Fast ReadingSkimming and Scanning(P77 and P112, Book II)110 wpm, slow reader. 240 wpm, oral reader. 400 wpm, auditory 听觉的reader. 1000 wpm, visual reader. Fast reading involves three major areas: 1.comprehension, 2.recognition of new words and 3.flexibility 灵活性in reading speed. The best way to improve your fast reading ability is, of course, to read. Training the visual system in conjunction with analysis, criticism and synthesis 综合分析is the key to reading improvement.Efficient reading requires the use of various problem-solving skills, such as skimming 略读reading and scanning 快读reading, detailed reading and guessing unknown words and so on. SkimmingSkimmingunderstanding the main idea of the materialpartial readingused for light reading or reviewing fastest speedComparatively相对的，比较的 lower level of comprehensionselectively omitting parts of the materialremembering as many details as possibleHow to skim?1.Read the first one or two paragraphs (usu. Entirely完全地) so as to get an overall picture of the material; (introduction)2.Read the key sentences (usu. the first and the last) of the paragraphs in the middle; while doing this, try to remember some important words related to the topic;3.Read the concluding paragraphs (usu. entirely) so as to find the conclusion / summary.4.(Introduction of topic / subject matter / writing purpose, etc. Illustration / supporting details conclusion that echoes the introduction)4.Use the skill of recognizing types of paragraphs in order to save time when summarizing the main idea efficiently. If the main idea is not summarized in any one sentence, try to detect it from several sentences. 5.Take advantage of typographical印刷上，排字上 details, such bolded-faced words, italicized words, titles and subtitles, footnotes, etc. 6.Pay attention to words and phrases which indicate logical relationship 逻辑关系in the context. (e.g. Adversative conjunctions转折连词 and coordinating conjunctions并列连词)Skimming Exercises The concept of a national park differs from nation to nation. In Australia, the United States and Japan the land in national parks is government-owned and the management of these parks is decided by government policy. Activities such as housing or industry within the parks are discouraged. In Britain, national parks are quite different. Parks such as the Lake District, Dart Moor and Exmore include towns and villages where large numbers of people live. Much of the land in these national parks is privately owned, but there are strict controls on its use, and on the appearance of the landscape and buildings, some of which (including whole villages) are heritage items. This style of national park is well suited to the scenic areas of Britain where human influences such as houses, farms and fields are part of the beauty, and combine with natural scenery to produce an overall attractiveness. In Africa and Southern Asia, large national parks have been set up to preserve animals in particular. The land within these national parks is owned by the government, but there are many private developments, such as hotels and shops, for the visitors who come to see the animals.This passage mainly discusses _. a. The purpose of national parks b. National parks in different nations c. The locations of national parks d. The concept of national parksPara. 1: the concept of a national park differs from nation to nation.Para. 1: Australia, the United States and JapanPara. 2: BritainPara. 3: Africa and Southern Asia The average human spends 1/3 of his or her lifetime sleeping. Imagine how much people could accomplish if they spent less time sleeping. For many high school students, getting enough rest is not a priority. A National Sleep Foundation survey confirms that teens are staying up too late at night, usually getting 7 hours of sleep instead of the recommended 9 hours. Although teenagers internal clocks are partially to blame for not sleeping earlier, many students lose sleep because of school. Schools should allow students ample time for sleep, taking jobs, sports, and other extracurricular activities into consideration. Students who are extremely busy and lose sleep as a result should not have to drop their activities in order to get more rest. With colleges becoming increasingly competitive, it is unreasonable for students to be forced to choose between sleeping and excelling.The writer is concerned about _. a. sleep time of the average human b. the priority of sleep c. teenagers internal clocks d. teens and their sleepPara. 1: high school students, teens, teenagers, sleeping, sleepPara. 