IMPROVING READING SPEED

EXERCISE1

Specific aim: TO DEVELOP WORD RECOGNITION AND WORD COMPREHENSION SPEED
Skills involved: RECOGNISING THE MEANING OF THE WORDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE

The following exercises should be done as quickly as possible and timed.
a) Underline the word which is the same as the first one given.
Cat cab told bold
Cut told
Cap hold
Cat bolt

b) Here is a series of two expressions. They are sometimes the same and something different. Go through the list and when the expression is different, underline the word that differs in the second expression.

Cat nap cat nap
Well paid well said
Old looking cold looking
One-way one day
Happy few happy few
Self-taught self caught
He’s bound to see the lamp he’s bound to see the lamb
Can you heat the tin? Can you hit the tin?
They pricked my fingers they pricked my fingers
You startled the party you started the party
c) Decide whether the following words have similar or different meanings

Cry weep
Laugh whisper
Finish stop
Help assist
Avoid warn
Menace threaten
d) Find the word which means the same thing as the first word mentioned.

Wood oak grab hold
Tree snatch
Forest leave
Land give
e) Which of the following words should complete the sentence?

_______________ in poor neighbourhoods usually charge high prices.
a) the police b) districts c) shops d) books

PREDICTING
Specific aim : To train the students to make predictions and guesses when reading the text
EXERCISE 1
After the reading each of this sentences in column 1, look at column 2 and choose the sentence which you think is most likely to follow.

The average person in the world now uses approximately 40,000 calories per day. a) However, there are few ‘average’ people in the world.
b) However, calories are essential to live.
c) Some of people may use more.
However, there are few ‘average’ people in the world. a) Most people should use far less calories.
b) The Egyptians, for instance, consume 9,200 calories a day.
c) Some people use far more energy than that, while most use far less.
Some people use far more energy than that, while most use far less. a) An average citizen of the so-called ‘developed’ countries uses 136,000 calories each day.
b) The number should be much higher.
c) But on the whole everyone consumes far too many calories.
An average citizen of the so-called ‘developed’ countries uses 136,000 calories each day. a) In Japan, for instance, the average figure is 74,000 calories per day.
b) However, more than two-third of the world’s people live in the ‘developing’ areas, where the average person uses only 8,200 calories of non-metabolic energy daily.
However, more than two-third of the world’s people live in the ‘developing’ areas, where the average person uses only 8,200 calories of non-metabolic energy daily. a) This is why it is so difficult to be an average person.
b) This explains why one part of the world is much poorer than the other.
c) Such vast differences are hard to comprehend.
Such vast differences are hard to comprehend

SKIMMING READING

EXERCISE 1
Specific aim: To train students to skim through the text.
Skills involved Predicting, anticipating

You are skimming through the text in which most of the words are unknown to you. Here are the ones you can understand, however:

Professor
Institute of Biochemistry
Hard working man
Results of experiments
Published confession
Invention
Different results
Fraud
Regrets it

Can you guess, from these few words, if the article is about

o A well known professor who has just published his confessions
o a scientist who has admitted inventing the results of his experiments
o a scientist who has killed himself because he could not get the same result as everybody else
o a scientist who regrets the publication of the results of his experiments.