2. Type II: Detail Question

Ø         What is detail question: require the listener to understand and remember explicit details or facts that are important as an explanation or an example of the main idea. These details are typically related, directly or indirectly, to the gist of the text, by providing elaboration, examples or other support.

Ø         How to recognize this question:

What problem does the man have? ETS

According to the conversation, what are two ways in which bacteria cells get resistance genes?

Why does the professor talk about Plato’s description of society?

Ø         Two tips:

l         Pay attention to the order and sequence of details. For example: the first, the other.

l         Pay attention to the adjectives and other modifier of details.

Ø         Example 1: Pluto

1. When was Pluto officially declared to be found?

A The date when Percival Lowell was born.

B On March 13, 1930.

C On May 1, 1330.

D On the birthday of Venetia Burney.

2. Who originally named the newly found planet as Pluto?

A Percival Lowell.

B Clyde Tombaugh.

C V.M. Slipher.

D Venetia Burnye.

P: Where is Pluto?

S: Pluto is in Mickey’s doghouse.

P: Very funny. I mean the planet, Pluto.

S: It’s the last one, isn’t it? The ninth one.

P: Right. And do you know how it got its name? And no, it wasn’t named after Mickey’s dog. Nobody? Okay. Does anybody know when Pluto was discovered? Hmmm…The history of it is a little long, but here goes.

In 1905, Percival Lowell started to search for the elusive ninth planet after opening the Lowell Observatory in 1894 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Observatory announced the discovery on Percival Lowell’s birthday, March 13, 1930. The honor of naming the newly discovered planet belonged to Lowell Observatory. Clyde Tombaugh, the first person to notice Pluto images, urged the director, V.M.Slipher to give it a name before someone else did. Suggestions came from all quarters: Cronus, Odin, Persephone, Erebos, Atlas, Prometheus… the list seemed to go on forever like the universe. One young couple even wrote to Tombaugh asking him to name the planet after their newborn child!

However, an 11-year old English girl named of Venetia Burney suggested Pluto, a Roman god of the underworld, to her grandfather, who sent the suggestion to a professor of astronomy at Oxford. Slipher made the official announcement on May 1, 1930 and gave full credit to little Venetia. He also suggested interlocking the letters P and L as the official symbol for Pluto. Not only do they stand for the first two letters of the planet, but they’re also the initials of Percival Lowell.