FOUNDATION COURSE

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

READING LESSON 2
Nội dung: Skimming và Đọc hiểu ý chính

Lý thuyết:

Skimming là khả năng hiểu được tổng quát - ý nghĩa chính của cấu trúc của văn bản và
những thông tin trong văn bản. Skimming được sử dụng cho:

1) đọc trước văn bản để biết ý nghĩa tổng thể

2) khi trả lời các câu hỏi tổng quan.

For more than 60 years, the Magadi Soda Company has been taking soda ash from Lake
Magadi, south west of Nairobi, Kenya. The operation was set up without particular
consideration for the natural environment but, over the years, it has proved harmless. The
factory and town which might cause disturbance are located out of the way, about 15
kilometers from the area most densely populated by birds. The factory effluent consists only
of returning lake water, and the gaseous emissions are only carbon dioxide and water.

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

What does the writer say about the environmental impact of the work at Lake Magadi?

A It has little effect on the area.

B It has been going on too long.

C It has been well-planned.

D It causes harm to the birds.

Pulp Friction

Every second, one hectare of the world's rainforest is destroyed. That's equivalent to two
football fields. An area the size of New York City is lost every day. In a year, that adds up to 31
million hectares -- more than the land area of Poland. This alarming rate of destruction has
serious consequences for the environment; scientists estimate, for example, that 137 species of
plant, insect or animal become extinct every day due to logging. In British Columbia, where,
since 1990, thirteen rainforest valleys have been clear cut, 142 species of salmon have already
become extinct, and the habitats of grizzly bears, wolves and many other creatures are
threatened. Logging, however, provides jobs, profits, taxes for the government and cheap
products of all kinds for consumers, so the government is reluctant to restrict or control it.

Vocab:

Pulp (n): gỗ mùn Extinct (adj): tuyệt chủng

Friction (n): sự mài xát Habitat (n): nơi cư trú

Equivalent (adj): tương đương

The main idea of the paragraph is:

A. Scientists are worried about New York City.

B. Logging is destroying the rainforests.

C. Governments make money from logging.

D. Salmon are an endangered species.

Most readers are unaware of their eye movements while they read, assuming, if they think about
it at all, that their eyes are moving steadily along each line before moving to the next. If this were
the case, reading at one line per second (which most people would guess to be a reasonable
speed) you would cover 600;700 words per minute. At this pace you would find you could easily
cope with the volume of reading materials you are likely to encounter in your course. Eye
movements when reading are far more complex, however. The eye makes a series of extremely
rapid jumps along a line, with a significant pause, 0.25 to 1.5 seconds, between each jump.
Furthermore, many readers do not move straight along a line, even in this jerky fashion. Instead,
they indulge in frequent backward eye jumps, fixating for a second or even a third time on a
previous word, and at intervals their eye may wander off the page altogether. With erratic eye
movements like this and forward jumps from one word to the adjacent word, many readers
achieve reading speeds of only 100 words per minute.

Vocab:

Eyes movement (n): chuyển động của mắt Jerky (adj): không ổn định, loạn xạ

Steadily (adv): một cách đều đặn Indulge (v): tự cho phép , thỏa mãn

Reasonable (adj): hợp lí Fixate (v): gắn với

Cope with (v): đối phó, đương đầu Erratic (adj): thất thường, không đều

Encounter (v): bắt gặp

What is this paragraph about:

A. How eyes work as we read

B. How to increase our reading speed

C. What slows down our reading speed

The history of jeans

The first people to wear jeans were sailors in the 16th century. Sailors were gone for a long
time. They had to do hard work outside in bad weather. Often their clothes had holes in
them, got thinner or lost color. They needed something strong against wear and tear. Their
clothes had to last longer and stay in good condition. They found this type of cloth during
their trip to India. It was made of thick cotton and was called dungaree. It was dyed indigo.
Indians use the indigo plant to color this type of cloth in factories. Sailors bought dungaree
cloth in outside markets, cut it and wore it on their trips home.

The first jeans were made in Genoa. Genoa is a city in Italy. In the 16th century, Genoa was
very powerful. Its sailors traveled all around the world. The Genoa city decided to make
better pants for their sailors. They used the dungaree cloth because it was sturdy and
strong. The new pants were called 'geanos' or 'jeanos'. Sailors could use it in both wet and
dry weather. They could roll up the pants when cleaning the ship. To clean the pants, they
put them inside a net, threw it in the ocean and dragged the net behind the ship. This is
when they realized their color changes to white. This is how bleached jeans were invented.

Later French workers in Nimes also made jeans. They used a different type of cloth called
denim. But it was also sturdy and dyed blue, like the jeanos. In 1872, there was a small cloth
merchant in Germany. His name was Levi Strauss. He bought and sold denim from France
but Levi Strauss got into trouble and had to go away to America. In New York Levi learned
how to sew. When he moved to San Francisco, he met many gold diggers. These men went
to find gold in rivers. The weather was often bad and the men were only thin pants. Levi
started to cut pants out of denim. He sold these jeans to the gold diggers, and they loved
them. Soon all factory workers and farmers were wearing jeans too. They were comfortable
and easy to take care of and cheap.

