Daily Reads-46 (Level-2): English Reading Passages from different sources

Curated Sources of English Reading Passages

Looking for a great source of English reading passages? You have come to the right place!
A recent study shows that the habit of reading is diminishing rapidly among youngsters today. They can’t concentrate on a given English reading passage for more than a few seconds at a stretch! At the same time, reading was and still is an integral part of all competitive exams. So, how do you improve your reading skills? The answer to this question is actually another question: What is the use of Reading Skills? The main purpose of reading is to ‘make sense’. Keep in mind these points while attempting English reading passages:

You don’t have to make sense of each and every line or word that the author has written
Try to grasp the main idea of the passage, which is the main point the author is trying to convey through that English reading passage.
Understand the meaning of difficult words ‘in context’ of the given sentence.

Keeping in mind these points, let’s try and make sense of the English reading passages given below:

Reading Suggestion-1

Article Name: First impressions count
Author Name: Alexander Todorov
Source: Aeon
Category: Science and Politics

Summary for this article:

Do the voters vote for their favourite candidates by making instinct decisions? Or are they making rational decisions? Do people find enough time to vote for his favourite candidate on the basis of reasoning i.e. by considering the candidate’s policies, his vision etc.? Or are they finding shortcut ways to select a particular candidate by making their first impressions?
Through a compendium of various research projects, the writer says why the voters vote for a candidate. The basic idea that the article talks about is that Political decisions are based upon a person’s competitive appearance.
Impressions matter especially for the unknowledgeable politically-ignorant couch potatoes

Words to learn from this article:

Accentuated: To intensify or emphasize ( *accentuates the feeling of despair*)
Inoculate: Vaccination/ to make immune to something
Couch potatoes: Someone who spends a lot of time watching TV
Partisan: Exhibiting blind or unreasoned allegiance

Reading Suggestion-1: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-2

Article Name: Yes, covfefe is a word now. That’s the Trump effect
Author Name: David Shariatmadari
Source: The Guardian
Category: Politics Humor

Summary for this article:

Mr.Trump’s late night twitter blunder that involved a typo had left the Twitter users puzzled. The typo namely “covfefe” had been later deleted by the President yet it got people talking. He inadvertently typed ‘covfefe’ instead of typing ‘coverage’ and his tweet went viral. He tweeted, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”. This was the birth of covfefe. But will this buzzword become a word in itself in the future? Only time will tell.

Words to learn from this article:

Mangling: To spoil or mar, often beyond recognition.
Semantically: Relating to meanings of words or phrases
Brainfart: A mental lapse wherein one can’t reason correctly
Lisp: Speech problem to pronounce ‘th’ instead of ‘s’ or ‘z’
Hobbled: In an impeded way
Befuddle: Confused, bewildered
Reckon: To think or believe

Reading Suggestion-2: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-3

Article Name: What Will the World Look Like if the U.S. Bails on the Paris Climate Deal?
Author(s) Name: Nsikan Akpan, Andrew Wagner
Source: Project Syndicate
Category: Science and Politics

Summary for this article:

The Paris Climate deal which aims at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to keep global warming below 2 degree Celsius which has been ratified by 146 nations is an essential step to save the planet for our future generation.
But with Trump taking over as the President, there has been speculations that the White house is planning to pull itself off from being a part of this agreement.
What would it be like without the US involvement in this climate agreement?The writer in this article presents the view of various experts to address this question

Words to learn from this article:

Fracking: Process of injecting a high pressure water mixture into rocks to fracture them apart and extract gas or oil

Reading Suggestion-3: Click to read full article

English Reading Passages: Key Learning

We hope you enjoyed reading and making sense of the above given English reading passages, remember, don’t lose heart if you don’t understand each word and each line, focus on the main idea of each paragraph of the English reading passage and the complete passage. Also, vocabulary plays an important role and that’s why we have mentioned the difficult words of the English reading passage along with the summary in given English reading passages.