¡GED Ahora! | Maria’s GED Blog Site

The GED means a lot of reading! You need to read passages about science and social science, plus the reading section. So it helps to be able to get the information you need fast. That’s where “skimming” and “scanning” come in. They’re both ways to get information when you’re reading.

Skimming means looking over the text quickly to try to get the main ideas. It can be good to skim the GED readings before looking at the questions, to get main ideas first. Then, when you know the questions, it’s easier to find the information you need.

To skim a reading, try reading the title, the first and last sentences of paragraphs and important words (especially capitalized names, dates, or other words that stand out.) Get as much important information as you can in a short period of time… and then ask yourself: what are the main ideas?

Scanning means looking for some specific information in the text. You can think of it like looking for a word in the dictionary. You don’t read the whole dictionary, but you find the right area and then look down the page to find the word.

You can do the same thing with GED text. Once you know the question, you know what specific information you need to find. You move your eyes quickly through the text to find key words from the question. Then, when you find them, you can slow down and read the text in that area. You’ll probably find the answer to the question!

Here, try using skimming and scanning on this practice question.

From The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith:

Mma Ramotswe had a detective agency in Africa, at the foot of Kgale Hill. These were its assets: a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, a telephone, and an old typewriter. Then there was a teapot, in which Mma Ramotswe–the only lady private detective in Botswana–brewed redbush tea. And three mugs–one for herself, one for her secretary, and one for the client. What else does a detective agency really need? Detective agencies rely on human intuition and intelligence, both of which Mma Ramotswe had in abundance. No inventory would ever include those, of course.

But there was also the view, which again could appear on no inventory. How could any such list describe what one saw when one looked out from Mma Ramotswe’s door? To the front, an acacia tree, the thorn tree which dots the wide edges of the Kalahari; the great white thorns, a warning; the olive-grey leaves, by contrast, so delicate. In its branches, in the late afternoon, or in the cool of the early morning, one might see a Go-Away Bird, or hear it, rather. And beyond the acacia, over the dusty road, the roofs of the town under a cover of trees and scrub bush; on the horizon, in a blue shimmer of heat, the hills, like improbable, overgrown termite mounds.

Everybody called her Mma Ramotswe, although if people had wanted to be formal, they would have addressed her as Mme Mma Ramotswe. This is the right thing for a person of stature, but which she had never used of herself. So it was always Mma Ramotswe, rather than Precious Ramotswe, a name which very few people employed.

She was a good detective, and a good woman. A good woman in a good country, one might say. She loved her country, Botswana, which is a place of peace, and she loved Africa, for all its trials. I am not ashamed to be called an African patriot, said Mma Ramotswe. I love all the people whom God made, but I especially know how to love the people who live in this place. They are my people, my brothers and sisters. It is my duty to help them to solve the mysteries in their lives. That is what I am called to do.

In idle moments, when there were no pressing matters to be dealt with, and when everybody seemed to be sleepy from the heat, she would sit under her acacia tree. It was a dusty place to sit, and the chickens would occasionally come and peck about her feet, but it was a place which seemed to encourage thought. It was here that Mma Ramotswe would contemplate some of the issues which, in everyday life, may so easily be pushed to one side.

What is the main character’s first name?

A) Mma

B) Kgale

C) Precious

D) Kalahari

E) Ramotswe

GED Practice Question, GED Test Readings, Reading | RSS 2.0 | Comment it , or trackback this post.