Which term is defined as a method of rapidly moving your eyes over text to get the main ideas and general overview?

• A. Skimming
• B. Scanning
• C. Information gap activity
• D. Jigsaw reading

Answer: (A)

Skimming is the technique of moving your eyes rapidly over text to grasp the main ideas and overall structure. By glancing at headings, topic sentences, and any emphasized terms, you quickly form a sense of what the passage is about without reading every word. This approach is ideal when you need a general overview or to decide if a text warrants a closer read.

Scanning, on the other hand, focuses on locating a specific piece of information, such as a date or statistic, rather than getting a broad sense of the content.

The other terms refer to different instructional methods rather than a speed-reading approach. Information gap activities and jigsaw reading are collaborative tasks used to practice communication and comprehension, not techniques for quickly extracting the gist from text.

So, the term that matches a method of rapidly moving your eyes over text to get the main ideas and general overview is skimming.