Reading Comprehension Practice

exam practice for school-leavers. — University of Tambov, 2003. — 145 p. This book is designed to enhance exam performance in language learners. It teaches for testing. That is why the suggested tasks are not exactly the same as in the examination test format. Instead, they are meant to develop step by step some specific knowledge, skills and competence needed for higher test scoring in reading tasks. The texts are presented in the "interrupted reading" mode. Instead of reading the texts from beginning to end, the students are supposed to stop reading for questions and discussion. Questioning strategy ranges from attention to details to drawing on the reader's ability to infer from the text. Integrated skills of reading, speaking and writing are developed. Exam training will address the following areas of reading comprehension: 1) Reading for details (words, numbers, examples). The texts abound in details that are to be dealt with for comprehension. 2) Reading for specific information (areas, agenda, paragraphs). Each text contains a variety of content areas that are to be recognised and processed. 3) Reading for gist (headline, topic, summary). Each text has a coherent idea that is recognised from the text. 4) Reading for inference (meaning, message, implication). The texts contain information "between the lines". 5) Reading for the format of an exam procedure (filling in, correction, clozing, paraphrasing, multiple-choice, matching text and heading, matching paragraphs and headlines, matching text and message, matching text and graph, completion and sequencing, word formation, information transfer). In order to train learners towards the exam, the task format will include "choosing from the alternatives", "matching", "true-false". "multiple choice", "gap-filling", "completion", "sequencing", "transfer", "free answers". The book is divided into five parts, each part corresponding to certain reading sub-skills. Each part is further on broken down into "units" i.e. training sections for bringing the learners to the needed level of text comprehension.