ENGLISH Reading Exercise #10 (Intermediate): Questions

Click Here for ENGLISH READING PRACTICE EXERCISES

This English reading exercise has been created for English students who are at a beginner to intermediate level. The pace of the reading is slower, with emphasis on pronouncing all the syllables.

During this English reading practice session, you will read along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

After a student feels comfortable at this pace, they can do the exercise created for intermediate to advanced students, which is faster and sounds normal for a native speaker.

English reading practice will certainly help you speak English fluently or at least great improve your English fluency.

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.

Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

Instructions

Turn up the volume so the teacher’s voice is loud.
Read the words in red out loud at the same time as the teacher.
Pay attention to the teacher’s voice intonation and the word groups.
If you find the speed is too slow, go to the playlist and choose the advanced version.

The text:

The Power of Questions
Illustrating the power of questions, Rudyard Kipling (English poet and novelist) wrote: I keep six honest serving-men, (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who.” These six questions provide the fuel our brains need to think. Thinking usually involves a process of questions and answers. When a question is posed, the brain automatically tries to find an answer.

Questions are like an INTERRUPT function on a computer. An interrupt is a signal that is sent to a processor requesting immediate attention. When the processor receives this request from a keyboard or mouse click, it stops what it is doing and then runs a process associated with the interrupt. Then, after it has dealt with the interrupt, it resumes it’s previous activity.

Have you noticed this happening to you when a question is asked? You may be deeply engrossed in reading or studying, and you hear a voice that says, “What time is it?” It is difficult to ignore. Usually, we stop what we are doing, answer the question, and then resume what we were doing. Such is the power of questions. A question is raised, the brain simply has to stop and try and find an answer.

Let us now take this understanding and employ it in our lives. When it comes to anything we do in life, whether in family matters, business, career, problem solving, health, if we ask the right questions, we can probably change the quality of our lives and our work.

Looking at those six questions again, we notice there are two groups. The first group, What, When, Where, Who, require answers involving facts or statistics. For example, “Where do you live?” Answer: “London.” “When did you arrive?” Answer: “Yesterday.” “Who is that?” Answer: “My brother.” But the second group of questions, How and Why, are different. They require additional thought. How and why questions focus on methods, processes, reasons, motivations.

Children have been described as question factories in full production. What is their favourite question? Why! Why, why, why? They seem to ask this question endlessly, to satisfy their natural curiosity. This is how they learn about the world around them. As adults, it’s important we don’t lose that childlike curiosity. Through life, we need to keep asking, how, and why?

For example, we may have a way of doing something, or producing a certain product. We can ask the question, “How can I make this better?” After completing a job, we can ask two very important questions: 1) What did I do right? 2) When I do that job again, what will I do differently? The first question, “What did I do right?” reinforces positive habits. Notice the second question does not ask, “What did I do wrong?” It is better to keep the questions positive – “What would I do differently?” These two questions lead to constant improvement.

In the sphere of relationships, do we know someone who is often irritable, angry, perhaps rude? We can come to a conclusion and think, “This is a very unpleasant person. I want as little as possible to do with them.” On the other hand, we can ask a question: Why? Why is this person acting and behaving in this way? Once we do a little checking and research, we might find the person is struggling with a major issue in their personal life.

Perhaps they are going through a divorce, or facing a serious health problem, or supporting sick family members, leaving them feeling tired and exhausted each day. Knowing the answer to: “Why do they behave like that?” will change our perspective. It will move us to show more understanding, empathy and kindness, which in turn will affect the way we speak to them, which in turn might soften their approach as they respond to our words of kindness and sympathy.

Can you see now why questions are so powerful? So why not follow the strategy in Rudyard Kipling’s poem. Use these six-honest serving men each day. Send out What and Why and When, and How and Where and Who, and see a major improvement in your results and in the quality of your life.

That is the end of the reading.

Repeat this exercise many times until you can synchronize your reading with the teacher.

Practice other exercises in this playlist and see a major improvement in your English speaking fluency.

Has this video helped you? Hit LIKE now!

Continually IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH by subscribing to this channel.
Hit the subscribe button NOW!

Click the bell icon and choose All to be notified when there are new videos!

Build A Powerful English Vocabulary with my FREE course on Udemy.
Go to: http://goodenglish.online

If you found this English Practice Reading Exercise helpful, be sure to check Exercise 7 (Intermediate) which provides helpful information on thinking patterns
ENGLISH Reading Exercise #9 (Intermediate): Self-Discipline