Grade 10 Test of Reading & Writing Skills:



Grade 10 Test of Reading & Writing Skills: Preparation Document

Department: English

Writing Task: Writing a Summary

What you will do: Read two articles and two summaries of those articles; read other articles and write your own summaries of those.

What you will learn: How to show that you understand writing by summarizing it – taking the main points and stating them in fewer words.

Terms to learn: Summary, concise, main idea, supporting idea, nonessential information, examples, connecting words.

What is a summary? A summary is a shorter version of an original piece of writing. A summary restates the most important ideas, supporting details and essential information from a piece of writing. The summary you write will always be shorter than the piece you are summarizing. In the test, you will be writing a 50-100 word summary of an article that is approximately 200 words in length.

Helpful hints:

1. Underline or circle important words and ideas as you read the original text. This will help you decide what to include in your summary.

2. Leave out information that is not absolutely necessary (nonessential information).

3. Try to state the main idea (the most important point) of each paragraph in one sentence.

4. Combine information from two or three sentences into one sentence; use connecting words to join them together.

5. Only use the supporting ideas and examples that are absolutely necessary.

6. If there are several words in the original text that you can shorten to one word, do it.

7. If there is a quotation from someone, try to paraphrase (put it into your own words). For example, if the original text read:

“This government just likes to look good in the media without addressing the key problems in the health care system,” Brad Fleuelling said yesterday.

You could write:

Brad Fuelling accused the government of trying to look good without actually solving problems.

8. Add your own words to make sentences flow smoothly, but do not state your own opinion or your own ideas. You must stick to just the information and ideas from the original text.

Sample summary

On this page, is an article, a summary of that article, and some comments about how the summary was made.

Original Text

Shaking Up the Local Music Scene

After studying how to start a business in her Grade 12 economics class, Shannon Grant decided that she and her brother Ryan could start one themselves. In 1998, with a Student Venture loan, they opened Few and Far Between, an independent CD store, and began to revolutionize the North Bay music scene.

Shannon and Ryan are not only business partners, they are best friends and make music together in their band, Whoopty Doo. They play the violin and piano and taught themselves how to play a guitar. These gifted musicians have won awards at Kiwanis competitions and performed in musical events such as Rockfest and Unplugged.

The siblings even share favourite bands and influences – Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Pennywise and NOFX – so of course their store specializes in alternative rarities, imports and B-sides.

Few and Far Between played a part in making North Bay music history. Shannon was a volunteer with North Bay’s first annual Summer Festivus in Lee Park in August 1998, which showcased local bands from punk to industrial.

Shannon was considering a career in business at the beginning of the summer. Now the 18-year-old is sure about her future. She will apply to a university business and communications program. Sixteen-year-old Ryan, who is entering Grade 11, still has time to decide what to do after he graduates from High School.

Word Count: 222

Summary

Grade 12 student Shannon Grant and her younger brother Ryan got a loan in 1998 to open a CD store.

The siblings also play together in their band. They play several instruments and have won competitions and played in public.

They like the same music (alternative) and carry it in their store.

Shannon volunteered at a local punk and industrial music festival in 1998.

Shannon has decided to apply to a university business program. Ryan, who is younger, has time to decide about his future.

Word Count: 85

Comments

Cut out details: name of store, economics class.

Combined two sentences into one.

Cut out details; specific instruments, specific competitions, specific events.

Combined last two sentences into one.

Cut out details: names of bands, and specific items the store carries.

Cut out unnecessary information from the first sentence. Cut out the name of the festival.

Combined four sentences into two. Cut out ages and grades.

Your own summary

In the middle column, write a summary of the article below. In the right column, write your own comments explaining how you did your summary.

Article

Awards are “Old Hat” for this Student

When sixteen-year-old Jamal O’Connor began taking pictures of his family members’ hats, he had no idea what it would lead to. Now, the Toronto teen, a student at Wing Hill Secondary School, has won the Ontario Photography Medal for his impressive collection of photos.

“I had no idea,” O’Connor says. “When my art teacher Mr. Tryphonopoulos said he wanted me to enter the competition, I just thought he was being nice.”

But Mike Tryphonopoulos, Jamal’s art teacher, says he always had confidence in Jamal. “The photographs were some of the best I had ever seen,” he says. “And there were so many of them. I knew Jamal had a chance of winning.”

So what had started out as a project for school, in which students were to photograph things that were related to their family history, ended up winning Jamal O’Connor $2000 worth of camera equipment from contest sponsor Givney’s Photography Supplies.

