Directions: You are expected to study this section in class. Don’t preview.

Word Pretest

For each italicized word or expression, choose the best meaning below.
1. Please figure out the total cost.
A. number B. work out C. count
2. Many readers do not realize how much faster they can read and they plod along at one-third their possible speed all their lives.
A. read carefully B. read quickly C. read slowly
3. The students spend so many hours reading every day that they get eyestrain.
A. tired B. pain in the eyes C. squint eyes
4. Although they live in the big city now, they still cling to their small town values.
A. give up B. stick to C. glue together
5. The bodyguards should always remain alert.
A. aggressive B. attentive C. strong
6. It is the common Chinese notion that the elderly should be respected.
A. idea B. superstition C. notice
7. You are wasting your potential on this job.
A. hidden ability B. rich knowledge C. great energy
8. Look out of the window and you can savor the view of the mountain.
A. notice B. see C. appreciate
9. Many of these writers used to study in writing clinics.
A. hospitals B. circles C. workshops
10. Her objective is to get a college education.
A. dream B. aim C. promise

Key to word pretest:
1. C 2. C 3. B 4. B 5. B 6. A 7. A 8. C 9. C 10. B 　　

Text A
Why Read Faster

　　The most obvious and practical answer to the question “Why read faster?” is to save yourself time. How much is your time worth to you? Suppose you could do your required reading in one-half or one-third of the time it takes you now. Could you find something to do with the time saved? Most of us could.
　　Think of the time and money that could be saved by schools, businesses, and the government if people read more efficiently. A reading expert once figured out how much money would be saved if every American over fifteen years of age were given reading training for a month. Computed at fifty cents an hour, the savings in time required for all the reading in the nation would be worth about five billion dollars.
　　It is amazing how many readers will plod along at one-third their possible speed all their lives. They think they are going to miss a word and forget it is ideas they are reading for. They miss the view of the forest because they look at the trees so hard. They make reading such slow, hard work that they hate to read. They feel themselves getting eyestrain, losing their train of thought, dozing off, and finally giving up.
These readers cling to some old wives’ tales bout reading fast. Beverly Harte Gray, a former Evelyn Wood instructor, lists some of these false ideas and answers them in this way.
　　1) Fast readers understand and remember less than slow readers.
　　FALSE. Fast readers are alert, active, and efficient readers. Vast research as well as records kept by speed-reading teachers prove this notion to be untrue. On the other hand, slow readers tend to be passive and unskilled. Their comprehension remain alert and interested. As a result, their minds wander.
　　2) Only very bright people can read fast.
　　FALSE. Research and the records of hundreds of teachers show that anyone with average intelligence (and good eyesight) can read and understand simple material at 800-1200 words per minute (wpm). The brain can absorb more rapidly than one can send material to it. A habit of lazy, passive reading has produced slow readers. Eye muscles will respond to training. One needs a mental “set” to absorb material quickly.
　　3) Rapid reading is satisfactory for only easy or unimportant material.
　　FALSE. It is true that efficient readers do not read everything at the same rate. They vary speed and techniques according to the difficulty of the material and their purpose for reading it. They will find, however, that as their basic rate improves, their rates for other materials will also improve. Their rapid, medium, and slow rates will all increase. Thus, a well-trained reader may be reading difficult material twice as fast as a nontrained reader reads easy material. Remember rapid readers can read as slowly as they choose and as fast as they choose.
　　4) Rapid readers cannot relax and enjoy their reading. They cannot savor the words and the style.
　　FALSE. Once rapid reading has become a habit, readers enjoy and savor style just as much as they did before at slower speeds. It takes time to make rapid reading a habit. But, once the habit has been formed, readers feel no more strain than they did at their old slower rates.
　　5) Perhaps rapid reading is valuable, but it will take years to retrain a slow reader.
　　FALSE. It has been proved many times in school and reading clinics that readers can double or triple their rates in thirty to sixty days. The increase depends upon the amount of daily practice time.
In increasing your speed, you must not lose sight of the fact that you read different material for different purposes at different rates. The objective should be to get your faster speed up. Then your slower speed will come up too. As a result, you will have a wider range of rates from which to choose. Fast readers never have to worry about being unable to slow down. They can slow down at will. It is slow readers who are stuck at one speed-----slow----for everything they read.
　　You will read much more effectively and save much more time if you get your fastest speed up to 800 wpm from which to choose. Isn’t that better than a range of 250 to 300 wpm, which is average for most adults?
If you can read the newspaper or a popular magazine article at 800 wpm, it doesn’t mean you should or could read Crime and Punishment at 800 wpm. (You may, however, read some portion of it at 800 wpm.) you might read it at your study rate----perhaps 250 to 350 wpm. On the other hand, you have a problem if you then read “101Ways to Kiss” in Cosmopolitan at 250 wpm also.
　　Think of the mail, newspapers, magazines, popular novels, homework assignments that you go through (or should go through) in a week. Then think how much time you could save if you could speed at will to twice or three times your present speed. It can be done.

