Virtual University ENG 101

Lesson -11-part-2
Dr.Surriya Shaffi Mir

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1- Reading is the most important skill
you will need for success in your studies.
Poor reading may be a problem for many
of you, but it is not a hopeless one. I
shall introduce you to ways in which you
can improve your reading. Remember, it
will only be an introduction. You must
continue to read and practice on your
own ,you learn to read by reading.
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2- Our main concern is with
improving your comprehension.
There is a relationship between
reading speed and reading
comprehension. You may think that
if you read rapidly your
comprehension will suffer. This is a
false assumption. As you push
yourself to read faster you may find
that you comprehend less. 3
However, continued practice will
improve your comprehension as well as
speed. Instead of responding to
individual words you will be
responding to meaningful chunks of
words - to units of ideas. Good readers
adjust their speed to the material they
are reading and the kind of
comprehension they desire. You do not,
I am sure read the newspaper and your
science text book in the same way.
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3- One cause of slow reading is
VOCALIZATION - the forming the
sounds of each word even though you
may not say them aloud. Vocalization
is very common among our students.
Its is a sure sign that the reader is a
poor reader. So, learn to read with your
eyes and mind and not with your lips.
In simple words learn to read silently.
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4- If you learn to recognize and
understand the principles and methods of
writing - rhetoric - it will help improve
your reading. If you learn to understand
why a piece of text or writing was written,
what it says, both in overall statement and
major subpoints, and how the author or
writer has made those major statements
and the minor but parts fit in - it will help
improve your understanding of the
reading text. 6
5- All successful writers work along
these lines. The way they write will
provide answers to the three questions -
Why? What? And How?

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6- An important part of reading is
realizing that everything you read has
an author - or writer who has something
to say, and he says it in a particular
way, manner. You as a successful reader
must apply the same technique that the
writer used - the questions why? What
how - and decode what he has said.

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7- To answer the first question why?
Remember the author is a person who has
a reason for writing a given piece of text,
and who works from personal point of
view. As a skilled reader you must fully
understand and evaluate what you read.
The writer has a purpose in writing. You
must recognize that PURPOSE. Aligned
with purpose is two other things which are
known as attitude and tone - the
expression of the writer’s feeling. 9
Making Inferences
1. You are familiar with the expression “to read
between the lines”, which means that you pick up
ideas that are not directly stated in the material you
are reading. The writer is giving or making a
suggestion but stating it directly i.e. he is implying
something. These implied ideas are often important
for a full understanding of what the writer means. It
is this discovering of ideas in writing that are not
stated directly that is called “making inferences” or
drawing conclusions.
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2. Our aim is to help you not only become a better reader but
a strong thinker – a person able not only to understand
what is read but to analyze and evaluate it as well. In fact,
reading and thinking are closely related skills, and practice
in thoughtful reading will also strengthen your ability to
think clearly and logically. It is a higher level skill.
3. In everyday life we are constantly making inferences. For
e.g. you go out in the street and you notice a large crowd
gathered outside a shop, and you also notice a lot of
broken glass on the road. As you get closer you hear loud
talking. Before you even reach the shop, you have inferred
what all the fuss is about - there has been accident.

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4. How did you arrive at these inferences? First you
used your experience of life and general knowledge
of people. Second, you made informed guesses
which were based on the facts you observed.
Remember not all your inferences will necessarily
prove true. For e.g. it is possible that the crowd
gathered outside is not because of an accident
between cars etc. but because of a quarrel among
some people and while fighting among themselves
they hit the glass windows of the shop and it turned
into a nasty brawl. In any case, the more evidence
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you have, the more solid your inferences are.
5. Now consider another two incidents. Write down
on a piece of paper what you might infer if you saw
the following two occurrences.
i) A high school has policemen walking up and
down its main hall.
What would you infer? _______________
ii) A dog shrinks or cringes when you try to pat
him
What would you infer? _______________

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 The inferences you probably made are that, in
the first situation, there is a public examination going
on/or there is an important function taking place and
some high-ranking person is present. And in the
second situation you probably inferred that the dog
has previously been maltreated and is afraid of
people.
Look at the following two pictures on your
screen and put a tick mark against the inference(s)
most logically supported by the information given in
the picture.
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Picture 1

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1. The old woman is asking for something.
2. The old woman couldn’t see because of the smoke.
3. The old woman was pointing to a no-smoking sign.

