UNIT 1:

OVERVIEW ON READING
SKILLS AND REVIEW OF
TENSES
Objectives:
1. To get general ideas of reading
skills
2. To learn tenses used to
express ideas in a text
 I. Reading and Reading
Comprehension
1) What is reading comprehension?
2) What do we read?
3) Why do we read?
4) How do we read?
5) What skills does reading involve?
 I. Reading and Reading
Comprehension
1) What is reading comprehension?
Understanding text as efficiently as possible for different
purposes

2) What do we read?
Novels, short stories; other literary texts and passages (e.g.
essays, diaries, anecdotes, biographies)
Newspapers and magazines
Handbooks, textbooks, guidebooks
Statistics, diagrams, flow / pie charts, time-tables, map
Others

3) Why do we read?
Reading for pleasure
Reading for information (in order to find out something or in
order to do something with the information you get)
 4) How do we read?
Skimming: quickly running ones eyes over a
text to get the gist of it.
Scanning: quickly going through a text to
find a particular piece of information.
Extensive reading: reading longer texts,
usually for ones own pleasure. This is a
fluency activity, mainly involving global
understanding.
Intensive reading: reading shorter texts to
extract specific information. This is more an
accuracy activity involving reading for detail.
 5) What skills does reading
involve?
Skimming to find the topic and the main idea
of a passage
Scanning to find specific pieces of
information intended
Finding referents
Guessing meanings of unknown words
Understanding particular text organizations
Reading tables and graphs
Transferring information and understanding
transitional markers
Distinguishing facts from opinions
 Verb Tense Review
The Importance of Time

Verb tense expresses the time of an event

or action. Time and how it is expressed in
writing is very important to English
readers. The English language has twelve
different tenses, but only seven of them,
the most commonly found in a written text,
will be discussed in this unit.
 Verbs. What is a verb?
A verb is a word which describes the
action in a sentence (the doing word)
Examples
I play football.
They skip quickly.
We eat spaghetti.
Bob is seven today.
 Verb Tenses
Verb tenses describe WHEN the action
is happening.

PRESENT (its happening NOW.)

PAST (its ALREADY happened.)
FUTURE (its ABOUT to happen.)
Simple Present Tense

Otherwise known as the

Timeless Present
 Simple Present Tense is
used:
When you are referring to habitual
actions--actions that you always or
never do
When you are referring to unchanging
truths
When you are making general
statements of fact
Diagram--time on a line

simple present tense

 SIMPLE PRESENT PRESENT
PRESENT PROGRESSIVE PERFECT
(+) {I-You-We-They} I am working. {I-You-We-They}
work. {You-We-They} are have eaten lunch.
{He-She-It} works. working. {He-She-It} has
{He-She-It} is eaten lunch.
working

() {I-You-We-They} do I am not working {I-You-We-They}

not work. have not (havent)
{You-We-They} are
{He-She-It} does eaten lunch.
not working
not work. {He-She-It} has not
{He-She-It} is not
(hasnt) eaten lunch.
working
(?) Do {I-you-we Am I working? Have {I-You-We-
they} work? Are {you-we-they} They} eaten lunch?
Does {he-she-it} working? Has {He-She-It}
work? Is {he-she-it} orking? eaten lunch?
 Indicators
Always Whenever Everyday

Usually Often Frequently

Sometimes Rarely Occasionally

never

simple present tense

Simple Past Tense
The Simple Past Tense is Used:
When an activity or situation began
and ended at a particular time in
the past--in other words, when an
activity or situation is completed in
the past
To refer to past habits
Diagram--time on a line

Simple Past Tense

 Simple Past Tense

worked
{IYouSheHeItWe yesterday.
STATEMENT
They} ate breakfast.
did not (didnt)
{IYouSheHeItWe work yesterday.
NEGATIVE
They} did not (didnt) eat
breakfast.

Did {IYouSheHeIt work yesterday?

QUESTION
WeThey} eat breakfast?
 How do we form the simple
past tense?

English has two types

of verbs in the past:
-regular
-irregular
 Lets read the following list of
past tense verbs.. Which are
regular and which are irregular?
Walked regular
Studied regular
taught irregular
gave irregular
Became irregular
cried regular
lived regular
did irregular
 Regular verbs are verbs that
end with -ed
Simple form verbs: Past tense verbs:
walk walked

study studied

cry cried

live lived
 Rules for adding ed:
Add ed to most verbs
Drop the e and add ed to verbs that
end with e (smile= smiled).
Change the y to i and add ed to
verbs that end with a consonant and
y (carry= carried, study= studied).
Double the consonant and add ed to
verbs that end with one vowel and one
consonant ( drag= dragged, stop=
stopped).
 Irregular verbs are verbs that
dont end in ed..
Sometimes with irregular
past tense verbs you have
to change the vowel to
make the verb past tense:

become became
give gave
drive drove
forget forgot
The Future Tense is Used:

To indicate that an activity or

event will take place at a time in
the future
The Future Tense is Used:

To indicate that an activity or

event will take place at a
time in the future
Diagram--Time on a Line

Future
 {IYouSheHeIt will come
STATEMENT
WeThey} tomorrow.

{IYouSheHeIt will not (wont)

NEGATIVE
WeThey} come tomorrow.

Will {IYouShe
QUESTION come tomorrow?
HeItWeThey}
 I am going to
{SheHeIt} is going to
STATEMENT
{YouWeThey} are going to

am not (m come
I
not) going to tomorrow.
is not (isnt)
NEGATIVE {SheHeIt}
going to
are not
{YouWeThey} (arent) going
to
Am I going to
Is {SheHeIt} going to come
QUESTION
tomorrow?
Are {YouWe
going to
They}
 Indicators

Tomorrow

Next Saturday, week, month, year,

etc.

Future
Put the verbs in brackets in their correct forms.
Our lecturer told us that he (finish) correcting the forms.
He (study) when his parents got home.
When I (leave) my office last night, it was still raining
very hard.
Arif interrupted the teacher while she (explain) the
nation condition.
The Japanese (develop) a transportation system that
doesnt need human driver.
Some stress (be) good for us.
Everything (go) well so far, and we feel relieved.
Teachers (use) a conceptual approach in the classroom
next year.
Food that (be) previously seasonal may now be eaten at
any time.
All the students (do) their best for the gathering.
Exercise 2. Choose the correct verb form.
They (a. realize b. realized c. are realizing) that they should
study hard.
Our classmates (a. are b. were c. have been) very helpful
yesterday.
This university (a. has b. had c. will have) a new faculty next
year.
The ladies (a. are attending b. have attended c. attend) such kind
of seminars several times.
We (a. do not come b. did not come c. had not come) late to the
English class a week ago.
When we entered the room, he (a. explains b. has expalined c.
was explaining) Unit 3.
These students (a. studied b. were studying c. have studied) at
IPB last month.
We (a. have got b. got c. get) the result of the test a week ago.
The success of this system (a. depends b. has depended c. is
depending) on many things.
She (a. will come b. was coming c. come) when we arrived.