Advanced Reading and Comprehension

Advanced Reading and Comprehension

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. Comprehend means to understand and comprehension is the act of understanding. Reading comprehension is the ability or power to process text, understand its meaning, its theme and the writer’s point of view integrating with what the reader already knows.

Basic skills required in efficient reading include:

1. Ability to understand the meaning of a word from the context of the text.
2. Ability to follow the order of passage
3. Ability to identify past history of a person or persons or references in the text
4. Ability to draw inferences (conclusions) from a passage about its contents
5. Ability to identify the main thought of a passage
6. Ability to identify literary devices or complex structures used in a passage and determine its tone to understand the situational mood conveyed for assertion, command, question, refraining, or negation.
7. Ability to determine the writer’s purpose, intention, and point of view.

Comprehension Strategies

• • Activating and using background knowledge
  • Generating or asking questions
  • Inferences (conclusions)
  • Summarizing
  • Predicting (foretelling)
  • Visualizing (picturing mentally)
  • Monitoring
  • Improving vocabulary, critical text analysis, and practicing deep reading are helpful to improve reading comprehension.
  • Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words without effort. It is determined by an individual’s perceptive development.

Supportive Vocabulary for Comprehension and Reading

• A drawn battle: A battle in which neither party gains victory
• Aristocracy: Government by the nobles
• Autocracy: Government by one person
• Atheist: One who does not believe in God.
• Autobiography: The life story of a man written by himself.
• Anarchy: The absence or failure of the government in a country
• Adolescent: Between boyhood and youth
• Oxonian: Graduate of the University of Oxford
• Abdication: Giving up(office or dignity)
• Anachronism: Errors in chronology
• Amputated: Handicapped
• Ambidextrous: The person who can use both hands with equal facility.
• Alimony: Allowance paid by the husband to his wife on legal separation.
• Aquarium: A tank in which fish are kept
• Agrarian: Pertaining to agriculture
• Ajar: A door that is partly open
• Antiquarian: Connected with the study of antiquities
• Abortive: Unsuccessful effort
• Agoraphobia: Morbid fear of open places
• Amateur: One who follows a pursuit without a professional purpose.
• Ambiguous: Doubtful and uncertain
• Amnesia: Loss of memory due to brain injury
• Amnesty: Act of the sovereign power of granting a general pardon for a past offense
• Amphibious: The animal of both land and water
• Auditorium: A room used for lectures
• Autonomous: Self-governing in administration
• Aviary: A place of keeping birds confined
• Antecedent: Previous principles, conduct, history
• Alimental: Supplying food
• Bankrupt: One who fails in business.
• Bachelor: An unmarried person
• Bigamy: Having two wives
• Bureaucracy: A system of government by officials
• Bibliophile: A lover of books
• Brunette: A woman of brown hair and skin
• Biennial: After every two years
• Bilingual: ln two languages
• Biography: the life history of a person written by someone else
• Biped: Having two legs
• Blasphemy: Profane speaking
• Bulletin: Short official statement
• Biparous: Bearing two at a birth
• cosmopolitan: Free from national prejudice
• Convalescent: A person who is gradually recovering health
• Cannibal: An eater of flesh of his own species
• Capitalist: One who derives income from invested capital.
• Carnivorous: Flesh-eating
• Catalog: A list of books
• Circumlocution: Roundabout and evasive speech
• Claustrophobia: Morbid dread of closed places
• Culpable: Criminal; deserving of blame
• Coquette: A vain and flirtatious woman
• Contemporary: Belonging to the same period
• Conservative: Moderately estimated; Understated
• Contagious: That which spreads through physical contact.
• Covenant: Mutual agreement
• Fastidious: One who is difficult to please.
• Furlough: Leave of absence
• Fatuous: Feeble in mind
• Gesticulate: Use movements of hands and arms to express ideas or feelings
• Genocide: Extermination of race
• Granary: A room where grain is stored.
• Galaxy: Collection of stars
• Gluttony: Overeating
• Graminivorous: Grass eating
• Gynaecoracy: Government by women or a woman
• Gymnasium: A place where athletic exercises.
• Gregarious: Fond of company
• Hirelings: One who serves for hire
• Hermaphrodite: Having the characters of both sexes
• Hemisphere: Half sphere of the earth
• Herbivorous: Eating or living on herliacious
• Horoscope: An observation of the heavens birth
• Diction: Selection of words
• Dictionary: A book dealing with the words of language
• Diagnosis: Identification of an illness
• Docile: Easily controlled or managed
• Equivocal: Having two or more significations; ambiguous
• Epicure: A person of refined and fastidious taste especially in the luxuries of the table
• Extempore: A speech delivered on the spur of the moment
• Export: Articles sent out from one country to another
• Equilibrium: Balance
• Emergency: An unexpected occurrence or situation demanding immediate action
• Eyre: Mobile court
• Entourage: Attendants
• Feminist: A man interested in the welfare of women
• Fatalist: One who believes fate blindly
• Connoisseur: One who has the knowledge, and expert critic of art and music
• Census: Numbering population with various statistics
• Cremation: Burning of a dead body
• Crematory: Furnace for burning dead bodies
• Crematorium: Place of burning dead bodies
• Democracy: A form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people collectively