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Picture 2.

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1.The man has a problem with his vision.
2.The boy is doing his home work.
3.The man watches a lot of TV.
4.The father cannot read.
Reasons:
No. 1. is supported by the picture. Father wearing
glasses, sitting close to TV set.
No.2. Not logical (artist would have given some clue
that the boy was reading a school book.
No.3. Logical
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No.4. Not supported by evidence
 Inferences in Reading
In reading also we make logical jumps from the
information given or stated directly to ideas that are
not stated directly. i.e. we make statements or draw
conclusions about what is not known on the basis
of what is known or given. So, to draw inferences
the reader uses all the clues provided by the writer,
his own experience i.e. the readers own experience
and logic.
8. Read the sentences given on your screen and put a
tick mark by the inference most logically based on
the information in the sentence. 19
Sohail always sits in the last row of the classroom.

a. Sohail dislikes his college courses.

b. Sohail is unprepared for his class.
c. Sohail feels uncomfortable sitting in the front
row
d. Sohail is farsighted

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The given sentence tells us nothing about how Sohail
feels about his college courses, how prepared he is, or
how well he sees. So answers a, b or d are
possibilities, but none is directly suggested by the
sentence. The correct answer is therefore c. Based on
the information we are given, we can conclude only
that Sohail – for some reason – does not like sitting in
the front. We are not given enough information to
know why he feels this way.
Remember your inferences will be stronger if you
don’t jump to conclusions that are unsupported or that
are only very weakly supported by the available
information. 21
9. Now you will have some more practice in drawing
inferences. Read the given sentences and put a tick
mark by the inference, most logically supported by
the information given in the sentence.
1. The Arabic language contains numerous words
describing different types of camels.
a. There is really only one kind of camel.
b. The Arabic language clearly has many times
more words than the English language.
c. The Arabic language probably also has
numerous words for different types of dates.
d. The exact nature of camels is important to the
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desert way of life.
2. A man enters his office building, marches past a
group of fellow employees without returning there
greetings and goes into his office, slamming the
door.
a. The man has just lost his job
b. The man has quarreled with his boss.
c. The man is in a bad mood.
d. The man is angry with his wife.

3. Read the passage & then check the four statements

which are most logically supported by the
information given.
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The elimination of jobs because of super-automation
is not limited to industrial factories – offices are
increasingly electronic. Engineers and architects now
draw three dimensional designs, update them, test
them, and store them almost instantaneously in a
computer. Agriculture employs robot fruit pickers and
sheepshearers, computerized irrigation systems that
use sensors to calculate water and fertilizer needs in
different parts of a field, and automated chicken
houses.

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Retail stores, banks, and brokerage houses use on-line
transaction processing to obtain instant information
and to conduct transactions. Laser scanning and bar
codes are transforming the physical handling of codes
by retailers and wholesale distributors. A final
example of technological change affecting jobs is the
widespread use of televisions, telephones, and
personal computers for the purposes of home banking
and shopping.

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-1.Computers will soon replace engineers and
architects.
-2.There will be more jobs for people who run and
repair electronic devices.
-3.One function of superautomation is the handling
and storage of information.
4. Restaurants can’t benefit from superautomation
-5. Machines can help company employees
accomplish more.
6. Superautomation requires few adjustments form
society.

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1 a) You might like to ask why the Sun is able to supply
its own light, heat, and energy, whereas the Earth and
the other planets only shine feebly with the aid of
borrowed light. Strange as it may seem, it is best to
start this problem by Strange as it may seem, it is best
to start this problem by considering the interior of the
Earth.

b) The morrow brought a very sober-looking morning,

the sun making only a few efforts to appear; and
Catherine augured from it everything most favourable
to her wishes. A bright morning so early in the year,
she allowed, would generally turn to rain; but a cloudy
one foretold improvement as the day advanced. 27
c) Your mother and I were so happy then. It seemed as
though we had everything we could ever want. I think
the last day the sun shone was when that dirty little
train steamed out of that crowded, suffocating Indian
station, and the battalion band playing for all it was
worth. I knew in my heart it was all over then.
Everything.

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