Here’s something the writer Raymond Chandler says in The Long Goodbye (a pretty good book!). He’s talking about getting a drunk guy up some stairs, and he says:

I got the drunk up them somehow. He was eager to help but his legs were rubber and he kept falling asleep in the middle of an apologetic sentence.

I bet they don’t put Raymond Chandler on the GED, but I wish they would! Still, he uses metaphors just like the literature writers on the GED. He says the guy’s legs were rubber. They aren’t really rubber, but you know right away what it means. The guy couldn’t stand, he was so drunk, and his legs kept folding up under him. Saying “his legs were rubber” tells you right away what the writer wants you to know by using a comparison.

Here’s a worksheet about metaphors that gives you the basics, to help you study for the GED test: http://www.rhlschool.com/eng3n26.htm

Sometimes, metaphors you find on the GED get a lot harder, like in poetry. There’s almost always some poetry on the GED. Here’s a poem that uses metaphors, and it’s just the kind that comes up on that GED reading test.

The Silken Tent
by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To everything on earth the compass round,
And only by one’s going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

Can you figure it out? What’s the poet saying? What’s the main idea? That’s what you’ll need to find out if you run across a poem like this on the GED! I’ll work on figuring out this one, and then I’ll let you know what I found out next time.

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

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

Here’s what I did….

1) Survey

First, I looked at the web page without reading it yet. It says “The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945″ at the top, so I know about what time it’s talking about. The page says “The Dust Bowl” and “Overview,” so it must tell basically what the Dust Bowl is. There’s a picture, and you can click on it to see better. it’s got some wagon wheels and a house, and it’s all sort of buried in some sand or dirt. The caption says “Results of a Dust Storm, Oklahoma, 1936.” So I’m getting the idea of where this is… Oklahoma, or sort of in the Midwest. And the year, 1936, gives me a more specific time, right in the middle of the years at the top of the page. And it talks about a dust storm, so I’m getting that “Dust Bowl” has to do with storms of dust… There’s more photographs and songs on the right. I just looked at the titles… “I’d Rather Not Be on Relief.” “Life in the Camps.” “On the Road.”

2) Question

Now, I ask some questions:

What is relief? What kinds of camps are they talking about? What caused the dust storms? What happened because of the dust storms? Did a lot of things get damaged? What exactly is the “dust bowl”? Is it a place or an event?

3) Read

I read the article next. Since it’s a web site, I took down some notes…

1930-1940.

Southwest Great Plains.

drought=no rain, no water.

Lots of people settled there to raise cattle (cows) and wheat. Plowed and planted (made farms.) What does this have to do with drought? Did the farms dry up?

“systematic destruction of prairie grasses” This is like something in science… when you hurt part of nature (an ecosystem), it changes other things. Farms destroyed grasses…then what? Did wildlife die?

Strong winds = devastating (very harmful)

Drought–1930. Land was dry, no grass, dirt blew away!!! Sky dark for days! Picture it. Covered houses.

Nineteen states = “dust bowl.” Farmers our of business, left, went west.

400,000 people left Great Plains. drought + “poor soil conservation” (not treating the soil right to keep it well for the future.)

4) Respond

Here’s what I responded to my questions:
What is relief? It doesn’t say in the article. I clicked on the link, and it’s about living with only the government help. I guess that’s what relief is… government help. Sounds terrible!

What kinds of camps are they talking about? The song helped with this on, too. People lived in camps when they couldn’t stay on their farms.

What caused the dust storms? The article talks about this. There were three things, I think. (1) bad ways of farming that killed grasses, (2) a natural period with no rain, and (3) lots of wind in the area.

What happened because of the dust storms? Farms were destroyed, people were out of work and poor. Lots of people moved west, and the government tried to help people.
Did a lot of things get damaged? Yes! Farms, mostly.

What exactly is the “dust bowl”? Is it a place or an event? It’s both a place and an event, I guess. Nineteen states in the center of the U.S. were turned into a “Dust Bowl”…really like a bowl of dust, where there were all kinds of dust storms… because of drought and how farmers treated the land.

5) Review

I looked back over it. I guess I want to know more about what life was like. Also, there’s a quote from a book about the dust bowl, and I wonder about that book by Steinbeck. Does it tell more about what happened to the people? Also, maybe I should look at all the pictures now that I understand more about what happened.

6) Reflect

I think it’s very sad that this happened. Farmers probably didn’t know that they were hurting the soil by killing so many of the grasses. In a way, it’s kind of like global warming, isn’t it? People start doing something and then they don’t realize it’s hurting the world until something bad happens. Then, it causes lots of problems!

So, did this help you study at all? I guess when I read this I got some information about science and about social science, so it’s all kind of related together, isn’t it? Maybe I should show Dwaynee this, too.

When he coughed—smoking too much goes with drinking too much and doubles the hangover—a cloud of luminous black dots swam across his vision like amoebae in pond water.

