Arab British Academy for Higher Education
Aims
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
The aims of this lesson are to enable you to work
through
training in the “Art of Comprehension”
how to read through a Passage, working out its full meaning

activities giving practice in using your understanding
Context
There are three Comprehension Passages for you to
read, with questions to answer: the Key is at the end of
the Lesson
The Art of Comprehension
“Comprehension” = “Understanding”; that will
make you feel better, now you understand what
is going on; the technical name is always rather
off putting!
It’s a basic truth you can’t answer a question unless you understand it. This
seemingly dazzling glimpse of the obvious is either not realized or ignored
by far more people than one would think! In trying to answer a question,
many will say something, without really knowing what is expected, but they
hope what they say will be at least close to what is expected. Not
surprisingly they are often disappointed for their answer will tend not to be
right.
So what is the answer to this ticklish problem? How do we answer questions,
if not quite correctly, at least as correctly as possible? There are two
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methods of doing this, both requiring patience, not the easiest of qualities
these days, when speed is regarded as a virtue....
a)
b)
In the case of a spoken question, you must listen carefully, and then think
before answering... (this last requirement think is the most difficult of all...)
For a written question, reading it carefully - and then
thinking - these are absolutely essential, and cannot be stressed too much.
But you have the advantage with a written question of time; you can spend
more time in presenting a written answer to a written question, than if it is
spoken.
WHICH??
Once you understand the question, you are in the position to answer it - or
perhaps not; for it is very possible you don’t know the answer. But at least
now you can take steps to discover it; for example, by rereading the piece
you have been looking at, checking unknown words in the dictionary and so
on. All right, you’ve found a gap in your knowledge, but now you are in the
position to fill it in!
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