Introduction to READING COMPREHENSION
There are several steps in making a good reading comprehension:
1. Preparing to Read
- Thinking about the topic
2. Scanning
Scanning involves looking quickly through a text to find a specific word or piece of information.
There are often times when it is necessary to do this, such as when studying for a test or writing a
paper, so it is a useful skill to practice.
3. Skimming for main ideas
Skimming means reading only small parts of a text, such as the beginnings and ends of
paragraphs, in order to get an overview of the organization of the text and its main ideas.
Skimming a text is an excellent prereading habit. When you do a close reading of the text after
skimming it, you will find that you read more fluently and accurately
4. Understanding the organization of a text
5. Reading for detail
6. Note-taking
7. Summarizing
Being able to write a summary is an important skill. It shows that you have understood what is
most important in a text. When you summarize, you look at the whole text and reduce it to a few
sentences (using your own words, not the author’s). The first sentence of a summary should
express the overall message of the text. The remaining sentences should present the most
important ideas in the text. A good summary need not include details or supporting evidence for
the main ideas.
Efficient reading skills
Reading involves the use of the eyes and the brain. In order to read fast, you need to use more of
your brain. Reading fast means reading efficiently. This means not wasting time and using your
eyes and brain together well. To do this, you need to read purposefully and interactively.
Purposeful
Reading is purposeful. The way you read something will depend on your purpose. You read
different texts in different ways. In everyday life, you usually know why you are reading, you
have a a question and you read to find the answer. You usually know your way around your
favourite newspaper, so if you want to know the sports results, you go straight to the correct page,
or if you want to know what is on television tonight, you go straight to the television page. You
do not start on the first page. When you read a novel, it is different. You start at the beginning and
slowly move towards the end. In academic reading, you need to be flexible when you read - you
may need to read quickly to find relevant sections, then read carefully when you have found what
you want. General efficient reading strategies such as scanning to find the book or chapter,
skimming to get the gist and careful reading of important passages are necessary as well as
learning about how texts are structured in your subject.
Interactive
Reading is an interactive process - it is a two-way process. As a reader you are not passive but
active. This means you have to work at constructing the meaning from the marks on the paper,
which you use as necessary. You construct the meaning using your knowledge of the language,
your subject and the world, continually predicting and assessing. MacLachlan & Reid (1994) talk
about interpretive framing, which influences your understanding. They discuss four types of
framing:




Extratextual framing - using your background knowledge and experience to
understand texts.
Intratextual framing - making use of cues from the text, such as headings and subheadings and referential words such as "this" and "that" to understand texts.
Circumtextual farming - using information from the cover of the book, title, abstract
etc. to understand the text.
Intertextual framing - making connections with other texts you are reading to help to
understand your text.
You need to be active all the time when you are reading and use all the information that is
available. It is useful, therefore, before you start reading to try to actively remember what you
know, and do not know, about the subject and as you are reading to formulate questions based on
the information you have. All the information given above can be used to help you formulate
question to keep you interacting.
Useful skills are:




Scanning to locate specifically required information.
Surveying a text.
Using the title. Sometimes you have to make quick decisions based on the title.
Skimming a text to get an overall impression. Skimming is useful when you want to
survey a text to get a general idea of what it is about.
Scanning to locate specifically required information.
When you look for a telephone number or a name in an index, your eyes move quickly over the
words until you find the particular information you are looking for. You ignore everything except
the specific information you want. Scanning is directed and purposeful and should be extremely
fast.
Try these exercises: Exercise 1, Exercise 2, Exercise 3, Exercise 4
Surveying the text
Most of the time you will be reading serious academic texts books, journal articles and other
academic texts. And often you will need to read your texts closely and carefully in order to
understand specific information. However, you cannot read every word in every book in the
library. It is useful therefore to learn reading techniques to help you quickly assess new material,
decide if it is useful and which parts need to be read more carefully. It is also much easier to read
the texts in detail when you have a rough idea of what a text is about - roughly what the author's
purpose is, what is at the beginning of the text and what is at the end.
Surveying the text
Whatever you need to read, it is useful to have a quick look at it all first to get an idea of the
layout of the text and what is included.
So first, skim through the text to see what is included and how it is organized. Your text might
not contain all the following parts, but you can expect to find many of them. Look especially at
the following parts.
