Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School Table of contents TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION Reason for choosing the topic .2 1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY Aim of the study Research questions 4 Scope of the study Methods of the study .5 Significance of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT .6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.The importance of learning reading comprehension skills .6 Motivation .6 Motivation in leaning reading short stories .7 3.1 Short stories and their benefits to high school students 3.2 Choosing the suitable short stories for high school students 3.3 How to use short stories in teaching reading CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 11 What is action research? 11 The setting and the participants .11 2.1 The setting of the study 11 2.2 The subjects of the study 11 2.3 Reading materials 12 Action research procedure 12 3.1 Identifying a problem 12 3.2 Collecting data 12 3.3 Pre-test and post-test 13 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 14 Implementing the action plan .14 Collecting data from survey 14 Analyzing data from teachers’ survey 15 Analyzing data from students’ survey 15 4.1 Pre -test data 15 4.2 Post test data 16 4.3 Pre-test and post-test comparison 17 CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 18 Students' factors affecting reading comprehension 18 1.1 Limited background knowledge 18 1.2 Lack of vocabulary 18 1.3 Lack of reading comprehension skill 19 Teacher’s factors affecting teaching reading .20 Reading material factors .20 Suggestions for motivating students to read 21 PART CONCLUSION .22 APPENDIX 1: ACTION PLAN IMPLEMENTATION 25 OF USING SHORT STORY-READING ACTIVITIES 25 25 APPENDIX 2: A DETAILED LESSON PLAN 26 APPENDIX 3: THE PRE - TEST 26 APPENDIX 4: THE POST - TEST 28 Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School Part 1: Introduction Reason for choosing the topic It is assumed that the more students read, the better readers they become Therefore, establishing students’ habits of reading is very necessary, especially in second language learning Being aware of the importance of learning reading skill, authors of new English 10 have chosen interesting topics for reading lessons with the aim to promote students in reading and improve their reading comprehension However some of them are not familiar with students' genre and reading in the text book only is not enough to enhance students' interest in reading and reading comprehension Thonis, (1970) suggested: Comprehension skills depend upon two major factors: the background of experiences, from which concepts have been acquired, and the speed, accuracy, and richness of meanings which students bring to word recognition The advancement of skill in understanding what is read receives major emphasis during the intermediate and high school years As students become more efficient readers, the written language which they meet in books becomes a source for larger vocabularies, for increased knowledge, and for deeper comprehension of themselves and the world around them Thus beside the reading texts in the text book students need to read more outside class room to enrich their vocabulary as well as their background knowledge That means students must read extensively So many studies and researches have been conducted to find out ways to improve reading effectiveness Recently, there have been a lot of researches about the effect of extensive reading in improving students’ reading comprehension Colin Davis (1995:335) suggested that any classroom will be the poorer for the lack of an extensive reading program and will be “unable to promote its students’ language development in all aspects as effectively as if such a program were present” He also claimed that such a program will make students more positive about reading, improve their overall comprehension skills, and give them a wider passive and active vocabulary Myuskens (1983) affirmed that "with students at the beginning and intermediate levels, instructors can use literacy text for language practice, reading comprehension and possible aesthetic appreciation” Strong (1996) also stated that Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School “extensive reading of literature can encourage students to develop positive attitudes toward reading” However, At My Hao high school, the teaching and learning reading are mostly based on text book Therefore, the students seem not to be interested in reading lessons Most of them feel reading is difficult and boring even they are afraid of reading Thus, after reading a text they often don’t understand much about its content or they misunderstand author’s ideas When studying in a reading lesson, students often experience the lack of background knowledge as well as vocabulary about the topics they are reading Other important reasons are their lack of motivation and time In the word of foreign language, the most popular expression might be “practice makes perfect” That is the reason why the teachers have to find ways to enhance students read more and to improve their reading comprehension From the point of view: students only read what they are interested in, the researcher come to the study of using short story in teaching reading Because among literature materials, short story seems to be the most suitable with high school students of all Students at this age are curious and they like reading short stories Collie and Slater (1991: 196) list the advantages of using short stories for language teachers: short stories are practical as their length is long enough to cover entirely in one or two class sessions; they are not complicated for students to work with on their own; they have a variety of choice for different interests and tastes; and they can be used with all levels (beginner to advanced), all ages (young learners to adults) and all classes (summer