Skimming involves selective reading of the most important parts of a text, in order to find out how the text is organised and get a general idea of what it is about. The main information is likely to be contained in the title and any subheading; the introduction and conclusion; the first and last sentences of the other paragraphs.
Scanning involves looking very quickly through a text or part of a text, without trying to understand it in detail, in order to find a particular piece of information. You have been using these skills throughout this course. [/different colour font]
1. Skim the text below and decide which answer (A–C) best describes the overall topic. Spend no more than 45 seconds on this.
The knowledge society
A A century ago, the overwhelming majority of people in developed countries worked with their hands: on farms, in domestic service, in small craft shops and in factories. There was not even a word for people who made their living other than by manual work. These days, the fastest-growing group in the developed world are ‘knowledge workers’ – people whose jobs require formal and advanced schooling.
B At present, this term is widely used to describe people with considerable theoretical knowledge and learning: doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, chemical engineers. But the most striking growth in the coming years will be in ‘knowledge technologists’: computer technicians, software designers, analysts in clinical labs, manufacturing technologists, and so on. These people are as much manual workers as they are knowledge workers; in fact, they usually spend far more time working with their hands than with their brains. But their manual work is based on a substantial amount of theoretical knowledge which can be acquired only through formal education. They are not, as a rule, much better paid than traditional skilled workers, but they see themselves as professionals. Just as unskilled manual workers in manufacturing were the dominant social and political force in the twentieth century, knowledge technologists are likely to become the dominant social – and perhaps also political – force over the next decades.
C Such workers have two main needs: formal education that enables them to enter knowledge work in the first place, and continuing education throughout their working lives to keep their knowledge up to date. For the old high-knowledge professionals such as doctors, clerics and lawyers, formal education has been available for many centuries. But for knowledge technologists, only a few countries so far provide systematic and organised preparation. Over the next few decades, educational institutions to prepare knowledge technologists will grow rapidly in all developed and emerging countries, just as new institutions to meet new requirements have always appeared in the past.
D What is different this time is the need for the continuing education of already well-trained and highly knowledgeable adults. Schooling traditionally stopped when work began. In the knowledge society it never stops. Continuing education of already highly educated adults will therefore become a big growth area in the next society. But most of it will be delivered in non-traditional ways, ranging from weekend seminars to online training programmes, and in any number of places, from a traditional university to the student’s home. The information revolution, which is expected to have an enormous impact on education and on traditional schools and universities, will probably have an even greater effect on the continuing education of knowledge workers, allowing knowledge to spread near-instantly, and making it accessible to everyone.
E All this has implications for the role of women in the labour force. Although women have always worked, since time immemorial the jobs they have done have been different from men’s. Knowledge work, on the other hand, is ‘unisex’, not because of feminist pressure, but because it can be done equally well by both sexes. Knowledge workers, whatever their sex, are professionals, applying the same knowledge, doing the same work, governed by the same standards and judged by the same results.
F The knowledge society is the first human society where upward mobility is potentially unlimited. Knowledge differs from all other means of production in that it cannot be inherited or bequeathed from one generation to another. It has to be acquired anew by every individual, and everyone starts out with the same total ignorance. And nowadays it is assumed that everybody will be a ‘success’ – an idea that would have seemed ludicrous to earlier generations. Naturally, only a tiny number of people can reach outstanding levels of achievement, but a very large number of people assume they will reach adequate levels.
G The upward mobility of the knowledge society, however, comes at a high price: the psychological pressures and emotional traumas of the rat race. Schoolchildren in some countries may suffer sleep deprivation because they spend their evenings at a crammer to help them pass their exams. Otherwise they will not get into the prestige university of their choice, and thus into a good job. In many different parts of the world, schools are becoming viciously competitive. That this has happened over such a short time – no more than 30 or 40 years – indicates how much the fear of failure has already permeated the knowledge society.
H Given this competitive struggle, a growing number of highly successful knowledge workers of both sexes – business managers, university teachers, museum directors, doctors – ‘plateau’ in their 40s. They know they have achieved all they will achieve. If their work is all they have, they are in trouble. Knowledge workers therefore need to develop, preferably while they are still young, a non-competitive life and community of their own, and some serious outside interest – be it working as a volunteer in the community, playing in a local orchestra or taking an active part in a small town’s local government. This outside interest will give them the opportunity for personal contribution and achievement.
Now do the exam task:
Read the stem of the multiple-choice question.
Scan to locate the information in the text.
Look for parallel expressions in the text and options. [/different colour font]
