plumage in a new light as a possible warning of potent chemical defenses.

The poison-dart frog of the Amazon is the other animal known to pack the
homobatrachotoxin poison, in a much higher dose. Like monarch butterflies deprived
of milkweed, the frogs are nontoxic when raised in captivity. Dumbacher wants to
collect live pitohuis to see if their poison is also diet-dependent.

We might find lots of cases of poisonous birds, says Dumbacher. No ones ever
really looked before.

Taken from: (1993, June). Popular Science.

Exercises
Comprehension questions
1. Now scan the article to find the answers to these questions:
a. What is the name given to scientists who study birds?

b. How many birds were known to be poisonous at the time this article was
written?

c. What were the symptoms the nerve agent produced?

142
 d. Is the pitohui more poisonous than the poisonous dart frog of the Amazon?
Explain your answer.

e. What does Dumbacher want to find out about pitohuis?

2. Select the correct option. According to paragraph 3, which sentence is true:

a The pitohui has less homobatrachotoxin than the poison dart frog.
b. Captive poison dart frogs have as much toxin as the pitohuis.
c. The monarch butterfly has the same amount of toxin as a pitohui

3. What was the authors purpose in writing the text?

Vocabulary: compound nouns

Read Poison birds again and find five (5) compound nouns. Then write out the
meaning in full. One is done for you.

Compound noun Paragraph & line Meaning

orange-black song bird 1, line 1 a bird that sings that is orange

and black in colour

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

_________________________ __________________ _____________________________

Vocabulary: Using the context

Explain, in your own words, the underlined words or phrases using the context in
which they appear.
1. In the feathers of an orange-black songbird common in New Guinea, Jack
Dumbacher struck scientific gold.
_____________________________________________________________________
2. His discovery is forcing astounded ornithologists to view birds brilliant
plumage in a new light as a possible warning of potent chemical defenses.
_____________________________________________________________________
3. The poison-dart frog of the Amazon is the other animal known to pack the
homobatrachotoxin poison, in a much higher dose.
_____________________________________________________________________

143
Before reading
Discuss the following questions with your classmates:
Do you know of any species of fish that can produce electricity?
Where do you think they get their electricity from?
How dangerous do you think these fish are to other animals and humans?

Number the paragraphs and then quickly skim the text to find the main idea of each.

Paragraph Main idea presented by the author

1 ___________________________________________________________

2 ___________________________________________________________

3 ___________________________________________________________

4 ___________________________________________________________

5 ___________________________________________________________

Electric Fish
The idea of a fish being able to generate electricity strong enough to light lamp bulbs
or even to run a small electric motor is almost unbelievable, but several kinds of
fish are able to do this. Even more strangely, this curious power has been acquired in
different ways by fish belonging to very different families.

Perhaps the best known are the electric rays, or torpedoes, of which several kinds live
in warm seas. They possess on each side of the head, behind the eyes, a large organ
consisting of a number of hexagonal shaped cells rather like a honeycomb. The cells
are filled with a jelly-like substance, and contain a series of flat electric plates. One
side, the negative side, of each plate, is supplied with very fine nerves, connected with
a main nerve coming from a special part of the brain. Current passes from the upper,
positive side of the organ downwards to the negative, lower side. Generally it is
necessary to touch the fish in two places, completing the circuit, in order to receive a
shock. The strength of this shock depends on the size of the fish, but newly born ones
only about 5 centimetres across can be made to light the bulb of a pocket flashlight for
a few moments, while a fully grown torpedo gives a shock capable of knocking a man
down, and, if suitable wires are connected, will operate a small electric motor for
several minutes.

144
Another famous example is the electric eel. This fish gives an even more powerful
shock. The system is different from that of the torpedo in that the electric plates run
longitudinally and are supplied with nerves from the spinal cord. Consequently, the
current passes along the fish from head to tail. The electric organs of these fish are
really altered muscles and like all muscles are apt to tire, so they are not able to
produce electricity for very long. People in some parts of South America who value the
electric eel as food, take advantage of this fact by driving horses into the water against
which the fish discharge their electricity. The horses are less affected than a man
would be, and when the electric eels have exhausted themselves, they can be caught
without danger.

The electric catfish of the Nile (and other African fresh waters) has a different system
against by which current passes over the whole body from the tail to the head. The
shock given by this arrangement is not so strong as the other two, but none the less
unpleasant. The electric catfish is a slow, lazy fish, fond of gloomy places and grows to
about 1 metre long; it is eaten by the Arabs in some places.

The power of producing electricity may serve these fish both for defence and attack. If
a large enemy attacks, the shock will drive it away; but it appears that the catfish and
the electric eel use their current most often against smaller fish, stunning them so
that they can easily be overpowered.

Taken from: Mosback, G. & Mosback, V. (1979). Practical Faster Reading. CUP

Exercises
Understanding the text

Based on the information in the text, indicate if the following statements are true (T)
or false (F). Justify your answer.

The torpedos electric cells are in its head.

(T) - (F) ________________________________________________________________________

Usually, you will not get a shock by touching the electric ray in one place only.

(T) - (F) ________________________________________________________________________

The electric eel gives an even more powerful shock than the torpedo.

(T) - (F) ________________________________________________________________________

The shock of the electric catfish is more unpleasant than that of the torpedo or electric
eel.

(T) - (F) _______________________________________________________________________

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From paragraph 5 we can infer that:
a. the torpedo usually overpowers small fish using its electric power
b. the torpedo seldom uses its current against smaller fish
c. the electric eel and cat fish use their current more for defence than for
attack

The text is organized as _____.

a. a broad statement followed by support
b. reasons leading to a conclusion
c. introduction, main idea and supporting sentences

Vocabulary

Look at the word in bold and select the most appropriate synonym based on its use in
the context. The phrase in which the word is used is given.

1. or even to run a small electric motor...(Paragraph 1, line 2)

a. organise
b. work
c. supervise
2. is supplied with very fine nerves (Paragraph 2, line 5)
a. thin
b. beautiful
c. very good
3. Current passes from the upper, positive side of the organ.. (Paragraph 2, line 6)
a. electricity
b. stream
c. actual
4. The power of producing electricity(Paragraph 6, line 1)
a. strength
b. voltage
c. capability

References: What do the following words in italics refer to in the text?

Par. Line Word Answer

1 3 kinds of fish are able to do this. ________________________
3 2 is different from that of the torpedo ________________________
3 7 take advantage of this fact by ________________________
4 3 shock given by this arrangement ________________________
5 1 electricity may serve these fish ________________________
5 3 so that they can easily ________________________

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