Reading skills for academic study
A. Reading skills for academic study: Understanding text structure
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Exercise 1
Look at the structure of the following text.
The Personal Qualities of a Teacher
1. Here I want to try to give you an answer to the question: What personal qualities are desirable
in a teacher? Probably no two people would draw up exactly similar lists, but I think the
following would be generally accepted.
2. First, the teacher’s personality should be pleasantly live and attractive. This does not rule out
people who are physically plain, or even ugly, because many such have great personal charm.
But it does rule out such types as the over-excitable, melancholy, frigid, sarcastic, cynical,
frustrated, and over-bearing : I would say too, that it excludes all of dull or purely negative
personality. I still stick to what I said in my earlier book: that school children probably ‘suffer
more from bores than from brutes’.
3. Secondly, it is not merely desirable but essential for a teacher to have a genuine capacity for
sympathy - in the literal meaning of that word; a capacity to tune in to the minds and feelings
of other people, especially, since most teachers are school teachers, to the minds and feelings
of children. Closely related with this is the capacity to be tolerant - not, indeed, of what is
wrong, but of the frailty and immaturity of human nature which induce people, and again
especially children, to make mistakes.
4. Thirdly, I hold it essential for a teacher to be both intellectually and morally honest. This does
not mean being a plaster saint. It means that he will be aware of his intellectual strengths, and
limitations, and will have thought about and decided upon the moral principles by which his
life shall be guided. There is no contradiction in my going on to say that a teacher should be a
bit of an actor. That is part of the technique of teaching, which demands that every now and
then a teacher should be able to put on an act - to enliven a lesson, correct a fault, or award
praise. Children, especially young children, live in a world that is rather larger than life.
5. A teacher must remain mentally alert. He will not get into the profession if of low intelligence,
but it is all too easy, even for people of above-average intelligence, to stagnate intellectually and that means to deteriorate intellectually. A teacher must be quick to adapt himself to any
situation, however improbable and able to improvise, if necessary at less than a moment’s
notice. (Here I should stress that I use ‘he’ and ‘his’ throughout the book simply as a matter of
convention and convenience.)
6. On the other hand, a teacher must be capable of infinite patience. This, I may say, is largely a
matter of self-discipline and self-training; we are none of us born like that. He must be pretty
resilient; teaching makes great demands on nervous energy. And he should be able to take in
his stride the innumerable petty irritations any adult dealing with children has to endure.
7. Finally, I think a teacher should have the kind of mind which always wants to go on learning.
Teaching is a job at which one will never be perfect; there is always something more to learn
about it. There are three principal objects of study: the subject, or subjects, which the teacher
is teaching; the methods by which they can best be taught to the particular pupils in the classes
he is teaching; and - by far the most important - the children, young people, or adults to whom
they are to be taught. The two cardinal principles of British education today are that education
is education of the whole person, and that it is best acquired through full and active cooperation between two persons, the teacher and the learner.
(From Teaching as a Career, by H. C. Dent)
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Reading skills for academic study
Notice how the text is structured. Paragraph 1 asks a question and paragraphs 2 - 7 answer it.
Question What are the desirable personal qualities in a teacher?
Answer
paragraph 1
Quality 1. personality should be pleasantly live and attractive
paragraph 2
Quality 2. essential to have a genuine capacity for sympathy
paragraph 3
Quality 3. essential to be both intellectually and morally honest
paragraph 4
Quality 4. must remain mentally alert
paragraph 5
Quality 5. must be capable of infinite patience
paragraph 6
Quality 6. should have the kind of mind which always wants to go on
paragraph 7
learning
Exercise 2
Look at the structure of the following text.
The Rules of Good Fieldwork
1. In my sketch of an anthropologist's training, I have only told you that he must make intensive
studies of primitive peoples. I have not yet told you how he makes them. How does one make
a study of a primitive people? I will answer this question very briefly and in very general
terms, stating only what we regard as the essential rules of good fieldwork.
2. Experience has proved that certain conditions are essential if a good investigation is to be
carried out. The anthropologist must spend sufficient time on the study, he must throughout be
in close contact with the people among whom he is working, he must communicate with them
solely through their own language, and he must study their entire culture and social life. I will
examine each of these desiderata for, obvious though they may be, they are the distinguishing
marks of British anthropological research which make it, in my opinion, different from and of
a higher quality than research conducted elsewhere.
3. The earlier professional fieldworkers were always in a great hurry. Their quick visits to native
peoples sometimes lasted only a few days, and seldom more than a few weeks. Survey
research of this kind can be a useful preliminary to intensive studies and elementary
ethnological classifications can be derived from it, but it is of little value for an understanding
of social life. The position is very different today when, as I have said, one to three years are
devoted to the study of a single people. This permits observations to be made at every season
of the year, the social life of the people to be recorded to the last detail, and conclusions to be
tested systematically.
4. However, given even unlimited time for research, the anthropologist will not produce a good
account of the people he is studying unless he can put himself in a position which enables him
to establish ties of intimacy with them, and to observe their daily activities from within, and
not from without, their community life.
5. He must live as far as possible in their villages and camps, where he is, again as far as
possible, physically and morally part of the community. He then not only sees and hears what
goes on in the normal everyday life of the people as well as less common events, such as
ceremonies and legal cases, but by taking part in those activities in which he can appropriately
engage, he learns through action as well as by ear and eye what goes on around him. This is
very unlike the situation in which records of native life were corn-piled by earlier
anthropological fieldworkers, and also by missionaries and administrators, who, living out of
the native community and in mission stations or government posts, had mostly to rely on what
a few informants told them. If they visited native villages at all, their visits interrupted and
changed the activities they had come to observe.
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6. What is perhaps even more important for the anthropologist's work is the fact that he is all
alone, cut off from the companionship of men of his own race and culture, and is dependent on
the natives around him for company, friendship, and human under-standing. An anthropologist
has failed unless, when he says good-bye to the natives, there is on both sides the sorrow of
parting. It is evident that he can only establish this intimacy if he makes himself in some
degree a member of their society and lives, thinks, and feels in their culture since only he, and
not they, can make the necessary transference.
7. It is obvious that if the anthropologist is to carry out his work in the conditions I have
described he must learn the native language, and any anthropologist worth his salt will make
the learning of it his first task and will altogether, even at the beginning of his study, dispense
with interpreters. Some do not pick up strange languages easily, and many primitive languages
are almost unbelievably difficult to learn, but the language must be mastered as thoroughly as
the capacity of the student and its complexities permit, not only because the anthropologist can
then communicate freely with the natives, but for further reasons. To understand a people's
thought one has to think in their symbols. Also, in learning the language one learns the culture
and the social system which are conceptualized in the language. Every kind of social
relationship, every belief every technological process - in fact everything in the social life of
the natives - is expressed in words as well as in action, and when one has fully understood the
meaning of all the words of their language in all their situations of reference one has finished
one's study of the society. I may add that, as every experienced field-worker knows, the most
difficult task in anthropological fieldwork is to determine the meanings of a few key words,
upon which the success of the whole investigation depends; and they can only be determined
by the anthropologist himself learning to use the words correctly in his converse with the
natives. A further reason for learning the native language is that it places the anthropologist in
a position of complete dependence on the natives. He comes to them as pupil, not as master.
8. Finally, the anthropologist must study the whole of the social life. It is impossible to
understand clearly and comprehensively any part of a people's social life except in the full
context of their social life as a whole. Though he may not publish every detail he has recorded,
you will find in a good anthropologist's notebooks a detailed description of even the most
commonplace activities, for example, how a cow is milked or how meat is cooked. Also,
though he may decide to write a book on a people's law, or their religion, or on their
economics, describing one aspect of their life and neglecting the rest, he does so always
against the background of their entire social activities and in terms of their whole social
structure.
