雅思阅读考试的方法与技巧

　　READING STRATEGIES AND SKILLS

　　This course will give you the opportunity to develop and practice reading strategies and skills which can be applied to all forms of IELTS tests. The strategies and skills you will practice are as follows:

　　1.Predicting

　　2.Skimming

　　3.Scanning

　　4.Detailed reading

　　5.Guessing unknown words

　　6.Understanding main ideas

　　7.Inferring

　　8.Understanding text organization

　　9.Assessing a writers purpose

　　10.Evaluating a writers attitude.

　　1 Predicting

　　Before you read a text in detail, it is possible to predict what information you may find in it. You will probably have some knowledge of the subject already, and you can use this knowledge to help you anticipate what a reading text contains. After looking at the title, for example, you can ask yourself what you know and do not know about the subject before you read the text. Or you can formulate questions that you would like to have answered by reading the text. These exercises will help you focus more effectively on the ideas in a text when you actually start reading.

　　To help you predict, you may also use skimming and scanning strategies as described below.

　　2 Skimming

　　Skimming involves reading quickly through a text to get an overall idea of its contents. Features of the text that can help you include the following:

　　 Title

　　 Sub-title

　　 Details about the author

　　 Abstract

　　 Introductory paragraph

　　 First, second and last sentences of following paragraphs

　　 Concluding paragraph

　　A text may not contain all of these features - there may be no abstract, for example, and no sub-titles - but you can usually expect to find at least , , and . Focusing on these will give you an understanding of the overall idea or gist of the text you are reading - in other words, a general understanding as opposed to a detailed reading.

　　Another term for this kind of reading is surveying. Surveying can be described as looking quickly through a book, chapter of a book, article from a journal, etc., to decide whether or not it is suitable for your purpose. To decide whether or not a text is suitable, especially if it is a book, you will also need to focus on the following features in addition to those mentioned above:

　　 Edition and date of publication

　　 Table of contents

　　 Foreword

　　 Introduction

　　 Index

　　3 Scanning

　　When you scan a text, again you look quickly through it. However, unlike skimming, scanning involves looking for specific words, scanning involves rapid reading for the specific rather than the general; for particular details rather than the overall idea. When you read a text, for example, you may want to find only a percentage figure or the dates of particular historical events instead of the main ideas. Scanning will help you find such information more efficiently.

　　4 Detailed reading

　　A second and third reading of a text will also focus on the secondary ideas and details which support, explain and develop the main ideas. This can be described as a more comprehensive reading. It involves a slower and more careful reading process. At this stage you can also try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.

　　5 Guessing unknown words

　　It is unlikely that you will understand 100 percent of the vocabulary in a text, especially at a first reading. Use first the context and then your own knowledge of the subject to help you guess the meaning of unknown words. At your first reading of a text it is usually best not to stop and consult your dictionary. This will interrupt your process of reading and understanding. often the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases becomes clear as you continue to read through the text. The dictionary can be used at a later stage.

　　In using the context to help you guess unknown vocabulary, you can refer first to immediate context and then to the wider context in which a word is found. The immediate context is the sentence in which a word is found, and sometimes the sentences immediately before and after this. The wider context can include other sentences and even other paragraphs in a text. Both forms of context can often provide important information which help you guess the meaning of unfamiliar words.

　　6 Understanding main ideas

　　You will practice recognizing the main ideas contained within a text. In the process of skimming you will already have identified some of these main ideas. During a second and third reading you can recognize and understand them more fully. Each paragraph will usually contain one main idea. sometimes referred to as the paragraph topic.

　　The reading materials provide several exercises which help you identify and understand the main ideas in a text. Knowing the key points in a reading text is vital in assessing its importance and relevance for your needs. Understanding the main ideas will also lead you to an understanding of a writers organization.

　　7 Inferring

　　Sometimes a writer will suggest or express something indirectly in a text. In other words, a writer will imply something and leave it to the reader to infer or understand what is meant. When writers do this, they rely to some extent on the knowledge of their readers - knowledge of a subject or cultural knowledge, for example. Inferring a writers meaning is sometimes important in the process of understanding a reading text.

　　8 Understanding text organization

　　Writers structure, or organize, their writing in many different ways. Recognizing the way in which a text has been organized will help you understand its meaning more fully. A writer may want, for example, to outline a situation, discuss a problem and propose a solution. This will usually result in a particular pattern of organization. Or a writer may want to compare and contrast two ideas and will choose one of two basic structures commonly used to compare and contrast.

　　Another feature related to organization is a writers use of time. To give an account of events or describe a process, writers will often use a chronological order, in which events are recounted in thesgroupsin which they have occurred. Other writers will choose to organize an account of events in different ways, perhaps with repeated contrasts between past and present time.

　　9 Assessing a writers purpose

　　Once you understand the organization of a text, you can then recognize the writers purpose more clearly. The text organization a writer selects will partly depend upon his or her particular purpose. A writer may want to inform or persuade, and he or she will select a structure or pattern of organization according to this purpose.

　　A writer may also intend to do both of these things in a written text - to inform as will as persuade. In such cases it is often helpful to try to assess which of these purposes seems to be more important or dominant.

　　10 Evaluating a writers attitude.

　　Writers are not necessarily neutral or objective when they write, particularly if the are trying to persuade readers to agree with their opinions. It is important that you recognize what an authors attitude is in relation to the ideas or information being presented. This is because such attitudes can influence the ways in which information is presented. You will be looking at ways in which a writers attitude may be identified. You will also practice evaluating how relatively neutral or biased his or her attitude may be.