• Diplomacy: The art of negotiation, especially of treaties between states; Political skill
• Domant: In a state of inaction
• Digression: Turning aside from the main theme
• Defunct: Having finished the course of life
• Demagogue: A political orator who appeals to the passions and prejudices of the people
• Domicile: A place of residence
• Dotage: Excessive fondness
• Deism: Belief without accepting revelation
• Mammals: The whole class of animals that suckle their young ones.
• Nudist: One who likes wearing no clothes.
• Nepotism: favor to relatives
• Neologism: A new word, phrase, or doctrine
• Nostalgia: Homesickness as disease
• Neophyte: A new convert
• Nursery: A place for nursing
• Nom-de-guerr:Pen name
• Nomenclature: A system of naming scientific terminology
• Octogenarian: Eighty years old person
• Omnipresent: One who is present everywhere
• Oligarchy: Government by the few
• Octagon: A figure with eight sides
• Optimist: One sees bright sides of things
• Omnipotent: One who is all-powerful
• Obsolete: No longer in use
• Omniscient look tomorrow or
• Jurisdiction: legal authority
• Junction: Place of meeting
• Knick knacks: light decorating articles
• Kindergarten:kids house
• Mortuary: A place for keeping dead bodies
• Motin: Morning prayer in a church
• Monogamy: Having one wife
• Misogynist: One who is a hater of women
• Misanthrope: A hater of mankind
• Matrimony: A State of being married
• Mobocracy: Rule of mob
• Misology: Hatred of logic and reason
• Matricide: the murder of one’s own mother
• Matinee: Morning shows of films
• Manuscript: A book or document written by hand
• Moratorium: security for debt
• Makeshift: Something used until something better can be obtained
• Homosexual: One having a sexual attraction for persons of one’s own sex
• Invisible: that cannot be seen
• Illegible: that cannot be read
• Illiterate: Uneducated
• Infectious: Having the quality of infecting
• Infanticide: the murderer of an infant
• Intermediary: Acting between others; meditator
• Insolvent:bankrupt
• Interim:temporary
• Impotent: wanting in sexual power
• imbroglio: a confused mass
• Illegitimate: illegal; bastard
• Imminent: near at hand
• Incognito: In disguise
• Incongruous: not in harmony; out of place
• Impasse: deadlock
• Juvenilia: immature works produced in the author’s youth
• Omnivorous: feeding on everything
• Output: total production
• Quadruped: a four-footed animal
• Remuneration: pay for services rendered
• Regicide: the killing of the king or queen
• Renaissance: revival of arts and letters; a new birth or revival
• Recension: a critical revision of the text
• Revulsion: a sudden change or reversal
• Pessimist: One who looks too much on the dark side of things
• Philogynist: lover of womankind
• Polyandry: having more than one husband at a time
• Polygamy: having more than one wife at a time
• Posthumous: occurring after one’s death
• Proletariate: wage-earning class
• Pseudonym: a fictitious name assumed by an author
• purgatory: a place of temporary suffering
• Sinecure: office of profit without any duties
• Soliloquy: self-talking
• Somnambulist: One who walks in sleep
• Somniloquist: One who talks in sleep
• Teetotaller: complete abstainer from wine and other intoxicants
• Theocracy: Government by priests
• Theomania: Insane belief that one is God
• Utopia: An imaginary and ideal state which is perfect
• Uxorious: Excessively fond of one’s wife
• Vegetarian: One who feeds on vegetables only
• Verbatim: word for word
• Versatile: capable of dealing with many subjects
• Pseudonym: a fictitious name assumed by an author
• Purgatory: a place of temporary suffering
• Sinecure: office of profit without any duties
• Soliloquy: self-talking; monologue
• Samnabulist: One who walks in sleep.
• Somniloquist: One who talks in sleep
• Teetotaller: complete abstainer from wine and other intoxicants
• Theocracy: Government by priests
• Theomania: Insane belief that one is God.
• Omnivorous: feeding on everything
• Output: total production
• Quadruped: a four-footed animal
• Remuneration: pay for services rendered
• Regicide: the killing of a king or queen
• Renaissance: revival of arts and letters; rebirth
• Recension: a critical revision of the text
• Revulsion: a sudden change
• Pessimist: One who looks too much on the dark side of things
• Philogynist: lover of womankind
• polyandry: having more than one husband at a time
• Polygamy: having more than one wife at a time
• Proletariat: wage-earning class

Reading The Text

TAPE:

When we read the text, there is a number of questions we need to ask. These are:

• Type of text……T
• Aim of text…….A
• Purpose of text……..P
• Effect of text…….E

T for type, A for aim, P for purpose, E for Effect….(TAPE)

Text Type

The term text type is used to describe different kinds of non-fiction text.
These are:

• Recount(retelling experience or event)
• Information
• Explanation
• Persuasion(having incentive)
• Argument(In which a writer attempts to convince readers to understand and support their point of view with logic and reason.)
• Genre

The term genre is used for the classification of different types of fiction, such as science fiction and romance. Each genre has its own set of traditions in terms of plot, character, setting, and language.

Four main categories depending on the purposes of the writer.

• to imagine, explore, entertain
• to inform, explain, describe
• to persuade, argue, advise
• to analyze, review, comment

These categories are useful when the reader reads the text the first time.
They help the reader focus on the writer’s intentions.

Effect

The effect may be emotional making the reader angry or rational making the reader better informed.