Active Skills for Reading Intro (Unit 11: A Mysterious World)


CHAPTER 2 - Into the Night Sky

Reading Skill - Skimming for the Main Idea

You skim to get a general idea about a passage. When you skim, look quickly at the title and the photos. Then read the first and last sentences of each paragraph. You can use this general information to predict what a passage is about.

A. Skim the passage. Then complete the sentence below.

This passage is about a man who _____________


B. Now read the entire passage slowly. Was your answer in A correct?

C. Read the passage again.

A sense of personal satisfaction. One of the greatest rewards of reading is the personal satisfaction you get as you see the improvements you make. Pause now and think about ways that your enjoyment of reading has changed over the past few weeks.

Into the Night Sky

On November 24, 1971, a very curious thing happened. A man using the name Dan Cooper bought a plane ticket for a short flight across the state of Washington. Nobody knew it at the time, but Dan Cooper was not his real name.

After the plane took off, Cooper told a flight attendant that he was carrying a bomb.1 He demanded $200,000 and parachutes.2 The pilot3 sent a message to the airport, and they called the police. When the plane landed, cooper allowed au of the passengers to get off safely. once the money and parachutes were delivered, the plane took off again.

Only the pilot, copilot, and one flight attendant were on the plane with Cooper. He told the pilot to fly to Mexico City. He gave instructions to fly low to the ground and slowly.

cooper then put the whole crew in the cockpit4 at the front of the plane. He tied the money to his body. He opened a door at the back of the plane. The night was cold, rainy, and pitch black.5 It must not have worried him, as he jumped into the darkness.

No one ever saw Cooper or the money again. The police have talked to hundreds of people about the case, but it still is unsolved.


1 A bomb is a dangerous weapon that explodes.
2 A parachute is something that lets a person jump from an airplane and float safely to the ground.
3 A pilot is a person who flies an airplane.
4 The cockpit is the place in a plane where the pilot sits.
5 If a place is pitch black, it is completely dark.


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