PRACTICE 2

B. READING

EXERCISE 1
How should reading be taught?
By Keith Rayncr a Barbara R Foorman
A. Learning to speak is automatic for almost all children, but learning to read requires elaborate instruction and
conscious effort. Well aware of the difficulties, educators have given a great deal of thought to how they can
best help children learn to read. No single method has triumphed. Indeed, heated arguments about the most
appropriate form of reading instruction continue to polarize the teaching community.
B. Three general approaches have been tried. In one, called whole-word instruction, children learn by rote how
to recognise at a glance a vocabulary of 50 to 100 words. Then they gradually acquire other words, often
through seeing them used over and over again in the context of a story.
Speakers of most languages learn the relationship between letters and the sounds associated with them
(phonemes). That is, children are taught how to use their knowledge of the alphabet to sound out words. This
procedure constitutes a second approach to teaching reading – phonics.
Many schools have adopted a different approach: the whole-language method. The strategy here relies on the
child’s experience with the language. For example, students are offered engaging books and are encouraged to
guess the words that they do not know by considering the context of the sentence or by looking for clues in the
storyline and illustrations, rather than trying to sound them out.
Many teachers adopted the whole-language approach because of its intuitive appeal. Making reading fun
promises to keep children motivated, and learning to read depends more on what the student does than on what
the teacher does. The presumed benefits of whole-language instruction – and the contrast to the perceived
dullness of phonics – led to its growing acceptance across American during the 1990s and a movement away
from phonics.
C. However, many linguists and psychologists objected strongly to the abandonment of phonics in American
schools. Why was this so? In short, because research had clearly demonstrated that understanding how letters
related to the component sounds in words is critically important in reading. This conclusion rests, in part, on
knowledge of how experienced readers make sense of words on a page. Advocates of whole-language
instruction have argued forcefully that people often derive meanings directly from print without ever
determining the sound of the word. Some psychologists today accept this view, but most believe that reading is
typically a process of rapidly sounding out words mentally. Compelling evidence for this comes from
experiments which show that subjects often confuse homophones (words that sound the same, such as rose and
‘rows). This supports the idea that readers convert strings of letters to sounds.
D. In order to evaluate different approaches to teaching reading, a number of experiments have been carried
out, firstly with college students, then with school pupils. Investigators trained English-speaking college
students to read using unfamiliar symbols such as Arabic letters (the phonics approach), while another group
learned entire words associated with certain strings of Arabic letters (whole-word). Then both groups were
required to read a new set of words constructed from the original characters. In general, readers who were
taught the rules of phonics could read many more new words than those trained with a whole-word procedure.
Classroom studies comparing phonics with either whole-word or whole-language instruction are also quite
illuminating. One particularly persuasive study compared two programmes used in 20 first-grade classrooms.
Half the students were offered traditional reading instruction, which included the use of phonics drills and
applications. The other half were taught using an individualised method that drew from their experiences with
languages; these children produce their own booklets of stories and developed sets of words to be recognised
(common components of the whole-language approach). This study found that the first group scored higher at
year’s end on tests of reading and comprehension.
E. If researchers are so convinced about the need for phonics instruction, why does the debate continue?
Because the controversy is enmeshed in the philosophical differences between traditional and progressive (or
new) approaches, differences that have divided educators for years. The progressive challenge the results of
laboratory tests and classroom studies on the basis of a broad philosophical skepticism about the values of such
research. They champion student-centred learned and teacher empowerment. Sadly, they fail to realise that
these very admirable educational values are equally consistent with the teaching of phonics.
F. If schools of education insisted that would-be reading teachers learned something about the vast research in
linguistics and psychology that bears on reading, their graduates would be more eager to use phonics and
would be prepared to do so effectively. They could allow their pupils to apply the principles of phonics while
reading for pleasure. Using whole-language activities to supplement phonics instruction certainly helps to
make reading fun and meaningful for children, so no one would want to see such tools discarded. Indeed,
recent work has indicated that the combination of literature-based instruction and phonics is more powerful
than either method used alone.
Teachers need to strike a balance. But in doing so, we urge them to remember that reading must be grounded
in a firm understanding of the connections between letters and sounds. Educators who deny this reality are
neglecting decades of research. They are also neglecting the needs of their students.

