WHOSE VIEW IS RIGHT?

EXAMPLE

Teenagers like to stay out late.

EXTRACT PART 1

CHAPTER 7
Part 1

Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his. Her father had been an attorney in Meryton, and had left her four thousand pounds.

She had a sister married to a Mr. Phillips, who had been a clerk to their father and succeeded him in the business, and a brother settled in London in a respectable line of trade.

The village of Longbourn was only one mile from Meryton; a most convenient distance for the young ladies, who were usually tempted thither three or four times a week, to pay their duty to their aunt and to a milliner's shop just over the way. The two youngest of the family, Catherine and Lydia, were particularly frequent in these attentions; their minds were more vacant than their sisters', and when nothing better offered, a walk to Meryton was necessary to amuse their morning hours and furnish conversation for the evening; and however bare of news the country in general might be, they always contrived to learn some from their aunt. At present, indeed, they were well supplied both with news and happiness by the recent arrival of a militia regiment in the neighbourhood; it was to remain the whole winter, and Meryton was the headquarters.

Their visits to Mrs. Phillips were now productive of the most interesting intelligence. Every day added something to their knowledge of the officers' names and connections. Their lodgings were not long a secret, and at length they began to know the officers themselves. Mr. Phillips visited them all, and this opened to his nieces a store of felicity unknown before. They could talk of nothing but officers; and Mr. Bingley's large fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their mother, was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of an ensign.

EXTRACT PART 2

CHAPTER 7
Part 2


After listening one morning to their effusions on this subject, Mr. Bennet coolly observed:

"From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but I am now convinced."

Catherine was disconcerted, and made no answer; but Lydia, with perfect indifference, continued to express her admiration of Captain Carter, and her hope of seeing him in the course of the day, as he was going the next morning to London.

"I am astonished, my dear," said Mrs. Bennet, "that you should be so ready to think your own children silly. If I wished to think slightingly of anybody's children, it should not be of my own, however."

"If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it."

"Yes - but as it happens, they are all of them very clever."

"This is the only point, I flatter myself, on which we do not agree. I had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every particular, but I must so far differ from you as to think our two youngest daughters uncommonly foolish."

"My dear Mr. Bennet, you must not expect such girls to have the sense of their father and mother. When they get to our age, I dare say they will not think about officers any more than we do. I remember the time when I liked a red coat myself very well - and, indeed, so I do still at my heart; and if a smart young colonel, with five or six thousand a year, should want one of my girls I shall not say nay to him; and I thought Colonel Forster looked very becoming the other night at Sir William's in his regimentals."

EXAMPLE

Catherine and Lydia are very interested in soldiers in the military regiment. They are excited to see them and constantly talk about them. Their father disagrees with their behaviour. He finds it silly the way they talk and what they talk about.

TACKLING UNKNOWN WORDS 1

• Look up the unfamiliar word in a dictionary.
• Look for clues in the text around the unfamiliar word. They may help you guess its meaning.
• Underline the unfamiliar word and continue reading. Sometimes text that follows provides clues for you to guess the meaning of the word.
• Ask yourself if the word is really that important for understanding the idea, and if not, skip it and move on.

TACKLING UNKNOWN WORDS 2

Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his. Her father had been an attorney in Meryton, and had left her four thousand pounds.

What are the words that you didn't understand?

Nika decided to look up these words because she heard them before and wanted to know what they mean:
property = (n.) thing or land that someone owns
fortune = (n.) someone's wealth
supply = (v.) give something that is needed
deficiency = (n.) lack of something that is needed

What words would you look up in a dictionary?

Nika then tried to guess the meaning of other words by looking for clues around the unfamiliar words. These are some of her guesses:

heirs male = sons who can inherit from their parents
in default of = without
relation = relative
ill = bad

What about you? Which words can you guess from the context?

With these words understood, Nika skipped the rest of the unfamiliar words because she was already able to work out the content/meaning of the paragraph. She moved on with her reading.

SUMMARY GUIDELINES

To write a summary of a text, follow these simple steps:
1. highlight the main ideas or key points of the text;
2. get key points down and write short notes in your own words;
3. use link words and sentences to put the notes into a summary.

Student Nika already did the summary of the first paragraph. Her steps may help you write your own summary. See how she did it.

1) Nika selected the main ideas. These are the words she highlighted:
Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his. Her father had been an attorney in Meryton, and had left her four thousand pounds.

2) She, then, used her key points to write short notes using her own words:

• Mr. Bennet's income:
  • £2,000 a year
  • his daughters can't have this money
  • male relative will inherit the money
• Mrs. Bennet's money:
  • not enough
  • inherited 4,000 pounds (from father)
• So: not much money in the family

3) Finally, Nika used linking words and sentences, and turned her notes into a summary:
Mr. Bennet has an income of two thousand pounds a year, but his daughters are not entitled to it as it should be inherited by a male relative. Mrs. Bennet inherited 4,000 pounds from her father, which is not enough for her family. So the Bennet family have to live modestly.

Now have a go yourself at highlighting the main ideas in the extract, writing notes using your own words, and finally summarising the whole extract.

If you like, you can use Word to do the summary. Copy the text to a Word document and do the highlighting there. You can use different colours for different types of words. For example, one colour for unfamiliar words, another for interesting ones, etc. It is also easy to edit your summary in Word because you can delete, cut, and paste words very fast. See which (paper notebook or Word document) works best for you.

SUMMARY OF THE EXTRACT

Mr. Bennet has an income of two thousand pounds a year, but his daughters are not entitled to it as it should be inherited by a male relative. Mrs. Bennet inherited four thousand pounds from her father, which is not enough for her family. So the Bennet family have to live modestly.

The young Bennet daughters, Catherine and Lydia, frequently visit their aunt, Mrs. Philips in Meryton, which is near their home. They are excited about the soldiers in the military regiment that has arrived in the neighbourhood and is going to stay for the winter. Mr. Bennet finds his daughters’ talk about the officers very silly. But Mrs. Bennet doesn’t agree with him and finds Catherine and Lydia’s interest very normal for their age. She would be happy if a rich officer of high rank wanted to marry one of her daughters.