READING SKILLS.

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Yates, C. St. J., 1995, Economics, New York, Phoenix ELT

Notice in the paragraph above that the first keyword is followed by its definition and then by an example. This is a common paragraph structure in academic texts.

4. Intensive reading

Intensive reading is the skill you need when you have to read a course textbook carefully in order to understand the material which may be new to you and / or difficult.

Example Practice 6

Read the passage in the box below and write short answers to the questions which follow.

All businesses need to keep accurate records of financial transactions because they need to know their financial position. This branch of business is known as accounting and it may be defined as the design, the keeping and the interpreting of financial records. There must also be a relationship of trust between the accountant and the client.

- What do businesses need to keep?

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- Why do companies need to keep accurate records?

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- What kind of relationship must exist between accountant and client?

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Be an active reader – underline or highlight words and phrases you think are important and make notes as you read. Do not stop to look up meanings in your dictionary until you have predicted, scanned or skimmed a passage.

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Reference

It is the task of any writer to make a piece of writing easy to follow. The writer has to make clear the connections between the different parts of the text. One way of showing links or connections between parts is to use reference words (e.g. it, they). Reference words are used to avoid repeating the same words. Study these sentences.

- I want to study marketing because I think marketing is an interesting subject.

- “I want you to type these letters, and then take these letters to the post office. You should hurry because the post office closes at 3.00.”

- Toyota cars are popular because Toyota cars are reasonably cheap, and Toyota cars can be found in many different places on the island.

It sounds unusual and clumsy to repeat the same words. How could you improve the sentences? Rewrite them, using the reference words it; them; they.

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Here is a table of the most common reference words.

Personal

Possessive

Subject object

Adjective pronoun

I me

we us

you you

he him

she her

it it

they them

my mine

our ours

your yours

his his

her hers

its its

their theirs

Which word or words do the pronouns in the following sentences refer to?

- Ali says he can’t come this evening. __Ali___

- Our main office is in the Gulf Tower. It’s on the third floor. ____ _____ ________

- The director stayed at the Regency Hotel, which is in the city centre. _____________

- We use newspaper advertisements. Their purpose is to persuade the readers to buy our products. ______________________________

- The managerial staff and the secretarial staff usually have lunch in the same restaurant, but some of them prefer to eat at home. ___________________________________________________________________

- The director spoke to Mr. Green, who is the senior salesman. _________________

- The general manager told him to call her secretary at work the next day. ____________________________

- The assistant typed the letters and took them to the post office. ________________

- After the interview, Ahmed went to visit his friend and told him all about it. _________________________

- The sales manager read the report and shouted, “I don’t understand a word of this.”

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Sometimes, reference words may refer to a large part of the text. Look at this example:

The Al-Khaleej Trading Agency has reduced the prices of all its products and is giving away gifts with purchases over BD 50/-. Why is the Agency doing this?[pic 6]

What does “this” in the following sentence refer to?

- When we scan we do not read every single word. This helps us to read as quickly as possible.

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