Questions 1-6
The Reading Passage has six sections, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for sections B-F from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. Disagreement about the reading process
ii. The roots of the debate
iii. A combined approach
iv. Methods of teaching reading
v. A controversial approach
vi. Inconclusive research
vii. Research with learners
viii. Allowing teachers more control
ix. A debate amongst educators

1. Section A : ix
2. Section B ______
3. Section C ___________
4. Section D ______
5. Section E ______
6. Section F ______

1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
EXERCISE 2
Putting the brakes on climate change
Are hydrogen cars the answer?
A. It is tempting to think that the conservation of coral reefs and rainforests is a separate issue from traffic and
air pollution. But it is not. Scientists are now confident that rapid changes in the Earth's climate are already
disrupting and altering many wildlife habitats. Pollution from vehicles is a big part of the problem.
B. The United Nation’s Climate Change Panel has estimated that the global average temperature rise expected
by the year 2100 could be as much as 6°C, causing forest fires and dieback on land and coral bleaching in the
ocean. Few species, if any, will be immune from the changes in temperature, rainfall and sea levels. The panel
believes that if such catastrophic temperature rises are to be avoided, the quantity of greenhouse gases,
especially carbon dioxide, being released into the atmosphere must be reduced. That will depend on slowing
the rate of deforestation and, more crucially, finding alternatives to coal, oil and gas as our principal energy
sources.
C. Technologies do exist to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide as a waste product of our energy consumption.
Wind power and solar power are both spreading fast, but what are we doing about traffic? Electric cars are one
possible option, but their range and the time it takes to charge their batteries pose serious limitations. However,
the technology that shows the most potential to make cars climate-friendly is fuel-cell technology. This was
actually invented in the late nineteenth century, but because the world's motor industry put its effort into
developing the combustion engine, it was never refined for mass production. One of the first prototype fuel-
cell-powered vehicles has been built by the Ford Motor Company. It is like a conventional car, only with better
acceleration and a smoother ride. Ford engineers expect to be able to produce a virtually silent vehicle in the
future.
D. So what’s the process involved – and is there a catch? Hydrogen goes into the fuel tank, producing
electricity. The only emission from the exhaust pipe is water. The fuel-cell is, in some ways similar to a
battery, but unlike a battery it does not run down. As long as hydrogen and oxygen are supplied to the cell, it
will keep on generating electricity. Some cells work off methane and a few use liquid fuels such as methanol,
but fuel-ceils using hydrogen probably have the most potential. Furthermore, they need not be limited to
transport. Fuel-cells can be made in a huge range of size, small enough for portable computers or large enough
for power stations. They have no moving parts and therefore need no oil. They just need a supply of hydrogen.
The big question, then, is where to get it from.
E. One source of hydrogen is water. But to exploit the abundant resource, electricity is needed, and if the
electricity is produced by a coal-fired power station or other fossil fuel, then the overall carbon reduction
benefit of the fuel-cell disappears. Renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, do not produce enough
energy for it to be economically viable to use them in the 'manufacture' of hydrogen as a transport fuel.
Another source of hydrogen is, however, available and could provide a supply pending the development of
more efficient and cheaper renewable energy technologies. By splitting natural gas (methane) into its
constituent parts, hydrogen and carbon dioxide are produced. One way round the problem of what to do with
the carbon dioxide could be to store it back below ground – so-called geological sequestration. Oil companies,
such as Norway's Statoil, are experimenting with storing carbon dioxide below ground in oil and gas wells.
F. With freak weather conditions, arguably caused by global warming, frequently in the headlines, the urgent
need to get fuel-cell vehicles will be available in most showrooms. Even now, fuel-cell buses are operating in
the US, while in Germany a courier company is planning to take delivery of fuel-cell-powered vans in the near
future. The fact that centrally-run fleets of buses and vans are the first fuel-cell vehicles identifies another
challenge – fuel distribution. The refueling facilities necessary to top up hydrogen-powered vehicles are
available only in a very few places at present. Public transport and delivery firms are logical places to start,
since their vehicles are operated from central depots.
G. Fuel-cell technology is being developed right across the automotive industry. This technology could have a
major impact in slowing down climate change, but further investment is needed if the industry – and the
world's wildlife – is to have a long-term future.
Questions 1-6
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
 List of Headings
i Action already taken by the United Nations
ii Marketing the hydrogen car
iii Making the new technology available worldwide
iv Some negative predictions from one group of experts
v How the new vehicle technology works
vi The history of fuel-cell technology
vii A holistic view of climate change
viii Locating the essential ingredient
ix Sustaining car manufacture

1. Paragraph A ________
2. Paragraph B ________
3. Paragraph C ________
4. Paragraph D ________
5. Paragraph E ________
6. Paragraph F ________

1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.