Title (plus maybe a sub-title).
Sometimes, perhaps when you are in the library or when you are searching through a
catalogue, you need to make quick decisions on the basis of the title, maybe
including a sub-title, alone. You need to ask yourself whether the text is relevant for
your purpose and what sort of information you expect to get from it.
Details about the author.
It can be helpful to know about the author, what the author's academic position is,
what experience the author has had, etc.
Date of publication and edition.
This helps you to decide whether or not the book is up to date. It is worth checking
whether or not there is a more recent edition.
Abstract.
An abstract is usually a single paragraph at the beginning of the text. It normally
summarises the different sections of the text and draws attention to the main
conclusions. Reading the abstract will help you to decide whether or not the text is
relevant for your purpose.
Preface, Foreword or Introduction.
In the preface, the author explains the purpose, organisation, method of presentation,
and whatever particular features of the book you should especially notice. Read it
carefully. The author is explaining how to get the most out of the book.
Table of Contents.
The contents will give you an overall view of the material in the book. Looking at
this is a quick and easy way to survey the book to see if it includes the information
you need.
Text.
The layout of the text can help you. Text books are organised into chapter and
chapters have titles and section headings. Very often each chapter will start with an
introduction of what is in the chapter and a summary at the end.
References list or Bibliography.
An alphabetical list of books and articles which have been referred to is included
either at the end of each chapter or at the end of the book or article. Looking through
the list of references will give you some idea of the author's background.
Index.
One of the most important sections of any textbook is the index at the end. This is a
fairly detailed alphabetical listing of all the major people, places, ideas, facts, or
topics that the book contains, with page references. The index can give you
information about the topics covered in the book and the amount of attention paid to
them.
Blurb.
The blurb is the publisher's description of what the book is about, usually on the back
cover. But remember that the main purpose is to sell the book.
Reviewers’' comments.
These are usually on the back cover, but remember they are chosen by the publisher
and therefore will probably be good.
Exercises
Try these exercises: Exercise 1, Exercise 2,
Using the title
Reading is an interactive process - it is two-way. This means you have to work at constructing the
meaning from the marks on the paper. You need to be active all the time when you are reading. It
is useful, therefore, before you start reading to try to actively remember what you know, and do
not know, about the subject and then formulate questions based on the information you have. You
can then read to answer these questions.
Title, sub-titles and section heading can help you formulate questions to keep you interacting.
The title is a summary of the text. Sometimes we have to make quick decisions based on only the
title. Therefore it is useful to try to understand it well. This may mean looking up unfamiliar
words in a dictionary.
It is a good idea to ask yourself the following questions, based on the title.
1. Is this text relevant to your needs? Is it related to the subject you are studying?
2. What do you expect to learn from the text? Ask yourself some questions that you
expect the text to answer.
Exercise
Try these exercises: Exercise 1
Efficient reading skills
Skimming to get an overall impression.
Skimming is useful when you want to survey a text to get a general idea of what it is about. In
skimming you ignore the details and look for the main ideas. Main ideas are usually found in the
first sentences of each paragraph and in the first and last paragraphs. It is also useful to pay
attention to the organisation of the text.
As reading is an interactive process, you have to work at constructing the meaning of the text
from the marks on the paper. You need to be active all the time when you are reading. It is useful,
therefore, if you need to read the text in detail, before you start reading to activate the knowledge
you have about the topic of the text and to formulate questions based on this information.
Skimming a text for gist can help you formulate questions to keep you interacting with the text.
Skimming a text using first lines of paragraphs.
In most academic writing, the paragraph is a coherent unit, about one topic, connected to the
previous and next paragraphs. Paragraphs are organised internally and the first sentence of each
paragraph is often a summary of, or an introduction to, the paragraph. You can therefore get a
good idea of the overall content of a text by reading the first sentence of each paragraph. This
should help you get a feeling for the structure of the text. In many cases that will be enough, but if
it isn’t, you will now have a good idea of the structure of the text and you will find it easier to
read in detail. Familiar texts are easier to read.
As reading is an interactive process, you have to work at constructing the meaning of the text
from the marks on the paper. You need to be active all the time when you are reading. It is useful,
therefore, if you need to read the text in detail, before you start reading to activate the knowledge
you have about the topic of the text and to formulate questions based on this information.
