Our environment readings are now up for the week. We hope you’ve had a chance to check them out for yourself.
The reason we chose this particular topic is that it’s usually covered somewhere in every reading course at some point. Lots of standard English tests also use this topic or vocabulary. For example, if you’re taking a TOEFL test, it’s likely that you’ll see an article or two that deals with biology or ecology. Some of the vocabulary is a bit more specialized in this particular topic but it’s important to know it in order to have a well-rounded vocabulary base. For beginners, basic scientific terms such as “theory”, for example, are essential starting points for further reading on this topic.
More advanced readers will find it helpful to read a structured article based around a topic and organized to show the familiar reading patterns used on most English tests. In the Endangered Species article, we took the often-used approach of introducing a problem, discussing its causes and implications, and then finally talking about how the problem might be solved. If you’ve taken a standard English test, you’ll notice that many of the readings follow this same pattern. The articles in between the beginner and advanced levels are meant to build the reader up in terms of vocabulary and understanding abstract concepts and I hope we accomplished that. If you’re a teacher who is trying to get students to improve their ability to read academic articles that deal with the sciences, you might find this week’s topic especially useful. Thanks again for reading!