courses to evening classes) Moreover short stories don’t take much time Students can read them at the break, before going to bed, on the bus or when they are waiting for someone With the above reasons I decided to an action reaseach on using short stories as a sort of extra reading materials with the aim to motivate students in reading and improving their reading ability 1.2 Aims of the study The study is to find down if the using short stories in teaching reading helps motivate students at My Hao high school in reading and improving their reading ability The overall purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of the using short story reading activities (as extra reading activities) at My Hao high school Thus Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School survey questionnaires and class observations are used to investigate the teachers and the students' attitude towards the using short stories in teaching and learning reading as well as to examine the students' preferences for students' reading activities applied by the researcher The results of the study show that both teachers and students are fully aware of the sheer importance of short story reading activities to the students' comprehension Among them, summarizing the story in spoken or written form appears to be the most interesting activities After this activity, the students not only comprehend deeply the short story but they also practice speaking and writing skills Secondly, the students find it easier to comprehend the story by filling in relating problems or themes in the story to their real life Aim of the study The study is to find down if the using short stories in teaching reading helps motivate students at My Hao high school in reading and improving their reading abilities Research questions This action research aims at answering the following research questions: What are the students' problems and causes of the problems in reading lessons? What are students' attitude and preferences for the using short stories in teaching reading? a How they find the short story reading activities that teacher applied? b What benefits they think the short story reading activities bring them? c What short story reading activities they like most to comprehend the story more effectively? Does the using short stories in teaching reading help students improve their reading comprehension? Scope of the study The research aims at applying the using short stories in teaching reading to grade 10 students at My Hao high school The subjects of the study are 50 students of class 10A3 (school year: 2011-2012) at My Hao high school including 22 males and 28 females The age of those 50 students ranges from 16 to 17 Hopefully, the findings of the study may be applied in teaching reading to students at My Hao high school and other high schools in Vietnam Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School Methods of the study • Methodology: I designed this action research since it is the problem in my own class and I would like to improve my students' reading skill It is a practical action because its purpose is to research a specific school situation with a view toward improving practice reading, to focus on a small-scale research project, to focus narrowly on a specific problem and to be undertaken by an individual teacher within a high school • Data collection instruments: To answer the research questions of the study, the data are collected through questionnaires, interviews, observations, and tests Significance of the study As mentioned above, learning reading is very important to students Therefore, to raise students’ interest in reading and help them comprehend the text better, the applying extra reading activities in teaching reading are very necessary The aim of this study is to find out whether the using short stories in teaching reading motivates students in reading and improves their reading comprehension Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School PART 2: development Chapter 1: Literature review 1.The importance of learning reading comprehension skills Reading comprehension is what allows the readers to interact with the text in a meaningful way It’s the bridge from passive reading to active reading, from letters and words to characters and contexts Reading comprehension is the crucial link to effective reading - a strong factor in our educational and professional lives For many reasons, reading comprehension also unlocks the door to a lifetime of reading recreation and enjoyment Reading comprehension skills increase the pleasure and effectiveness of reading In short, building reading comprehension skills require a long term strategy in which all the reading skill areas (phonics, fluency, and vocabulary) will contribute to success Thus, teachers should find out what skill areas that their students are bad at and help them improve those ones Motivation If students are going to develop good reading skills, they’ll want to read People are more motivated to read if they are interested in the topic Research confirms that students' motivation is a key factor in successful reading Harmer, J (2003;44) defined "motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action." Students' interest in reading is vital to the motivation and reading assignment (Collins, Decker, 1996.53) If a student is intrinsically motivated, the students desire to read the materials because they are interested in it Another strategy that is used to promote intrinsic motivation is to find topics that students are interested in learning more about and have the students research it (Guthrie, Solomon, 1997;43) The students want to read the material because they are so determined to learn more about the subject; they will also want to work hard at it because they picked it out (Hunt, Lyman, 1997;21) Beside intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation is not less important In this study, extrinsic motivation