Reading Comprehension Passages 3. [antikvár]

To the Teacher The passages This third book in the series contains passages and exercises at the level of Stage 4 of Collins English Library. Each passage and its exercises are planned to occupy a lesson of 45-50 minutes. Specially written material still has advantages at this stage over the adapted work of other writers. The author has tried to make each piece complete in itself. The vocabulary The 1,500 headwords of stages 1-4, and their common derivatives, have been freely used. Much can be expressed and understood in this considerable vocabulary. Some seventy 'extra' items are introduced, partly to accustom readers to the appearance of two or three 'new words' whenever they read English, and partly to encourage them to work out their meanings in the exercises. (See list on page 62). Inevitably, there is a rather longer list of proper nouns (page 63). In cases of difficulty, the phonetic transcription should help to get the pronunciation acceptable first time. There is no need for practice here: just present the name as indicated and leave it at that. How to use the book The methods put forward here are suggestions only. They have been followed with success among widely differing groups of learners. Listening and reading 1. Write the two or three unfamiliar words or phrases on the board. Do not explain the meaning. The students shut their books and listen. Read the whole passage to them at your normal reading speed in class. When doing this maintain close contact ('eye contact') with the class, 1.e. look down at the text only just sufficiently to keep an even flow. When you reach an item written on the board, pause momentarily and point to it. 2. For the second reading, divide the passage into short, manageable sections of two or three sentences each. Try to present each section in a different way. Suggestions are: a The teacher reads aloud while the students follow the text in their copies. b Chorus reading of short passages, especially of parts having well defined tone groups, stressed words, weak forms, etc., as in dialogue or very short sentences.