Everyday English 1

2.2 Scanning

If you decide that you need to read a text more carefully, you begin to scan it.

Scanning is looking at a text to discover what information it contains that you may need and whether it has key words linked to the topic you’re interested in. You scan a text when you have an idea in your head beforehand about what you are looking for.

Scanning is another quick way of getting information from a text without having to read it all through.

Activity 14 Practise scanning

Allow about 10 minutes

Take a look at the questions below. Then read the text, a bit faster than you normally do. Scroll down the page so you can’t see the image and see if you can answer the questions.

  1. What is the cost of the holiday phonecard?
  2. Where can you buy a holiday phonecard?
  3. Name two advantages of a holiday phonecard.
Advert for a phonecard
Figure 10 An advert for a phonecard
Advert for a phonecard
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Here are the questions again:

  1. What is the cost of the holiday phonecard?
  2. Where can you buy a holiday phonecard?
  3. Name two advantages of a holiday phonecard.
(A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)

Discussion

  1. The phonecard costs £10.
  2. You can buy it from a main Post Office.
  3. Its advantages are that you can call from almost any phone, you can use it in almost 50 countries and you get low-cost call rates.

There was something in how the main points were laid out in the phonecard advert that might have helped you pick them out: they were laid out with bullet points. These make it easier to spot the important things.

OpenLearn - Everyday English 1
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