Reading Organisation

Read the statements below and study the paragraph which follows. Decide which statements about the paragraph are true or false.

1. The paragraph talks about drivers and their opinions.
2. The paragraph contains three examples which illustrate driver’s high opinion of themselves.
3. The second sentence is a transition sentence.
4. You could remove the second sentence and put for example, at the beginning of the sentence 3.
5. The paragraph has no focus sentence.
6. The basic organization of this paragraph is: problem/solution
7. The paragraph needs more text remarks like then, indeed etc
8. The author wrote the paragraph to show what happens when drivers are arrogant about their driving abilities.
9. A suitable title is: Driver arrogance and the consequences.

“Driver often have an over-inflated opinion of their own driving abilities and think that most other people on the road fall well below their own high standard. Some even take it upon themselves to show their fellow road users how to drive. Car drivers commonly treat the road as a stage where they can show other motorists how skillfull they are by out-maneuvering them. Another frequent sight on t he road is an irate man hanging out of the window of his car instructing other driver on the art of road craft. A similar situation is the football stadium full of referees, yelling instructions at the man in back.”

Instructions:

In the passage, there are 105 words. Each of the words has a meaning. These words and meanings are then divided into five sentences. Each sentence has, in tern, a specific meaning, which comes from the sum of the words in the sentence. This meaning is different from the sum of individual parts, i.e. the words of each sentence. Take the following sentence, for example:

Museums and art galleries should be free of charge to the general public.

If you add all the words together, the total proposal or suggestion about the issue of charges for museums or art galleries. You can see that when you put the words together you get something different: meaning at another level. And not just one meaning! The sentence does, in fact, have other meanings, but you will see that later.

Another way of looking at the sentences is that the word proposal and is summaries of sentence. If you can add up the meanings of the sentences in a paragraph, you will have a different level of meaning. In other words, the sum of the meaning of sentences can help you work out the title of a paragraph.

Obviously, therefore, it is more economical to be read the organization of the meaning of a paragraph and dip into sentences, where necessary. Individual words then become much less important. This exercise develops further the basic techniques about organization.