UNIT 1

MEANINGFUL UNITS
A GOOD READER DOES NOT READ WORD BY WORD
A GOOD READER USUALLY READS A FEW WORDS TOGETHER (PHRASES) AT A TIME
Example:
People express | their personalities | in their clothes, | their cars, | and their homes.

Or reads several words (longer phrases) at a time.

People express their personalities | in their clothes, their cars, | and their homes.

In other words, a good reader can identify phrases as meaningful units of information.

Exercise 1:
Read the following sentences in phrases, as shown.
1. An ingredient is something in food. For example, sugar and cream are
ingredients of ice cream.
2. An artificial ingredient is not natural. Food companies put artificial ingredients
into many kinds of canned and frozen foods.
3. Food companies put additives into food for color and good taste. And additive
is something artificial in food.
4. Carbohydrates are food elements. There are many carbohydrates in rice,
potatoes, and bread.
5. Too many calories, units of energy in food, can make us fat. Too few calories
make us thin.

 A noun phrase includes adjectives and other words before or after a noun.
Example: too much cholesterol, artificial additives, units of energy, etc.
 A verb phrase may include noun objects, adjectives, or adverbs in addition to a verb.
Example: make us fat, is not natural, eat slowly, etc.
 A prepositional phrase includes an object after a preposition.
Example: in food, of ice cream, with a spoon, etc.

Exercise 2:
In the following sentences, which words belong together? Read the sentences in phrase and
may be there are several correct possibilities. Separate the phrases with lines.
1. The RDA –the recommended daily allowance– is the necessary daily amount of a food
element for one person.
2. Half–and–half, a mixture of half cream and half milk, contains fewer calories than
pure cream.
3. White flour in white bread does not have important B vitamins – for example, folic
acid, niacin, and vitamin B12.
4. A serving of food is the average amount of that food for one person to one meal. An
average serving of half–and–half is one–half cup.
5. Minerals –natural elements in food such as cobalt, copper, magnesium, and zinc– are
as necessary to our diets as vitamins.
6. A gram is a unit of weight. It is 1/1000 of a kilogram. A tablespoon is a unit of
measure equal to three teaspoons, or one–half fluid ounce.
 7. Most cans, bottles, and other food packages have labels. These labels give nutritional
information about the food in the packages.

Exercise 3:
Read the sentences in phrase in the paragraphs and may be there are several correct
possibilities. Separate the phrases with lines.

INTERNET SHOPPING

Twenty years ago, very few people used the Internet. Only scientists and people in
the government knew about the Internet and how did to use it. This is changing very fast.
Now almost everyone knows about the Internet, and many people are online (using the
Internet) every day. When people think about the Internet, they often think about
information. But now, more and more, when people think about the Internet, they think
about shopping.
Amazon.com was one of the first companies to try to sell products on the Internet.
Jeff Bezos started the company. He was a successful vice-president of company in New York.
One day he had a vision of the future. He thought, “The World Wide Web is growing 2000%
a year. It is going to continue to grow. Shopping is going to move to the Internet. People
are going to shop online.” He quit his good job and drove across the country to Seattle,
Washington. There he started an online bookstore called Amazone.com. Bezos had very little
money. The company began in a garage, and at first, there were very few customers.
At the Amazone.com site, people can search for a book about a subject, find many
different books about that subject, read what other people think about the books, order
them by credit card, and get them in the mail in two days. This kind of bookstore was a new
idea, but the business grew. In a few years, Amazone.com had 10 million costumers and
listed (sold) 18 million different items in categories included books, CDs, toys, electronics,
videos, DVDs, home improvement product (things you use to fix up a house), software, and
video games. Today you can buy anything from gourmet food to caskets at a “virtual
shopping mall,” that is, a group of stores all over the world that functions like a group of
stores all in one place.
Are people going to shop online more and more? No one knows for sure. Online
shopping is growing, but it may not make money for companies like Amazone.com. Jeff
Bezos is a billionaire, but his billions of dollars are invested in the company; even after
several years, Amazone.com was still not making a profit. If online shopping continues to
grow, Bezos hopes his investment will produce real profits.