UNIT 6THE GREATEST WONDERBefore you read1. Do you think reading is important?2. Do you prefer reading to watching TV?3. How much time do you spend <strong>on</strong> reading?4. Are there real book lovers am<strong>on</strong>g your friends?5. What do you think people gain from reading literature?Read the text and answer the questi<strong>on</strong>s.A word about books. Man invented a number of means to cover distance – cars,planes, radio, TV, computers, spaceships, etc. But up till now there has been <strong>on</strong>ly <strong>on</strong>eway to cover time – books. Reading is real fun, isn’t it? It may be a fantastic journey intothe past or the future, a true love story or a serious novel to challenge your thoughts, adetective or something funny if you like humour.Until recently you could see a lot of people, old and young, reading in manydifferent places, in a park or <strong>on</strong> a bus, in a plane or <strong>on</strong> a beach. It might be a magazineor a newspaper, a volume of poems or a lengthy novel. All kinds of reading stuff. Butnow it’s a rare event as there appeared alternative sources of informati<strong>on</strong> like TV orcomputers. But books give us something different from them. It’s a dialogue withsomebody who can tell you a lot about life, people, their relati<strong>on</strong>s, and about this fastchanging world. Books help you understand yourself better. They develop imaginati<strong>on</strong>,love for word and expressi<strong>on</strong> and awaken a wish in you to create something. It is nextto impossible 1 to imagine life without books.The way we read. We read in many different ways, and at different speedsdepending <strong>on</strong> the aim of reading. We sometimes look through the book to see what it isabout. We may just want to get the general idea from a newspaper article, a report, or abook in a bookshop. This type of reading is called skimming reading.Quick reading is also practised when we want to get a particular piece of informati<strong>on</strong>,such as a date or a teleph<strong>on</strong>e number. This is called scanning. We scan timetables,teleph<strong>on</strong>e directories, dicti<strong>on</strong>aries and web pages.But if we want to get the detailed informati<strong>on</strong> we read slowly and carefully. Thisis called intensive 2 reading, or study reading. In the latter case we check the meaningnot to misunderstand something. We c<strong>on</strong>sult dicti<strong>on</strong>aries if necessary. We take notes toremember something important, such as a mathematical quotati<strong>on</strong> 3 .Reading ficti<strong>on</strong>, a novel or a favourite poem, is also intensive reading, it needstraining and special skills to understand the entire c<strong>on</strong>tent, the beauty of the expressi<strong>on</strong>.You get involved in the story. It makes you laugh your head off or cry your heart out. Itdevelops your pers<strong>on</strong>ality.1 next to impossible – almost impossible2 intensive – Ù³Ýñ³½ÝÇÝ3 quotati<strong>on</strong> – ٻ絻ñáõÙ65
Comprehensi<strong>on</strong>Answer the questi<strong>on</strong>s.1. What are the alternative sources of informati<strong>on</strong>?2. Are books different from other sources of informati<strong>on</strong>.?3. When do we use a.scanning, b.skimming, c.intensive reading?<str<strong>on</strong>g>Focus</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> Ph<strong>on</strong>eticsDivide the sentences into sense groups.1. Until recently you could see a lot of people, old and young, reading in many differentplaces, in a park or <strong>on</strong> a bus, in a plane or <strong>on</strong> a beach.2. It might be a magazine or a newspaper, a volume of poems or a lengthy novel.Work <strong>on</strong> Wordsrare [rEÆ] adj He has a rare talent for managing skills. rarely adv: This plant israrely met in Scotland.event [iˈvent] n The war between Iraq and Iran was the most important event ofthe year.source [sO:s] n We need new sources of energy. historical sources.express [ikˈspres] v He expressed his thanks for their support. expressi<strong>on</strong> n: I noticedthe expressi<strong>on</strong> of surprise <strong>on</strong> his face.entire [inˈtaɪə] adj complete, whole, unbroken: He did the entire work al<strong>on</strong>e.entirely adv completely: The city was entirely rebuilt after theearthquake.main [mein] adj most important or largest: The main entrance to the building is <strong>on</strong>George street. the main thing: The main thing is that you got thejob. mainly adv. the most important part of sth: Our customersare mainly young mothers. mainly because: I didn’t come mainlybecause I felt bad.deal [di:l] v (with ) (dealt, dealt) 1. to take acti<strong>on</strong>s to do sth: I spent the morningdealing with my email. 2. to be about a subject: Chapter 5 dealswith Rome. deal n: to do/make a deal: make an agreement/bargain with sb. a great deal (of ) much: A great deal of work hasalready been d<strong>on</strong>e.train [trein] v to teach sb to do a particular job or activity: They are training meto use the new machines. to practice sth. They are training for nextweek’s World Club. trainer n sb whose job is to train some<strong>on</strong>e ina sport.skill [skil] n the ablity to do sth well as a result of experience of training:We need somebody who is trained in this work. practical skills,skilled/unskilled adj: The best companies take skilled workers.66