is considered as teacher's role in enhancing students to read as well as sustaining students' interest in reading Harmer (2003) said that "clearly a major factor in the continuance of a student's motivation is the teacher." The teachers are the people who know best about their students, they will know how Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School to enhance their students' interest in reading and when to provide help to them The teachers are also students' friends who share their difficulties in learning and from those difficulties they will find the most suitable method of teaching to increase and direct their students' motivation Thus, to make our students want to read, besides giving them interesting lessons with pleasant learning environment and various activities we need to provide them materials that they are interested in or let them choose their own materials to read Motivation in leaning reading short stories 3.1 Short stories and their benefits to high school students When students are let to read materials that they are interested in they will want to read more Wells C (1980;78) stated that “If reading has been pleasurable because the students have been able to identify successfully (emotionally and intellectually) with the text, and to organize the material, then the students will want to read more This desire will set off a chain reaction which will lead to more reading, and the more the student reads, the better he will read.” To high school students, short stories seem to be the most suitable materials for extra reading activities Erkaya (2005;75) said "short stories usually have a beginning, middle and an end, they encourage students at all levels of language proficiency to continue reading them until the end to find out how the conflicts is resolved” He also stated that " short stories, for example, help students to learn the four skills listening, speaking, reading, writing more effectively because of the motivational benefit embedded in the stories and with short stories, instructors can teach literacy, culture, and higher-order thinking benefit." Accordingly, what Hirvela and Boyle (1988;66) report is not surprising: they examine students' attitudes towards four genres of literary texts (short stories, novels, poetries and dramas) and state that their Hong Kong Chinese students indicated short stories as the genre that is less feared and the second most enjoyed (43%; the novel is the most enjoyed with 44%), since short stories are easy to finish and definite to understand In addition, short stories are the best path to improve your overall reading comprehension Short stories are easy, not time consuming, and the plots are relatively simple, with limited locations and characters In about an hour or so, you should be able to read a short story, and then sit down and analyze the story from beginning to end You should be able to identify the characters, what the story’s plot is about, and analyze the plot from different angles This will teach you to see a system from different angles “Thus short stories - they are simply, easy and fun But they can really improve your reading comprehension”(Keith Johnson, 2008;77) Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School In conclusion, the answer to the question of why short stories are the most suitable literary form to use in English classes lines in Edgar Allan Poe's definition of short stories He defined it "as a narrative that can be read at one sitting of from onehalf hour to two hours, and that is limited to 'a certain unique or single effect', to which every detail is subordinate" (Abrams, 1970;88) Since it is short, and aims at giving a single effect, there is usually one plot, a few characters; there is no detailed description of setting So, it is easy for the students to follow the story line of the work 3.2 Choosing the suitable short stories for high school students As it is mentioned above, of literacy genres, short stories seem to be the most suitable one to use in crowded class due to its shortness However, there is no strict rule to determine the length of short stories; as well as very short stories, there are longer ones Therefore, it is the duty of the teacher to choose a story short enough to handle with course hours "The shortness of the text is important for the students because they will see that they can read, understand and finish something in English, and it will give the students a feeling of achievement and self - confidence" (Zerrin Eren, 2004.98) To high school students with the pre-intermediate language level the teacher can choose short stories which have from two hundreds words to three hundred words in length Beside the length of the work, there are some other important criteria that must be considered while choosing the text Hill (1994;45) points out the basic criteria to be kept in mind while choosing a literary text as follows: - The need and abilities of the students - The linguistic and stylistic level of the text - The amount of background information required for a true - Appreciation of the materials In addition, the vocabulary and sentence structure of the short stories to be studied must be suitable to the level of the students The short stories with archaic, slang, foreign words, and allusions, having sentences imitating the speech of a particular locality or ignorant people or foreigners must be avoided Similarly, very long sentences are difficult for students to understand As students will not understand these sentences and words, they will get bored and not read the work Therefore, before giving the short story, the teacher should decide the readability of the text Moreover, High school students are at teenage age, thus, the short stories for teenagers are important sources for teacher Sandra Lee McKay (2001: 322) and Wilga Rivers (1968: 230) point out that students read and enjoy a text if the subject matter of the text is relevant to their life