如何提高大学英语四级阅读技巧
[Abstract] Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the four basic skills in the process of English learning .Reading is one of the important skills. Improving reading skill is the major job in English teaching at college. The CET-4 reading section can test college students’ reading ability .This paper proves into the CET-4 reading section, lists the principle of selecting reading materials and the obstacles that hinder students in their comprehension and speed, meanwhile it states the strategy of skimming and scanning and the importance of background knowledge. Besides, on the basis of analyzing the past testing items, the paper suggests corresponding countermeasures so as to improve students’ ability of reading and testing.
[keywords] CET-4； reading comprehension；countermeasures； vocabulary； reading speed.
【摘要】 阅读理解是四种基本技能（听说读写）中的最重要的一种。 阅读能力的培养又是大学英语教学的重点所在。大学英语四级中的阅读理解是对考生语言能力综合运用的一种检验。本主要探讨了英语四级的阅读部分，列举了阅读题选材的内容，阅读当中的妨碍阅读理解和阅读速度的因素，同时详细介绍了 skimming 和scanning的策略， 进而提及背景知识在应试技巧中的重要性，此外，本文在分析几例考题的基础上提出相应的应试策略以提高学生的阅读能力和应试能力。
【关键词】 大学四级；阅读理解；词汇； 相应策略；阅读速度
Introduction
When a test is to be given to test taker, the test makers should consider its validity, and the validity now have two aspects: content validity and construct validity. The content of a test constitutes a representative sample of language skill by mentioning validity, and such validity depend on the purpose of a test .If a test is too easy ,too difficult to most test takers or they lack the background of the testing material,it is not valid. That is, the purpose if test and testing principles as well as specific instructions to a certain test determines the validity of the tests. [1]R44
Today, the principle of testing complies by the CET test center are vital to the teachers of English and the students intending to take such tests, which determine the validity of the CET tests themselves and have a guide to English teaching and studying. This paper is about the CET-4 reading section, it concludes principles, purposes, and testing ability and how they are embodied in the reading section.
In CET-4 (college English test Band 4), reading comprehension test should be finished within a limited time (35 minutes) .CET—4 is held twice a year in the whole country. The reading section contains 4 short passages with five multiple-choice questions, amount to20 questions .The 20 questions are divided into two parts, according to the type of correct answer: direct questions and indirect questions .Therefore, the three reading achievements are obtained as dependent variables:
A. The whole achievement of the whole reading comprehension test;
B. Indirect –question achievement;
C. Direct-questions achievement;
1 Principle
From the CET—4model test (reading section),we can see that the student should finish the four passages in 35 minutes (the speed of reading is about 70 words every minutes ),it including 5questions in each passage .So on average the student should read each passage and choose the right answer in 8—9 minutes through thinking and reasoning. [2]R19
“(1) The content of reading materials is about biography, society ,culture, common sense ,and natural science and the concerned background knowledge is not beyond the student’s reach of comprehension .
(2) The type of test is various, including stories, expositions, and argumentations, etc.
(3) The degree of difficulty is mild and the words are within Chinese meaning which has some influence on the sentence and passage comprehension.” [3]R45
2. Purpose
The purpose of the reading section is designed to test student’s abilities, as following;
(1) To get the gist of reading passage;
(2) To get the information of details of the passage and the example of supporting the gist;
(3) To understand the literal meaning and make inference according to the reading passages;
(4) Judge the meaning of some words and phrases through contest;
(5) To understand specific sentences as well as the logic relations of the context;
(6) Follow the author’s opinion and attitude; [3]R46
There are three different levels in the reading test:
(1) The first level, students may use skimming and scanning to find the details or the main ideas in the passage according to the questions, this is the basic requirement, and it is easy for students to get the accurate deductions.
(2) The second level, student can catch the key words and the related words to reason the implied statement and make some deductions. This type of requirement is more difficult than the first level, the students themselves should draw the conclusion from the passage, and they can not find the answer directly from the passage.
(3) The third level is the most difficult questions for students, students are asked to draw logical conclusion from the reading passage, they should consider more information in the passage , but these different levels of questions have not the same proportion in the test, it can expressed with the figure below: [5]R46
3. Vocabulary-obstacle and solution
3.1 Vocabulary:
Vocabulary is the main part in English learning. One’s English level depends on one’s vocabulary. Many students complain that they do not understand what they are reading .It is not the problem of grammar but vocabulary, indeed we almost have learned grammar in high school .What should we learn then?—Vocabulary. If one has the small vocabulary, it is difficult for him to do the English reading. And for every student in English department, the most difficult problem in reading is vocabulary.
