• Bevill State Community College

• ENGLISH 101

PRACTICE answers page 129 These skimming activities will show you how much you can understand about a text by skimming only. 1 The newspaper articles below are from the ‘News in Brief’ section of the newspaper. Match the articles to their headlines (underneath) as quickly as you can. Skim only. Don’t read the whole article. a A mother who cradled her baby as she was hurled five metres headfirst off a bridge into a waterfall yesterday said she was amazed they escaped alive. The bizarre incident occurred as gale-force winds swept across the northern suburbs for three hours. The mother escaped with only a broken arm and, miraculously, the baby survived the experience without a scratch. b An unconscious man found wedged between rocks in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney was yesterday winched to safety by rescue crews. The man had been lost for three days in the bush before falling down a steep ravine and becoming pinned between three large boulders. He has head, leg and spinal injuries and is in a critical condition in North Shore hospital. c Shark sightings forced the closure of three popular South Coast beaches on the weekend. After a number of swimmers reported their fears to the beach patrol, an aerial patrol was called to the area and the presence of five sharks was confirmed. Closures have become a familiar event for swimmers in the area during the summer, although at this stage the reason for the sharks’ behaviour is not clear. d Police have warned businesses in the city’s west to be on the lookout for counterfeit $50 and $100 notes. More than ten fake notes have been handed in over the past month. Police say it is quite simple to detect that the notes are not real as the graphics are blurred and the writing is larger than on authentic notes. Bars and clubs appear to be the main target but at least two notes were used in shopping complexes. e A 35-year-old man survived a speedboat accident on the weekend while racing on the Nepean River. The injured man, from the Central Coast, suffered chest and back injuries but was last night in a stable condition in Nepean Hospital. The boat in which he was racing sank and was thought to be beyond repair. f Police have charged a 24-year-old man from Adelaide with possession of explosive goods after a tip-off from the manager of a local sportsclub. The manager saw a man acting suspiciously in the club car park early yesterday morning, so recorded the car’s number plate and rang the police. Police investigating the case said that the explosives were not particularly powerful b