SCANNING AND SKIMMING TECHNIQUES
Scanning & Skimming
2
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
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How Much Do You Have to Read?
How to get through the vast amount of reading given
for each course
How to cover whole pages of text without having to
read every single word
The technique has basically two parts:
1. efficient scanning
2. recognizing the main points of a text
Efficient Scanning
3
Take the key words and phrases to follow the
general sense of the passage.
 Nouns and verbs tend to be content words
rather than the grammatical words like articles
and prepositions.

11 Escape in Crash
4
ELEVEN …… lucky………..
…landing ……….. Maredy
….Wednesday. ……………
……Cessna ………………..
…damaged …………………
….survived without ……….
….Injury. ….…... scheduled
….…. Wye ….. Rambak,
…………..director …………
yesterday……… investigator
….. safety department……..
already …. determine ………
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What crashed?
How many passengers were
there?
Were they hurt?
Where were they going?
What did the Director of
the Civil Aviation Authority
say yesterday?
When is the investigator
going?
Why?
11 Escape in Crash
5
ELEVEN passengers had a lucky escape when
their light aircraft crashed on landing at a remote
strip in Maredy on Wednesday. The plane, a
Broadens Airways Cessna 206, was extensively
damaged – but the eleven passengers, including
the pilot, survived without a single serious injury.
The plane was on a scheduled flight from Wye to
Rambak, where it crashed. Civil Aviation director
Mr Steven Woods said yesterday an investigator
from the air safety department had already flown
into the area to determine the cause of the crash.
Several factors help you
6
a)
b)
c)
Whenever you scan a text, you should be
looking for things that you don’t know. Don’t
waste your time reading things that you know
already!
You should have clearly in your mind the reason
why you are reading the text.
If you ask the initial question ‘What do I expect
to learn from this passage’, you will have a very
much clearer idea of what you are looking for.
SKIMMING
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‘To skim’ means to go quickly across the surface
of something, without going deeply into it.
 In reading, ‘skimming’ means going quickly
through a book, chapter or paragraph to see
what the main subject is or what the main
subjects are.
 It is very important to know how to skim when
reading. If we can not skim, we will take a lot
of time reading texts which are not much use to
us.

Paragraph 1
The University of
A. Tells us where the University of
Lancaster is in a rural
Lancaster is
setting in the country three
B. Tells us where the city of
8 miles South of the centre of
Lancaster is
Lancaster.
C. Tells us about the University of
It is easy to get to
Lancaster
Lancaster quickly by road or Paragraph 2
rail. London is three hours
A. Describes how far away
away by train. Manchester
Lancaster is from other places
and Liverpool only an hour B. How easy it is to travel to
by motorway.
Lancaster from other places
The University is in a
C. Tells us how far Manchester and
very beautiful position. On
Liverpool are from London
one side there are fine
Paragraph 3
views of the sea and the
A. Describes the beautiful city of
River Lune, and on the other
Lancaster
the Penine Mountains.
B. Explains the geography of the
Away in the far distance
University
rise the mountains of the
C. Describes the beautiful location
Lake District.
where the University is
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BANGKOK.
A Thai Airways Boeing
737 commercial jet on
a special New Year’s
run, crashed into a hill
last night killing all
eleven persons on
board.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Bill on fisheries
ready
Dollar tumbles in
U.S.A.
Bus crash kills ten
New Year disaster in
Thailand
10
JAKARTA.
Over 70,000 telephones
will be installed in
Jakarta over the next
three years, said
Achmad Tahir on
Friday. He said top
priority would be given
to this task.
Afro-Asian youths to
attend
communications
seminar
B. Aviation talks end
without agreement
C. Phones in Indonesian
capital to be
increased
D. Priority to be given to
rural development
A.
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PEKING.
About a hundred
people were killed or
injured in an
earthquake Thursday
near Kunming in
Southwest China
according to the
national news
agency.
A.
B.
C.
D.
China pledges aid for
Papua New Guinea
Vietnamese troops
cross Thai border
Quake in Yunnan
causes deaths.
Earth tremors felt in
Bogor
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BANDUNG.
Indonesia Foreign
Minister Mochtar
Kusumaatmadja and
his counterpart Wu
Xiuquen of China
discussed direct
trade between their
nations.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Indonesian and Chinese
FMs talk about trade
links
Chinese Foreign Affairs
Minister assures Hong
Kong residents
Bandung meeting a
great success
Afro-Asian unity
essential for future
progress.
13
STOCKHOLM.
The first nonAmerican person to
receive a permanent
artificial heart
remained in a good
condition in Sweden’s
Karolinska hospital.
Heart disease world’s
biggest killer
B. Plastic heart recipient
doing well
C. U.S. doctors to visit
hospitals in Sweden
D. Intensive heart-care
unit to be opened
soon
A.
14
LAS VEGAS.
Marvellous Marvin
Hagler knocked
down Thomas “Hit
Man” Hearns at 2.01
mins in the third
round of the World
Championship fight
last night.
‘Ban boxing’ says
women medical
associations
B. Las Vegas to improve
hotel standards
C. Hagler stops Hearns in
third round
D. Fighting broke out in
Las Vegas last night
A.
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KUALA LUMPUR.
The Malaysian
Government has
banned the import
from Indonesia of a
backache cure saying
that it contains toxins
substances.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Jamu Air Mancur
banned in KL
KL bans import of
Chinese oranges
Poison found in
imported fruit
Air links between KL
and Jakarta to increase
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Drug-taking a major
problem in many
countries
B. Local medicine too
expensive
C. Minister wants to
train local
pharmacists
D. Local medicines not
expensive says D.G.
A.
The Director General
for Drug and Food
control, Dr. Midian
Sirait, has denied that
locally made
medicines are more
expensive than
imported remedies.
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A.
BANDUNG.
PT Inti has
constructed six more
satellites in Malaysia
under a five year
contract.
B.
C.
D.
Telecom co-operation
with Malaysia
New Malaysian
Ambassador to
Indonesia
Spy satellites not the
answer to controls
New electric power
station for central
Java
18
DENPASAR.
An earthquake
shook parts of the
island on Sunday
morning causing
great alarm but no
casualties.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Bali quake causes panic
Indonesia working on
quake research
Earthquake rocks
Manado
Sulawesi not completed
free of tremor