Skimming a text using first lines of paragraphs can help you formulate questions to keep you
interacting with the text.
Try these exercises: Exercise 1, Exercise 2, Exercise 3, Exercise 4, Exercise 5, Exercise 6
Skimming a text using first and last paragraphs.
In most academic writing, the text is organised clearly with an introduction and a conclusion. The
introduction gives you an idea of what the text is going to be about and the conclusion shows that
this is what it has been about. You can therefore get a good idea of the overall content of a text by
reading the first and last paragraphs of a text. This should help you get a feeling for the content of
the text. In many cases that will be enough, but if it isn't, you will now have a good idea of the
content of the text and you will find it easier to read in detail. Familiar texts are easier to read.
As reading is an interactive process, you have to work at constructing the meaning of the text
from the marks on the paper. You need to be active all the time when you are reading. It is useful,
therefore, if you need to read the text in detail, before you start reading to activate the knowledge
you have about the topic of the text and to formulate questions based on this information.
Skimming a text using first and last paragraphs can help you formulate questions to keep you
interacting with the text.
Try these exercises: Exercise 1, Exercise 2, Exercise 3
Skimming a text, using section headings.
In some academic writing, the text is organised through the use of headings and sub-headings.
You can therefore get a good idea of the overall content of a text by reading the headings and
sub-headings first. This should help you get a feeling for the content and organisation of the text.
In many cases that will be enough, but if it isn’t, you will now have a good idea of the content of
the text and you will find it easier to read in detail. Familiar texts are easier to read.
As reading is an interactive process, you have to work at constructing the meaning of the text
from the marks on the paper. You need to be active all the time when you are reading. It is useful,
therefore, before you start reading to activate the knowledge you have about the topic of the text
and to formulate questions based on this information. The title, sub-titles and section headings
can help you formulate questions to keep you interacting with the text.
Try these exercises: Exercise 1, Exercise 2
Exercises
Scanning to locate specifically required information
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Surveying the text
Exercise 1
Exercise 2,
Using the title
Exercise 1
Skimming a text using first lines of paragraphs
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
Skimming a text using first and last paragraphs
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Skimming a text, using section headings.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercises
Understanding text structure/organisation.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Understanding conceptual meaning
Exercise 1
Understanding reference
Exercise 1-10
Exercise 11
Understanding difficult language
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
General reading
General
Civilization and history
Using land wisely
Science & Technology
Oil
Reading critically
Critical reading
It is important to read critically. Critical reading requires you to evaluate the arguments in the
text. You need to distinguish fact from opinion, and look at arguments given for and against the
various arguments. This also means being aware of your opinions and assumptions (positive and
negative) of the text you are reading so you can evaluate it honestly. It is also important to be
aware of the writer's background, assumptions and purposes. All writers have a reason for writing
and will emphasise details which support their reason for writing and ignore details that do not.
The following questions may be usefully asked about any text you are reading:
A Purpose and background
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why are you reading this text? What is your purpose?
What type of text is it: research report, essay, textbook, book review?
What do you know about the subject of the text?
What else has been written on the subject of the text?
What controversies exist in this area? How does this text fit in?
B The author and the text
1. Who is the author? What do you know about the author? What authority does the
author have?
2. Who is the intended audience?
3. What is the author's purpose? Why has the text been written?
4. What is the source of the text? Is it reputable? Who is the publisher? What reputation
to they have?
5. What is the date of publication? Is it appropriate to the argument?
6. What is the writer's attitude towards the topic?
7. What conclusions are drawn?
C Evidence used
1. Is there a clear distinction between fact and opinion?
2. Is evidence used to support arguments? How good is the evidence? Are all the points
supported?
3. In an experimental study, was the sample size adequate and are the statistics reliable?
4. Are there any unsupported points? Are they well-known facts or generally accepted
opinions?
5. How does the writer use other texts and other people's ideas?
6. Are the writer's conclusions reasonable in the light of the evidence presented?
7. How do the conclusions relate to other similar research?
D Assumptions made
1. What assumptions has the writer made? Are they valid?
2. What beliefs or values does the writer hold? Are they explicit?
3. Look at the language that is used, e.g. active/passive verbs, nominalisations,
pronouns,
ergative
verbs,
articles,
etc.
e.g. compare: the government increased taxes; they increased the taxes, taxes were
increased; taxes increased; the taxes increased, there was an increase in taxes
4. Look at the transitivity choices: e.g. participants and processes
5. Look for emphatic words such as it is obvious, definitely and of course.
6. Look for hedges: possible, might, perhaps.
7. Look for emotional arguments, use of maximisers: completely, absolutely, entirely,
or minimisers: only, just, hardly, simply, merely.
