10 Survey, question, recite and review When you read, it is important that you read actively. Otherwise you are wasting your time, as you will probably not remember what you have read. Survey Take a quick look at the headline and other features of the text (e.g. bold print, pictures, graphs). Question Read the headline and the subheadings and think about what you might learn from the text. Use questions like the following on tattoos to organise your thoughts. • What is the history of tattoos? • Why is tattooing a worldwide feature of body modification? • How did tattooing develop from a pagan practice to a modern form of self-decoration? Recite a) Read the first paragraph of the following text about body modification and write the most important words (not more than five) into the space provided. Look at the words you have written, then close your book and try to recite (= retell) in your own words what you have read. If this is difficult for you, go back to the text and read the passage again. b) Continue in the same way until you have finished the whole text. The history of tattoos In recent years tattoos have become increasingly popular, especially among young people. However, what we might regard as a recent trend has a long history going back to the Stone Age. The Neolithic iceman Ötzi, who lived about 5,000 years ago and whose body was found in the Alps in South Tyrol in 1991, is the oldest documented case of a person wearing a tattoo. Since then people from all walks of life (even including people like the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill) have had their bodies decorated with tattoos. According to Prof Nina Jablonski, head of Penn State’s anthropology department and author of Skin: A Natural History, tattoos have probably been important to people for more than 10,000 years. Tattooing – a worldwide feature Tattooing is very widespread. In fact, it can be found on all continents and in most diverse social groups. Tribes in Northern Europe as well as the ancient Egyptians, the Maoris in New Zealand, the people from Polynesia and Arabia, prison inmates and sailors and many others used these techniques to modify their bodies – sometimes to convey a personal message, sometimes as a permanent sign of allegiance to a group or as a code of membership of a criminal organisation (like the German SS). Many people were forcibly tattooed to mark them as slaves or to tag them as prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. 1 2 3 5 10 15 20 25 136 Beauty and fashion trends Reading skills Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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