Reading in English [antikvár]

This collection of readings with accompanying exercises grew out ofmany years of work in classes of English as a second language with studentsfrom all over the world. Selections were tested in a search for materialthat would be of interest and use to students. The readings included hereproved to be among those most helpful in developing college-level vocabu-lary, in giving students ideas to discuss and to think and write about, and inencouraging further reading of contemporary writers. We have made noattempt to edit or simplify the selections beyond footnoting of certainterms, for this book was prepared for students eager to get on with theproblem of reading college-level materials. Some of the selections areadmittedly rather difficult in level of vocabulary and complexity of struc-ture and thought; nonetheless, we have found that students appreciate,and profit from, the chance to read mature materials under circumstancesthat permit vocabulary study and a testing of comprehension.Although we could not hope to put together a collection that wouldcompletely please everyone, we think that these selections, reflective ofour own tastes, provide a stimulating glimpse of twentieth-century writingin America. More importantly, we have tried to choose selections repre-sentative of good standard English; very technical writing and dialectwriting (with brief exceptions) have been ruled out. Many of the readingsare short enough to be read aloud by the instructor if he considers thatapproach valuable to the students.The vocabulary notes with each selection are intended to lift some ofthe burden of endlessly looking up words in the dictionary. The notes arehardly a substitute for the dictionary; the reader will still want to look upsome words for definition and clarification. The terms footnoted repre-sent words and phrases that required explanation when the material wasused in classes. In the definitions and explanations, we have made anattempt to use words or phrases that can be directly substituted, in mostcases, for the terms defined or explained.The vocabulary quizzes at the end of the book are intended to beinstructional as well as testing devices; they are purposely varied in orderto give students practice in different types of test situations. The short-answer questions are designed to give practice in using the language as wellas to test comprehension. The discussion questions go a step beyondand make further demands on the student to think in English and to thinkabout questions important to his own mental development. Class dis-