experience and interests There are short Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School stories written for teenagers, although they are written for native speakers, "one way or another, they are directly relevant to the life experience, thoughts, emotions, and dreams of young people" (Rongqvist and Sell 1995: 44) 3.3 How to use short stories in teaching reading Short stories studied must be assigned to the students previously Each student's reading and understanding speed is not the same, and the course hours are limited in high schools If the students read the chosen text beforehand, they will understand the surface meaning or at least, have an ideal about the subject matter of the story For the best use of the allocated time, the students must read the text before the class meeting Before reading the text in class, the teacher should give very brief information about the writer in order that the students can see the writer in the context of his/her time • Using a graphic organizer or story map Following the reading of the text, the teacher may use a graphic organizer so that the students can comprehend the story better A graphic organizer is "a visual aid that displays the chunks of information to be studied" (Crandall, Jaramollo, Olsen and Peyton, (2002: 2) Crandall et al (2002: 2) explain the advantages of using graphic organizers as follows: Graphic organizers can help teachers clarify their instructional goals Teachers can ask themselves what they want their students to learn and how they can display this information graphically to help their students connect their ideas A story map in particular will help students understand the components of the story Crandall et al (2002;5) describe a story map as follows: "A story map is one example of a graphic organizer A story map breaks down the components of a storycharacters, setting, and dialogue in a series of events or conflicts leading to resolution-into chunks of text that can help students organize and comprehend the events of the story" Using a story map, we can encourage our students to infer meaning from the text, and is able to develop students' reading and speaking skills Below is a model of a story map: Title Character s Setting Event Event Event Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School Resolution Theme of the story Adapted from the story map by Crandall et al (2002, p 2-3) Beside the using story map, we can provide the students other activities to comprehend the story The following activities are suggested by Joanne Collie and Stephen Slater (1993;9) •Asking and answering questions relating problems or themes in the story to real life of the students This activity can be applied for pair work, group work or teacher and whole class •Doing multiple choice or true/false exercises that focus on new vocabulary and reading comprehension about the story •Reordering the events of the story •Summarizing the story in spoken or written form •Compare, note point of similarity and differences of content of the two stories with the same topic •Provide title for the story 10 Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School PART Conclusion It is apparent that students at My Hao high school often encounter several difficulties when dealing with the reading skill One of these is the lacking of background knowledge, motivation, and vocabulary therefore students often find it hard to comprehend the reading text so the reading comprehension of them is still rather low There are several factors affecting the students’ reading comprehension in learning reading in general and in reading a specific text in particular From the data analysis, it is important to spot that teacher’ teaching method, especially in establishing the students the habit of outside class reading, have great impact on the students’ comprehension of the reading text Although the teachers as well as the students are fully aware of the important role of extra reading activities, the chosen reading material and reading comprehension activities are very necessary To improve the situation, the teachers should take into consideration such things as teaching and learning condition, the reading material, reading activities, learning strategies and students’ preference… In more details, using short story reading activities as extra reading activities appropriately and flexibly, encouraging students’ internal factors … are feasible and effective solutions to apply in teaching reading Finally, it is hope that the study will make an especially significant contribution to the improvement and renovation of the current situation of teaching and learning English at My Hao high school 22 Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School REFERENCES Abrams, M.H (1970) A glossary of literary term New York: Rinehart Alvarez, Marino C Knowledge activation and schema construction Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, MA, 1990, 25p ED 317 988 Baker de Gonzalez and Blau (2000) Peason Education ESL Retrieved February 8, 2009 from the World Wide Web: http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/contact_us/pricelists/highered/07cat_reading.pdf Brumfit, Christopher J (1985) Language and literature teaching: from practice to principle Oxford: Pergamon Burn, R (1994) Introduction to research methods Melbourne: Longman Carol W (1980) Motivational techniques for improving reading comprehension among innercity high school students Volum 4, 2009 by the Yale-New Haven Teacher Institute Carrell, P.L (1983) Some issues in studying the role of schemata in second language comprehension Reading in a Foreign Language, N.12, Coady, J (1997) L2 vocabulary acquisition through extensive reading In J Coady & T Cohen, L and L Manion (1994) Research methods in education London:Croom Helm Collie, J and Slater, S (1991) Literature in the language classroom (5th ed.) Glasgow: Cambridge University Press Collins, N D (1996) Motivating low