Text Attack Skills

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Text Attack Skills

• ?Andy
• http//www.tronest.cn

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Process of Reading

1. Start with a purpose and plan
2. Preview and predict
3. Simplify complex sentences
4. Identify cohesive devices
5. Make inferences
6. Summarize information
7. Recognize the topic sentence
8. Look for the thesis statement
9. Work out the text structure
10. Review the text
11. Reflect on the writing

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1 Start with a purpose and plan

• Gain BG information

• Collect specific facts

• One time and raud

• One time and skim

• Learn for education

• Find simple information

• Times and study

• One time and scan

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2 Preview and predict

• Read the title (subtitles)
• Pay attention to the author
• Predict the content
• Ask questions

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3 Simplify complex sentences

• There are things you would love to hear that you
  would never hear from the person whom you would
  like to hear them from but do not be so deaf as
  not to hear it from the one who says it from his
  heart.

• This success coupled with later research showing
  that memory itself as not genetically determined,
  led Ericsson to conclude that the act of
  memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than
  an intuitive one.

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4 Identify cohesive devices

• When his father came home, Tom told him what had
  happened.

• The days are hot, the nights cool.

• The boy heard her mother calling the poor woman
  was crying with pain.

• The guests arrived, then the sports took place.

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5 Make inferences

• John was driving home late last night from an
  exhausting business trip.

• John was a businessman.

• John was tired.

• John was eager to go home.

• Examples from the textbook

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6 Summarize information
As a boy and then as an adult, I never lost my
wonder at the personality that was Einstein. He
was the only person I knew who had come to terms
with himself and the world around him. He knew
what he wanted and he wanted only this to
understand within his limits as a human being the
nature of the universe and the logic and
simplicity in its functioning. He knew there were
answers beyond his intellectual reach. But this
did not frustrate him. He was content to go as
far as he could.
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7 Recognize the top sentence
Einstein was purely and exclusively a theorist.
He didnt have the slightest interest in the
practical application of his ideas and theories.
His Emc2 is probably the most famous equation in
history yet Einstein wouldnt walk down the
street to see a reactor create atomic energy. He
won the Nobel Prize for his Photoelectric Theory,
a series of equations that he considered
relatively minor in importance, but he didnt
have any curiosity in observing how his theory
made TV possible.
Unit 3 Book 3
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8 Look for the thesis statement
Mothers love
A little boy came up to his mother in the
kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper
and handed her a piece of paper that he had been
writing on. After his Mom dried her hands on an
apron, she read it and this is what it said
For cutting the grass 5.00 For cleaning up
my room this week 1.00 For going to the
store for you 50 cents
Unit 5 Book 3
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9 Work out the text structure
Sequential or chronological pattern Spatial
pattern Compare-contrast pattern Advantage-disadv
antage pattern Cause-effect pattern
Problem-solution pattern Topical pattern
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10 Review the text
Check comprehension Identify difficulties Learn
important points
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11 Reflect on the writing
Critique the author Critique the writing Reflect
on the content