{"id":2873,"date":"2016-02-24T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2873"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:07","slug":"building-toefl-reading-skills-beatrix-potters-scientific-work-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/building-toefl-reading-skills-beatrix-potters-scientific-work-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Building TOEFL Reading Skills: Beatrix Potter\u2019s Scientific Work, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nMy fellow Magoosh TOEFL Expert Rachel KD has been doing posts on the different question types in TOEFL Reading<\/a>, with practice TOEFL Reading<\/a> passages, questions, and answer explanations.<\/p>\n

Rachel\u2019s answer explanations<\/a> give insight into the kinds of thinking skills you need in order for TOEFL Reading. Developing good, thoughtful approaches to reading is essential. In this series of posts, I\u2019m giving you a TOEFL-like reading passage that you can use for TOEFL Reading skill-building activities.<\/p>\n

In my last post<\/a>, we looked at ways to build vocabulary comprehension skills. The practice reading for the skill activities was a TOEFL-like reading passage about Beatrix Potter, a famous children\u2019s author from England. In this post, we\u2019ll look at the passage again. This time, I\u2019ll give you a series of activities that help you practice understanding all of the basic information in a passage. As you read the passage below, do the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Summarize the main idea of each paragraph in your own words, in just one sentence.<\/li>\n
  2. Summarize the main idea of the passage as a whole, in one or two paragraphs. Your summary shouldn\u2019t be too long or too short. You\u2019ll want to mention all the important ideas, but you won\u2019t want to simply copy every detail from the passage. In you summary, aim for a length of 8-10 sentences, and try not to exceed 200 words.<\/li>\n
  3. Make a timeline of the events described in this passage, starting form Beatrix Potter\u2019s teenage years to the decades after her death. Notice how events unfold and connect to each other.<\/li>\n
  4. Write a list of facts about Beatrix Potter\u2014all the facts from this biographical article.<\/li>\n
  5. Make a smaller sublist of Beatrix Potter\u2019s scientific activities and discoveries.<\/li>\n
  6. Write an additional list of facts about the Linnean Society. (This list will likely be shorter than the ones about Beatrix Potter.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Beatrix Potter\u2019s Scientific Work<\/h2>\n

    Born in 1866 in London, Beatrix Potter is best remembered as children\u2019s author. However she also made significant contributions to the field of science. In her younger years, Potter was an accomplished mycologist<\/em>, a specialist in the study of fungi. She eventually abandoned her scientific work with mushrooms and lichens in favor of a career writing and illustrating picture books.<\/p>\n

    Early on, Beatrix Potter developed an enthusiasm for woodland biology that went hand-in-hand with her love of art and illustration. In her teenage years and her early twenties, she would collect mushroom specimens between her visits to London\u2019s many art museums. This dual interest in art and the study of fungi led her to make her scientific drawings and diagrams of the mushrooms she found.<\/p>\n

    As Beatrix Potter closely studied various types of mushrooms, she began to observe her specimens in increasingly scientific ways. She carefully recorded small differences in the form, shape and color of different fungal species. She even began to study mushroom tissue and spores under a microscope. She examined living mushrooms as well, closely observing fungi reproductive processes and recording her findings in a personal scientific journal that she kept.<\/p>\n

    In her early work as a scientist, Potter made no effort to share her research publicly. Although her own family was supportive of her scientific work, women nineteenth-century British society were discouraged from participating in higher education or entering England\u2019s scientific community. However, after words of encouragement from male mycologists she corresponded with, she decided to seek out formal academic recognition of her mycological fieldwork.<\/p>\n

    Potter was especially eager to find a scientific audience for her research on lichens. At the time, there had been some scientific speculation that lichens were not a true fungus, but a symbiotic combination of fungal spores and algae growing together in a colony. Potter had collected lichen specimens from rocks and the sides of trees and studied them under a microscope. Through her lab work, she had discovered both fungi spores and algae cells within lichen samples and had even observed evidence of the fungi and algae working together in symbiosis.<\/p>\n

    As a woman, Beatrix Potter faced significant obstacles in presenting her work to the scientific community. The most important group of mycologists and botanists in London was the Linnean Society, a male-only research group that barred women from attending their meetings. With help from her uncle, an administrator at the University of London, and George Massey, a mycologist who had been reviewing her research, Potter convinced Linnean Society to consider her findings. In 1897, the Linnean Society met and reviewed Beatrix Potter\u2019s paper on lichens, although Potter herself could not be present at the gathering. The reaction of the scientists at the meeting was dismissive; the paper was not accepted for publication, and no notes on Potter\u2019s findings were added to the Society Archives.<\/p>\n

    In spite of her inability to gain the attention of London\u2019s male-dominated scientific community, Potter remained confident in her work. She told friends, family and colleagues that her findings on lichens would be accepted as fact in time. However, she abandoned her career in mycology very shortly after her research was dismissed by the Linnean Society. During Potter\u2019s years as a scientist she had also been working as an illustrator, and in 1902 a major publishing company offered her full time work creating the storybooks she became famous for.<\/p>\n

    Potter\u2019s predictions about her eventual success as a scientist ultimately came true. By her death in 1943, the symbiosis theory about lichens was gaining more acceptance. Today, the symbiotic nature of lichens is accepted as science fact, and potter is remembered as one of the first scientists to find evidence for lichen symbiosis. In modern bookstores, her scientific writings and illustrations, published decades after her death in 1943, often appear on the shelves alongside her still-popular children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My fellow Magoosh TOEFL Expert Rachel KD has been doing posts on the different question types in TOEFL Reading, with practice TOEFL Reading passages, questions, and answer explanations. Rachel\u2019s answer explanations give insight into the kinds of thinking skills you need in order for TOEFL Reading. Developing good, thoughtful approaches to reading is essential. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13617],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBuilding TOEFL Reading Skills: Beatrix Potter\u2019s Scientific Work, Part 2 - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/building-toefl-reading-skills-beatrix-potters-scientific-work-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building TOEFL Reading Skills: Beatrix Potter\u2019s Scientific Work, Part 2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My fellow Magoosh TOEFL Expert Rachel KD has been doing posts on the different question types in TOEFL Reading, with practice TOEFL Reading passages, questions, and answer explanations. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2873"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}