Last time I asked you how to understand “luminous” and “amoebae” and read this sentence. Pretty hard if English isn’t your first language.

So, you have to think about it. I gave you some questions that I use… first, ask: Can I understand the sentence without knowing the word? Can I get the main idea of what they’re saying?

So, I think about it. Do “luminous” and “amoebae” need to trip me up? I tried taking out the words, like this…

When he coughed—smoking too much goes with drinking too much and doubles the hangover—a cloud of some sort of black dots swam across his vision like something in pond water.

He coughed… hung over from smoking and drinking, huh? and some black dots swam in front of his eyes, like something in pond water. I can get the whole idea, even without knowing the words. I can kind of picture it in my head, si?

Then, I ask: Can I look at the words nearby to see about what the word means? Is there another word nearby that maybe means the same thing?

Well, with luminous, maybe it means cloudlike somehow? A cloud of luminous black dots… When I picture seeing dots like that, they’re kind of shimmering and unreal. Maybe that’s what it means?

The other one is easier… amoebae. It says, amoebae in pond water, and before that it says swimming. So, it’d be something that swims around in pond water and looks like little black dots? Like little fish or bugs maybe?

Finally, I think… can I think of another word that I would put in the sentence that makes sense? Luminous could be shimmering, like I said before, and amoebae could be little bugs.

When he coughed—smoking too much goes with drinking too much and doubles the hangover—a cloud of shimmering black dots swam across his vision like little bugs in pond water.

That gets me close enough to understand, right? And the more you see the words in different places, the better you can understand them. I looked it up, and luminous means like glowing, which is pretty close to shimmering. And amoebae are one-celled organisms that swim around in water. I guess that would make them like little dots, but aren’t they too small to see? I think this guy just likes using long words.

I figured out after a while that I can ask myself a list of questions to figure out a word…

1. Can I understand the sentence without knowing the word? Can I get the main idea of what they’re saying?
2. Can I look at the words nearby to see about what the word means? Is there another word nearby that maybe means the same thing?
3. Can I think of another word that I would put in the sentence that makes sense?

By using these questions, it helps me understand a lot of words that maybe would make reading hard for me. You never know where you’re going to find some hard words! You know, I saw that movie Casino Royale with James Bond. I thought, maybe those James Bond books would be good to read… they’ve got lots of action, so you can kind of see what’s going on.

So, I bought this James Bond book, Thunderball, and almost right away I wanted to put it back down. All those words… Look at this sentence:

When he coughed—smoking too much goes with drinking too much and doubles the hangover—a cloud of luminous black dots swam across his vision like amoebae in pond water.

Luminous? Amoebae? What do those words mean? What’s he talking about? But I didn’t give up. See if you can figure out those words… and I’ll check in with you next week to tell you how I did it.

SQ4R stands for “Survey, Question, Read, Respond, Review, Reflect.” This is really good for reading study books. Here’s what you do:

1) Survey

Don’t start reading right away! Instead, you look at the page. What are the titles? Headings? Bold words? Pictures? Captions? Graphs? Look at the big things on the page, and try to get an idea what it’s all about.

2) Question

Don’t start reading yet! Based on what you looked at in your survey, ask some questions. What do you want to know? If it’s your book, write questions on the page, next to the title and pictures. Or, you can write on a piece of paper. Ask as many questions as you can think of.

3) Read

Now it’s time to read! If it’s your book, underline things, circle new words, and write down ideas while you read. If it’s not your book, write notes on a piece of paper. This is active reading… you’re thinking while you’re reading!

4) Respond

While you’re reading, you want to find the answers to your questions, too. You either have your questions written on the page or on a separate paper. Now, write the answers that you find by the questions.

5) Review

After you’re done reading, look back at what you did. Look over the pages you read. Did you find all the answers to your questions? Did you miss anything? Do you understand what you read? Do you have some new questions?

6) Reflect

Put what you read away. Now, stop and think about it. Talk about it with a friend, or write a diary entry about what you think. Do you agree with what was said? Did you find something interesting or new? Did you learn something? Are you still confused about anything?

Give this SQ4R a try… I’m going to use it for looking at a web page. Becca said I should take a look at this one: http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/depwwii/dustbowl/dustbowl.html

It’s about the Dust Bowl in the 1930s in America. I don’t think I ever heard of that. I’ll try to learn about it, and I’ll let you know how I did the SQ4R reading.

Finding the main idea is really important. I’ve learned a few things about it, when looking for information for the GED. You always have to ask yourself, when you’re reading for the GED, what’s the point?

That’s why summarizing is important to practice. It helps you find out the main idea. Some things that really help to identify the main idea are:

• Look at the beginning and end sentences of paragraphs. A lot of the time, they tell the main idea.
• Look at the end of poems or stories… a lot of time the main point is at the end.
• Look at the title of a reading. It can tell you what it’s all about!

