UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE

ESCUELA DE CIENCIAS DEL LENGUAJE

READING ACADEMIC TEXTS IN ENGLISH II

WORKSHOP

STUDENTS NAME:

A. RHETORICAL FUNCTION

In the following text we can observe that the main form of organization that characterizes it is
Exposition. An expository text is writing with the purpose of informing the reader. The text is factbased with the purpose of exposing the truth through a reliable source. It exists to provide facts
in a way that is educational and purposeful. Expository text gets to the point quickly and
efficiently. Some common examples are: textbooks, news articles, instruction manuals, recipes,
city or country guides, language books, and self-help books.

According to this definition, we can say that the authors purpose is:
a) to explain the process of aging from a chemical point of view.
b) to describe the most powerful antioxidants studied by scientists.
c) to state the causes and consequences of aging.
d) to inform the reader about oxidation as an apparent cause of aging and give some scientific answers to
such process.
e) to present the consumption of some foods, mainly chocolate, as the best way to retard the aging
process.

B. INTENSIVE READING

1. Indicate whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

a. A relevant characteristic of nerve cells in adults is that they can be easily replaced.
b. After a Harvard study, scientists cannot yet be sure of whether chocolate consumption presents benefits
for human health or not.
c. A proved treatment against aging is taking large doses of vitamin E.
d. After reading the whole text, we can infer that getting old is easily faced as part of human nature by
most of people.

2. Fill in the chart in Spanish with suitable information from the text.
ANTIOXIDANT

FOUND IN

SUPPORTIVE SCIENTIST AND/ OR SUPPORTIVE

INSTITUTION

fenoles

3. Answer in Spanish the following questions.

a. What definition can we get from the text about superoxide ion O2 ?
b. What did Dr. Cutler demonstrate with his investigation?
c. Why is the intake of SOD useless?

C. LOGICAL CONNECTION

Identify the function of the following connectors in the text.

a)

although (L.1, 52, 63-64) __________________

c) subsequently (L. 13) _____________________

b) thus (L. 12) ________________________

d) such as (L. 29, 51) ____________________

D. NOUN PHRASES

Give a suitable version into Spanish for the following noun phrases from the text.
1. Gerontology Research Center of the National Institutes of Health in Baltimore
_________________________________________________________________________________________

2. A strong correlation between the life span of dozen mammalian species and their levels of SOD.