　　DEMONSTRATION - TEXT AND QUESTIONS

　　Do not read the following text and questions first. Go directly to the How to Answer section which will show you the most efficient way of answering the questions.

　　YOUR POST OFFICE

　　at your service

　　At our main offices we are introducing,swheresappropriate, a number of changes to help improve the standard of service provided to our customers.

　　Similar developments are taking place at many of our agency offices.

　　Improvements:

　　more staff at peak periods for faster service a single queuing system for fairer service special service windows for some transactions Post-Shops in main offices with their own separate service till for greeting cards, stationery, stamps and gifts the refurbishment of a number of main offices to provide a better environment new vending machine services such as cash-change machines, and phonecard and stamp dispensers for faster service extended opening hours at selected main offices a new range of air package services. Questions 1-3 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage above? Write:

　　TRUE if the statement is true

　　FALSE if the statement is false

　　NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

　　in the correct boxes on your answer sheet.

　　1. All offices will have more staff throughout the day.

　　2. There will be special service windows for cash transactions at all main offices.

　　3. It will be possible to obtain some items from machines in many offices.

　　Question 4

　　Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS answer the following question.

　　4. Which change will ensure that the customers are treated more fairly?

　　Question5

　　Choose the correct answer by writing A, B, C, or D.

　　5. Which offices will stay open longer?

　　A all offices

　　B all main offices

　　C some main offices

　　D some agency offices

　　HOW TO ANSWER

　　BEFORE YOU ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS

　　Step 1 - Look at the text quickly

　　The heading tells you that the text is about service at post offices. The sub-heading and the points listed below it show eight improvements to the services.

　　QUESTION 1

　　Step 2 - Read the instructions and the question

　　The instructions for questions 1-3 tell you to write True, False or Not Given on the answer sheet.

　　You are looking for specific information in the passage. The key words for question one are:

　　All offices will have more staff throughout the day.

　　The question is about more staff. You should also note that the question specifies all offices and it also mentions throughout the day .

　　Step 3- Find the answer

　　The best way to find the answer is to look quickly through the text for the key words or their synonyms . Then, read the phrase or sentence that contains those words.

　　Looking for the word office, in the first section of the text you find that the changes are being introduced in our main offices and many of our agency offices. It seems that the changes do not refer to all offices.

　　The word staff is in the first improvement listed. It says there are more staff at peak periods. This means that there are only more staff at the busiest times of the day and not all day. Therefore, the answer if FALSE.

　　QUESTION 2

　　Step 2 - Read the question

　　They key words are underlined:

　　There will be special service windows for cash transactions at all main offices. You need to find information about special service windows, namely: their functions andswheresthey are located .

　　Step 3- Finzd the answer

　　Special service windows are mentioned in the third point, but cash transactions are not mentioned. There is no information in the text about what kinds of transactions take place. Nor is there any information about whether these windows will be at all main post offices. Therefore, the correct answer is NOT GIVEN.

　　QUESTION 3

　　Step 2 - Read the question

　　The key words are:

　　It will be possible to obtain some items from machines.

　　You should search the text for the word machines or synonyms. Step 3 - Find the answer

　　Point 6 mentions cash machines and phonecard and stamp dispensers. So you can obtain cash from a machine, but what are dispensers? The text tells you that they provide a faster service, and vending machines do that, so it is reasonable to guess that a dispenser is a kind of machine. So, you can get some items from machines. Therefore, the correct answer is TRUE.

　　Note: If you dont know the meaning of a word, you may be able to work out its meaning by looking at the words around it. This technique is called guessing from context. It is a very important skill and will be discussed in detail at the end of Section 2.

　　QUESTION 4

　　Step 2 - Read the instructions and the question

　　Here you are instructed to write your answer in up to three words .

　　The key words in the question 4 are:

　　Which change will ensure that the customers are treated more fairly?

　　All of the changes mentioned in the text are to help improve the standard of service. Which one provides fairer service?

　　Stet 3 - Find the answer

　　Point one provides faster service. Point two provides fairer service. You dont need to read further than this. The answer is single queuing system .

　　QUESTION 5

　　Step 2 - Read the instructions and question

　　The instruction tell you to write a letter , not a word.

　　The key words in the question are underlined: Which offices will stay open longer?

　　The answer choices also help here. Factors such as the type of office and whether it is some or all offices are relevant.

　　Step 3 - Find the answer

　　We have already looked for the key word office and found that the changes are being introduced in our main offices and many of our agency offices. It seems that the changes do not refer to all offices.

　　Looking quickly for stay open longer or synonyms, we find extended opening hours in the seventh improvement. However, it mentions only selected main offices. The answer is therefore C - some main offices.

　　ANALYSIS AND PRACTICE

　　The three different kinds of questions used in the Demonstration are the most common question types in Section 1 of the Reading test.

　　True - False - Not Given

　　short answer of no more than three words

　　Multiple choice

　　Following the three-step strategy:

　　survey the text

　　read the instructions and the question

　　find the answers

　　is usually the fastest and surest way of doin the kinds of questions you will find in Section 1. We will now look at each of these steps in more detail.

　　STEP 1 - SURVEY THE TEXT

　　You can quickly obtain a lot of useful information about a text by just looking at:

　　the title

　　section headings or subheadings

　　any words in special print

　　any diagrams, tables or pictures

　　any unusual features of the text .

　　Surveying tells you about the topic or subject of the text. It may also tell you something about how the text is organized . Surveying may also tell you something about the writers purpose - whether the intention is to give instructions, to compare, to give information, and so on.