So this will be the last of my Reading blogs. Scanning. First, let's recap. Speed reading is mostly for native English speakers and that's when you don't read every word and your native understanding of grammar fills in the rest. It's not really something I recommend for students, but it's good to know what people mean when they say speed reading. Skimming is kind of the non-native adaptation of speed reading and it's when you just read the first sentences of each paragraph because the first sentences are the topic sentences because they give you the topics of each paragraphs and so you can therefore get the overall main idea from them. Both speed reading and skimming are things to be done on a test before you start answering the questions. On a test, or at least one like TOEFL, you should NEVER EVER EVER read the entire passage before you answer the questions. You just don't have enough time.


Now scanning is what you do while you are answering the questions. Scanning is when you scan, or look, for just one or two words to find the place in the passage that talks about the idea that the question is asking about. SCANNING IS NOT READING. Scanning is very visual. If you read while scanning, first it's not scanning, but second it'll take too long and you wont be able to finish the questions. You just use the SHAPE of the word and look for the SHAPE of the word. When I scan, I kind of cross my eyes and purposely don't focus on the page lest I'm tempted to read. So because you're only looking for a shape, there are two general rules to follow.


Rule #1: It can't be a word that has many synonyms or is changed easily. If the question uses the word "superfluous" but the passage uses the word "excessive" or "unnecessary" then you're wasting your time and will never find the word "superfluous." Therefore, rule #1 is probably the most important rule.


Rule #2: It has to be a visually interesting word. For example, "word" is not visually interesting because the shape is exactly the same as "wood" or "neat" or "wind" or "soak". They all have the shape "---l". Does that make sense? They're also pretty short and therefore wont stick out. So "superfluous" is actually a pretty visually interesting word, mostly because it's so long. Unfortunately, we've already seen that it can be easily changed. A visually interesting word that's not very easy to change is "encyclopedia." Also, any proper nouns (because they have capitalized letters, like New York, or CIA) are pretty easy to scan for, especially a capital C or O, like "Captain Cook" or "Oregon". The big round shape is very visually interesting and catches your eye very easily. Numbers are probably the number one easiest thing to scan for, like dates (1962).


Let's look at an example.


So from the following phrase, which word would you pick to scan for?


"Opposed by the U.S. government"


Some of you may say "Opposed" because it's got the capital "O" I was talking about, but it's only capitalized because it's at the beginning of the phrase. It'd probably not be capitalized in the passage. Also, opposed can be changed easily to like "to go/be against." Some might pick "U.S" because of the capital letters but "U.S" can easily change to "American." Therefore, government is the best to scan for. "by" and "the" are way too short and common and you should never scan for words like that.


Picking the right word to scan for can be tricky, but it's easy to get the hang of if you practice.


One final note: scanning needs to be very fast. Even if you pick a word that is difficult to change, they might have found a way to change it or it might not be in the article because it's not the answer. So you have to have a lot of confidence when you scan and know when to stop scanning for one word.


Ok, so that's it. I'm dong talking about reading. I hope it was helpful.

▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Reading 2: Skimming】2009.11.04 (Wed)

 

I live in Asakusa, about 1500m from the new Tokyo communications tower, dubbed 'Tokyo Sky Tree.' It's got a triangular base, and as it rises, the cross-section morphs into a circular shape. When completed, it promises to rise 634m from its base in Sumida Ku, and help me find my home on mid-night bike rides.

 

The height itself is not exactly arbitrary. 6-3-4 spells 'Mu-sa-shi' in Japanese, which is the old name for Tokyo area. Originally, however, the tower was planned to be 610m. The additional height was only announced recently, when officials heard news of a 610m tower being built in Guangzhou, China. The Sky Tree had to be bigger.

 

Of course there's a competiveness when it comes to being the next Olympic City. Even having the world's tallest tower may attract a few more tourists. But there's already a much taller building in Dubai, so forget that title. It's a worthless competition. In fact, it almost suggests that Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and other competing cities are trying to make up for something by building the biggest phallus they can.

 

If Tokyo wants to spend the extra yen, I think it should be on something that will make Tokyo people happier. An extra 24m height on the Sky Tree may not be the answer. I don't claim to understand this culture or its people. So I don't know. But take a look at what Bhutan's got going: Gross National Happiness (GNH.)

 

GNH is an indicator of the happiness of the nation of Bhutan. The 4th King of Bhutan has been promoting GNH since the beginning of his reign in 1972. Happiness was and is the guiding goal of development. He publicly stated that GNH is more important than GDP. The GNH is just an index, a number, an indicator. But, as the king explains,

 

'Indicators determine policies. The almost universal use of GDP-based indicators to measure progress has helped justify policies around the world that are based on rapid material progress at the expense of environmental preservation, cultures, and community cohesion. Indicators capture the imagination and help convince lay people about the direction of the countrys [sic] goals and development objectives...Indicators actually drive society in certain directions and even determine the policy agendas of governments.'

