variety of reading material， such as magazine articles， letters， e-mails and websites. The texts have been specially adapted to suit young adult learners' needs and interests. They cover a broad range of motivating and contemporary topics and provide students with interesting， multi-cultural information about the real world. The main intention is to provide intensive reading practice， although they also lend themselves to presenting target vocabulary and grammar in context. The reading section is usually divided into three stages： Stage one： A pre-reading task usually precedes the reading text. Its main aims are to introduce the topic of the reading text with questions that relate to the students' personal experience and to activate topic-related vocabulary students already know. It may appear either in the form of questions that generate a short discussion or visual/verbal stimuli in order to help students predict the content of the reading text. As it is a warm-up activity， it is advisable that it should be done systematically before the actual reading task. Stage two： In this stage students read the text for the first time in order to perform a task. The main aim of this stage is to help students understand the gist of the text or the main ideas expressed. The task types vary and include checking predictions， choosing the best title， matching headings with paragraphs， etc. Students should be given some time to perform the task and teachers should point out that unknown words should not
worry them at this stage. Stage three： In. this stage students are asked to read the text again in order to do the reading activity. The aim is to help students develop certain microskills such as scanning for specific information and reading for details. The task types are varied， including open ended and multiple choice questions， multiple matching， True/ False exercises， gap filling， etc. Students should be given ample time to carry these tasks out in class， especially when they are doing them for the first time. When classroom time is scarce， they can be assigned for homework.
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