Objective: to start practicing techniques that help students develop

reading comprehension skills.

Skills: Analyze – Classify - Replace

Departamento de Idiomas
Sub sector Inglés
Profesor: Viviana Paz / Jaume Vizcarro
4º Año Medio

Fi rst C er tif icate in Engl is h

1. READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS

1.1 Dealing with difficult words:

When you are reading a text without the help of a dictionary and there
is a word which you don’t know, you may carry out the following
techniques:

· look at the function of the word in the sentence

· look at the context of the word in the sentence and the text.

Let’s put into practice these suggestions.

What function does the word have in the sentences – what work
is it doing?

Is it a noun, an adjective, a verb or an adverb? Identify the nouns,

adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

Daniel quickly put the old sepia photograph in the drawer

Exercises A 1- 4: to practice identifying some different sort of nouns,

adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

Exercise A 1

a. Put each of these NOUNS into two correct columns in the table below. First decide if
you can or can’t see each on and then decide if you can or can’t count each one.

Luggage suitcase happiness problem firefighter furniture

finger plastic love family flower water
Cow blackbird back factory beef advice
Pencil wool musician Marxism steel beetle
Oxygen

1 Can see 2 Can’t see 3 Can count 4 Can’t count

b. Now put each NOUN into one of the categories below.

Collective word

Person

Thing

Animal/Insect/Bird

Plant

Part of person

Building

Liquid/gas

Other material

Food

Abstract idea

Exercise A 2

a. Put the ADJECTIVES below into one of these different categories.

new round attractive green generous Chinese glass

careless long stupid last dark
lovely little square wooden exciting elderly
Impatient clever satisfied destructive silk
cream artificial former oval priceless wide
unimaginative

Age/ Time

Colour

Material

Positive

Shape

Origin

Size

Negative
Exercise A 3

Verbs can work:

- with a direct object James cuts the bread

- without a direct object Please sit down
- with or without a direct object Can you sing this song?
I can’t sing very well

a. Put the VERBS in one correct column in the table below. If you’re not sure, try
adding it after the verb and decide it it sounds right.

Cut sit sing know smile hit sleep

carry fly find eat eat laugh
Read ring discuss surprise lie talk

1 Usually with direct 2 Usually without direct 3 With or without direct

object object object

Exercise A 4

a. Put the ADVERBS below into one of these different groups.

tidily forwards often away late carefully backwards

fortunately soon here well fast recently
yesterday outside badly finally upstairs

HOW? WHERE? WHEN?

Exercises A 1- 4: Decide the function of words in sentences.

Exercise A 5

a. Look at these sentences, and decide whether the words in bold are working as
nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.

1. Who is going to head the government enquiry? Verb

2. You can buy souvenir walking sticks in the village shop. _______
3. A lot of factory workers will probably lose their jobs. _______
4. As a child Tanya had so many dislikes that I never knew what to give her to eat. _____
5. I love that bit in the film where Kevin hands the teacher a dead a rat. ______
6. When Camila left him to return to Finland, Spencer felt very lonely. ______
7. If we’re going there on Saturday, we’d better book first. ________
8. Clive originally met his wife in a shoe shop. ______
9. Although it was very cold, we stood on the platform as the waiting room was so dirty.
_______.
Key Answers
Exercise A 1

A:
Can see : luggage suitcase firefighter furniture finger plastic family flower water
cow blackbird back factory beef pencil wool musician steel beetle

Can’t see: happiness problem love advice Marxism oxygen

Can count: suitcase problem firefighter finger family flower cow blackbird back factory
pencil musician beetle

Can’t count: luggage happiness furniture plastic love water beef advice wool Marxism
steel oxygen

B:
Collective word: luggage family furniture
Person: musician
Thing: suitcase pencil
Animal/Insect/Bird: blackbird beetle cow
Plant: flower
Part of person: back finger
Building: factory
Liquid/gas: oxygen water
Other material: plastic wool steel
Food: beef
Abstract idea: happiness love problem advice Marxism

Exercise A 2

A:
Age/ Time: new last elderly former
Colour: green dark cream
Material: glass wooden silk
Positive: attractive generous lovely exciting clever satisfied priceless
Shape: round long square oval
Origin: Chinese artificial
Negative: careless stupid impatient destructive unimaginative
Size: little wide

Exercise A 3

A:
Usually with direct object: cut know hit carry find discuss surprise

Usually without direct object: smile sleep laugh lie talk

With or without direct object: fly eat read ring

Exercise A 4

A:
HOW: carefully fortunately well fast badly
WHERE: away backwards here outside upstairs
WHEN: late son recently yesterday finally

Exercise A 5

A:
2 adjective
3 noun
4 noun
5 verb
6 adverb
7 verb
8 adjective
9 adjective