Topic N5 ("Books and Reading")
Books can fit almost every need, temper, or interest. Books
can be read when you are in the mood; they don't have to be taken
in periodic doses. Books are more personal and more impersonal
than professors. Books have an inner confidence which individuals
seldom show; they rarely have to be on the defensive. Books can
afford to be bold, and courageou, and explanatory; they don't
have to be so careful of boards of trustees, colleagues, and
community opinion. Books are infinitly diverse; they run the
gamut of human activity. Books can express every point of view;
if you want a different point of view, you can read a different
book. Reading is probably the most important skill you will need
for success in your studies. You will have to read lengthy
assignments in different subjects with varying degrees of detail
and difficulty. If you you read inaccuratly, you will fail to
understand some of the information and ideas you read. If you
read slowly, you will have to spent too much time reading your
assignments so that your other work may suffer.
Poor reading may be a problem for you, but it is not a
hopeless one. Like other skills your abilty to read English
rapidly and accuratly will depend upon a careful instruction and
purposeful practice. You must continue to practise on your own to
improve your reading skill.
Reading speed is determined in part by how many words your
eyes can see at a single glance. Here is a comparison of three
different readers and how many stops their eyes make.
Slow Reader:
Being і able і to read і by phrases і instead of і by single і
words і results і from і practice.
Average Reader:
Being able і to read і by phrases і instead of і by single
words і results і from practice.
Fast Reader:
Being able to read by phrases і instead of by single words і
results from practice.
Notice that the slow reader's eyes must stop fourteen times,
focusing on each word alone before they move on to the next. The
eyes of the average reader stop six or seven times because they
are able to see about two words at a single glance. The eyes of
the fast reader stop only three times. They focus at the center
of a phrase and see three or four words, then move rapidly to the
next phrase. This ability to see words on either side of the
point at which your eyes focus is called peripheral vision. As a
foreign student of English, you may feel, that it is impossible
to recognize so many words at a single glance. It is difficult
for many native speakers, but it can be done - and must be done
if you are to read as rapidly as you should. You can increase
your peripheral vision by eye exercises.
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