(From Social Anthropology, by E. E. Evans-Pritchard.)
Notice how the text is structured. Paragraph 1 asks a question and paragraphs 2 - 8 answer it.
Question how one makes a study of a primitive people - essential rules paragraph 1
1. must spend sufficient time on the study
paragraphs 2 and 3
2. must establish ties of intimacy
paragraph 4
3. must live as far as possible in their villages and camps
paragraph 5
4. must make oneself a member of their society
paragraph 6
5. must learn the native language
paragraph 7
6. must study the whole of the social life.
paragraph 8
Answer
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Reading skills for academic study
Exercise 3
Read the following text and observe the table below.
Making Artificial Diamonds
1. 'It should be possible to make a precious stone that not only looks like the real thing, but that
is the real thing', said a chemist many years ago. 'The only difference should be that one
crystal would be made by man, the other by nature.'
2. At first this did not seem like a particularly hard task. Scientists began to try making synthetic
diamonds towards the end of the eighteenth century. It was at this time that a key scientific
fact was discovered: diamonds are a form of carbon, which is a very common element.
Graphite, the black mineral that is used for the 'lead' in your pencil, is made of it, too. The
only difference, we know today, is that the carbon atoms have been packed together in a
slightly different way. The chemists were fired with enthusiasm: Why not change a cheap and
plentiful substance, carbon, into a rare and expensive one, diamond?
3. You have probably heard about the alchemists who for centuries tried to turn plain lead or iron
into gold. They failed, because gold is completely different from lead or iron. Transforming
carbon into diamonds, however, is not illogical at all. This change takes place in nature, so it
should be possible to make it happen in the laboratory.
4. It should be possible, but for one hundred and fifty years every effort failed. During this
period, none the less., several people believed that they had solved the diamond riddle. One of
these was a French scientist who produced crystals that seemed to be the real thing. After the
man's death, however, a curious rumour began to go the rounds. The story told that one of the
scientist's assistants had simply put tiny pieces of genuine diamonds into the carbon mixture.
He was bored with the work, and he wanted to make the old chemist happy.
5. The first real success came more than sixty years later in the laboratories of the General
Electric Company. Scientists there had been working for a number of years on a process
designed to duplicate nature's work. Far below the earth's surface, carbon is subjected to
incredibly heavy pressure and extremely high temperature. Under these conditions the carbon
turns into diamonds. For a long time the laboratory attempts failed, simply because no suitable
machinery existed. What was needed was some sort of pressure chamber in which the carbon
could be subjected to between 800,000 and 1,800,000 pounds of pressure to the square inch, at
a temperature of between 2200 and 4400�F.
6. Building a pressure chamber that would not break under these conditions was a fantastically
difficult feat, but eventually it was done. The scientists eagerly set to work again. Imagine
their disappointment when, even with this equipment, they produced all sorts of crystals, but
no diamonds. They wondered if the fault lay in the carbon they were using, and so they tried a
number of different forms.
7. 'Every time we opened the pressure chamber we found crystals. Some of them even had the
smell of diamonds', recalls one of the men who worked on the project. 'But they were terribly
small, and the tests we ran on them were unsatisfactory.'
8. The scientists went on working. The idea was then brought forward that perhaps the carbon
needed to be dissolved in a melted metal. The metal might act as a catalyst, which means that
it helps a chemical reaction to take place more easily.
9. This time the carbon was mixed with iron before being placed in the pressure chamber. The
pressure was brought up to 1,300,000 pounds to the square inch and the temperature to
2900�F. At last the chamber was opened. A number of shiny crystals lay within. These
crystals scratched glass, and even diamonds. Light waves passed through them in the same
way as they do through diamonds. Carbon dioxide was given off when the crystals were
burned. Their density was just 3.5 grams per cubic centimetre, as is true of diamonds. The
crystals were analysed chemically. They were finally studied under X-rays, and there was no
longer room for doubt. These jewels of the laboratory were not like diamonds ; they were
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Reading skills for academic study
diamonds. They even had the same atomic structure. The atoms making up the molecule of the
synthetic crystal were arranged in exactly the same pattern as they are in the natural.
10. 'The jewels we have made are diamonds', says a physicist, 'but they are not very beautiful.
Natural diamonds range in colour from white to black, with the white or blue-white favoured
as gems. Most of ours are on the dark side, and are quite small.'
(From The Artificial World Around Us by Lucy Kavaler)
^
Problem
How to make artificial diamonds.
Paragraph 1
Theoretical Background Diamonds are a form of carbon and carbon is easily available Paragraph 2
Early attempts
Paragraph 3
Failure
Paragraph 4
Failure - need more pressure
Paragraph 5
Failure - produced crystals but not diamonds
Paragraph 6
Failure - too small
Paragraph 7
Solution
Solution - need a catalyst
Paragraph 8
Success
Success - artificial damonds made
Paragraph 9
Evaluation
But ...
Paragraph 10
Attempts
Exercise 4
Read the following text and fill in the table below.
An observation and an explanation
It is worth looking at one or two aspects of the way a mother behaves towards her baby. The usual
fondling, cuddling and cleaning require little comment, but the position in which she holds the baby
against her body when resting is rather revealing. Careful American studies have disclosed the fact
that 80 per cent of mothers cradle their infants in their left arms, holding them against the left side of
their bodies. If asked to explain the significance of this preference most people reply that it is
obviously the result of the predominance of right-handedness in the population. By holding the babies
in their left arms, the mothers keep their dominant arm free for manipulations. But a detailed analysis
shows that this is not the case. True, there is a slight difference between right-handed and left-handed
females, but not enough to provide an adequate explanation. It emerges that 83 per cent of righthanded mothers hold the baby on the left side, but then so do 78 per cent of left-handed mothers. In
other words, only 22 per cent of the left-handed mothers have their dominant hands free for actions.
Clearly there must be some other, less obvious explanation.
The only other clue comes from the fact that the heart is on the left side of the mother's body. Could it
be that the sound of her heartbeat is the vital factor? And in what way? Thinking along these lines it
was argued that perhaps during its existence inside the body of the mother, the growing embryo
becomes fixated ('imprinted') on the sound of the heart beat. If this is so, then the re-discovery of this
familiar sound after birth might have a calming effect on the infant, especially as it has just been thrust
into a strange and frighteningly new world outside. If this is so then the mother, either instinctively or
by an unconscious series of trials and errors, would soon arrive at the discovery that her baby is more
at peace if held on the left against her heart, than on the right.
This may sound far-fetched, but tests have now been carried out which reveal that it is nevertheless the
true explanation. Groups of new-born babies in a hospital nursery were exposed for a considerable
time to the recorded sound of a heartbeat at a standard rate of 72 beats per minute. There were nine
babies in each group and it was found that one or more of them was crying for 60 per cent of the time
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Reading skills for academic study
when the sound was not switched on, but that this figure fell to only 38 per cent when the heartbeat
recording was thumping away. The heartbeat groups also showed a greater weight-gain than the
others, although the amount of food taken was the same in both cases. Clearly the beatless groups
were burning up a lot more energy as a result of the vigorous actions of their crying.
Another test was done with slightly older infants at bedtime. In some groups the room was silent, in
others recorded lullabies were played. In others a ticking metronome was operating at the heartbeat
speed of 72 beats per minute. In still others the heartbeat recording itself was played. It was then
checked to see which groups fell asleep more quickly. The heartbeat group dropped off in half the time
it took for any of the other groups. This not only clinches the idea that the sound of the heart beating is
a powerfully calming stimulus, but it also shows that the response is a highly specific one. The
metronome imitation will not do - at least, not for young infants.