8. How else could the text have been written?
Example
Read the following example: Example 1.
Exercise
Try these exercises: Exercise 1, Exercise 2
Exercises
Critical reading
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Summarising and note-taking
Purposeful
Reading is purposeful. The way you read something will depend on your purpose. You read
different texts in different ways. In everyday life, you usually know why you are reading. You
have a question and you read to find the answer. You usually know your way around your
favourite newspaper, so if you want to know the sports results, you go straight to the correct page,
or if you want to know what is on television tonight, you go straight to the television page. You
do not start on the first page. When you read a novel, it is different. You start at the beginning and
slowly move towards the end. In academic reading, you need to be flexible when you read - you
may need to read quickly to find relevant sections, then read carefully when you have found what
you want. General efficient reading strategies such as scanning to find the book or chapter,
skimming to get the gist and careful reading of important passages are necessary as well as
learning about how texts are structured in your subject.
Interactive
Reading is an interactive process - it is a two-way process. As a reader you are not passive but
active. This means you have to work at constructing the meaning from the marks on the paper,
which you use as necessary. You construct the meaning using your knowledge of the language,
your subject and the world, continually predicting and assessing. You need to be active all the
time when you are reading. It is useful, therefore, before you start reading to try to actively
remember what you know, and do not know, about the subject and as you are reading to
formulate questions based on the information you have. Title, sub-titles and section heading can
help you formulate question to keep you interacting.
Useful skills are:


Distinguishing the main ideas from supporting detail, and extracting salient points to
summarise.
Taking notes
Summarising
One of the most important aspects of reading for academic study is reading so you can make use
of the ideas of other people. This is important as you need to show that you have understood the
materials you have read and that you can use their ideas and findings in your own way. In fact,
this is an essential skill for every student. Spack (1988, p. 42) has pointed out that the most
important skill a student can engage in is "the complex activity to write from other texts", which
is "a major part of their academic experience." It is very important when you do this to make sure
you use your own words, unless you are quoting. You must make it clear when the words or ideas
that you are using are your own and when they are taken from another writer. You must not use
another person's words or ideas as if they were your own: this is Plagiarism and plagiarism is
regarded as a very serious offence.
Summarising
A summary is a shortened version of a text. It contains the main points in the text and is written in
your own words. It is a mixture of reducing a long text to a short text and selecting relevant
information. A good summary shows that you have understood the text.
Look at this example:
Source
The amphibia, which is the animal class to
which our frogs and toads belong, were the first
animals to crawl from the sea and inhabit the
earth.
Summary
The first animals to leave the sea and live on dry
land were the amphibia.
The phrase "which is the animal class to which our frogs and toads belong" is an example, not a
main point, and can be deleted. The rest of the text is rewritten in your own words.
Try this exercise: Exercise.
The following stages may be useful:
1. Read and understand the text carefully.
2. Think about the purpose of the text.
a. Ask what the author's purpose is in writing the text?
b. What is your purpose in writing your summary?
c. Are you summarising to support your points?
d. Or are you summarising so you can criticise the work before you introduce
your main points?
3. Select the relevant information. This depends on your purpose.
4. Find the main ideas - what is important.
a. They may be found in topic sentences.
b. Distinguish between main and subsidiary information.
c. Delete most details and examples, unimportant information, anecdotes,
examples, illustrations, data etc.
d. Find alternative words/synonyms for these words/phrases - do not change
specialised vocabulary and common words.
5. Change the structure of the text.
a. Identify the meaning relationships between the words/ideas - e.g.
cause/effect, generalisation, contrast. Look at Paragraphs: Signalling for
more information. Express these relationships in a different way.
b. Change the grammar of the text: rearrange words and sentences, change
nouns to verbs, adjectives to adverbs, etc., break up long sentences, combine
short sentences.
c. Simplify the text. Reduce complex sentences to simple sentences, simple
sentences to phrases, phrases to single words.