2: Schools should allow students much time for sleep.Para. 3: Students should have enough sleep and excel at the same time. The temperature of the Sun is over 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface, but it rises to perhaps more than 16 million degrees at the center. The Sun is so much hotter than the Earth that matter can exist only as a gas, except at the core. In the core of the Sun, the pressures are so great against the gases that, despite the high temperature, there may be a solid core. However, no one really knows, since the center of the Sun can never be directly observed. Solar astronomers do know that the Sun is divided into five layers or zones. Starting at the outside and going down into the Sun, the zones are the corona, chromo sphere, photosphere, convection zone, and finally the core. The first three zones are regarded as the Suns atmosphere. But since the Sun has no solid surface, it is hard to tell where the atmosphere ends and the main body of the Sun begins.The second paragraph mainly deals with _. a. the division between atmosphere and the Suns main body b. the study of the atmosphere c. the study of the sun d. the structure of the SunPara. 1: The temperature of the SunPara. 2: the Sun is divided into five layers or zones Stuttering is caused by poor connections between two areas in the left hemisphere of the brain, German researchers said recently. Although scientists knew that stuttering the involuntary repetition of consonants, sounds or words had a genetic link, how and why it occurs has remained a mystery. German scientists, using magnetic resonance（共振） imaging (MRI) to look into the brains of people who stutter, have uncovered new clues. “Fibers between the speech area and language planning area of the brain seem to be disrupted”, said Dr. Christian Bushel of the University of Hamburg. The disturbed timing in the speech-related areas in the brain causes the difficulty that usually begins between the ages of three and five and affects up to 7 percent of children and one percent of adult.This last paragraph mainly discusses _. a. what stuttering is b. causes of stuttering c. solution to stuttering d. people liable to stutteringPara. 1: Introducing that German researchers recent findings about the cause of stuttering.Para. 2: research questionsParas. 3 4: details of their findings ScanningScanningUsed for looking for specific informationPurposefulnessAccuracyHow to scan?1.keep in mind exactly what it is you are searching for;2.let your eyes run rapidly over several lines of print at a time;3.pay attention to the wording of the information that may be different from the wording of what you want; (word class and word association)4.If the material is familiar or relatively brief, you may be able to scan the entire body of the text in a single search;5.If the material is lengthy or difficult, a preliminary准备，开始 skimming to find the part of the text in which to scan for particular information will be more helpful. Scanning ExercisesScanning Exercise 1: Eye MovementsRead across the line, from left to right, as fast as you can and circle the words that are the same as the underlined word.fatfarfatfatherfuture speakspellspokespeaksspeakherehearheardherehimtelephonetalktelephonetypetalkfiftyfifteenfiftyfivefourChinaChinesechairChinacamepeoplepersonpeopleprivatepullterribletelltypetypicalpencilhandsomehandhandlehandsomehurtstreetstrongstopstarestreetScanning Exercise 2: Scanning for informationHere is a Table of Contents from a beginners book in English as a Second Language. Look at it and answer the questions.What unit tells you about meat, fruit and vegetables?What unit tells you about hats, coats and dresses?What unit tells you about televisions, calculators and cars?What unit tells you about brothers, sisters and cousins?What unit tells you about January, February and March?Table of ContentsUnit 1Say Hello!-3Unit 2The Clothes You Wear-12Unit 3The Jobs You Do-24Unit 4The Foods You Eat-38Unit 5The People in Your Family-44Unit 6The Rooms in Your House-60Unit 7The Days of the Week-68Unit 8The Weather-74Unit 9The Places You Go-83Unit 10The Machines You Use-92Unit 11The Sorts You Play-104Unit 12The Parts of Body-114Scanning Exercise 3: Scanning for informationLook over the bus schedule quickly, and then answer the questions.1. The first bus from Yorktown: Departing time is _. a. 11:00 a.m.b. 4:00 p.m.c. 6:00 a.m.2. The bus trip from Yorktown to Boxford is _. a. two hoursb. one hourc. three hours3. The first bus from Boxford to Yorktown is at _. a. 1:20 p.m.b. 8:30 a.m.c. 6:00 a.m.4. There are _ morning bus trips to Boxford. a. oneb. twoc. three5. The price of a one-way