Total words: 900 words
Total Reading Time_______
The text is based on “Why Read Faster” in Reading Faster and Understanding More, Book 1, by Wanda Maureen Miller and Sharon Steeber, (Little, Brown & Company, 1985)

Detailed study of the text

Reading Skill-----Skimming
Skim the text and then answer the following questions.

1. What is the title of the text?
2. The purpose of the first paragraph is to ________.
A. ask a question
B. tell us how to make money
C. tell that we can read faster to save time for doing other things
3. How many false ideas are listed?
A. Four
B. Five
C. Six
4. Fast readers understand ________slow readers.
A. less than
B. as much as
C. better than
5. Anyone with average intelligence can read and understand simple material at ________.
A. 1200 words per minute (wpm)
B.1300 words per minute (wpm)
C.1400 words per minute (wpm)
6. Efficient readers _______according to the difficulty of the material.
A. maintain the same speed
B. change speed
C. slow down speed
7. Rapid readers ________.
A. cannot slow down their reading speed
B. can enjoy their reading
C. cannot appreciate the style
8. It takes ______days to double or triple slow readers’ rates.
A. thirty to sixty
B. forty to seventy
C. twenty to sixty
9. The final paragraph suggests ________.
A. one can improve reading speed
B. one does a lot of reading in a week
C. one saves a lot of time in reading

Key to reading skill:
1. Why Read Faster
2. C 3. B 4. C 5. A 6. B 7. B 8. A 9. C

Vocabulary Building
Ⅰ. Fill in the blanks with the correct forms of the given words.

1. practice
a. Your suggestion sounds good, but I’m afraid it is not ______.
b. We must combine theory with _______.
c. This boy _______ playing the piano every day, that is why he can play so well now.
d. The rocks are so hard in the mountain that to build a road through it is not ________.
e. This old man is _______ in catching snakes.
2.worth
a. This “diamond” is made of glass and is almost ______.
b. She is such a beautiful and clever girl and he is not ____of her.
c. Although it is so hard to work in the desert, the fact that we will certainly find oil here makes our work _______.
d. This historical site is _______a visit.
e. These discoveries are of little _______.
3.various
a. Good readers learn to _____their reading speed when they read different materials.
b. If you don’t know where to spend the holiday, you can send for the holiday brochures which can give you the most ______.
c. There is a ______of ten pounds in weight.
d. We have ______opinions on this project.
e. ________kinds of birds are described in this book.
4.absorb
a. This novel is so _______that he forgets it is time for supper.
b. He was too _______in the newspaper to hear the bell.
c. In winter we should wear dark colored clothes which can _____
the sunlight.
d. This small factory faces ______into a big one.
e. This material is as _______as sponge.

Key: 1. a. practicable b. practice c. practises d. practical
e. practised/practiced
2.a. worthless b.worthy c.worthwhile d.worth e.worth
3.a.vary b.variety c.variety d.varied e.Various
4.a.aborbing b.absorbed c.absorb d.absorption e.absorbent

Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks with words which are often confused.
1. effective, efficient
a. The measures adopted by the government to reduce unemployment were _______.
b. He is _______ at his job.
c. The law is no longer ________.
2. technique, technology
a. Computer _______is developing at an amazing fast pace.
b. He has the greatest _______with customers.
3. medium, middle
a. I was right in the _______of reading her paper when she phoned.
b. He is a man of _______height.
c. Those clothes must be washed at ______temperature.

Key: 1. a.effective b.efficient c.effective
2.a.technology b.technique
3.a.middle b.medium c.medium

Ⅲ. Glossary
fiction non-fiction best-seller paper-back hard-back
classic memoirs periodical journal auto-biography
weekly monthly quarterly booklet pamphlet
brochure contributor correspondent columnist gossip-writer

4. Cloze
Fill in each blank with one suitable word.
The ability to predict what the writer is ______to say next is both an aid to understanding and a sign of it.
Prediction begins from the moment you read the title and for expectations of what the book is likely to contain. Even if the ______ are contradicted they are useful because they have started your thinking about the topic and made you involved.
If you formulate your predictions as ______ which you think the text may answer, you are preparing yourself to read for a purpose: to see which of your questions are in fact dealt with and what _______ are offered. If your reading is more purposeful you are likely to understand better.
Naturally your _______ will not always be correct. This does not matter at all as long as you recognize when they are wrong, and why. In fact mistaken predictions can _____you the sources of misunderstanding and help you to avoid certain false assumptions.
Prediction is possible at a number of levels. From the title of a book you can _______ the topic and possibly something about the treatment. From the beginning of a sentence , you can often predict how the sentence will _______ . between these extremes, you can predict what will happen next in a story, or how a writer will _______ his argument, or what methods will be used to test a hypothesis.
Because prediction ensures the reader’s active involvement, it is ____training.

Key:1.going 2.predictions 3.questions 4.answers 5.predictions
6.show 7.predict 8.follow 9.support 10.worth