There are750.000 words in English Words are constantly being changed. It has been
Proved that the reader’s inadequate store of vocabulary and misuse of words has greatly affected their reading efficiency. To be an efficient reader, you will need to know a lot of words. They can store the new words depend on the dictionary or guessing the meaning of the words through the vocabulary building forms, such as root, prefix, suffix.
3.2 Solution
It is necessary for English learner to have a well-designed dictionary. Especially having an English-English dictionary, but how to use it efficiently? There are some basic points the students can follow when using the dictionary;
(1) Try to use your English-English dictionary first when you need to look up a word, only use your bilingual dictionary if you have to.
(2) Don’t look up every word you don’t understand, only look up the words which interfere with your comprehension.
(3) Always try to guess what the meaning of a word is before looking up .
(4) Whenever you come cross a new word in a passage ,don’t immediately stop to look it up in the dictionary, this can kill your interest and even interfere with your comprehension ,because you are so concerned with the individual words that you are less aware of the content which gives them meaning.
(5) Most words in the dictionary have multiple meaning, when using your dictionary, you must be very careful to select meaning appropriate to the content in which you have found the words that you are looking up. [6]R62
. In a word, using a dictionary properly, the students will store a large amount of words through looking up the dictionary.
.
3.3 Word building form
3.3.1 Root
As we know English words derived from Latin and Greek. “For many centuries, Latin and Greek served as international languages in religion, science and education. The modern scientists or inventors often draw on Latin or Greek root words and use them in new combinations.” [7]R101 So we can guess the meaning of a word from the root for example:
“For example:
(i) act (做，行为)---- (ii) Audi (听)
action n. 行为，动作; audience n. 听众;
enact vt. 制定（） 扮演; auditorium n. 礼堂，讲堂
(iii) Bio (生命)
biology n. 生物学;
antibiotic adj. 抗生素的
3.3.2 Prefixes
study the prefix help us understand and remember words, many words derived from Latin and Greek consist of a familiar root and a common prefix .a prefix is a syllable (or sometimes two syllables) attached at the beginning of a word , for example:
(i) 表示“one” mono-- ,mon— (ii)表示“two” di—
monocycle n. 单轮车; dia atomic adj: 双原子的
monotone n. 单调，无变 dioxide n 二氧化物
(iii) 表示 out/without/ ex--
exit n.出口;
expense n.费用 支出
3.3.3 Suffixes
Some words consist of a familiar root and a common suffix .a suffix is a syllable (or sometimes served syllables ) attached at the end of a word to add something to its meaning ,for example:
(i) an (--ian, --en ) 表示行力者 (ii) active 表示主动的
history—historian 学家; act—active 活跃的；
music---musician 家 invent---inventive 有发明才能的
(iii) able (--idle )表示被动的
eat—eatable 可食的;
move—movable 可移动的 [8]R641-661
If students know a number of commonly prefixes, roots and suffixes, they will easily guess the meaning of new words in their reading.
4. Reading speed
The unknown word in CET-4 passage is not the only one of the essential factors that hinder reading comprehension. Students should finish the questions in a set time, so the speed of reading is the other factor that influences the testing achievement. There are two basic reading skills (skimming and scanning),they are quite often used in reading.
4.1 Skimming and scanning
Generally speaking, readers read the material at the first time to get a general impression of the test (the first reading is called skimming) and a second time in order to find the important details in the test (the second reading is called scanning).[9]R68
Skimming means that a person can accomplish at the fastest speed. It is used when a reader wishes to get the general expression quickly. Skimming is different from average reading. The students leave out of the reading material and have clear ideas .Skimming requires that readers selectively omit some parts of the reading material .when readers skim, they need to get the main idea, but not all of the details of the information. Skimming is a very useful skill. It will help readers have a better understand on the topic in a set time and help them do the reading better.
Scanning is another useful skill, it is the term used to describe a reading process in which we are searching for certain factors or information. When students do questions in reading section, they can catch the key word in the questions and scan the specific information in the passage, and answer the question. [10]R66-67
Whether readers scan or skim depends on what kind of text they are facing in the CET—4. In order to improve the speed of reading, sometimes readers can use this two methods together and practice themselves to be an efficient reader and save the time in the test.
4.2 Step
There are two different procedures to finish the reading comprehension:
(1) Read the whole passage , then start answering questions, students may skim the materials first and get an overall understanding of the materials .The disadvantage of this method is the lack of clear purpose ,because students do not pay much attention to some details when they are reading quickly.
