Reference · module 36
Reading and listening
Everything this module explains, on one page.
Reading a long text
Get through an article without a dictionary.
- Read the first sentence of every paragraph before you read anything else. In English that gives you the whole argument in about a minute.
- Then guess the unknown words from their parts: un- reverses, -less means without, -ful means with, re- means again. Three prefixes cover a lot of ground.
- Look a word up only when the sentence collapses without it. A text where you understand eight words in ten is a text you can read at speed.
The mistake you are about to make
priceless = cheap
priceless = beyond price
The suffix -less means without, so priceless looks like it has no value. It means the opposite: too valuable to price. Parts hint, they do not decide.
Understanding fast speech
Follow a native speaker who is not slowing down.
- English runs words together: an apple sounds like anapple, and did you sounds like didja. Nobody is being unclear; this is the normal way it is said.
- Small words shrink to almost nothing: to becomes tuh, and becomes n, of becomes uh. The stressed words survive and the rest are swallowed.
- So listen for the stressed words. They carry the meaning, and the grammar between them can be reconstructed afterwards.
The mistake you are about to make
Trying to catch every word
Listening for the stressed words
Catching everything is the instinct and it does not work at speed. The stressed words carry the meaning; the small ones get swallowed and filled in after.
Summarising
Say in three sentences what a text says in thirty.
- The text argues that … and The author claims that … are the standard openings. Both attribute the position to somebody else.
- claims marks doubt and argues does not. Choosing between them is already a small judgement, and a careful reader hears it.
- Keep your own opinion in a separate paragraph, marked as yours: In my view … A summary that argues back is not a summary.
The mistake you are about to make
The author claims that … (when you agree)
The author argues that …
Claims and argues look interchangeable, and claims quietly adds doubt. A neutral summary takes argues or writes.
Where to go from here
Keep the language after the course ends.
- B2 means you can follow a discussion, read an article and hold your own at work. It does not mean you are finished, and nothing does.
- What keeps a language is input every day and output every week. Twenty minutes of reading and one conversation beat an hour of grammar.
- And keep the review going. Everything in this course comes back on a schedule, which is the one thing a textbook cannot do for you.