Category Archives: • Short, High-Interest Articles for Extensive Reading

• Short, High-Interest Readings: # 4: “Starting a Conversation With an Attractive Stranger”

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Cover start conv shot

(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings” (#1 “For More Happiness, Keep Your Good News Secret for a While.”)  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: Categories > Reading > Short-high interest Readings.

Here is the fourth article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

                      Starting a Conversation With an Attractive Stranger

You are standing with a couple of friends at a party talking. Across the room, you notice someone who looks kind of attractive, and you think that you’d like to meet that person. Maybe if he or she likes you, you’ll be able to get a phone number, or perhaps have a date. You feel a bit excited but also nervous about approaching this good-looking person.

Feeling nervous is a common emotion in this kind of situation. We are often afraid that if we try to start a conversation, the other person will reject us. According to Jean Smith, a social and cultural anthropologist, fear of rejection is the most common reason why we decide not to start a conversation with an attractive person whom we’d like to meet.

However, according to Smith, we can overcome that obstacle if we think in a different way about our goal of being liked or of getting a phone number or having a date.

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• Short, High-Interest Readings:# 3 “Why Some Products Are Less Likely To Make It To The Recycling Bin”

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Recycle over shot

(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see    “Introducing Short, High-Interest Readings ” Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: Categories > Reading > Short-high interest Readings.

Here is the third article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

Why Some Products Are Less Likely To Make It To The Recycling Bin

1 A researcher used to get upset. He often saw people throwing things in the wastebasket, for example soda cans or gum wrappers, that they should have put in the recycling bins. Then he became interested in why they do that. As a result, he set up some experiments.

2 In one study, 150 volunteer students were asked to give their opinion about a pair of scissors. (The students thought the study was about the scissors, but actually, the researchers were secretly studying recycling.)  They gave each of the students a sheet of paper. They told half of them to practice with the scissors by cutting the paper into eight pieces. The other half were told to just hold and practice squeezing the scissors but not cut the paper.

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• Short, High-Interest Readings: # 2 “Animals Understand Fairness”

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Cover fairness shot

(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings” (#1 “For More Happiness, Keep Your Good News Secret for a While.”) Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: Categories > Reading > Short-high interest Readings.

Here is the second article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

Animals Understand Fairness

1 Imagine that you and your friends have just arrived at a popular restaurant.  Unfortunately, you are told by the hostess that you’ll need to wait in line for about 30 minutes to get a table because there are many other customers who had arrived before you.  After about 10 minutes, a man and woman arrive and talk to the hostess.  You notice that he secretly hands her some money.  Immediately, she takes them to a table.  Most of us would feel that this was unfair and will feel resentful toward the hostess.

2 Some researchers have recently become interested in finding out if the idea of unfairness is a unique emotion only felt by people or is it also experienced by animals.  A study looked at how dogs react when a second dog is rewarded in an unequal way for doing the same trick.  The researchers shook hands with two dogs, and the dogs were happy to do that whether they got a reward or not.

3 Next, they asked the dogs to “shake hands” and gave one a reward of a tasty sausage, and the other one a dull piece of bread when they did. Interestingly, the dogs didn’t seem to notice the difference and continued to follow the command and shook hands even though one got a tastier reward than the other.

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• Introducing “Short, High-Interest Articles for Extensive Reading” (#1 “For More Happiness, Keep Your Good News Secret for a While.”)

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Interested student

(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

Beginning with this post, I plan to share short, high-interest articles that you can use with your ESL students for extensive reading. I’ll be adding them to the right-hand column: Categories > Reading > Short, high interest articles.

The driving force behind these articles: I wanted to motivate students to want to read. By focusing on high-interest topics no matter what the subject area, I believe that I’ve accomplished that goal.

In addition, these have been successfully used these with students at many different reading-skill levels. There is a research-based reason why this has been possible. A group of researchers investigated the factors that helped students remember what they had been reading. They found that how interesting the students were in reading the passage was thirty times more important than how “readable” the passage was.

Options for using these materials with students.

  • You can make these available to students who would just like to read more.
  • You can assign the brief True-False Comprehension Questions that are included at the end of the articles.
  • You can assign the short Paraphrasing Exercise that is also included.
  • You can have students write the brief Reflection Exercise, also at the end.

Here is the first article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. 

For More Happiness Keep Your Good News Secret for a While

1 You just received a letter in the mail from a college that has been your first choice to attend.  The letter will inform you whether or not you have been accepted. Nervously, you open the envelop. The letter begins, “It is our pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted to our college.” You smile hugely with overwhelming happiness. Immediately, you want to share this great news with your family and best friends. But wait. To really experience this feeling of joy, according to research, you should keep this news to yourself for several minutes.

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