6. Rewrite the main ideas in complete sentences. Combine your notes into a piece of
continuous writing. Use conjunctions and adverbs such as 'therefore', 'however',
'although', 'since', to show the connections between the ideas.
7. Check your work.
a. Make sure your purpose is clear.
b. Make sure the meaning is the same.
c. Make sure the style is your own.
4b/c. Distinguish between main and subsidiary information. Delete most details and examples,
unimportant information, anecdotes, examples, illustrations, data etc. Simplify the text. Reduce
complex sentences to simple sentences, simple sentences to phrases, phrases to single words.
Examples:
a. People whose professional activity lies in the field of politics are not, on the whole,
conspicuous for their respect for factual accuracy: Politicians often lie.
b. Failure to assimilate an adequate quantity of solid food over an extended period of
time is absolutely certain to lead, in due course, to a fatal conclusion: If you do not
eat, you die.
c. The climatic conditions prevailing in the British Isles show a pattern of alternating
and unpredictable periods of dry and wet weather, accompanied by a similarly
irregular cycle of temperature changes: British weather is changeable.
d. It is undeniable that the large majority of non-native learners of English experience a
number of problems in attempting to master the phonetic patterns of the language:
Many learners find English pronunciation difficult.
e. Tea, whether of the China or Indian variety, is well known to be high on the list of
those beverages which are most frequently drunk by the inhabitants of the British
Isles: The British drink a large amount of tea.
f. It is not uncommon to encounter sentences which, though they contain a great
number of words and are constructed in a highly complex way, none the less turn out
on inspection to convey very little meaning of any kind: Some long and complicated
sentences mean very little.
g. One of the most noticeable phenomena in any big city, such as London or Paris, is
the steadily increasing number of petrol-driven vehicles, some in private ownership,
others belonging to the public transport system, which congest the roads and render
rapid movement more difficult year by year: Big cities have growing traffic
problems.
Example 1: Volcanic Islands
Example and exercise: Progress in Samoa
Exercises: Exercises
Synthesis
A synthesis is a combination, usually a shortened version, of several texts made into one. It
contains the important points in the text and is written in your own words.
To make a synthesis you need to find suitable sources, and then to select the relevant parts in
those sources. You will then use your paraphrase and summary skills to write the information in
your own words. The information from all the sources has to fit together into one continuous text.
The following stages may be useful:
1. Find texts that are suitable for your assignment.
2. Read and understand the texts.
3. Find the relevant ideas in the texts. Mark them in some way - write them down,
underline them or highlight them.
4. Make sure you identify the meaning relationships between the words/ideas.
5. Read what you have marked very carefully.
6. Organise the information you have. You could give all similar ideas in different texts
the same number or letter or colour.
7. Transfer all the information on to one piece of paper. Write down all similar
information together.
8. Paraphrase and summarise as necessary.
9. Check your notes with your original texts for accuracy and relevance.
10. Combine your notes into one continuous text.
Example 1: Protecting Rainforests
Taking notes
Taking notes is an important part of the life of every student. There are two main reasons why
note-taking is important:
1. When you are reading or listening, taking notes helps you concentrate. In order to take
notes - to write something sensible - you must understand the text. As listening and
reading are interactive tasks, taking notes help you make sense of the text. Taking notes
does not mean writing down every word you hear; you need to actively decide what is
important and how is related to what you have already written.
2. Notes help you to maintain a permanent record of what you have read or listened to. This
is useful when revising in the future for examinations or other reasons.
Good notes should be accurate, clear and concise. They should show the organisation of the text,
and this should show the relationship between the ideas.
How to take notes.
When you're reading, first survey the text to find the main points and how they are related. Then
read for the subsidiary points; see how they are related to the main points and to each other. Then,
reduce the points to notes. Make sure links and relationships between the ideas are shown.
Good notes need to be organised appropriately. There are two main methods for this:
1. List
The topic is summarised one point after another, using numbers and letters and indentation to
organise information in order of importance. The numbers and letters can be used by themselves
or in combination.
I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X,
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8,9,10,
(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x),
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i,
Or using decimals:
1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
For example:
I.
II.
III.
XXXX
XXXX
A.
B.
C.
XXXX
A.
B.
C.
IV.
1. XXXX
2. XXXX
a.
b.
c.
3. XXXX
a.
b.
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
1.
