Reading | Types of Comprehension

Storage of Sun’s Energy

            The light and heat of the sun help to make plants grow. The sun’s energy is stored in the plants. We eat food that comes from these plants. We eat also the food that comes from the animals that eat the plants.

            Some examples of these foods are rice, bread and meat. Rice comes from a plant. Bread is made from flour. Flour is made from wheat, which in turn, is the seed from a plant. Meat comes from animals that eat plants or their fruit or grain. Thus, animals and ourselves get energy from the sun every time we eat...

            How do machines get energy from the sun? Some machines – cars, trains, airplanes, and others – burn fuel like oil, gas, or coal. These fuels come from deep inside the earth. For example, we dig mines to get coal. We dig wells to get oil or gas How did this fuel get into the earth?

            All fuels were living plants and animals once. While they were living, they got their energy from the sun. When they died, they became part of the soil. Over the years, they were pressed farther and farther down into the earth. As they were pressed under farther down, the heat of the earth worked on them and changed them into fuel. The heat of the earth comes from the sun. so the fuels that makes machines go is really from the sun.

1. LITERAL COMPREHENSION:
1. The literal comprehension in this selection is located in the first stanza of the selection which states that:  “The light and heat of the sun help to make plants grow” because it shows the literal meaning of the sun’s energy which is stored in the plants. The function of the sun’s energy is directly stated in the selection and no need to do some critical thinking in order to define the storage of sun’s energy. Therefore, this part of the selection is to be called as the literal part that shows the literal meaning of it.

2. INTERPRETATIVE COMPREHENSION:
1. The part of the selection that states the indirect meaning is in its examples, wherein you need to think how this examples are being converted to energy. From this you can identify the meaning of the selection but by trying to identify first the implicit words that show the meaning of the selection.

      3    CRITICAL ANALYSIS OR CRITICAL EVALUATION:

 As weighed and evaluated, the facts that the selection shows are really observable in the environment. They show the real property and characteristics of the things around us. To relate this to the topic, those facts serve as the supporting details to explain that the energy coming from the sun is stored first in the plants and then from that, a cycle occurs which allows the release of energy not only to living things but also to some machinery . So, with the aid of our critical mind, we could therefore say that through evaluation of facts which are stated in the selection, we could know its meaning and we could make judgment that would be the basis in saying if the selection is important or not.

4. APPLICATION AND REACTION
1. From my experiences before, especially during our science class in elementary, I already heard about the energy coming from the sun. Now, I could relate this experience to the ideas I have read from the selection. So through the combination of these two ideas I was able to form new ideas and insights about the selection. For me, plants serves as the main storage of energy that comes from the suns and it also serves as an instrument in distributing energy to all living things that fed on them and to machineries that rely on fuels for energy. Therefore, energy that comes from the sun and transfers to us through plants must be called as indirect energy because it is not directly absorbed by our body from the actual rays of the sun but from plants first towards us which is also called in science as food chain.

5. CREATIVE THINKING
1. As the final part of my understanding regarding this selection, I will now say that plants do not only serve as food for the living organism that fed on them but also instruments that distribute or provide energy to all living things that rely on them and also to all machineries that uses energy from the fuel that plants are producing in thousands of years.