Jamal credits his subjects with some of his success. He photographed hats that grandparents wore in civil rights marches in the sixties. His mother even found some old pictures of his grandparents wearing the hats, one with his grandmother in handcuffs kissing his grandfather as she was being led away by the police.

“That was the best part about this whole thing,” says Jamal. “Not the award or the camera equipment, but learning about my grandparents, and how they stood up for their rights.”

Word Count: 236

Your Summary

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Comments

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Your own summary

In the middle column, write a summary of the article below. In the right column, write your own comments explaining how you did your summary.

Article

A Picture of Starvation

By Alan Findlay

Toronto Sun, February 27, 2001

The Social Worker assigned to Jordan Heikamp’s child welfare file was shown training photos of a severely malnourished child four months before Jordan slowly starved to death.

The stark photos of an emaciated young child shown to a coroner’s inquest jury were less severe than pictures of Jordan’s wasted frame taken after he died at five weeks of age.

Catholic Children’s Aid society trainer Jennie Campbell testified yesterday that the photos were shown to Jordan’s caseworker, Angie Martin, in February 1997 as an aide for detecting children exhibiting a so-called “failure to thrive.” The child in the photos recovered.

Jordan died of chronic starvation on June 23 that year while he and his mother were living at a shelter for abused women.

However, according to a review of Jordan’s case co-written by Campbell, the CCAS’s assessment of Jordan – CCAS did not consider him a high risk, jurors heard – hinged on the mistaken belief (later echoed in the official report) that the Anduhyaun shelter where he and his mom lived was a pregnancy home.

“The most significant factor in the society’s management of this case was mother’s decision to move to “A” (Anduhyaun) Pregnancy Home,” Campbell’s report states.

“If I were working with this mother, then, yes, I would have classified it as high risk,” Campbell said.

Word Count: 216

Your Summary

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Comments

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Your own summary

In the middle column, write a summary of the article below. In the right column, write your own comments explaining how you did your summary.

Article

Men, Women poles apart on health matters: Study

Vanessa Lu

Toronto Star, April 27, 2001

When it comes to health matters, men and women really are different.

Canadian women experience more illness, stress and disability than men, but live longer, says a new report by Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Women are more conscious of weight and nutrition and more likely to be interested in illness prevention.

Men tend to drink and smoke more, and are more likely to be overweight. But they are more likely to exercise.

“We knew there were differences. This is the first report to show them on such a global scale,” said Kathryn Wilkins, one of the authors of The Health Divide: How the Sexes Differ, released yesterday. “We were more interested in the consequences than in the root causes of the differences.”

Researchers found, for example, that the impact of stress can be a clear determinant of health. People who experienced high stress in 1994-95 were more likely to be diagnosed, by 1998-99, with chronic conditions such as migraines, ulcers and arthritis.

One surprising finding is a narrowed gap in life expectancy between men and women. The gap was widest in 1981, when females lived on average 7.1 years longer than men.

By 1997, female life expectancy had risen to 81.4 years, compared with 75.8 years for men, a gap of 5.6 years.

Word Count: 218

Your Summary

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Comments

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Summary Quiz

In the column to the right, write a summary of the following article. Attempt in your summary to keep all important details, and cut out the insignificant ones.

Fair will mark Walkerton tragedy

Kate Harris, Toronto Star, May 2, 2001

An environmental fair will mark the anniversary of the tainted water tragedy that left seven dead in Walkerton.

And, in a separate project, about 200 volunteers are expected to turn out on Saturday to help plant a memorial garden that will be a permanent tribute to those who died in last May’s contamination of the community’s water supply.

About 20 environmental groups from Bruce and Grey counties have joined in organizing the environmental fair, to be held May 20 at Sacred Heart high school, said Bruce Davidson of the Concerned Walkerton Citizens group.

Davidson said May 20 was chosen because it’s the Sunday of the Victoria Day weekend – the day the Grey-Bruce-Owen Sound Health unit imposed a boil-water advisory. Last year, the Sunday fell on May 21.

A total of 2300 residents and a few visitors fell ill with terrible stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea, the result of contamination of the drinking water by a virulent form of the E.coli bacterium, as well as several other bacteria and parasites.

“There were two strong emotions coming from our group: One, that the day should not pass without commemoration; two, that the way we are living is just not sustainable,” Davidson said.