2.
3.
XXXX
1.
2.
XXXX
A.
XXXX
B.
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
i.
ii.
iii.
c. XXXX
i.
ii.
4. XXXX
a. XXXX
b. XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
1.
XXX
X
2.
XXX
X
2.1.
XXX
X
2.2.
XXX
X
2.3.
XXX
X
3.
XXX
V.
C.
XXXX
XXXX
c. XXXX
5. XXXX
X
3.1.
XXX
X
3.2.
XXX
X
3.2.1.
XXX
X
3.2.2.
XXX
X
3.2.3.
XXX
X
3.3.
XXX
X
3.3.1.
XXX
X
3.3.2.
XXX
X
4.
XXX
X
4.1.
XXX
X
4.2.
XXX
X
4.3.
XXX
X
5.
XXX
X
Example
Example 1,
2. Diagram
A diagram of the information shows how the main ideas are related and reflects the organisation
of the information. You can use flow charts, tree diagrams, diagrams, mind maps (Buzan, 1974)
etc. You can also include circles, arrows, lines, boxes, etc.
Example
Example 2, Example 3, Example 4, Example 5, Example 6
In both ways, you can use headings, underlining, colours, and white space to make the
relationships clear. There is no generally best layout - it depends on what you like and your
purpose. Some ways of taking notes are more appropriate for some topics. A description of a
process suits a flow chart and a classification is shown cleraly using a tree diagram. It is
important to show how the ideas are the connected and how the information is organised.
Make sure you write down where your notes have been taken from. It will save you time when
you need to check your facts or write a bibliography. In lecture notes, make sure you write down
the name of anyone quoted and where the quote has been taken from. You can then find it if you
want to make more detailed use of the information.
Exercise
Try these exercise: Exercise 1, Exercise 2.
Notes are a summary and should therefore be much shorter than the original. Thus, abbreviations
and symbols can be used whenever possible. The table below shows some conventional English
symbols and abbreviations. You will need specific ones for your own subject.
and
&
and others (people)
et. al.
and other things
etc.
answer
A
approximately
at
, approx., c.
@
because
before example
:
centimeter
cm
century
C
chapter
ch.
compare
cf.
correct
decreases, falls
degrees
°
department
dept.
divided by
÷
east
E
equal to
=
equivalent to
especially
esp.
for example
e.g.
governnment
govt.
greater than
>
grows, increases
important
N.B.
in one year
p.a.
information
info.
kilogram
kg
less than
<
maximum
max.
minimum
min.
minus
-
much greater than
>>
much less than
<<
multipied by
×
north
N
not come from
not equal
not lead to
not proportional to
number
No. or #
page
p.
pages
pp.
percent
%
plus
+
possibly
poss.
probably
prob.
proportional to
question
Q
results from
results in, leads to
same as above
"
similar to
that is to say, in other words i.e.
therefore
south
S
unlikely
??
uncertain, not sure
?
very
v.
with reference to
re.
wrong
X
west
W
year
yr.
Summarising and note-taking
Exercises
Reading and Writing
Text Reconstruction
Note-Taking
Select and summarise
Paraphrase/Summary
Note-taking
1. Encounter groups
1. Amphibia.
1.
Coffee
processing.
2. School and life
2. Ethologists
2. How children
fail.
3. Helping black teeneagers to read
3. Joining metals
4. Violence
4. Population spread
5. The Clark-Trimble experiments
5. Sex-linked roles
6. Gun control
6. Attitudes to learning
7. Freedom and selfishness
7. Acquiring new knowledge
8. Teaching speech
8.
Princess
Norwegians
shocks
9. Received pronunciation
9. The way I see it
10. How children fail
10. Safety in the home
Summary
11. Cut your losses
10. The new music
12. Garlic cure supported
11. Lie detector
13. Democratic Socialism
12. Dilemma of the working mother
13. Resue archaeology in Scotland
14. Food
14. The causes of conflict
15. Work
15. Summerhill education and standard 16. Water
education
17. Sight
16. Hypnosis
17. The marriages that Britain splits up
18. Nightmare in a California jail
19. Violence
20. How the west was lost
21. Schoolbooks and the female stereotype
22. A séance
23.Goodbye to the cane
24. Grammar schools
Synthesis
25. The biggest flying monster in the world
Monster could not flap wings