(2) Go over the questions quickly and then read the whole passage with these questions. The purpose is clear and it is likely to save time, but because of the lack of comprehension of the whole passage it is hard to get the correct information. [11]R36
5. The main types of questions and countermeasures
Some types of test in reading comprehension is standard and relatively stable. This part includes main ideas, inference (reasoning), judgment, vocabulary, paragraph of sentence, etc.
5.1 How to judge the topic sentence
1) “ the topic sentence generalizes more information than any other sentence in the passage
2) the author repeats the idea or the key words
3) some words infer the information such as: in short, result in ,.consequently, since ,as ,therefore, thus, but, however, I suggest/thing /believe----,the conclusion to be draw is obvious, etc.” [12]R43
Here are some examples from formal tests:
No.1 Example :( from CET-4 2001, 1)
Formaldehyde(甲醛) gas in her kitchen was twice the maximum Priscilla Ouchida's "energy efficient" house turned out to be a horrible dream. When she and her engineer husband married a few years ago, they built a $100,000, three -bedroom home in California. Tightly sealed to prevent air leaks, the house was equipped with small double |paned(双层玻璃的) windows and several other energy saving features. Problems began as soon as the couple moved in, however. Priscilla's eyes burned. Her throat was constantly dry. She suffered from headaches and could hardly sleep. It was as though she had suddenly developed a strange illness.
Experts finally traced the cause of her illness. The level of allowed by federal standards for chemical workers. The source of the gas? Her new kitchen cabinets and wall |to |wall carpeting.
……
The problem appears to be more troublesome in newly constructed homes rather than old ones. Back in the days when energy was cheap, home builders didn't worry much about unsealed cracks. Because of such leaks, the air in an average home was replaced by fresh outdoor air about once an hour. As a result, the pollutants generated in most households seldom built up to dangerous levels.
Question: This passage is most probably taken from an article entitled –
A. Energy conservation
B. House building crisis
C. Air pollution indoors
D. Traps in building construction
The answer is C. Generally speaking the repeated key words always show the main idea of the passage ,skimming the passage we can get some words related to the disease:
Such as “eye burned”, “throat…dry” “headache…could hardly sleep” and “strange illness” while “formaldehyde gas in the kitchen ,We can know that this is the cause of disease according to the common sense and the following paragraph often appears “indoor air pollution” “indoor environment” “a pollution scientist” and the “the pollutions” so many words related to word “pollution indoor” throughout the whole passage, so in the article the topic sentence is “air polluting indoors”
This type of question, the main idea of is the most important clue to answer the question. Students should catch the main idea of the whole passage and conclude the information according to the repeated key words and meanwhile practice the ability of generalization.
5.2 Sentence—paragraph type
This part tests whether a student can understand the correct meaning of a sentence through context .Following questions is often adopted:
The sentence “…” (Line…) means that …
The sentence “…” implies?
What does the sentence “…”mean?
The sentence “…”can be paraphrased as…
This of the following is closest in meaning to the sentence “…?”
No.2 Example :( from CET-4 2002, 1)
For an increasing number of students at American universities, Old is suddenly in. The reason is obvious: the graying of America means jobs. Coupled with the aging of the baby-boom ( 生育高峰) generation, a longer life span means that the nation's elderly population is bound to expand significantly over the next 50 years. By 2050, 25 percent of all Americans will be older than 65, up from 14 percent in 1995. The change poses profound questions for government and society, of course. But it also creates career opportunities in medicine and health professions and in law and business as well. "In addition to the doctors, we're going to need more sociologists, biologists, urban planners and specialized lawyers," says Professor Edward Schneider of the University of Southern California's (USC) School of Gerontology (老年学).
……
Question:“…old is suddenly in”(line 1,Paragrah1) most probably means “---“
A American has suddenly become a nation of old people
B gerontology has suddenly become popular
C more elderly professors are found on American campuses
D by winning the trust of the elderly to promote their own interests.
The answer is B, As to this type of question we can get the clue from (line 3,paragraph 1)
“Couple with the aging of the baby –boom( 生育高峰) generation, a longer life span means that the nation’s elder population is bound to expand significantly over the neat 50 years” So from this sentence we know that American old population has suddenly increased. This type of question, we can get its clue around the sentence, and find more supporting ideas.
5.3 Main—idea type
Each passage has its central idea .The expressions to decide main ideas are as following:
The main idea of the passage is…...