So it seems fairly certain that this is the explanation of the mother's left-side approach to baby-holding.
It is interesting that when 466 Madonna and child paintings (dating back over several hundred years)
were analysed for this feature, 373 of them showed the baby on the left breast. Here again the figure
was at the 80 per cent level. This contrasts with observations of females carrying parcels, where it was
found that 50 per cent carried them on the left and 50 per cent on the right.
What other possible results could this heartbeat imprinting have? It may, for example, explain why we
insist on locating feelings of love in the heart rather than the head. As the song says: 'You gotta have a
heart!' It may also explain why mothers rock their babies to lull them to sleep. The rocking motion is
carried on at about the same speed as the heartbeat, and once again it probably 'reminds' the infants of
the rhythmic sensations they became so familiar with inside the womb, as the great heart of the mother
pumped and thumped away above them.
Nor does it stop there. Right into adult life the phenomenon seems to stay with us. We rock with
anguish. We rock back and forth on our feet when we are in a state of conflict. The next time you see a
lecturer or an after-dinner speaker swaying rhythmically from side to side, check his speed for
heartbeat time. His discomfort at having to face an audience leads him to perform the most comforting
movements his body can offer in the somewhat limited circumstances; and so he switches on the old
familiar beat of the womb.
Wherever you find insecurity, you are liable to find the comforting heartbeat rhythm in one kind of
disguise or another. It is no accident that most folk music and dancing has a syncopated rhythm. Here
again the sounds and movements take the performers back to the safe world of the womb.
(From The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. (Jonathan Cape and McGraw Hill, 1967)
Paragraph
1
Paragraph
2
Problem
________________________________
_____________
Most women are right-handed.
_____________
_________________________________
Solution 2
_________________________________
_______________
1. Groups of new-born babies exposed to sound of heart beat
__________________.
2. Three groups of older babies listend to different sounds.
_____________________.
3.
Even
in
old
paintings,
_______________________________________________.
4.
When
observed
carrying
parcels,
______________________________________.
Other
consequences
1.
2.
3.
Paragraph
3
Paragraph
4
Paragraph
5
Paragraph
6
Paragraph
We
locate
Mothers
We
rock
6
love
_________________________.
______________________________.
______________________________.
Reading skills for academic study
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4. Folk music and dancing ___________________.
Paragraph
8
B. Reading skills for academic study: Understanding conceptual meaning
Exercise 1
Read each of the following paragraphs. Decide which rhetorical structures are used.
1. DIVISIONS OF GEOLOGICAL TIME
The rocks of the accessible part of the earth are divided into five major divisions or eras, which are in
the order of decreasing age, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.
Superposition is the criterion of age. Each rock is considered younger than the one on which it rests,
provided there is no structural evidence to the contrary, such as overturning or thrust faulting. As one
looks at a tall building there is no doubt in the mind of the observer that the top story was erected after
the one on which it rests and is younger than it in order of time. So it is in stratigraphy in which strata
are arranged in an orderly sequence based upon their relative positions. Certainly the igneous and
metamorphic rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are the oldest rocks exposed along the
Colorado River in Arizona and each successively higher formation is relatively younger than the one
beneath it.
2. There are two traditional theories of forgetting. One argues that the memory trace simply fades or
decays away rather as a notice that is exposed to sun and rain will gradually fade until it becomes quite
illegible. The second suggests that forgetting occurs because memory traces are disrupted or obscured
by subsequent learning, or in other words that forgetting occurs because of interference. How can one
decide between these two interpretations of forgetting? If the memory trace decays spontaneously,
then the crucial factor determining how much is recalled should simply be elapsed time. The longer
the delay, the greater the forgetting. If forgetting results from interference however then the crucial
factor should be the events that occur within that time, with more interpolated events resulting in more
forgetting.
3. WEATHERING AND SOIL. The work of weathering is carried on mainly by the atmosphere,
which affects rocks physically and chemically. Disintegration of rocks into fragments having the same
chemical composition as the main mass is a physical change. The chief agents of disintegration are
frost, temperature change, organ-isms, wind, rain, and lightning. Almost every rock contains some
cracks or pore space, and moisture entering the openings freezes when the temperature is below 32�F.
The change of water to ice is accompanied by an increase of volume of one tenth and by a pressure of
several tons to the square foot. Repeated freezing and expansion followed by thawing break rocks into
chips or blocks, which accumulate on the surface to form mantle rock. Wide variation in daily
temperature combined with other weathering agents causes exfoliation or scaling off of thin slabs of
rocks. Since rocks are poor conductors of heat, rays from the sun penetrate only a slight distance into
the rock, causing this outer heated part to expand. In the night it cools and contracts. Repeated
expansion and contraction weaken the outer layer, but whether the scaling off is due to this or to
moisture is debatable. The effect is greatly increased when a shower of rain falls suddenly on the
heated rock, for many of us have observed that when water is poured on hot rocks around a campfire
they often break open with great violence. Talus is composed of rock fragments broken from cliffs or
steep Slopes by frost action or temperature change, and is moved by gravity down the slope until its
surface approaches the angle of repose of loose materials. Organisms of various kinds are active
instruments of disintegration. Plants extend a network of roots into the cracks which penetrate the
rocks in all directions. These roots enlarge during growth and act as wedges to force the rocks apart.
This wedging force not only lifts blocks of sidewalk and breaks pavements in a few years but also
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Reading skills for academic study
disrupts natural exposures on a grand scale. Wind blows sand grains against the surface of rocks with
such force that pits of varying sizes are formed. The Sphinx and pyramids of Egypt are deeply pitted
by sand blown over northern Africa. Particles of loosened rock, removed by the next gust of wind,
become the tools for further abrasion. Sand-blasting is a commercially practical method of polishing
and cleaning rocks, including the hard surface of granite. In nature fantastic forms are sculptured by
wind abrasion, especially where materials of different degrees of resistance are in contact. In this way
balanced rocks are formed where drifting sand wears away the softer, less consolidated materials at the
base of a well-cemented layer. Likewise mushroom rocks are carved out of sandy rocks be-cause the
rock material of the stem yields more readily to the impact of sand grains than that of the top. Rain and
lightning are less effective than the other mechanical agents but contribute their share to the process of
reducing a mass of solid rock at the surface to fragments.
4. The Maasai are pastoralists, grazing their cattle over the plains which border Kenya and Tanzania.
The status of a Maasai man is directly related to the number and quality of the cattle he owns which,
traditionally, he would never sell. A Maasai woman, however, has control over housing. When she
marries, her first task is to build her own house, helped by other women in the homestead. This house
belongs to her and no one may enter without her permission. Throughout her life she will build a new
house every ten years or so.
5. American medical technology is the best on earth, but its health-care system is the most wasteful.
Americans spend roughly twice as much on doctors, drugs and snazzy brain scanners as Europeans,
but live no longer. In contrast to the all-inclusiveness of other countries' socialised medical services,
40m Americans have no coverage at all. Chinese children are more likely to be vaccinated against
disease than Americans, despite the fact that health spending per head in the United States is about 150
times higher. The government, many Americans agree, should do something. Sadly, most of their
politicians have misdiagnosed the ailment and are proposing a battery of quack remedies.AMERICAN
medical technology is the best on earth, but its health-care system is the most wasteful. Americans
spend roughly twice as much on doctors, drugs and snazzy brain scanners as Europeans, but live no
longer. In contrast to the all-inclusiveness of other countries' socialised medical services, 40m
Americans have no coverage at all. Chinese children are more likely to be vaccinated against disease
than Americans, despite the fact that health spending per head in the United States is about 150 times
higher. The government, many Americans agree, should do something. Sadly, most of their politicians
have misdiagnosed the ailment and are proposing a battery of quack remedies.