In 1950, popular movie and music stars like Elvis Presley and James Dean started wearing
jeans. Those jeans were really tight and parents didn't like them. But they caught on with
teenagers. Jeans became so popular because they meant freedom. Teenagers wanted to be
independent and to make their own rules. In 1960 they started to decorate their jeans with
flowers and colorful designs, or to tear and rip the jeans.
But in 1980 jeans became very expensive. Famous fashion designers like Calvin Klein began
making designer jeans. They put their name on these jeans. Young people wanted to wear
certain brands to show their style. There was a lot of pressure to keep up with the trend.
Everybody wanted to be fashionable. Jeans were considered the uniform of youth. You had
to wear jeans to be in style.

Vocab:

1. Wear (v): mài mòn 6. Invent (v): sáng chế, phát minh

2. Tear (v): xé rách 7. Tight (a): chật, bó

3. Dye (v): nhuộm màu 8. Fashionable (a): thời thượng, thời

4. Drag (v):kéo lê trang

5. Realize (v): nhận ra

1. What is the main idea of paragraph 1?

A Sailors made jeans out of dungaree.

B Sailors needed stronger clothing and found dungarees.

C Sailors are the first people to wear jeans.

D Sailors bought their jeans in India.

2. Which of the following is NOT true?

A There were many sailors in Genoa.

B Sailors thought jeans were useful.

C Sailors did not know how to clean the jeans.

D Sailors made bleached jeans by accident.

A The color

B The material

C The style

D The sturdiness

4. What can be inferred about jeans in paragraph 1?

A The jeans were intended for practical use.

B The jeans got worn out easily.

C Most Indeans were skillful tailors.

D Dungaree was the first jeans.

5. Why does the author say "parents didn’t like them" in paragraph 4?

A To say that jeans fitted too close on the body

B To say that too many stars were wearing jeans

C To emphasize that jeans were too expensive

D To demonstrate that teenagers sometimes ripped their jeans

6. What were Jeans considered "the uniform of youth” in paragraph 5 means?

A You can wear jeans in school.

B All teenagers wear jeans.

C Jeans are for young people only.

D Young people must wear jeans to be fashionable.

The history of UFOs.

Unidentified Flying Object (or “UFO”) is a term commonly used to describe lights or shapes in
the sky. It was first coined by the United States Air Force in 1952 to describe sightings of
mysterious objects in the sky that could not be explained even after careful investigation.
Nowadays UFOs are spotted frequently, and feature in numerous movies and TV shows.
Another popular name for such an object is, “Flying Saucer,” in reference to the round shape of
many UFOs.

The first widely publicized UFO sighting was in 1947, by a pilot called Kenneth Arnold. Following
this event, public sightings of UFOs increased dramatically. Movies and TV shows began
featuring visitors from outer space, arriving on earth in flying saucers. With the popularity of
these images, many people claimed to have seen lights in the sky. Some experts believe that
people simply think they see UFOs because of the influence of TV and movies.

However, experts estimate that as little as 5% of these sightings could be called “unidentified.”
Usually these lights are made by aircraft, satellites, or weather balloons. Top secret air force
activities during the Cold War may have been responsible for many of the UFO sightings in
America and Europe. Although not actually aliens, the secretive nature of these flying objects is
definitely unidentified.

Another popular idea concerning UFOs concerns the role of world governments. Specifically,
people believe that the US government has discovered alien life and operates a “cover-up” to
hide the truth from the public. The most widely believed cover-up is that of the Roswell Incident.
In July, 1947, a UFO supposedly landed in Roswell, New Mexico, and was examined and hidden
by government agents. There have been many investigations into the Roswell Incident, however,
these reports always claim that no such event occurred.
Vocab:
Describe (v): mô tả
Mysterious (adj): kì bí, bí ẩn
Numerous (adj): vô số
Popularity (n) sự phổ biến
Responsible for (adj): chịu trách nhiệm cho điều gì
Investigation (n) sự điều tra

1st Reading (Skimming)

Read through the article and answer each of the following questions.
1. What is the purpose of this report?
a) To describe the history of alien life.
b) To describe government cover-ups.
c) To describe the history of UFO sightings.
d) To describe UFOs in popular movies.
2. Why are UFO sightings so controversial?
a) They have never been proved.
b) There are many sightings.
c) The government covers up sightings.
d) There are very few UFO sightings.

2nd Reading (Scanning)

State whether the following statements about the reading are true (T) or false (F) according to
the information in the passage.
3. Kenneth Arnold saw the first UFO.
4. The Roswell Incident occurred in 1952
5. Experts say that many normal things account for UFO sightings.
6. Flying saucers are square-shaped.