The passage deals mainly with……
The title which best expresses the idea of the passage is……
The main idea of the passage may be best express as……
The passage is mainly concerned with…. The passage illustrates……
What is the main idea/subject/purpose/topic of the passage?
The passage is about……
The author’s purpose in writing this passage is…
The paragraph could be entitled…
Which of the following best sums up the whole passage?
There are several testing items:
No.3 Example: (from CET-4, 2002, 6)
Most episodes of absent-mindedness—forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room-are caused by a simple lack of attention says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remember something but you haven’t encoded it deeply.”
……
Another common episode of absent-mindedness walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time” says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room and you’ll likely remember.
Question: What is the passage mainly about?
A the process of gradual memory loss
B the cause of absent---mindedness
C the impact of the environment on memory
D a way of encoding and recalling
The answer is B,this is the main idea type; the first sentence is main idea of the passage
“Most episodes of absent—mindedness –forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room are caused by a simple lack of attention, says Schacter, ‘You are suppose to remember something ,but you have not encode it deeply’" “so it is so easy to catch the answer B if we find the topic sentence .But topic sentence doesn’t always appear in the first sentence in the passage .Sometimes it appears in the end of the passage or in the middle of the passage, even some passage hasn’t the topic sentence .So under this condition, the student should the conclude the topic sentence by himself according to content of the passage.
5.4 Vocabulary type
This type mainly tests student’s ability to guess the meaning of a certain word in special context, and. students should have a large vocabulary, but that is not enough, they should learn to use some more methods to infer:
A To infer through context
B To infer through analogy
C To infer through word formation
A average patterns are as following:
In line…, the word “…”means…
The word “…”in the passage means…
The word “…” (Line) could best be replaced by…
Which of the following pairs are synonyms?
As used in the passage, the phrase “…”suggest…
The expression “…”is close to …
The definition “…”applies to what key word in the passage?
The passage used the word “…” to refer to …
The word “…”is supposed to make one think…
Which of the following has the closest meaning to…?
No.4 Example :( from CET-4 2003,1)
New technology links the world as never before. Our planet has shrunk. It’s now a “global village” where countries are only seconds away by fax or phone or satellite link. And. of course, our ability to benefit from this high-tech communications equipment is greatly enhanced by foreign language skills.
Deeply involved with this new technology is a breed of modern businesspeople who
have a growing respect for the economic value of doing business abroad. In modern
Markets, success overseas often helps support domestic business efforts
Overseas assignments are becoming increasingly important to advancement within executive ranks. The executive stationed in another country no longer need fear being “out of sight and out of mind.” He or she can be sure that the overseas effort is central to the company’s plan for success, and that promotions often follow or accompany an assignment abroad. If an employee can succeed in a difficult assignment overseas, superiors will have greater confidence in his or her ability to cope back in the United States where cross-cultural considerations and foreign language issues are becoming more and more prevalent (普遍的).
……
The employee posted abroad who speaks the country’s principal language has an opportunity to fast-forward certain negotiations, and cams have the cultural insight to know when it is better to move more slowly. The employee at the home office who can communicate well with foreign clients over the telephone or by fax machine is an obvious asset to the firm.
Question: In this passage “out of sight and out of mind” (line2,para 3)probably means---
A being unable to think property for lack of insight
B being totally out of touch with business at home
C missing opportunities for promotion when abroad
D leaving all care and worry behind
The answer is C. From line 5. In the paragraph3,it is obvious that “promotion” often follows or accompanies an assignment aboard” explained the “out of sight and out of mind”. About A the passage does not mention .about B it is superficial to the answer. About D it does go with the “global village” so the answer chose C
So having a large vocabulary is the basic of quick reading
To have large vocabulary, the students should read a great deal of reading materials, such as; Magazine, newspaper, Ads……
5.5 The type of author’s attitude
Most writers expect to modify our attention, actions, thoughts, or knowledge in some way with their writing. Average pattern are as follow:
What is the tone of this passage?
Which of the following best describe the author’s tone in this passage?
What is the author’s attitude toward the passage?
The author’s purpose in writing the passage is to---
The tone of the passage can be best described----
How does the author seem to feel about--?
No.5 Example :( from CET-4 2003, 1)
Question: What is the author’s attitude toward to high—tech communication equipment?
A. critical B. prejudiced C. indifferent D. positive
The answer is D , this is an argument article .The author argued about the important of foreign language in the trade business .In the first paragraph he mentioned that the fax ,phone, satellite etc and advanced communication ways that make the distance between nations throughout the world shorter, and the human being “benefit from this high—tech” and the word “help” “support” that show the author’s attitude is positive.