6. Woodleigh Bolton was a straggling village set along the side ofa hill. Galls Hill was the highest
house just at the top ofthe rise, with a view over Woodleigh Camp and the moors towards the sea. The
house itselfwas bleak and obviously Dr. Kennedy scorned such modern innovations as central heating.
The woman who opened the door was dark and rather forbidding. She led them across the rather bare
hail and into a study where Dr. Kennedy rose to receive them. It was a long, rather high room, lined
with well-filled bookshelves.
7. Blood Type, in medicine, is the classification of red blood cells by the presence of specific
substances on their surface. Typing of red blood cells is a prerequisite for blood transfusion. In the
early part of the 20th century, physicians discovered that blood transfusions often failed because the
blood type of the recipient was not compatible with that of the donor. In 1901 the Austrian pathologist
Karl Landsteiner classified blood types and discovered that they were transmitted by Mendelian
heredity. The four blood types are known as A, B, AB, and O. Blood type A contains red blood cells
that have a substance A on their surface. This type of blood also contains an antibody directed against
substance B, found on the red cells of persons with blood type B. Type B blood contains the reverse
combination. Serum of blood type AB contains neither antibody, but red cells in this type of blood
contain both A and B substances. In type O blood, neither substance is present on the red cells, but the
individual is capable of forming antibodies directed against red cells containing substance A or B. If
blood type A is transfused into a person with B type blood, anti-A antibodies in the recipient will
destroy the transfused A red cells. Because O type blood has neither substance on its red cells, it can
be given successfully to almost any person. Persons with blood type AB have no antibodies and can
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Reading skills for academic study
receive any of the four types of blood; thus blood types O and AB are called universal donors and
universal recipients, respectively. Other hereditary blood-group systems have subsequently been
discovered. The hereditary blood constituent called Rh factor is of great importance in obstetrics and
blood transfusions because it creates reactions that can threaten the life of newborn infants. Blood
types M and N have importance in legal cases involving proof of paternity.
8. An atomic bomb is a powerful explosive nuclear weapon fueled by the splitting, or fission, of the
nuclei of specific isotopes of uranium or plutonium in a chain reaction. The strength of the explosion
created by an atomic bomb is on the order of the strength of the explosion that would be created by
thousands of tons of TNT. An atomic bomb must provide enough mass of plutonium or uranium to
reach critical mass, the mass at which the nuclear reactions going on inside the material can make up
for the neutrons leaving the material through its outside surface. Usually the plutonium or uranium in a
bomb is separated into parts so that critical mass is not reached until the bomb is set to explode. At
that point, a set of chemical explosives or some other mechanism drives all the different pieces of
uranium or plutonium together to produce a critical mass. After this occurs, there are enough neutrons
bouncing around in the material to create a chain reaction of fissions. In the fission reactions,
collisions between neutrons and uranium or plutonium atoms cause the atoms to split into pairs of
nuclear fragments, releasing energy and more neutrons. Once the reactions begin, the neutrons
released by each reaction hit other atoms and create more fission reactions until all the fissile material
is exhausted or scattered.
9. Atomic tests
The first atomic explosion was conducted, as a test, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945.
The energy released from this explosion was equivalent to that released by the detonation of 20,000
tons of TNT. Near the end of World War II, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first
atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It followed with a second bomb against the city of
Nagasaki on August 9. As many as 100,000 persons were killed by the Hiroshima device, called
"Little Boy," and about 40,000 by a bomb dropped on Nagasaki, called "Fat Man." Japan agreed to
U.S. terms of surrender on August 14th. These are the only times that a nuclear weapon has been used
in a conflict between nations.
10. Aaron Copland was an American composer. He was born in New York City on November 14,
1900. He studied in New York City with the American composer Rubin Goldmark and in Paris with
the influential French teacher Nadia Boulanger. Although his earliest work was heavily influenced by
the French impressionists, he soon began to develop a personalized style. After experimenting with
jazz rhythms in such works as Music for the Theater (1925) and the Piano Concerto (1927), Copland
turned to more austere and dissonant compositions. Concert pieces such as the Piano Variations (1930)
and Statements (1933-1935) rely on nervous, irregular rhythms, angular melodies, and highly
dissonant harmonies. In the mid-1930s Copland turned to a simpler style, more melodic and lyrical,
frequently drawing on elements of American folk music. His best work of the 1940s expresses
distinctly American themes; in Lincoln Portrait (1942), for orchestra and narrator, and in the ballets
Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944; Pulitzer Prize, 1945), he uses
native themes and rhythms to capture the flavor of early American life. He adapted Mexican folk
music for El sal�n M�xico (1937). Other orchestral works are the Symphony for Organ and
Orchestra (1925), the Symphonic Ode (1932), and the Third Symphony (1946), which incorporates the
Fanfare for the Common Man (1942). Also from this period is the opera for high school students, The
Second Hurricane (1937). His music for films includes Of Mice and Men (1937), Our Town (1940),
and The Heiress (1949; Academy Award, best dramatic film score). In the 1950s Copland returned to
his earlier austere style. In the complex, virtuosic Piano Fantasy (1957) and such later orchestral works
as Connotations (1962), commissioned for the opening of Lincoln Center in New York City, and
Inscape (1967), he assimilated the twelve-tone system of composition. Copland's Proclamation (1982),
a piano piece orchestrated by Phillip Ramey, was performed in 1985 at a concert celebrating Copland's
85th birthday. Copland died in North Tarrytown, New York, on December 2, 1990.
9
Reading skills for academic study
C. Reading skills for academic study: Identifying reference in the text
C.1. Reference
Identify the references in the following texts:
Exercise 1
Every organization, as soon as it gets to any size (perhaps 1,000 people), begins to feel a need to
systematize its management of human assets. Perhaps the pay scales have got way out of line, with
apparently similar-level jobs paying very different amounts; perhaps there is a feeling that there are a
lot of neglected skills in the organization that other departments could utilize if they were aware that
they existed. Perhaps individuals have complained that they don't know where they stand or what their
future is; perhaps the unions have requested standardized benefits and procedures. Whatever the
historical origins, some kind of central organization, normally named a personnel department, is
formed to put some system into the haphazardry. The systems that they adopt are often modelled on
the world of production, because that is the world with the best potential for order and system.
Exercise 2
We all tend to complain about our memories. Despite the elegance of the human memory system, it is
not infallible, and we have to learn to live with its fallibility. It seems to be socially much more
acceptable to complain of a poor memory, and it is somehow much more acceptable to blame a social
lapse on 'a terrible memory', than to attribute it to stupidity or insensitivity. But how much do we
know about our own memories? Obviously we need to remember our memory lapses in order to know
just how bad our memories are. Indeed one of the most amnesic patients I have ever tested was a lady
suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome, memory loss following chronic alcoholism. The test involved
presenting her with lists of words; after each list she would comment with surprise on her inability to
recall the words, saying: 'I pride myself on my memory!' She appeared to have forgotten just how bad
her memory was'.
C.2. Substitution and ellipsis
Identify examples of substitution and ellipsis in this text:
Exercise 3
The human memory system is remarkably efficient, but it is of course extremely fallible. That being
so, it makes sense to take full advantage of memory aids to minimize the disruption caused by such
lapses. If external aids are used, it is sensible to use them consistently and systematically - always put
appointments in your diary, always add wanted items to a shopping list, and so on. If you use internal
aids such as mnemonics, you must be prepared to invest a reasonable amount of time in mastering
them and practising them. Mnemonics are like tools and cannot be used until forged. Overall,
however, as William James pointed out (the italics are mine): 'Of two men with the same outward
experiences and the same amount of mere native tenacity, the one who thinks over his experiences
most and weaves them into systematic relations with each other will be the one with the best memory.'