Thus, there will be a religious and spiritual aspect to the day, as well as speakers and displays on environmental themes.

Word Count: 221

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Summary Quiz

In the column to the right, write a summary of the following article. Attempt in your summary to keep all important details, and cut out the insignificant ones.

Inquest called into woman’s death

Allison Taylor, Toronto Star, May 8, 2001

The Ontario coroner has called an inquest into the death of Mary Louise Lent after a disturbed passenger grabbed the wheel of the Greyhound bus she was traveling on, sending it 26 metres down an embankment.

Of the 32 people on the bus, Lent was the only one to die when the bus went off the Trans-Canada Highway near Upsala, 100 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, on Dec. 23.

Lent, a 74-year-old London woman, smashed into a mounted TV monitor in the bus, ripping off the skin and crushing the bones on her face.

She was airlifted to Thunder Bay Regional Hospital. On Feb. 7, after six weeks in hospital, she died.

In this case, it wasn’t mandatory that the province hold an inquest into Lent’s death.

But “it is felt that there are some issued here that the jury could examine and perhaps make some recommendations to prevent a similar incident,” said Dr. Bonita Porter, deputy chief coroner of inquests.

The inquest will look into issues involving management of people who have mental health problems and use public transit, Porter said. It will focus on the safety of vehicle operators and passengers, as well as the role of police in this case.

A passenger said the OPP escorted a man on to the bus at a stop in Ignace, Ont. The SIU subsequently cleared the OPP officer of any criminal liability.

An inquest date won’t be announced until all criminal proceedings have been resolved.

Word Count: 245

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Summary Quiz

In the column to the right, write a summary of the following article. Attempt in your summary to keep all important details, and cut out the insignificant ones.

Schools set for expelled students

Richard Brennan, Toronto Star, May 24, 2001

The Ontario government is preparing to open seven last-chance schools for students expelled from the regular education system.

The tab to taxpayers will run $16 million over the next two years on a kind of final-chance education program for about 300 expelled students.

The program kicks off in September.

Education Minister Janet Ecker yesterday identified seven strict discipline pilot projects, almost all of them in south-central Ontario, where expelled students will be sent to either shape up or kiss school goodbye.

“Our good teachers can’t teach and our students can’t learn when their classrooms are subjected to seriously disruptive behaviour,” Ecker told reporters in explaining the need for these new schools, which are to be operated by not-for-profit groups.

Ecker said the pilot program was made necessary because of the Safe Schools Act passed last year that sets out mandatory expulsion for serious infractions such as carrying weapons or dealing drugs in schools.

She said where expelled students used to bounce from school board to school board or simply booted out for god, these pilot schools will groom them for re-entry into the regular system by offering programs like anger management.

“Starting this fall, fully expelled students will be able to earn their way back into a regular classroom by completing successfully a strict discipline program or an equivalent program,” she told a press conference in Brampton.

Ecker noted that all school boards will be required to have in place this fall programs for expelled students wishing to get back into the system.

Word Count: 253

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Summary Quiz

In the column to the right, write a summary of the following article. Attempt in your summary to keep all important details, and cut out the insignificant ones.

Student Fights Big Businesss

When Aishaa Harrow, a grade twelve student at Biltmore High School in West York got sick from some meatloaf no one knew the experience would lead her.

“I just bought the meatloaf like everyone else,” says Harrow, recalling the event almost a year later. “I remember having a seat in the caf, next to my friends, then – bang! Nothing.”

What had happened was an allergic reaction. The meatloaf, it turned out, contained a genetically modified form of corn that was not supposed to be fed to humans. Somehow, manufacturer Sponsanto had allowed this corn, designed for feeding to livestock, to get mixed in with the corn being sent to the school’s cafeteria.

Harrow was rushed to the hospital and, after getting her stomach pumped, recovered quickly, but when she found out how she had become ill, she decided that she ought to change things.

“I learned that by law they don’t even have to tell you they’re using genetically modified organisms in food,” says Harrow. “So I decided if I couldn’t change the law, at least I could change things for my school.”

Harrow spent the next few months researching GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and petitioning her school’s parent council to ban them.

In January of this year, she succeeded. The parent council decided to ask the school’s caterer to stop using GMOs in the food sold to students.

“She made a good case,” says Rufus T. Ledbetter, chair of the parent council. “She showed us that those GMOs just haven’t been tested enough. And if the government won’t make laws to protect us, then it’s our job to protect our kids.”

Word Count: 272

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