Task 2
Examples include:

• The morning newspaper: we might just have time to glance at the headlines or check the weather.
• The minutes of a meeting: we might read through them quickly to find what was said about a certain issue.
• An article on, for example, the housing market in which we concentrate on the secton dealing with our own region.
• Theatre or cinema listings when we are looking for somewhere to go for the evening.
• Television listings when we are looking for something to watch for the next hour or so.
• A menu to see what vegetarian options are available, etc, etc.

Task 3
On a micro level, the principle that a new point about the island is mentioned in each sentence is quickly established and we read on expecting a further descriptive element each time. On a macro level, the text deliberately encourages guesses about the identity of the country and deliberately misleads the reader, first conjuring up the image of an island in the midddle of, say, the Pacific Ocean, then suggesting a reasonably affluent place, then a violent, possibly third-world country with a high level of poverty, then telling us it is in Europe and finally revealing it to be hostile to children. With each new fact we alter our image of the unnamed island until, of course, the intended impact of the third paragraph is felt: 'The country is the United Kingdom'.

This text demonstrates very well what we do with almost every text we read, usually without being aware of it: we constantly anticipate, hypothesize, amend our hypotheses in the light of evidence from the text and make further, more refined hypotheses.

Task 4
Although most of us will understand all the words used in the text, even after we have read it a couple of times we probably will not know what it is about. If we knew what the first sentence was the consequence of, if we knew what 'it' referred to and if we were familiar with the hypothesis mentioned, we would have some grasp of context. It would then be a lot easier to follow the rest of the short text and we could more readily construct the meaning of the whole.

Task 6
Clearly, the first text is likely to be more difficult to read as it features one long sentence, a number of unusual proper names, a context which is not very clear to the general reader, use of technical terms (eg 'stroke') whose meaning may not be obvious, and it is not easy to predict how the sentence is going to develop. The second text, by contrast, provides a clearly predictable structure and story line; it employs short, simple sentences with much repetition and a predominantly simple vocabulary.

Task 17

	Intensive	Extensive
Class goal	Read accurately	Read fluently
Reading purpose	Answer questions Translate	Get information Enjoy
Focus	Words and pronunciation	Meaning
Output	Often leads to written exercise (eg essay)	Maybe brief oral or written feedback, but not essential
Material	Often difficult Related to course work Teacher chooses	Easy Free-standing You choose
Amount	Not much, usually one side A4 maximum	A lot
Frequency	Once or twice a week	Every day if possible
Speed	Slow, deliberate	Faster
Method	Must finish Use dictionary	Stop if you don't like it No dictionary or limited use

Task 18

1. Students read as much as possible, perhaps in and definitely out of the classroom.
2. A variety of materials on a wide range of topics is available so as to encourage reading for different reasons and in different ways.
3. Students select what they want to read and have the freedom to stop reading material that fails to interest them.
4. Reading is usually for pleasure, information, and general understanding. These purposes are determined by the nature of the material and the interests of the student.
5. Reading is its own reward. There are few or no follow-up exercises after reading. Perhaps at best a brief expression of how the student enjoyed the text.
6. Reading materials are well within the linguistic competence of the students in terms of vocabulary and grammar. This may well imply the use of graded readers; but again students must have a free choice of which texts they read.
7. Dictionaries are rarely used while reading because the constant stopping to look up words makes fluent reading difficult.
8. Reading is individual and silent, at the student's own pace, and done when and where the student chooses.
9. Reading speed is therefore as fast as the student can manage and still enjoy the text. Students should be encouraged to measure their reading speed (eg number of pages per minute) and gradually to increase their rate.
10. Teachers explain the goals of the programme and the methodology to students, they keep track of what each student reads, and guide students in getting the most out of the programme.
11. The teacher is a role model of a reader for students - an active member of the classroom reading community, demonstrating what it means to be a reader and the rewards of being a reader.

(Day and Bamford, 1998: 7-8, slightly adapted)