大学英语四级Skimming and Scanning

大学英语四级考试

I.

Writing

：

30

minutes,

15%

；

II. Listening Comprehension:

30

min.,

35%

；

Section A: 8 mini talks with 8 MC questions and

2 long conversations with 7 MC questions.

Section B: 3 short passages with 10 MC questions.

Section C:

1 passage with 7 words 3 phrases.

IV

. Reading Comprehension:

40

min.

35%

Section A

：词汇阅读理解

Choose 10 from 15 words marked from A to O.

Section B:

配对阅读理解

Match 10 statements with about 13 para.

Section C:

篇章阅读理解

There are two passages with 10 MC questions .

IV

. Paragraph Translation

30

min.,

15%

.

The CET -4 covers

130

minutes.

阅读理解

The

purpose

of

reading

is

to

test

the

students

’

ability

to

gain

information

through

reading.

It accounts for 35%.

Before

reading

something

carefully,

good

readers often skim it. It

’

s a good method to skim

the chapters to be read. Skimming means to look

very quickly at the page, not reading for details

but

for

the

general

idea

.

Skimming

should

become

a

natural

first

step

to

any

kind

of

reading you do ---- articles, books, newspapers,

and

even

ads

or

bus

schedules.

While

practice

skimming, you should remember:

1)

To

read

the

title

and

subtitles

/headings,

photos

，

diagram, table of the text.

subway

,

subject,

subcontinent

=

India,

subconscious

,

suburban,

submarine,

subnormal,

subordinate,

subcommittee,

subeditor, subtropic Tropical Tempest

2)

To

read

the

first

and

last

sentences

of

each

paragraph.

3)

To

notice

the

special

prints

(

boldface

,

italics

)

or

special

punctuations

such

as

quotation marks (

“

”

), exclamation mark (

!

),

topic bullets

(

·

)

, or CAPITALIZATION.

Or, in other words, namely, that is,

i.e. such

as, for example, for instance ,

, (

)

:

----

BC =

B

efore the birth of Jesus

C

hrist

AD =

A

nno

D

omini =

After the birth of Jesus

C

hrist

A.M. =

a

nte

m

eridiem

P.M. =

p

ost

m

eridiem

APEC = Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

?

To

let

your

eyes

move

through

the

paragraph

quickly

in

less

than

3

movements per line,

and in groups of words,

reading

100 words per minute

(wpm).

4)

To

get

a

general

idea

of

the

content

of

a

reading passage. So don

’

t read every word.

Don

’

t use your dictionary.

5)

To

skip

the

unknown

/

new

/

unfamiliar

words.

6)

To be aware of

bad

habits:

Don

’

t move you lips while reading;

Don

’

t pronounce each word;

Don

’

t follow the words with your finger

Don

’

t translate.

Reading is done for different purposes. If you

are

asked

to

read

quickly

for

specific

or

special purposes, you just

scan

the text to find

specific

facts

and

details

such

as

names,

dates,

numbers,

a

definition

or

a

supporting

detail

.

Scanning

should

become

a natural approach to any kind of reading you

do.

1.

If

you

are

looking

for

a

date

then

look

for

numbers,

capital

letters,

commas,

names of months and days of the week.

1) Arabic number

1 2 3 4 5

cardinal number

st

nd

r d

th

1

, 2

, 3

, 4

ordinal number

2) Roman number

I, II, IV

, VI,

IX

,

XXX

, XL, L,

XC

.

C,

CX,

CL,

CCC,

CD,

D,

DC,

MCMLX

Century, Millennium

3) English number

One two three

first second, third

4) Number words

50 years = 5 decades = half a century

4 score and 7 years ago = 87 years ago

12 = dozen,

14 days = two weeks = fortnight

24

张

= quire

一刀

500

张纸

= ream

一令纸

Millennium

2.

If

you

are

looking

for

a

name

then

look

for

capital letters and abbreviations.

George Walt Bush

Barack Obama

3.

If

you

are

looking

for

details

then

look

for

punctuation ---- quotation marks

“”

, hyphens

-

and

commas

,

and

words

in

italics

,

boldface

or underlined words.

4.

If

you

want

to

locate

sections

in

a

reading,

then

look

for

capital

letters

and

space

dividing topics.

5.

If you are looking for a

fact,

statistics

, then

notice

unusual

punctuation

marks,

such

as

percentage marks (%), currency signs ($$,

￡

),

as well as parentheses ( ), italics, underlined

words and numbers.

6.

If

you

want

to

find

th

e

specific

detail

,

just

move

your

forefinger

down

the

page

as

you

scan.

thumb,index

finger

/

forefinger

middle/long

finger, ring finger , small finger / pinkie , fist

7.

Read

the

questions

before

you

scan

the

passage, then make sure you understand what

you

are

looking

for:

when

what

who

why

which

8.

Use

key words

from the question to help you

find the answer.

9.

Look for

subtitles, numbered or specially

marked sentences, terms and definitions.

10.

G

raphic

aids

(tables,

chats,

and

diagrams)