In order to get this kind of answer ,the students should learn some related words which express the author’s attitude .for example :negative (否定的)，positive (肯定的)，critical
（批评的）,objective（客观的）,neutral(中立的) ,indifferent(漠不关心的)，support(支持的)，doubtful(怀疑的)
5.6 Inference type
The purpose of reading is not only to understand the original but to reason according to what the author says. The common clues include:
The author implies that…
It can be easily guessed that…
The author seems to be in favor of (against)…
We can infer (assume) that…
We can learn from the passage that…
It can be concluded from the passage that…
Which of the following can (not) be inferred from the passage?
What does the article (passage) say about…?
The passage suggests that…
……
No.6 Example :( from CET-4 2003,6)
On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more that they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log hall that time. All in all, however, children's leisure time
dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%
……
The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing "free time" watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they're spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren't replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let's face it, who's got the time?
Question: We can infer from the passage that—
A. extracurricular activities promote children’s intelligence
B. most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched off
C. efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitful
D. most parents believe reading to be benefit to children
The answer is D, this is the inference type .We can get the information “despite efforts get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading” The word “despite” in this sentence shows that:the reason why parents try to get kids more interested in book is that they think it is benefit for kids to read.
This type of questions doesn’t allow the students have themselves’ opinions. The student should try to keep the opinions together with the author and distinguish the fact and the opinions in the passage.
6. The organizations of passage
The organization of the reading passage plays an important role in reading comprehension. The author’s way of arranging the material to express his or her purpose is called the purpose of organization. Students need to recognize the organization that author arranged, then students can think along with the author and understand the passage better as well as to get the correct answer. [13]R112
7. Personal factors that influence reading rate
7.1 The background knowledge
Taking about the background knowledge, at first the students should know an important concept. That is the schema theory. According to the schema theory, all of the knowledge in our brain are arranged into some units, and these units are the schema, they play an important part in the reading process, they can cause people to think more something that are associated with the reading material, and think the material deeper So in a word, the schema is the general ideas about the world, people live in the world and get the knowledge from their experience and arrange these experience according to the setting and set up a schematic net in the brain .So the students who store the schema more than others and more complete than others, their ways of thinking will be more active and the ability of comprehension will be stronger, then the efficiency of comprehension will be faster. [14]R33 Vice verse, the efficiency of the comprehension will be slower. As the above mentioned the type of CET—4 passages include argumentation, exposition, and narration. So the amounts of background knowledge influence the reading comprehension and reading speed. If you understand the background knowledge of a passage, you will find it quite understandable and easy enough to read .On the other hand, if you know nothing about the passage. It would be extremely difficult and confused with the development of society, the nations in the world become closer than before. There are so many nations speaking English and “language is a reflection of culture language and culture are inseparable.” [15]R101 Some CET-4 reading comprehensions are related to some western countries’ culture (culture means the total way of life of people including the pattern of belief, customs objects, institutions techniques and languages that characterize the life of human community. [16]R58)
7.2 The interest in the material
Your interests in what you are reading influence your reading rate and comprehension. If you are reading about a topic that interests you, you are likely to read faster and with more comprehension than if you are reading a subject in which you have little or no interest. For example, if the students like sports, the passages about the sports will attract them, and they will read the passage quickly and have a better understand. Vice verse, the students will lose their interest in what they read.
7.3 The physical state
What do you think of the idea that physical state affects both reading rate and comprehension? When you are doing the test if you are extremely tired and hungry, or are depressed or worried, you may not be able to concentrate yourself easily and your reading speed may be affected.
Since you can do nothing to change the characteristics of a reading material .you can change you reading rate, you may deliberately slow down if you encounter a passage with longer and complicated sentences or an article that presents different conception, and complicated ideas. In a word, you should adjust your rate to characteristics of the reading material consequently. To be an efficient reader; you need to develop techniques that will help you read faster with comprehension
Conclusion
Reading is an important element in English study and the CET-4 reading section coves a large proportion in the test (40% of the whole test).and it has the validity to test the students’ reading ability. from the above statements, the reading test their own features and the ideas mentioned above ensure the countermeasures. so to do the test well will improve the students’ level of reading ability and will help them a lot in their English study ,but the skills and theory in this paper are not enough in this paper, students themselves should continue to research reading skills according to their study experience.
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