Exercise 4
This conflict between tariff reformers and free traders was to lead to the "agreement to differ"
convention in January 1932, and the resignation of the Liberals from the government in September
1932; but, until they resigned, the National Government was a genuine coalition in the sense in which
that term is used on the continent: a government comprising independent yet conflicting elements
allied together, a government within which party conflict was not superseded but rather contained - in
short, a power-sharing government, albeit a seriously unbalanced one.
10
Reading skills for academic study
Exercise 5
The number of different words relating to 'camel' is said to be about six thousand. There are terms to
refer to riding camels, milk camels and slaughter camels; other terms to indicate the pedigree and
geographical origin of the camel; and still others to differentiate camels in different stages of
pregnancy and to specify in-numerable other characteristics important to a people so dependent upon
camels in their daily life (Thomas, 1937)
Exercise 6
There were, broadly, two interrelated reasons for this, the first relating to Britain's economic and
Imperial difficulties, the second to the internal dissension in all three parties.
C.3. Conjunction
Identify examples of conjunction in the following texts:
Exercise 7
These two forms of dissent coalesced in the demand for a stronger approach to the Tory nostrum of
tariff reform. In addition, trouble threatened from the mercurial figure of Winston Churchill, who had
resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in January 1931 in protest at Baldwin's acceptance of eventual selfgovernment for India.
Exercise 8
These two sets of rules, though distinct, must not be looked upon as two co-ordinate and independent
systems. On the contrary, the rules of Equity are only a sort of supplement or appendix to the Common
Law; they assume its existence but they add something further.
C.4. Lexical cohesion
Identify examples of lexical cohesion in the following texts:
Exercise 9
The clamour of complaint about teaching in higher education and, more especially, about teaching
methods in universities and technical colleges, serves to direct attention away from the important
reorientation which has recently begun. The complaints, of course, are not unjustified. In dealing
piece-meal with problems arising from rapidly developing subject matter, many teachers have allowed
courses to become over-crowded, or too specialized, or they have presented students with a number of
apparently unrelated courses failing to stress common principles. Many, again, have not developed
new teaching methods to deal adequately with larger numbers of students, and the new audio-visual
techniques tend to remain in the province of relatively few enthusiasts despite their great potential for
class and individual teaching.
Exercise 10
When we look closely at a human face we are aware of many expressive details - the lines of the
forehead, the wideness of the eyes, the curve of the lips, the jut of the chin. These elements combine to
present us with a total facial expression which we use to interpret the mood of our companion. But we
all know that people can 'put on a happy face' or deliberately adopt a sad face without feeling either
happy or sad. Faces can lie, and sometimes can lie so well that it becomes hard to read the true
emotions of their owners. But there is at least one facial signal that cannot easily be 'put on'. It is a
small signal, and rather a subtle one, but because it tells the truth it is of special interest. It comes from
the pupils and has to do with their size in relation to the amount of light that is falling upon them.
11
Reading skills for academic study
D. Reading skills for academic study: Identifying reference in the text
D.1. Reference
Identify the references in the following text:
Exercise 11
The Troubles of shopping in Russia
A large crowd gathered outside a photographic studio in Arbat Street, one of the busiest shopping
streets in Moscow, recently. There was no policeman within sight and the crowd was blocking the
pavement. The centre of attraction - and amusement - was a fairly well-dressed man, perhaps some
official, who was waving his arm out of the ventilation window of the studio and begging to be
allowed out. The woman in charge of the studio was standing outside and arguing with him. The man
had apparently arrived just when the studio was about to close for lunch and insisted upon taking
delivery of some prints which had been promised to him. He refused to wait so the staff had locked the
shop and gone away for lunch. The incident was an extreme example of the common attitude in
service industries in the Soviet Union generally, and especially in Moscow. Shop assistants do not
consider the customer as a valuable client but as a nuisance of some kind who has to be treated with
little ceremony and without concern for his requirements.
For nearly a decade, the Soviet authorities have been trying to improve the service facilities. More
shops are being opened, more restaurants are being established and the press frequently runs
campaigns urging better service in shops and places of entertainment. It is all to no avail. The main
reason for this is shortage of staff. Young people are more reluctant to make a career in shops,
restaurants and other such establishments. Older staff are gradually retiring and this leaves a big gap. It
is not at all unusual to see part of a restaurant or a shop roped off because there is nobody available to
serve. Sometimes, establishments have been known to be closed for several days because of this.
One reason for the unpopularity of jobs in the service industries is their low prestige. Soviet papers
and journals have reported that people generally consider most shop assistants to be dishonest and this
conviction remains unshakeable. Several directors of business establishments, for instance, who are
loudest in complaining about shortage of labour, are also equally vehement that they will not let their
children have anything to do with trade.
The greatest irritant for the people is not the shortage of goods but the time consumed in hunting for
them and queuing up to buy them. This naturally causes ill-feeling between the shoppers and the
assistants behind the counters, though often it may not be the fault of the assistants at all. This too,
damages hopes of attracting new recruits. Many educated youngsters would be ashamed to have to
behave in such a negative way.
Rules and regulations laid down by the shop managers often have little regard for logic or
convenience. An irate Soviet journalist recently told of his experiences when trying to have an electric
shaver repaired. Outside a repair shop he saw a notice: 'Repairs done within 45 minutes.' After
queuing for 45 minutes he was asked what brand of shaver he owned. He identified it and was told that
the shop only mended shavers made in a particular factory and he would have to go to another shop,
four miles away. When he complained, the red-faced girl behind the counter could only tell him
miserably that those were her instructions.
All organisations connected with youth, particularly the Young Communist League (Komsomo1),
have been instructed to help in the campaign for better recruitment to service industries. The
Komsomol provides a nicely-printed application form which is given to anyone asking for a job. But
one district head of a distribution organisation claimed that in the last in years only one person had
come to him with this form. 'We do not need fancy paper. We do need people!' he said. More and
more people are arguing that the only way to solve the problem is to introduce mechanisation. In
grocery stores, for instance, the work load could be made easier with mechanical devices to move
sacks and heavy packages.
12
Reading skills for academic study
The shortages of workers are bringing unfortunate consequences in other areas. Minor rackets flourish.
Only a few days ago, Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, carried a long humorous feature about
a plumber who earns a lot of extra money on the side and gets gloriously drunk every night. He is
nominally in charge of looking after 300 flats and is paid for it. But whenever he has a repair job to do,
he manages to screw some more money from the flat dwellers, pretending that spare parts are required.
Complaints against him have no effect because the housing board responsible is afraid that they will
be unable to get a replacement. In a few years' time, things could be even worse if the supply of
recruits to these jobs dries up altogether.
Exercise 2
Every organization, as soon as it gets to any size (perhaps 1,000 people), begins to feel a need to
systematize its management of human assets. Perhaps the pay scales have got way out of line, with
apparently similar-level jobs paying very different amounts; perhaps there is a feeling that there are a
lot of neglected skills in the organization that other departments could utilize if they were aware that
they existed. Perhaps individuals have complained that they don't know where they stand or what their
future is; perhaps the unions have requested standardized benefits and procedures. Whatever the
historical origins, some kind of central organization, normally named a personnel department, is
formed to put some system into the haphazardry. The systems that they adopt are often modelled on
the world of production, because that is the world with the best potential for order and system.
Exercise 3
We all tend to complain about our memories. Despite the elegance of the human memory system, it is
not infallible, and we have to learn to live with its fallibility. It seems to be socially much more
acceptable to complain of a poor memory, and it is somehow much more acceptable to blame a social
lapse on 'a terrible memory', than to attribute it to stupidity or insensitivity. But how much do we
know about our own memories? Obviously we need to remember our memory lapses in order to know
just how bad our memories are. Indeed one of the most amnesic patients I have ever tested was a lady
suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome, memory loss following chronic alcoholism. The test involved
presenting her with lists of words; after each list she would comment with surprise on her inability to
recall the words, saying: 'I pride myself on my memory!' She appeared to have forgotten just how bad
her memory was'.
