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READING AND UNDERSTANDING

All reading is geared to understanding. There would be no point in reading if we did not understand what we are reading. However there are many different obstacles in the way of easy understanding of a passage. It is your task as a reader to actively seek to break down the barriers to understanding.
   One block to understanding is caused by references in the passage to things that are outside it. Pronoun are the first examples of words that refer to people and objects. Sometimes, it is easy to follow the reference at other times, it is more difficult. Look at the opening sentence of the passage you've just read that begins this way  "She was waiting for us:small, dowdy, dirty..."  Who was waiting? Who was the person waiting for? (Perhaps you would also like to know why she was waiting.)Answers to these questions will surely help you to understand and thus follow the reference.
The first thing to do is to ask questions like the ones we have just asked and to read the surrounding sentence in search of answers. For example, the second sentence reads:
''...the SS Burgeo was wise in the ways of the unforgiving world of water. "You should ask yourself what is the connection, if any, between she and the SS Burgeo. What could the SS Burgeo be?  The reference to SS, and the reference to water are clues, the Burgeo is a ship. Ship are often called she. The reference is now clearer. A ship is waiting for people, perhaps passengers bound for a certain destination. If you read on, you will confirm that the SS Burgeo is a kind of ferryboat linking fishing villages with the mainland.
    Note this sentence :"she also provided the principal contact with the outside world for some forty fishing villages...
   When next you meet unfamiliar references, stop to think about them. Try to find out what they relate to either in the text or, sometimes, in general background knowledge. In this way you will learn to read with understanding.

   

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