reading comprehension practice....

read the following article and answer the questiones mentioned about it.

use the technicles to read (skimming, scaning)

Presidential Elections

This year Americans elect on a new president on November 4th. It's an important event that happens once every four years. Currently, the president is always elected from one of the two main parties in the United States: the Republicans and the Democrats. There are other presidential candidates. However, it is unlikely that any of these "third party" candidates will win. It certainly hasn't happened in the last one hundred years.

In order to become the presidential nominee of a party, the candidate must win the primary election. Primary elections are held throughout each state in the United States in the first half of any election year. Then, the delegates attend their party convention in order to nominate their chosen candidate. Usually, as in this election, it's clear who will be the nominee. However, in the past parties have been divided and choosing a nominee has been a difficult process.

Once the nominees have been selected, they campaign throughout the country. A number of debates are usually held in order to better understand the candidates' points of view. These points of view often reflect their party's platform. A party platform is best described as the general beliefs and policies a party holds. Candidates cross the country by plane, bus, train or by car giving speeches. These speeches are often called 'stump speeches'. In the 19th century candidates would stand on tree stumps to deliver their speeches. These stump speeches repeat the candidates basic views and aspirations for the country. They are repeated many hundred of times by each candidate.

Many people believe that campaigns in the United States have become too negative. Each night you can see many attack ads on the television. These short ads contain sound bites which often distort the truth, or something the other candidate has said or done. Another recent problem has been voter turnout. There is often less than 60% turnout for national elections. Some people don't register to vote, and some registered voters don't show up at the voting booths. This angers many citizens who feel that voting is the most important responsibility of any citizen. Others point out that not voting is expressing an opinion that the system is broken.

the United States maintains an extremely old, and some say inefficient, voting system. This system is called the Electoral College. Each state is assigned electoral votes based on the number of senators and representatives that state has in Congress. Each state has two Senators. The number of representatives is determined by the states population but is never less then 1. The electoral votes are decided by the popular vote in each state. One candidate wins all of the electoral votes in a state. In other words, Oregon has 8 electoral votes. If 1 million people vote for the Republican candidate and one million and ten people vote for the Democratic candidate ALL 8 electoral votes go to the democratic candidate. Many people feel that this system should be abandoned.

q1: How often does the United States hold presidential elections?

q2: What is the 'third party'?

q3How many times has a third party won in the last 100 years?

q4:What must a person do to become a presidential nominee?

q5: Where is the nominee chosen?

q6:What is the main purpose of the debates?

Q7:What is the party platform?

traslating texts ... practice

well guys today we are going to try to practice the art of traslation, using some recomendation that I will give you in class.

use software CAT to make it, and the programm "Word" to review your traslation and post in the comments.

traslating the following article from BBC of London:

Egypt military pledges to

speed up power transfer

Egypt's military rulers have agreed to speed up presidential elections, a key demand of protesters packing Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said on national TV they would happen by July 2012.

He said parliamentary elections due next week would go ahead and that a referendum on an immediate transfer of power would be organised if necessary.

It follows days of protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square over the pace of reform.

Tens of thousands of people continued to pack Tahrir Square on Tuesday evening.

Witnesses said many appeared to reject the military's latest concessions, chanting: "We are not leaving, he (Tantawi) leaves."

The US, in its strongest comments yet on the renewed unrest in Egypt, condemned the use of "excess" force by police. At least 28 people have been killed and hundreds injured since Saturday.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called on Egyptian authorities to "exercise maximum restraint".

Next week's parliamentary elections are due to set in train a process of transition to democracy following the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak in February.

But many Egyptians fear the military intends to hold on to power, whatever the outcome of the polls.

Under the military's original timetable, presidential elections might not have happened until 2013.

traslate into english:

La muerte de una adolescente conmueve a Francia

La semana pasada, Francia descubrió con emoción el nombre y la linda cara de Agnès Marin. Con apenas 13 años de edad, la adolescente fue llevada a un bosque de una región del centro de Francia, violada y asesinada. Su verdugo luego quemó su cuerpo sin vida.

El caso de Agnès estuvo en la portada de muchos de los diarios del país y estremeció a los franceses. El pasado domingo, más de 4.000 personas participaron en una marcha para rendirle homenaje a la joven víctima en la ciudad de Chambon-sur-Lignon, donde acudía al internado Cévenol.

Error de la justicia

El debate que sacude a Francia y a su clase política se centra en su presunto asesino. Uno de sus compañeros del colegio fue quien guió a los policías hasta el lugar del crimen dos días después de la desaparición de la chica.

Martin tiene apenas 17 años, pero ya había sido imputado en otro caso. Está acusado de haber violado a otra adolescente de 15 años, en agosto del 2010. Después de cuatro meses en la cárcel, expertos en psiquiatría habían considerado que su rehabilitación era posible, y que el joven podía salir libre bajo control judicial.

good luck!

skimming and scanning -reading technicles

Skimming and scanning are two specific speed-reading techniques, which enable you to

cover a vast amount of material very rapidly. These techniques are similar in process

but

skimming nor scanning. Both

different in purpose. Quickly "looking over" an article is neither

require specific steps to be followed.

I. S

SKIMMING

is a method of rapidly moving the eyes over text with the

purpose of getting only the main ideas and a general overview of the content.

A. Skimming is useful in three different situations.

• Pre-reading--Skimming is more thorough than simple previewing

and can give a more accurate picture of text to be read later.

• Reviewing--Skimming is useful for reviewing text already read.

• Reading--Skimming is most often used for quickly reading

material that, for any number of reasons, does not need more

detailed attention.

B. Steps in skimming an article

• Read the title--it is the shortest possible summary of the content.

• Read the introduction or lead-in paragraph.

• Read the first paragraph completely.

• If there are subheadings, read each one, looking for relationships

among them.

• Read the first sentence of each remaining paragraph.

a. The main idea of most paragraphs appears in the first

sentence.

b. If the author's pattern is to begin with a question or

anecdote, you may find the last sentence more valuable.

6. Dip into the text looking for:

a. Clue words that answer who, what, when, why, how

b. Proper nouns

c. Unusual words, especially if capitalized

d. Enumerations

e. Qualifying adjectives (best, worst, most, etc.)

f. Typographical cues--italics, boldface, underlining,

asterisks, etc.

7. Read the final paragraph completely.

C. Mastering the art of skimming effectively requires that you use it as

frequently as possible.

D. Skimming can usually be accomplished at about 1000 words per minute.

II.

SCANNING

rapidly covers a great deal of material in order to locate a

specific fact or piece of information.

A. Scanning is very useful for finding a specific name, date, statistic, or fact

without reading the entire article.

B. Steps in scanning an article.

• Keep in mind at all times what it is you are searching for. If you

hold the image of the word or idea clearly in mind, it is likely to

appear more clearly than the surrounding words.

• Anticipate in what form the information is likely to appear--

numbers, proper nouns, etc.

• Analyze the organization of the content before starting to scan.

a. If material is familiar or fairly brief, you may be able to

scan the entire article in a single search.

b. If the material is lengthy or difficult, a preliminary

skimming may be necessary to determine which part of the

article to scan.

• Let your eyes run rapidly over several lines of print at a time.

• When you find the sentence that has the information you seek,

read the entire sentence.

C. In scanning, you must be willing to skip over large sections of text without

reading or understanding them.

D. Scanning can be done at 1500 or more words per minute.