D.2. Substitution and ellipsis
Identify examples of substitution and ellipsis in this text:
Exercise 4
The human memory system is remarkably efficient, but it is of course extremely fallible. That being
so, it makes sense to take full advantage of memory aids to minimize the disruption caused by such
lapses. If external aids are used, it is sensible to use them consistently and systematically - always put
appointments in your diary, always add wanted items to a shopping list, and so on. If you use internal
aids such as mnemonics, you must be prepared to invest a reasonable amount of time in mastering
them and practising them. Mnemonics are like tools and cannot be used until forged. Overall,
however, as William James pointed out (the italics are mine): 'Of two men with the same outward
experiences and the same amount of mere native tenacity, the one who thinks over his experiences
most and weaves them into systematic relations with each other will be the one with the best memory.'
Exercise 5
This conflict between tariff reformers and free traders was to lead to the "agreement to differ"
convention in January 1932, and the resignation of the Liberals from the government in September
1932; but, until they resigned, the National Government was a genuine coalition in the sense in which
that term is used on the continent: a government comprising independent yet conflicting elements
allied together, a government within which party conflict was not superseded but rather contained - in
short, a power-sharing government, albeit a seriously unbalanced one.
13
Reading skills for academic study
Exercise 6
The number of different words relating to 'camel' is said to be about six thousand. There are terms to
refer to riding camels, milk camels and slaughter camels; other terms to indicate the pedigree and
geographical origin of the camel; and still others to differentiate camels in different stages of
pregnancy and to specify in-numerable other characteristics important to a people so dependent upon
camels in their daily life (Thomas, 1937)
Exercise 7
There were, broadly, two interrelated reasons for this, the first relating to Britain's economic and
Imperial difficulties, the second to the internal dissension in all three parties.
D.3. Conjunction
Identify examples of conjunction in the following texts:
Exercise 8
These two forms of dissent coalesced in the demand for a stronger approach to the Tory nostrum of
tariff reform. In addition, trouble threatened from the mercurial figure of Winston Churchill, who had
resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in January 1931 in protest at Baldwin's acceptance of eventual selfgovernment for India.
Exercise 9
These two sets of rules, though distinct, must not be looked upon as two co-ordinate and independent
systems. On the contrary, the rules of Equity are only a sort of supplement or appendix to the Common
Law; they assume its existence but they add something further.
D.3. Lexical cohesion
Identify examples of lexical cohesion in the following texts:
Exercise 10
The clamour of complaint about teaching in higher education and, more especially, about teaching
methods in universities and technical colleges, serves to direct attention away from the important
reorientation which has recently begun. The complaints, of course, are not unjustified. In dealing
piece-meal with problems arising from rapidly developing subject matter, many teachers have allowed
courses to become over-crowded, or too specialized, or they have presented students with a number of
apparently unrelated courses failing to stress common principles. Many, again, have not developed
new teaching methods to deal adequately with larger numbers of students, and the new audio-visual
techniques tend to remain in the province of relatively few enthusiasts despite their great potential for
class and individual teaching.
Exercise 11
When we look closely at a human face we are aware of many expressive details - the lines of the
forehead, the wideness of the eyes, the curve of the lips, the jut of the chin. These elements combine to
present us with a total facial expression which we use to interpret the mood of our companion. But we
all know that people can 'put on a happy face' or deliberately adopt a sad face without feeling either
happy or sad. Faces can lie, and sometimes can lie so well that it becomes hard to read the true
emotions of their owners. But there is at least one facial signal that cannot easily be 'put on'. It is a
small signal, and rather a subtle one, but because it tells the truth it is of special interest. It comes from
the pupils and has to do with their size in relation to the amount of light that is falling upon them.
14
Reading skills for academic study
E. Reading skills for academic study: Dealing with difficult words and sentences
Exercise 1
Dealing with difficult words.
In An Introduction to Language by Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman, many new
words are clearly explained in the text. Can you work out the meanings of the words in
bold.
AIRSTREAM MECHANISMS
The production of any speech sound (or any sound at all) involves the movement of an airstream. Most
speech sounds are produced by pushing lung air out of the body through the mouth and sometimes
also through the nose. Since lung air is used, these sounds are called pulmonic sounds; since the air is
pushed out, they are called egressive. The majority of sounds used in languages of the world are thus
produced by a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. All the sounds in English are produced in this
manner.
Other airstream mechanisms are used in other languages to produce sounds called ejectives,
implosives, and clicks. Instead of lung air, the body of air in the mouth may be moved. When this air
is sucked in instead of flowing out, ingressive sounds, like implosives and clicks, are produced. When
the air in the mouth is pushed out, ejectives are produced; they are thus also egressive sounds.
Word
Meaning
pulmonic
egressive
ingressive
implosives, clicks
ejectives
Exercise 2
In Time for a Tiger, a novel set in Malaysia, Anthony Burgess uses some Malay words.
Can you work out their meanings.
He watched with pleasure the food-sellers swirling the frying mee around in their kualis over primitive
charcoal fires.... Ibrahim, watching the swirling mee in the kuali, had suddenly remembered his wife....
Fatima had tracked him down and tried to hit him with a kuali in the mess kitchen.
And again:
They were sitting in a kedai in the single street of Gila, acting, it seemed, a sort of play for the entire
population of the town and the nearest kampong.
15
Reading skills for academic study
In Clockwork Orange, by the same author, he again uses non-English words. What can
you decide about their meanings?
So now, this smiling winter morning, I drink this very strong chai with moloko and spoon after spoon
after spoon of sugar, me having a sladky tooth.
And this one?
Then we slooshied the sirens and knew the millicents were coming with pooshkas pushing out of the
police auto-windows at the ready. That little weepy devotchka had told them, there being a box for
calling the rozzes not too far behind the Muni Power Plant.
Exercise 3
Read the following text. Using the context given, try to work out the meaning and the
grammatical structure of the word.
