Genuine Articles is a collection of authentic readings in English, representing the variety of written material people encounter in their daily lives. These texts have come from a wide range of sources: newspapers, magazines, brochures, advertisements, business letters, and books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The writing styles vary as well, with samples of instruction, description, narrative, persuasion and classification. The practical exercises that follow each text promote an active approach to reading, by teaching rather than testing. First of all a summary skills exercise helps students build a mental summary of the information in the text, just as proficient readers do in their own language. Then each of the following exercises focuses on one specific reading skill, such as guessing vocabulary from context, drawing inferences, on recognizing cohesive links within a text.