I promised that I’d do a summary of this article about Vincente Fox: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/mexico_fox_dc;_ylt=AqEpWa18_E8yeU4JvB1Mk_Qdl.0A

So, I looked at the title. It said: “Mexico’s Fox falls from grace amid corruption probe.” Well, that’s confusing. Mexico’s Fox… that’s the guy, Vincente Fox. “falls from grace”? What’s that mean? “amid”? “corruption”? “probe”? Yikes! I can’t hardly understand a word. Corruption, though, that’s like being corrupt, taking bribes and stuff. Yup, anyone in Mexico knows about that! Okay… that gives me an idea what it’s all about.

I read the first sentence, and it seemed to be about Fox being corrupt, too. So, here’s my summary:

Vincente Fox was president of Mexico, and everyone thought he was an honest rancher. But now, he looks like he’s got a lot of money: a big car he didn’t pay for, expensive animals at his ranch. The government is investigating him, and people are starting to distrust him, even though he says he didn’t do anything wrong. The big scandal might be good for the other political party!

What do you think? Did I get the main idea?

Also, sometimes I’d read something and not really understand it. I would read the whole thing, but because the words weren’t really words I knew, I’d just be reading words and not getting meaning. Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, here are two strategies to remember what you read and to make sure you understood it.

• Restating means that you say something again in your own words. This is good to help you understand and remember something that’s pretty short. So, you can restate a sentence or a paragraph that you read.
• Summarizing means that you give the most important information about what you read. It’s like you’re writing down the main ideas of what you read. Maybe you write a paragraph saying what the main points of a whole article are. This is good for big readings and to help you figure out what the main ideas are.

The difference between restating and summarizing is that in restating, you don’t leave anything out. You just say it again in your own words. In summarizing, you only give the most important points, in your own words.

I started reading this news story about Vincente Fox: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/mexico_fox_dc;_ylt=AqEpWa18_E8yeU4JvB1Mk_Qdl.0A

I think I’ll try to use summarization to understand it and remember what I read. I’ll let you know my summary in the next post. Meanwhile, try it yourself, and let me know how it works for you!

When I looked at the article, here’s sort of how I did it:

KNOW I know some things about baking, because I’ve baked stuff before. Maybe baking blackberry cobbler is like baking biscuits? Or kind of like a pie. I know it’s got blackberries, kind of like pie filling, and a topping that looks kind of like biscuits. I also know that recipes have ingredients, measurements, and different steps, so I’ll be looking out for all that.

WANT TO KNOW I want to know the recipe for blackberry cobbler. What are the ingredients? How much of everything do I need? How do you put it all together? What do I need for pans and bowls and stuff? How long will it take to make?

LEARNED I learned that I was right about it being kind of like pie filling with biscuits on top. She uses the word “biscuity” to describe the topping! I also learned the recipe, which I’m going to try after I go shopping. I wrote down the answers to all my questions, so I’d have it all clear. I also learned something I didn’t expect… that’s how helpful pictures are in reading something! I didn’t know how to “zest” a lemon, but she’s got a good picture showing how to do it and what she uses. And so I learned the word “zest,” which is the outside of the lemon.

This recipe was pretty easy to read, but I bet I can use KWL to read harder stuff, too. What are you reading? Let me know!

I pay a lot of attention to what my son Roberto does in his school, and I’m trying to bring home ideas to help me study for my GED. I know, he’s still pretty young, but I figure that now’s the time he’s learning to read, right? I can get better at reading by using some of the things they teach about in his school.

Here’s something they have him do… when you need to read something, you go through three steps. You can remember them by remembering KWL. I think of it like the Dwayne reading strategy… you know, “KEWL!”

KNOW…Ask Yourself, What Do I Already Know?

The first thing to do is look at the topic you’re studying. What do you already know about it? What can you tell just by looking at what you’re reading? Are there pictures? What’s the title? What’s the subject? Write down what you already know.

WANT TO KNOW…Ask Yourself, What Do I Want to Know?

The second thing to do is think about what you want to know from reading. What do you think you’ll learn? What would be interesting to know? The thing about the GED is, when you read a passage, there’s always something you want to know… it’s the answer to the question! So, if it’s on the GED, I look at the question and think about what I want to know to answer it. Write down what you want to know.

LEARN…After Reading, Ask Yourself, What Did I Learn?

It helps you remember things to think about them after reading them. So, after reading, what did you find out? Did you find the answers to your questions? Did you learn anything else, anything new? Write down what you learned.

I’m going to try reading this article to figure out how to make a blackberry cobbler: http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/08/the_great_cobbl-2.html

Elizabeth tells me it’s really good, so I’ll see what I can do. I’ll use the KWL method to read… and I’ll let you know how it works out. You try it with something you want to read, too!