The Age of the Earth
The age of the earth has aroused the interest of scientists, clergy, and laymen. The first scientists to
attack the problem were physicists, basing their estimates on assumptions that are not now generally
accepted. G. H. Darwin calculated that 57 million years had elapsed since the moon was separated
from the earth, and Lord Kelvin estimated that 20 - 40 million years were needed for the earth to cool
from a molten condition to its present temperature. Although these estimates were much greater than
the 6,000 years decided upon some two hundred years earlier from a Biblical study, geologists thought
the earth was much older than 50 or 60 million years. In 1899 the physicist Joly calculated the age of
the ocean from the amount of sodium contained in its waters. Sodium is dissolved from rocks during
weathering and carried by streams to the ocean. Multiplying the volume of water in the ocean by the
percentage of sodium in solution, the total amount of sodium in the ocean is determined as 16
quadrillion tons. Dividing this enormous quantity by the annual load of sodium contributed by streams
gives the number of years required to deposit the sodium at the present rate. This calculation has been
checked by Clark and by Knopi with the resulting figure in round numbers of 1,000,000,000 years for
the age of the ocean. This is to be regarded as a minimum age for the earth, because all the sodium
carried by streams is not now in the ocean and the rate of deposition has not been constant. The great
beds of rock salt (sodium chloride), now stored as sedimentary rocks on land, were derived by
evaporation of salt once in the ocean. The annual contribution of sodium by streams is higher at
present than it was in past geological periods, for sodium is now released from sedimentary rocks
more easily than it was from the silicates of igneous rocks before sedimentary beds of salt were
common. Also, man mines and uses tons of salt that are added annually to the streams. These
considerations indicate that the ocean and the earth have been in existence much longer than
1,000,000,000 years, but there is no quantitative method of deciding how much the figure should be
increased. Geologists have attempted to estimate the length of geologic time from the deposition of
sedimentary rocks. This method of measuring time was recognized about 450 B.C. by the Greek
historian Herodotus after observing deposition by the Nile and realizing that its delta was the result of
repetitions of that process. Schuchert has assembled fifteen such estimates of the age of the earth
ranging from 3 to 1,584 million years with the majority falling near 100 million years. These are based
upon the known thicknesses of sedimentary rocks and the average time required to deposit one foot of
sediment. The thicknesses as well as the rates of deposition used by geologists in making these
estimates vary. Recently Schuchert has compiled for North America the known maximum thicknesses
of sedimentary rocks deposited since the beginning of Cambrian time and found them to be 259,000
feet, about 50 miles. This thickness may be increased as other information accumulates, but the real
difficulty with the method is to decide on a representative rate of deposition, because modern streams
vary considerably in the amount of sediment deposited. In past geological periods the amount
deposited may have varied even more, depending on the height of the continents above sea level, the
16
Reading skills for academic study
kind of sediment transported, and other factors. But even if we knew exact values for the thickness of
PreCambrian and PostCambrian rocks and for the average rate of deposition, the figure so obtained
would not give us the full length of time involved. At many localities the rocks are separated by
periods of erosion called unconformities, during which the continents stood so high that the products
of erosion were carried beyond the limits of the present continents and "lost intervals" of unknown
duration were recorded in the depositional record. It is also recognized that underwater breaks or
diastems caused by solution due to acids in sea water and erosion by submarine currents may have
reduced the original thickness of some formations. Geologists appreciated these limitations and hoped
that a method would be discovered which would yield convincing evidence of the vast time recorded
in rocks. Unexpected help came from physicists studying the radioactive behavior of certain heavy
elements such as uranium, thorium, and actinium. These elements disintegrate with the evolution of
heat and give off particles at a constant rate that is not affected by high temperatures and great
pressures. Helium gas is liberated, radium is one of the intermediate products, and the stable end
product is lead with an atomic weight different from ordinary lead. Eight stages have been established
in the radium disintegration series, in which elements of lower atomic weights are formed at a rate
which has been carefully measured. Thus, uranium with an atomic weight of 238 is progressively
changed by the loss of positively charged helium atoms each having an atomic weight of 4 until there
is formed a stable product, uranium lead with an atomic weight of 206. Knowing the uranium-lead
ratio and the rate at which atomic disintegration proceeds, it is possible to determine the time when the
uranium mineral crystallized and the age of the rock containing it. By this method the oldest rock,
which is of Archeozoic age, is 1,850,000,000 years old, while those of the latest Cambrian are
450,000,000 years old. Allowing time for the deposition of the early Cambrian formations, the
beginning of the Paleozoic is estimated in round numbers at 500,000,000 years ago. This method dates
the oldest intrusive rock thus far found to contain radioactive minerals. But even older rocks occur on
the earth's surface, for they existed when these intrusions penetrated them. How much time should be
assigned to them, we have no accurate way of judging. Recently attention has centered upon the radio
activity of the isotopes of potassium, which disintegrate into calcium with an atomic weight of 40
instead of 40.08 of ordinary calcium. On this basis A. K. Brewer has calculated the age of the earth at
not more than 2,500,000,000 years, but there is some question that this method has the same order of
accuracy as the uranium-lead method. Geologists are satisfied with the time values now allotted by
physicists for the long intervals of mountain-making, erosion, and deposition by which the earth
gradually reached its present condition.
DIVISIONS OF GEOLOGICAL TIME
The rocks of the accessible part of the earth are divided into five major divisions or eras, which are in
the order of decreasing age, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.
Superposition is the criterion of age. Each rock is considered younger than the one on which it rests,
provided there is no structural evidence to the contrary, such as overturning or thrust faulting. As one
looks at a tall building there is no doubt in the mind of the observer that the top story was erected after
the one on which it rests and is younger than it in order of time. So it is in stratigraphy in which strata
are arranged in an orderly sequence based upon their relative positions. Certainly the igneous and
metamorphic rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are the oldest rocks exposed along the
Colorado River in Arizona and each successively higher formation is relatively younger than the one
beneath it. The rocks of the Mississippi Valley are inclined at various angles so that successively
younger rocks overlap from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Strata are arranged in recognizable
groups by geologists utilizing a principle announced by William Smith in 1799. While surveying in
England Smith discovered that fossil shells of one geological formation were different from those
above and below. Once the vertical range and sequence of fossils are established the relative position
of each formation can be determined by its fossil content. By examining the succession of rocks in
various parts of the world it was found that the restriction of certain life forms to definite intervals of
deposition was world wide and occurred always in the same order. Apparently certain organisms lived
in the ocean or on the land for a time, then became extinct and were succeeded by new forms that were
17
Reading skills for academic study
usually higher in their development than the ones whose places they inherited. Thus, the name
assigned to each era implies the stage of development of life on the earth during the interval in which
the rocks accumulated. The eras are subdivided into periods, which are grouped together in to indicate
the highest forms of life during that interval. As the rocks of increasingly younger periods are
examined higher types of life appear in the proper order, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles,
mammals, man. From this it is evident that certain fossil forms limited to a definite vertical range may
be used as index fossils of that division of geological time. Also, in this table are given for each era
estimates of the beginning, duration, and thickness of sediments, based largely upon a report of a
Committee of the National Research Council on the Age of the Earth. At the close of and within each
era widespread mountain-making disturbances or revolutions took place, which changed the
distribution of land and sea and affected directly or indirectly the life of the sea and the land. The close
of the Paleozoic era brought with it the rise of the Appalachian Mountains. It has been estimated that
only 3 per cent of the Paleozoic forms of life survived and lived on into the Mesozoic era. The birth of
the Rocky Mountains at the close of the Mesozoic was accompanied by widespread destruction of
reptilian life. Faunal successions responded noticeably to crustal disturbances.
UNCONFORMITIES. In subdividing rocks geologists have been guided by the periods of erosion
resulting from extensive mountain construction. Uplift of the continents causes the shallow seas to
withdraw from land thereby deepening the ocean and allowing erosion to start on the evacuated land
areas. Since all the oceans are connected, sea level throughout the world was affected in many
instances, leaving a record of crustal movements in the depositional history of each of the continents.
At many places the rocks of one era are separated from those of another by unconformities or erosion
intervals, in which miles of rocks were eroded from the crests of folds before sedimentation was
resumed on the truncated edges of the mountain structure. There are four stages in the development of
an angular unconformity, so named because there is an angular difference between the bedding of the
lower series and that of the overlying series. If the series above and below an unconformity consist of
marine formations, four movements of the area relative to sea level took place. In stage 1 the
sandstones and shales comprise a conformable marine series, which was laid down by continuous
deposition with the bedding of one formation conforming to the next. We have seen that the deposition
of 24,000 feet of sediment requires repeated sinking of the area below sea level. In stage 2 the region
was folded and elevated above sea level, so that erosion could take place. Since erosion starts as soon
as the land develops an effective slope for corrosion, there is no proof that this structure ever stood
24,000 feet high. But, the evidence is clear that 24,000 feet were eroded to produce the flat surface,
shown in stage 3. In order that the over lying marine series could be deposited the area had to be again
submerged below sea level. Since the region now stands above sea level, a fourth movement is
necessary. In some cases crustal movement does not tilt or fold the beds, but merely elevates
horizontal strata so that erosion removes material and leaves an irregular surface on which
sedimentation may be resumed with the deposition of an overlying formation parallel to the first. An
erosion interval between parallel formations is a disconformity. But not all unconformities and
disconformities are confined to the close of eras. Local deformation and uplift caused erosion between
formations within the same era and within the same period. In the Grand Canyon region Devonian
rocks rest on the eroded surface of Cambrian formations. At other North American and European
localities Ordovician and Silurian rocks occupy this interval, so that the disconformity within the
Paleozoic era at this locality represents two whole periods. It is only by carefully tracing the sequence
of rocks of one region into another that the immensity of geological time can be appreciated from
stratigraphy. -
Exercise 4
In Sociolinguistics by R A Hudson, many new words are clearly explained in the text.
