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TUTORIAL 1

A. Making Inferences

Read the texts below and make some inferences. Complete the sentence with one inference.

1. A Harris poll indicated that Americans, on average, believed that there is a 50 percent chance that they will be seriously hurt in a car accident. In reality, the chance of this is about 5 percent. The average woman believes that she has a 40 percent chance of getting breast cancer. However, the chance of this happening is actually only one in ten, or ten percent. Women also believe that they have a 50 percent chance of having a heart attack, but the actual risk is just one in ten. The average man believes that he has about a 40 percent chance of getting prostate cancer, yet in reality the risk is also only one in ten. Although most people estimate their chance of getting HIV/AIDS to be about one in ten, the risk is actually about one in twenty, or 5 percent.

Although the author did not specifically state the outcome of the poll but expects the reader to infer that…………………………………………………………………………..

2. During the National address focusing on civil rights, President John F. Kennedy acknowledged that the nation faced a moral crisis. He rejected the notion that the United States could be the land of the free “except for the Negroes.” Reversing his earlier reluctance to request civil right legislation, he announced that he would send Congress a major civil rights bill. The law would guarantee service to all Americans regardless of race in public accommodations-hotels, restaurants, theatres, retail stores, and similar establishments. Moreover, it would grant the federal Government greater authority to pursue lawsuits against segregation in public education and increase the Justice Department’s power to protect the voting rights of racial minorities.

The authors do not specifically define the moral crisis facing that nation. Instead, expects the reader to infer that ……………………………………………………………………...

3. On Christmas Day 1859, the ship HMS Lightning arrived at Melbourne, Australia, with about a dozen wild European rabbits bound for an estate in western Victoria. Within three years, there was a bush fire and the rabbits had started to spread beyond western Victoria. From a slow start, the spread of the rabbits picked up speed during the 1870s, and by 1900 the rabbit was the most serious agriculture pest ever known in Australia. Rabbits eat grass, the same grass used by sheep and cattle, and so quickly the cry went up: “Get rid of the rabbit!” The subsequent history of control attempts in Australia is a sad tale of ecological ignorance. Millions of rabbits were poisoned and shot at great expense with absolutely no effects on their numbers.

Although the author does not specifically say how the rabbits got off the estate, he expects readers to infer that …………………………………………..................................

B. Identifying Themes and Main Points in Texts

Read each paragraph then write out the theme and also the main point that each paragraph poses in the space provided.

Panda Bears in China

1. The giant panda is a favourite of children and animal lovers throughout the world. For many people, it also is symbol of the sad situation for many other kinds of animals. Though so well known and loved, the panda is slowly dying out. At present, there are only about 1,230 wild pandas left in the world. They all live in China, in the forest of Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces. Pandas used to be common in other areas. However as the human population increased and the forests shrank, territory gradually disappeared. And so did the pandas. Now the Chinese government has created a number of ‘Panda Reserves’ to protect the pandas.

Theme: …………………………………………………………………………………

Main Idea: ……………………………………………………………………………..

2. For the whole first year of its life, the panda bear is completely dependent on its mother. The newborn panda is a tiny, helpless little creature. At birth, it looks like a little pink pig, and its eyes remain close for three to four weeks. Pandas develop fairly slowly, compared to most animals. The babies are completely dependent on their mothers for a long time. In fact, they do not even begin to walk until they are about five months old. The only food that they eat for about a year is their mother’s milk. That does not stop them from growing, however. Pandas may weigh over fifty five pounds by the time they are a year old.

Theme: …………………………………………………………………………………

Main Idea: ……………………………………………………………………………..

3. Chinese scientists recently had a chance to study a wild female panda bear with a newborn baby. She was a very loving mother. For twenty- five days, she never left her baby, not even to find something to eat! She would not let any other panda bears come near. She licked the baby constantly to keep it clean because any smell might attract natural enemies that would try to eat the little panda. The mother held the baby in her front paws much the same way a human does. When it cried, she rocked it back and forth and gave it little comforting pats. The mother continued to carry the young bear for over two years. By that time, the panda no longer needed its mother for food, but it stayed with her and learned about the ways of the forest. Then, after two and a half years, the mother chased the young bear away. It was time for her to have a new baby, and it was time for the young panda to be independent.

Theme: …………………………………………………………………………………

Main Idea: ……………………………………………………………………………..

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UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
FOUNDATION IN SCIENCE - FHEL1012 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC STUDY
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2015/16 SEMESTER: MAY 2015