performing adolescent readers ERIC Document Reproduction Service No ED 396 265 Crandall, J., Jaramollo, A., Olsen, L., Peyton, J.K (2002) Using cognitive strategies to develop English language and literacy http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/0205 crandall.html, October 2002 Davis C (1995) Extensive reading: an expensive extravagance? ELT Journal 49; 4, 329-336 Day, R., & Bamford, J (1998) Extensive reading in the second language classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Erkaya, O R (2005) Benefits of using short stories in the EFL context The Asian EFL Journal v Nov 2005 23 Action research – Nguyen Thi Ly My Hao High School Glanz, J (1991) An article: An over view on action research Retrieved February 20, 2009 from the World Wide Web: http//:www eduweb.vic.gov.au.html Goodman, K S (1978) Reading of American children whose reading is a stable, rural dialect of English or language other than English Washington 24 Appendix 1: Action plan implementation of using short story-reading activities Week Unit 1-2 3-4 10 5-6 11 7-8 12 9-10 13 11-12 14 13-14 15 15-16 16 Short story reading activities - Read short stories about topic: under sea world - Doing multiple choice True/ False exercises that focus on vocabulary and reading comprehension about the topic - Match a definition with a suitable paragraph of the stories - Read short stories about topic: conservation - using graphic to re-present the stories’ contents - retelling the stories in front of the whole class - Read short stories about topic: national park -Asking and answering questions relating problems or themes in the story to real life of the students Comparison, note points of similarity or differences of contents between a national park in Vietnam and a national park in the world - Read short stories about topic music - Ask and answer questions relating problems or themes in the story to real life of the students - Provide title for the story - Read short stories about topic film and cinema - Re-order the events of the stories - Provide title for the study - Read stories about topic “ The world cup” - Ask and answer questions relating problems or themes in the story to the students’ real lives - Use story maps to represent the contents of the stories - Read short stories about topic “ City” - Reorder events of the stories - Compare or notes points of similarities and differences of the two cities - Read short stories about topic “ Historical places” - Ask and answer questions relating problems or themes in the story to real lives of the students - Summary the stories in spoken form 25 Appendix 2: A detailed lesson plan Unit 10: Conservation (The separate period of checking students' reading at home) I/ aims: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to - Read better through the reading chosen short stories of their groups - Improve background knowledge and enrich vocabulary about conservation II/ Teaching aids: - Handouts of short stories about conservation topic - Graphics III/ Method: communicative IV/ Procedures Time Activities 10 - Let students sit in groups with the same story Divide each groups a handout of a graphic - Ask students work in groups to fill the handout with information about their group's story 25 - Stick the graphic of each group on the board one by one - Invite one student of each group to look at the graphic and retell their groups' story in front of the whole class - Students from other groups, after listening to each story can make any questions and all the members of the group which has that short story have to answer their questions 10 - Let students work in pairs to ask and answer questions about conservation - topic which relate to their real lives - Call on some pairs to check and give feed back Appendix 3: The Pre - test Name: ………………………….Class: 26 I/ Read the text about Galileo Galilei and the exercises that follow Galileo Galilei was one of the first modern scientists He was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1564 At first he studied philosophy, but later he studied mathematics and astronomy He was interested in the way the earth and other planets move around the sun He found out several important facts about our world He also started a new way of working in science Before Galileo, scientists did not experiments They just guessed about how something happened Galileo was different He did not just make guesses He did experiments and watches to see what happened Galileo was famous for his study of how things fall He was the first person to experiments about this problem Before, people thought that heavy things always fell faster than light things He found out that this was not true He took a heavy ball and a light ball and he dropped them both from a high place They fell at the same speed This meant that weight is not important This is the law of falling bodies It is an important law for understanding our world The life of the scientist was not always easy in the 1500s For example, Galileo got into trouble because of his scientific ideas His ideas were not the same as the religious ideas at the time Many religious people did not agree with him During his whole life he had to worry about this He even went to prison for a while But no one could stop him from thinking He continued to look for scientific answers to his questions about the world A Match the paragraphs with the suitable headings; there is one extra Par a how Galileo's ideas caused problems for him Par b how Galileo became a modern scientist Par c Galileo's life and work B Read the statements about Galileo Write True (T) or False (F) for each, according to the information given If the information is not given in the passage, write Not Given (NG) Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy, in the late fifteen century He was the fist modern scientist … Before Galileo, scientists only guessed how things happened Galileo was the first to experiments about things fall He