Can you work out the meanings of the words in bold.
Most of the people are indigenous Indians, divided into over twenty tribes, which are in turn grouped
into five 'phratries' (groups of related tribes). There are two crucial facts to be remembered about this
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Reading skills for academic study
community. First, each tribe speaks a different language - sufficiently different to be mutually
incomprehensible and, in some cases, genetically unrelated (i.e. not descended from a common 'parent'
language). Indeed, the only criterion by which tribes can be distinguished from each other is by their
language. The second fact is that the five phratries (and thus all twenty-odd tribes) are exogamous (i.e.
a man must not marry a woman from the same phratry or tribe). Putting these two facts together, it is
easy to see the main linguistic consequence: a man's wife must speak a different language from him.
We now add a third fact: marriage is patrilocal (the husband and wife live where the husband was
brought up), and there is a rule that the wife should not only live where the husband was brought up,
but should also use his language in speaking to their children (a custom that might be called
'patrilingual marriage'). The linguistic consequence of this rule is that a child's mother does not teach
her own language to the child, but rather a language which she speaks only as a foreigner...
Word
Meaning
phratry
genetically unrelated
exogamous
patrilocal
patrilingual marriage
Gap-fill exercise
Choose the correct word for each gap. Use the context to help you decide on the correct
answer. Press "Check" to check your answers.
The first adding machine, a precursor of the digital computer, was
French philosopher Blaise Pascal. This
tooth representing a digit from 0 to
be
in 1642 by the
employed a series of ten-toothed wheels, each
. The wheels were connected so that numbers could
to each other by advancing the wheels by a correct number of teeth. In the 1670s the
German philosopher and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz improved on this machine by
devising
one
that
could
also
.
The French inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard, in designing an automatic loom, used thin, perforated
boards to control the weaving of complicated designs. During the 1880s the American
statistician Herman Hollerith
the idea of using perforated cards, similar to Jacquard's
boards, for processing data. Employing a system that
contacts, he was able to
punched cards over electrical
statistical information for the 1890 United States census.
Civilization and History
Read the text on the right and choose the correct answer for each question.
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Reading skills for academic study
1 This essay can be divided into two main parts, although it has three
paragraphs. Where does the second part begin?
At the beginning of the second paragraph.
At the beginning of the third paragraph.
2 Which of the followings sentences gives the best summary of the
first part?
Some of the people who helped civilization forward are not mentioned
at all in history. books.
Conquerors and generals have been our most famous men, but they did
not help. civilisation forward.
It is true that people today do not fight or kill each other in the streets.
3 Which of the following sentences best summarizes the second part
of the essay?
In order to understand the long periods of history, we have to scale
them down to shorter periods.
The past of man has been on the whole a pretty beastly business.
Mankind is only at the beginning of civilized life; so we must not
expect a great deal of civilization at this stage.
4 In the first sentence the author says that
most history books were written by conquerors, generals and soldiers.
no one who really helped civilisation forward is mentioned in any
history book.
history books tell us far more about conquerors and soldiers than about
those who helped civilisation forward.
conquerors, generals and soldiers should not be mentioned in history
books.
5 On all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world, we find
the figure of the same conqueror or general or soldier.
the figure of some conqueror or general or soldier.
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Reading skills for academic study
a figure representing the number of conquerors, generals or soldiers in
that country.
the figure of a person who helped civilization forward.
6 Most people believe that the greatest countries are
those that built the highest pillars.
those that were beaten in battle by the greatest number of other
coutries.
those that were ruled by the greatest number of conquerors.
those that won the greatest number of battles against other countries.
7 In the author's opinion, the countries that ruled over a large
number of other countries are
certainly not the greatest in any way.
neither the greatest nor the most civilized.
possibly the most civilized but not the greatest.
possibly the greatest in some sense but not the most civilised.
8 The author says that civilized people
should not have any quarrels to settle.
should not fight when there are no quarrels to settle.
should settle their quarrels without fighting.
should settle their quarrels by seeing which side can kill off the
greatest number of the other side.
9 ‘That is what going to war means; it means saying that might is
right.’ The meaning of this sentence is that
those who fight believe that the winner is right and the loser wrong.
only those who are powerful should go to war.
those who are right should fight against those who are wrong.
in a war only those who are powerful will win.
10 ‘Even our own age has fought the two greatest wars in history.’
The author says that in order to show that our own age is
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Reading skills for academic study
different from those of the past.
not much better than those of the past.
much better than those of the past.
not so civilized as those of the past.
11 ‘From the point of view of evolution, human beings are very young
children indeed.’ The author says this in order to show that
very young children are not civilised.
evolution does not help civilization forward.
human beings have learnt very little in a very long time.
human beings are still at the beginning of their life on earth.
12 The scale which the author uses for representing time is
one month = one million years.
one hundred years = eight thousand years.
one year = one million years.
one month - twelve hundred million years.
13 ‘We must not expect even civilized people not to have done these
things.’ This suggests that
those who have done nay fighting and bullying cannot be considered
civilized.
there is nothing wrong if civilized people do some fighting and
bullying.
even civilized people have done some fighting and bullying.
civilized people have never done any fighting and bullying.
Civilization and History
Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great
conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are
often never mentioned at all. We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy boat,
or calculated the length of the year, or manured a field; but we know all about the killers and
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destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great
cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most
people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of
other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most
civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which
an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to
fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently - this, after all, is what conquerors and
generals have done - is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and
civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their disputes other than by seeing
which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that that side which has
killed most has won. And not only has won, but, because it has won, has been in the right. For that is
what going to war means; it means saying that might is right.
That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like. Even our own age has fought the two
greatest wars in history, in which millions of people were killed or mutilated. And while today it is
true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets - while, that is to say, we have got to the
stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life - nations and countries have
not learnt to do this yet, and still behave like savages. But we must not expect too much. After all, the
race of men has only just started. From the point of view of evolution, human beings are very young
children indeed, babies, in fact, of a few months old. Scientists reckon that there has been life of some
sort on the earth in the form of jellyfish and that kind of creature for about twelve hundred million
years; but there have been men for only one million years, and there have been civilized men for about
eight thousand years at the outside. These figures are difficult to grasp; so let us scale them down.
Suppose that we reckon the whole past of living creatures on the earth as one hundred years; then the
whole past of man works out at about one month, and during that month there have been civilizations
for between seven and eight hours. So you see there has been little time to learn in, but there will be
oceans of time in which to learn better. Taking man's civilized past at about seven or eight hours, we
may estimate his future, that is to say, the whole period between now and when the sun grows too cold
to maintain life any longer on the earth, at about one hundred thousand years. Thus mankind is only at
the beginning of its civilized life, and as I say, we must not expect too much. The past of man has been
on the whole a pretty beastly business, a business of fighting and bullying and gorging and grabbing
and hurting. We must not expect even civilized peoples not to have done these things. All we can ask
is that they will sometimes have done something else.
(From The Story of Civilization by C. E. M. Joad (A. D. Peters & Co. 1962)
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