 

What a great idea; the government is encouraging its citizens, teaching that happiness is more important that money. Bhutan is a Buddhist country, but then so are Japan and China. And while I wouldn't say that money isn't important, I think money's importance is definitely exaggerated in most cultures. On the bright side, we'll have a shiny new tower in Tokyo to take pictures of.



▼▽▼▼【講師】Sandy先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━

・【Reward Yourself】2009.10.28 (Wed)

水曜日更新担当の講師チーム"Zen and the Art of Aptitude"から
今日は講師・Kurt先生の更新です！
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I was looking for online American movies and TV the other day, and it's still hard to find much that can be accessed from Japan. Most new content can't be shown outside the USA legally, and I don't really want to download any huge files from sites like Vuze. I finally found a lot of older movies and TV shows, though, and we've had some fun with those.

Right now I'm watching Larry "Buster" Crabbe as "Flash Gordon", a sci-fi serial made in the 1930s. The special effects are pretty laughable by our standards, yet in many ways they were ahead of their time. The ladies' wardrobes were pretty risque for the time, too, and Dale Arden is constantly threatened by leacherous kings from the planet Mungo.

 

My daughter was also pleased to find that Warner Brothers offers hundreds of old cartoons on their website, many of which I'd never heard of, but others which bring back memories of childhood - Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and the Road Runner. Not a bad way to practice her English listening skills!

▼▽▼▼【講師】Kurt先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【History is fun.】2009.10.21 (Wed)

So in my last blog I talked about speed reading and said that in the next (this one) I'd talk about skimming. First, I'd like to note that sometimes when native speakers talk about skimming, it's the same thing as speed reading which was described in my last blog. The only difference is that speed reading sounds fast and exciting and that's why you don't read every word, while skimming sounds like you don't care too much about the material and that's why you don't read every word. Even then though, these words could hold different meanings to different people depending on their style of reading. So I guess I just want to say that there's no hard definition and you should be flexible with their use.



Ok, so now skimming. Skimming is the word most used for non-native speakers. If a student came up to me and said, "Teach me how to speed read," I'd say, "Give it up." Well, I'd put it nicer but that's what I'd mean. But skimming, skimming is something that can be done.



Skimming for non-native English speakers means reading the first sentence of each paragraph.



The first sentence of each paragraph is generally a special sentence that we like to call the "Topic Sentence" because... drum roll... it's the topic of the paragraph. Pretty simple. And pretty useful. So if you just read the first sentences you can get the topics of each paragraph and therefore the basic main idea of the passage.



To illustrate, I'll use a sample (short) passage from our TOEFL Strategies book (pg. 238 if you have it.) There are four paragraphs in this passage, so I will only read four sentences (the first of each paragraph).



1st: Fermentation is the key to winemaking, and is a process that occurs naturally within grapes, as long as the skin of the grapes has been broken.
2nd: Unfortunately, alcohol is not the only by-product of fermentation.
3rd: One way a winemaker can control the fermentation process is by regulating temperature.
4th: Adding sugar is another method of changing the outcome of a wine.



So from these sentences I can see that the passage is about the fermentation (the definition of which was given in the first sentence) of grapes for wine. It's about the by-products of fermentation and how winemakers can control the process, particularly through regulating temperature and adding sugar.



And after reading the whole passage I can see that I'm right. This is a pretty simple example because the passage is only four paragraphs long, but it really works for longer passages too. Really.



So if you're on a test and need to get the main idea of a passage very quickly, this is the way to do it. I've never only read the first sentences of each paragraph of a passage and not been able to accurately determine the main idea of the passage. So I think students just have to trust that it's enough information. Let go of wanting to know and understand EVERYTHING. It's just not necessary.



Now, of course if you're answering questions about details this wont help very much, but it's very effective in just getting the overall main idea and tone of a passage. If you're taking a test with a read section where the reading is quite long, say six or more paragraphs, this is an excellent way to begin the reading. Then for each specific question you can go back to the passage and look for specific information. And say, for example, that I get a question about hydrogen sulfide being created by fermentation (which is actually in the original passage). I would know immediately to look in the second paragraph for it because the second paragraph is about by-products. Or if a question asks about sweet wine, I'll look in the last paragraph because the last paragraph is about sugar. Easy, right?



Ok, so this is skimming. Next time will be my last "reading" blog and I'll talk about snacking. I mean scanning.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Reading 1: Speed Reading】2009.10.07 (Wed)