hi I'm Molly welcome to your Oxford
online English in this lesson you can
learn how to read and summarize a text
summarized in the text is a vital skill
for your English reading if you can't
make a short clear summary of the main
ideas of a text then you almost
certainly haven't understood it fully
understanding what you read in English
isn't just about the words it's about
understanding the ideas how they're
organized and which ideas are more or
less important here you'll see some
strategies you can use to improve your
English reading read faster and improve
your reading comprehension
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Oxford online English calm in this
lesson we'll work with a sample text
you'll see it in the video but you can
also find it on the full version of this
lesson which is on our website you can
find a link in the video description
we recommend reading it before you
continue watching now let's look at the
most important breeding strategy you
need to use
to understand and summarize a text you
need to find the main idea every
coherent text has one central idea which
connects the different parts of the text
you need to know what this is but every
text is different and there isn't one
way to find the main idea instead you
need to look at the whole thing here are
some things you should look at one is
there a title or headings these will
often highlight the most important
points - what is the first sentence
about often the first sentence of a text
or paragraph will summarize the main
ideas 3 what does most of the text talk
about look at each sentence and
paragraph is there a single topic which
connects them look at our sample text
and think about these questions pause
the video if you need more reading time
and remember that you can also read it
on our website just follow the link in
the video description so what do you
think the main idea of our sample text
is we'll show you three possible
summaries which do you think is the best
what do you think the best is number
three let's see why
first you should look at the title the
title tells you that the text will be
about Google image but it also mentions
that this language is unusual you should
immediately focus on this word because
it shows that this language is different
in some way also unusual could mean many
things what does it mean here unusual
how second what's the first sentence
about here it gives background
information it doesn't help you to find
the main idea that's okay in this case
the background information is helpful
because most people don't know
what goog MD is third what does most of
the text talk about apart from the first
sentence every sentence is about the
same topic the fact that Google imita
uses compass directions north south east
west for directions because there are no
words for left right and so on this
answers the question you found in the
title why is this language unusual now
you have a reason however analyzing the
text in this way is complex
and there are other sub skills you might
need let's look at an important example
to summarize a text you need to find
which ideas are general and which are
details or examples the general ideas
will give you the overall meaning if you
confuse general ideas and details you
might misunderstand the overall meaning
what you're reading unfortunately there
are no clear markers which show you
what's general or not a single sentence
might makes general ideas and details
together you need to use context and
other clues to work out which ideas are
general and which are details look at
five extracts from our sample.txt what
do you think are these general ideas or
details which do you need to understand
in order to find the overall meaning
sentences 1 3 & 4 are general 2 & 5 are
details 1 is general because it
introduces the topic by giving
background information this is like a
topic sentence which tells you what the
rest of the text will be about 2 is a
detail it's more background information
you don't need it to understand the
overall meaning 3 is a general important
idea this sentence highlights the
unusual feature of the in this
language the rest of the text expands on
the idea introduced in this sentence we
said that 4 is general however it's kind
of in the middle it explains the exact
meaning of lacking egocentric directions
which is referred to in sentence 3
technically this sentence isn't
necessary to understand the main idea on
the other hand most people including
educated native English speakers
wouldn't know what egocentric directions
are this sentence explains it and so it
is important for understanding the whole
text 5 is a detail it adds an example of
how Google Images speakers talked about
and direction but it isn't necessary to
understand the main idea of the text so
what do you need to focus on here first
it's a good idea to skim a text first
reading fast and trying to understand
the overall idea in a simple way in
order to separate general ideas from
details you need some context until
you've read the whole thing you won't
have this second look for linking
phrases like for example for instance
specifically or in particular linking
phrases like these show you that what
falls is an explanation of a more
general idea that was mentioned before
third remember that one sentence can
contain both general ideas and details
mix together for example this sentence
contains both the detail about the word
kangaroo and a general point now why not
do some more practice look at the rest
of our sample text which ideas are
general which ideas or details pause the
video and try it now if you want did you
do it here's a shorter version with all
examples and details removed if you can
do this you'll be able to read much
faster why because you only need to
focus on the general ideas to understand
the overall meaning here you only need
to understand 76 words instead of 230
this saves you time which could be
helpful if you are under time pressure
like in an IELTS reading exam there's
another related skill which can help you
to understand a text let's look
if you're a non-native speaker reading
in English you'll probably have this
problem often there are words which you
don't understand maybe there are several
words which you don't know don't panic
this makes things more difficult but
there are strategies you can use first
look for proper nouns which start with a
capital letter sometimes we see that
students think they don't understand a
word but they don't realize that the
word is actually a proper noun like a
person's name or a place name can you
find three examples of proper nouns in
our text pause the video if you want
time to think about it you could say
Coogan duck Queensland Hope Vale English
or Brisbane generally if a proper noun
is important or not widely understood it
will be explained for example Google
Earth is obviously important and it's
explained in the first sentence if a
proper noun isn't explained you can
usually ignore it or try to work out the
meaning from the context for example
look at the first sentence even if
you've never heard of Queensland or hope
fail you can work out that they are
place names next look for words that
tell you that an idea is important you
could look for words like important
notable significant or essential for
example you saw this sentence the word
notable highlights something important
about the language this means you should
focus on this sentence if you're under
time pressure you should spend extra
time on this sentence also look for
words which were also used in the title
or possibly which appeared in the first
sentence or paragraph remember that
writers might use paraphrase so you
might not find the exact same words
there was
a keyword from the title used in the
text do you know where pause the video
if you want time to find it the word
unusual appears in this sentence you
heard before that unusual is a key word
in the title so when you see it you
should pay extra attention to this
sentence in fact this sentence gives you
one of the key general ideas depending
on your situation you might have
different options to deal with unknown
words if you have unlimited time
unlimited patience and access to a
dictionary then you can check the
meaning of every word however this
strategy is not possible in most cases
no one really has unlimited time or
unlimited patience plus there are often
restrictions if you're taking an exam
you'll have a time limit and you
probably won't be able to use a
dictionary this is why it's important to
focus on the general ideas and then find
keywords within them if there are 50
words you don't know that's difficult to
deal with however if you can focus on a
smaller number of more important
sentences there will be fewer unknown
words at this point you should know how
to read and summarize a text in English
we have a challenge for you on the full
version of this lesson which is on our
website you'll find a second text to
practice with if you're watching on
YouTube you can find a link in the video
description can you write a summary of
the second text your summary should be
maximum two sentences or ideally just
one use the reading techniques you saw
in this lesson post your suggestion in
the comments and read other people's
ideas thanks for watching see you next
time
you