Abstract
This study investigate the text-dependency in the activation of "the Moral Reading Schema (MRS)" using 2 different kinds of explanatory texts. In the experiment, 63 women's university students received passage-1 in the first semester, and passage-2 in the second. They were instructed to read and answer the questions on both passages. The results confirmed that the MRS is not restricted to a specific type of explanatory text, but may occur in several types of texts. The experiment also suggested that, rather than being constantly active for particular readers, the activation of the MRS depends on the content of the reading text. It appears, however, that there are certain readers who consistently fail to activate the MRS. The experiment revealed no significant difference regarding the MRS-activation between the readers who gave an appropriate interpretation to the text and those who gave an inappropriate one. As reading comprehension strategies closely associated with MRS-activation, the following was observed: the tendency of readers to simplify vague expressions in the text and to interpret the author's intentions in an active manner.
