Reading a factual text: main idea, reference and meaning
A factual text gives information, and it usually has one main idea. To find it, read the title, the first sentence and the last sentence, and ask: what is the whole text about? A good main idea covers the whole text, not just one detail. To find what a pronoun refers to, look back to the noun before it that fits in number and meaning: it stands for one thing, they stands for many things as the subject, and them stands for many things as the object. To guess a word, read the context: in Children borrow books for a week and then give them back, the second part shows that borrow means take for a short time. For true-or-false questions, find the sentence in the text first. An answer must be true according to the text, not only possible in real life. Your book has an information text on page 11: after this lesson, read it and try the same three skills.
| Skill | What to do |
|---|---|
| Main idea | Read the title, first and last sentences. Ask: what is it all about? |
| Pronoun | Find the noun before it that matches in meaning and number. |
| Word meaning | Read the words around it. Try your meaning in the sentence. |
| True or false | Find the sentence in the text. Do not use only what you know. |
Honey bees live together in a hive, and one hive can hold thousands of them. In spring and summer the worker bees fly from flower to flower and collect a sweet liquid called nectar. They carry it back to the hive. Inside, the bees change the nectar into honey and store it in small wax rooms. The honey is food for the bees in the cold months, when few flowers are open. Farmers like bees too, because bees carry pollen between flowers and help fruit trees to grow.
Text detectives. Choose a short article from a school book or magazine. Write a title for it in your own words, find three pronouns and say what each one refers to, and guess the meaning of one new word from its context. Explain to a grown-up how you decided.