was sent to prison because he was not religious … He continued to study about the world despite all the trouble II/ Read the article and the tasks that follow In the first part of the twentieth century, before a television set was a part of most households, radio programming was different from what it is now Children rushed home from school to listen to "Story Hour" Someone read an exciting story, or a part of a story, while the children's imaginations provided visual images to fit the spoken ones People listened to serials, stories that were broken into onehour segments Because each hour ended with suspense, listeners had to tune in at 27 the same time the next day to find out what would happen Families gathered around the radio at night to hear important news or to listen to favourite programmes Radio was an important form of home entertainment However, because of television, radio programming has changed Radio stories have become a thing of the past because people prefer both to watch and to hear Radio is now a medium that is used more often in a car than a home Because music and news are the easiest types of programmes to listen to in a car, they are the most common Radio, in fact, has become the music medium It provides music for all tastes, from country-western to classical A Complete the following sentences, using the words in the article We always in to Radio to hear the 10 o'clock news He chose Spain, but personally I'd to go to Greece The fire engine past us as we waited at the traffic lights Your theory doesn't the facts B Answer the following questions Why did radio programming changed? How did radio serials make people want to hear the continuation of the story the next day? Why people prefer television to radio? Where did most of people listen to radio now? How is the radio now different from it was before? What did the children often while listening to radio? Appendix 4: The post - test Name: Class: I/ Read the following text about New York and the tasks follow 28 New York is the world's most ethnically diverse city About one-third of New York's residents, over 2.6 million people, were born in other countries School kids in New York speak more than 120 languages The city is full of famous buildings that you may often see on television They include the Empire State Building, United Nation headquarters, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center The statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor It has welcomed millions of immigrants to America Two of the world's tallest buildings once soared above New York's skyline They were the twin towers of the World Trade Center But terrorists flew airplanes into the towers and destroyed them on September 11, 2001 Central park is an oasis of greenery in the midst of New York's tall buildings It offers a zoo, a nature center, play grounds, paths for running and bicycling, and places for ice skating, roller skating and playing sports English explorer Henry Hudson in 1609 sailed up the river that now bears his name He was working for a Dutch company The company started a settlement at the mouth of the Hudson in 1624 They called it New Amsterdam The English captured the settlement in 1664 and renamed it New York Since colonial days New York has been an important city It was the U S capital from 1785 to 1790 New York passed Philadelphia in 1810 to become America's largest city New York grew because of its excellent harbor The port made it a center of trade Immigrants to the United States poured through the port A Match the paragraphs with the suitable headings; there is one extra Par a A city of land marks Par b A city of islands Par c People from every where d History of New York City B Read the statements about New York Write True (T) or False (F) for each, according to the information given If the information is not given in the passage, write Not Given (NG) New York has residents from everywhere The statue of liberty is in the center of the city Central Park is one of the two tallest buildings in the world New York became the U.S.'s capital from 1785 to 1790 New York is the major center for the art New York harbor made the city a center of trade II/ Read the story, and then the tasks that follow Three Taiwanese fishermen were rescued yesterday from a small uninhabited island in the South Pacific The men had disappeared for more than three months 29 They had left Taiwan in a small fishing boat and had planned a week - long trip On their fifth day, however, they were caught in a typhoon, and it badly damaged their boat Fortunately, none of the men was hurt After the storm had passed, though, they discovered that the engine wouldn't start, so their boat just drifted at sea for over a month During this time, the fishermen caught fish to eat and drank rain water to stay alive Finally, the boat drifted toward a small island When it got close enough the men jumped out and swam to shore On the island, they found fresh fruit and vegetables, and they continued to catch fish to eat The fishermen had lived on the island for two months when a passing ship rescued them Although the three men had lost a lot of weight, they were still in fairly good shape Their families had thought that the fishermen had lost their lives during the typhoon They were surprised and happy that the ship had found them and that they were "safe and sound" A Chose the meaning of the word/ phrase in italics An uninhabited island is one a with a lot of people living in it b with few people living in it c with no people living in it A typhoon is a big tropical storm b a big fish c a big ship When the boat drifted at sea, a it was controlled by the fishermen b it was controlled by the engine c it went on the sea without anyone controlling it If the man were in good shape, a they were healthy b they were suffering a disease c they were overweight 30 Evaluation of the Scientific Councils ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… 1