Your Own Words Question

As the name suggested, you must use your own words, i.e., you must not use the key words used by the author in the passage. Otherwise, you will get Zero marks for that question.

Questions requiring you to use your own words fall into two broad categories:

1. Use Your Own Words Questions Type (1)
Obtain the points for your answer for the passage, and then rephrase the points using your own words. In other words, it is a factual question that requires you to use your own words in your answer

Example:
· The author criticizes the actions of the early excavators in obscuring the site. Explain in your own words what two other criticism he makes of them.
· Explain in your own words why the gaucho’s house felt like a prison during the ‘thistle years’.

How do you answer this type of question?

· First, locate the answer in the passage, in the author’s words.
· Identify the key words or key ideas (which may be represented by two or more words, which you will have to rephrase) in the author’s expression. As a general guide, one mark = one key word or one key idea that you have to rephrase.
· Replace these key words with synonyms or phrases with similar meaning, or words associated with them. You could also think of the antonyms of these words but these can only be used in certain cases.
· Phrase your answer in a complete sentence.

2. Use Your Own Words Type (II)
This question asks you to explain what the author means by a word, phrase, sentence or expression. You do not have to look for points for your answer as the question only requires you to analyze the author’s use of language.

Example:
· A “rosy picture is painted” for the future of the holiday industry. Explain the author’s expression here.
· Winter sports are said to have a “magical appeal” for tourists. What does the expression “magical appeal” mean here?
· What is meant by “figures in every stage in between”?

To answer this type of question, you go through a similar process as type 1
· Identify the key words or key ideas used by the author
· Substitute each word with synonym/phrase with the same meaning, or words associated with them. Consider what these words suggest.
· Phrase your answer in a complete sentence



Exercise

The chief forest ranger was giving one of his talks on his favorite animal – the tiger. “Although the tiger would rather avoid confrontations with humans, it may attack them under certain circumstances – if a human has trespassed into its territory, or if he is seen as a threat to a female’s cubs. The onset of the old age and consequently diminishing hunting skills may also encourage a tiger to attack human,” he explained. Then, looking directly at the only two tourists in the audience who had expressed interest in night forest trekking, he added, “Since tigers are nocturnal hunters, usually attacking from the rear, I would advise all night forest trekkers to keep their eyes and ears open as they take in the wonders of the forest after dark.

Using your own words, explain why ageing tigers may attack humans.
Why are night forest trekkers advised to keep their eyes and ears open? Use your own words in your answer.

It was in the restaurant of one of the stations in the South that Kovalski experienced his first Indian meal. “I began by watching the people around me,” he recounted. “They were eating with the fingers only of their right hands. To make small balls of rice and dip them into the sauce without the balls disintegrating and without burning your fingers to the bone involved a right set of gymnastics. As for your mouth, oesophagus and stomach, they’re set on fire by the murderous spices. I must have presented a somewhat comic spectacle, because all the clients of the restaurant cracked up. It wasn’t every day that they could have a good laugh at a poor sahib who had undertaken to master his certificate of Indianisation.

“I must have presented a somewhat comical spectacle, because all the clients of the restaurant cracked up.”
Explain what Kovalski is saying here, in your own words.

Inferential Question

Inferential comprehension questions measure interpretation. These items require you to “read between the lines” or even “beyond the lines.” Making an inference requires the reader to combine prior knowledge and experience with passage information. Making an inference requires using information that is explicit in a passage, determining which ideas are relevant to answering a particular question, and combining those ideas to create something unique, something that is implied by the information at hand.

Item types:

1) Identification of the main idea of the passage or paragraph.
Typical wording:

This passage deals primarily with . . .

The primary purpose of this passage is to describe . . .

The main idea of this passage is that . . .

2) Use of the passage information to draw conclusions, make generalizations, summarize ideas, identify implied comparison or time relationships, and to generalize the author’s beliefs.
Sample Stems:

Which of the following conclusions about the environment is supported by the passage?

Which word would the author most likely use to describe his subject?

The author implies that the 1950s and the 1990s differ in what way?

3) Application of one or more ideas from a passage to a situation not specifically mentioned in the passage.
Sample Stems:

How would a manager use contingency management to supervise employees?

While the writer focuses on women, what are the harmful effects of backlash on men?

4) Identification of the meaning of figurative language.
Typical Item Stem:

The phrase “as the flowers wept” means that . . .

Factual Question

The Factual Questions

As evident from the word ‘factual’, this type of questions requires you to retrieve facts given in the passage. Examples are who, what, where, when, how and why questions. For this type of questions, do not include facts which are not given in the passage.

Example:
What two features of its position made Pompeii an ideal “trading link between the Italian interior and the outside world”?
Apart from benefiting tourists themselves, what has been the effect of the “major business” it has become?

The Who, What, Where, When and How Questions

1. The Who question is to identify a person/persons in the answer
ex. Who was responsible for the destruction of the nuclear plant?

2. The Where question is to identify a place/places in the answer
ex. Where did his ill-fated army finally meet its doom?

3. The When question is to identify or give a time as the answer
ex. When is the biggest time to transfer the rice seedlings to the fields?

4. The How question is to identify a method or a process as the answer.
ex. How did the people collect the money to support the street children?

5. The What question can be a bit tricky. Each what question can have different requirement, depending on how it is phrased. It can even be a Why question in disguise! So the best way to deal with a what question is to analyze it and study its demands.
example:
a. What fact does this quotation tell you about pyramids?
b. What are the main differences between frogs and toads?
c. What sort of relationship did he want?
d. What happened later that showed how ineffective he was as a leader?
e. What was the appearance of the rice field after the massacre?
f. What was the reason for the chairman’s absence from the meeting?

The Why Question

The why question asks you to give a reason as your answer. You can begine your answer with ‘Because …’, or if you feel uncomfortable with this structure, you could begin with ‘This is because …’.

There are some signals for indicating cause and effect, and these provide clues to your answer.
Cause + Because, since, for, as + Effect

Effect + As a result, Therefore, Thus, Hence, consequently + Cause

Reading I

Teacher : Thomas Tri Wibowo
Email : miyon_jr@yahoo.com
Blog : thomascanisiusenglish.blogspot.com


Course Description:
This course will help the students to read fluently and to comprehend both fiction and non-fiction text. Prior to understanding a text, the students will learn types of questions and how to answer questions.

Goals:
As a result of this course, learners will be able to:
- Read a passage fluently
- Understand the types of question
- Comprehend a passage by answering questions correctly
- Understand the elements of story
- Analyze a story based on its elements
- Know new words and their meanings

Assessment:
- Test: The possible score for the test will be 0-100. The minimum standard of the score is 70. The students who fail to reach 70 points have to follow a remedial class so that they will reach the minimum standard.
- Assignment/Project: The project could be individual or in group. The possible score for the test will be 65 to 98. The students who get 65 must revise the project. Originality is important.
- Quiz

Course Expectations:
· I perceive each of you as students and learners. As such, I expect that you view yourself in the same manner. In the process of learning, please help your friends and share your knowledge but not in the test.



Jakarta, 24 July 2009
Sincerely yours,


Thomas Tri Wibowo