ENGLISH FOR PUBLIC HEALTH - Handout 2

READING STRATEGIES:
PREVIEWING, PREDICTING, SCANNING, AND SKIMMING
A. PREVIEWING
What is previewing?
Previewing is when we look at something quickly before reading it. We preview when
we want to get brief information about something.
Exercise 1

Source: The Jakarta Post

Source: https://adespresso.com/
Questions:
1. What is it?
2. Who wrote it?
3. Who is it for?
4. What is it about?
5. Is it difficult or easy to read?
6. Is it interesting or useful?
7. What will come next?
B. PREDICTING
What is prediction?
Predictions are thoughts about what we think will happen in a story before we read
it. It is more than just a guess.
Exercise 2
Look at the newspaper headlines below. What are they about?

1. A discussion on ending all communication with other persons. ____________

2. A Covid-19 testing method. ______________
3. A testimony on a civil war. ______________
4. A commemoration of a devastating event. ____________
5. A come back of a football player. ____________
Source: The Jakarta Post
C. SCANNING
What is scanning?
Scanning is fast reading to find information quickly.
Exercise 3
Scan the picture and answer the lecturer’s questions.

Source:
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+get+covid+vaccine+in+indonesia&sxsrf=AOaem
vLbAIk40EBzeqdkP1QFPPdWWe7mUw:1631418376186&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved
=2ahUKEwjykauGw_jyAhU8_XMBHVM4AqMQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1536&bih=754#img
rc=nVHUW2anRQhrpM
D. SKIMMING
What is skimming?
Skimming is a high-speed reading to get the general idea of a passage.
Exercise 4
Every scientific discipline tends to develop its own special language because it finds ordinary
words inadequate, and psychology is no different. The purpose of this special jargon is not to
mystify non-psychologists; rather, it allows psychologists to accurately describe the
phenomena they are discussing and to communicate with each other effectively. Of course,
psychological terminology consists in part of everyday words such as emotion, intelligence,
and motivation, but psychologists use these words somewhat differently. For example,
laymen use the term anxiety to mean nervousness or fear, but most psychologists reserve
the term to describe a condition produced when one fears events over which one has no
control.

1. The main topic of this passage is….

a. effective communication
b. the special language of psychology
c. two definitions of the word anxiety
d. the jargon of science
Other major changes in journalism occurred around this time. In 1846, Richard Hoe invented
the steam cylinder rotary press, making it possible to print newspapers faster and cheaper.
The development of the telegraph made possible much speedier collection and distribution
of news. Also, in 1846, the first wire service was organized. A new type of newspaper
appeared around this time, one that was more attuned to the spirit and needs of the new
America. Although newspapers continued to cover politics, they came to report more
human interest stories and to record the most recent news, which they could not have done
before the telegraph. New York papers and those of other northern cities maintained corps
of correspondents to go into all parts of the country to cover newsworthy events.

2. The main purpose of the passage is to……

a. present a brief history of American journalism
b. outline certain developments in mid-19th-century journalism
c. explain the importance of the steam cylinder rotary press
d. present some biographical information about Richard Hoe

3. What is the most probable topic of the paragraph preceding this one?
a. other types of rotary presses
 b. alternatives to using wire services
c. newspapers that concentrated on politics
d. other developments in journalism

There has never been an adult scientist who has been half as curious as any child between
the ages of four months and four years. Adults sometimes mistake this superb curiosity
about everything as a lack of ability to concentrate. The truth is that children begin to learn
at birth, and by the time they begin formal schooling at the age of five or six, they have
already absorbed a fantastic amount of information, perhaps more, fact for fact, than they
will learn for the rest of their lives. Adults can multiply by many times the knowledge
children absorb if they appreciate this curiosity while Simultaneously encouraging the
children to learn.
4. With which of the following statements would the author probably agree?
A. Children lack the ability to concentrate.
B. Young children have a much greater curiosity than adult scientists do
C. The first few years of school are the most important ones for most children
D. Adults can use children's intense curiosity to help children learn more.

5. The paragraph following this one most likely deals with

A. Ways in which adults can help children learn by stimulating their curiosity
B. The learning habits of children over the age of four
C. The methods adult scientists use to study the curiosity of young children
D. Ways in which adults can become as curious as children about their environments.
E. PASSAGES AND QUESTIONS
Reading comprehension has passages that cover a wide range of topics, but in general, can
be classified as follows:
a. Science and technology
b. History, geography, and culture,
c. Art
d. Social Science
e. Biography
The main types of questions asked in Reading Comprehension can be categorized as shown
below:
Exercise 5
Reading: Inventing a Vaccine to Save the World