ticket from Boxford to Yorktown is _.Bus ScheduleHudsonBus CompanyYORKTOWN BOXFORDTIME OFTIME OFDEPARTINGDEPARTUREARRIVINGARRIVALYOURTOWN6:00 a.m.BOXFORD8:00 a.m.BOXFORD8:30 a.m.YORKTOWN10:30 a.m.YORKTOWN11:00 a.m.BOXFORD1:00 p.m.BOXFORD1:30 p.m.YORKTOWN3:30 p.m.YORKTOWN4:00 p.m.BOXFORD6:00 p.m.Skimming vs. Scanning1.Finding a word in the dictionary;2.Locating a certain street or town on a map;3.Finding a certain trains departure time in a train timetable;4.Looking for news of a specific athlete, meeting, or traffic accident in the newspaper;5.Finding the subject, author, or title you want in the librarys card catalog or on the shelf;6.Locating information in a book index or table of contents.7.Rereading material you have already studied. 8.Looking over and sort out your mail. 9.Flipping through a new book or magazine. 10.Keeping informed in a general way about the news. Skimming: generalScanning: specificSpeed ReadingVisual Span The visual span视觉广度 or attention window is the area that the brain has selected to analyze with full detail during a fixation.注视 The eyes have the capacity to perceive看见 with sufficient detail text in an area of roughly 30 characters wide by 10 lines high. However as reading is not only seeing, this large span can not be exploited开发. For the average reader visual span corresponds to one word; while for the good reader it is about five words at a time. Most people read one word at a time, saying the word to themselves. This is a slow way of doing the task, especially when your mind is capable of processing information at a much higher rate.Look at groups of words One of the primary tricks in speed-reading is to look at phrases and groups of words instead of individual words. Instead of reading word-by-word, you read in chunks大量的 of information. You dont have to say the word to understand what it means.Grouping wordsThe dog is going to the store to eat bacon.The dog is going to the store to eat bacon.By breaking this sentence down in those locations, you can read it much faster since you only have to stop and process five times (with chunking) as opposed to ten times (word-by-word).Practice with newspaper Try reading several words, a phrase, or even a sentence at a time. A good way to practice this is to read newspaper articles by scanning down the column专栏，列, digesting all the words across, instead of reading each word at a time. A newspaper column usually has 4 or 5 words per line, and you should be able to process all of them at once. This method is one of the best for getting used to reading phases instead of words. Just practicing reading this way should noticeably increase your speed. British Gas is at your service all winter. The weather forecast says that cold weather is coming. A fall of five degrees centigrade can cause a 20% increase in the use of gas, so the engineers at British Gas sent out the weather information to their compressor station. The local workers turn on the jet engines, which increase the flow of gas through the pipelines. So, with planning and the skills of its engineering force, British Gas meets the changing demands that the British climate makes. Parts of the country may be cut off by snow, but the gas never fails. British Gas is / at your service / all winter. The weather forecast says / that cold weather is coming. / A fall of five degrees centigrade / can cause a 20% increase / in the use of gas, / so the engineers at British Gas / sent out the weather information / to their compressor station. / The local workers / turn on the jet engines, which increase the flow of gas / through the pipelines. So, with planning and the skills / of its engineering force, / British Gas meets / the changing demands / that the British climate makes. / Parts of the country / may be cut off by snow, / but the gas never fails. Islamabad, Pakistan June 22nd Two mountain climbers surprisingly survived a fall of over 500 feet on the 2553-foot mountain in Pakistan Saturday. The two climbers were climbing an ice-covered wall of the mountain when they suddenly lost their footing and fell about 560 feet to a narrow snow-covered ledge below. “We were lucky that ledge was there,” said the climbers, “otherwise, we would have fallen over 2000 feet.” If the ledge had not been there, the two climbers almost certainly would have met their death. Islamabad, Pakistan June 22nd / Two mountain climbers / surprisingly survived / a fall of over 500 feet / on the 2553-foot mountain / in Pakistan Saturday. The two climbers were climbing / an ice-covered wall of the mountain when they suddenly lost their footing / and fell about 560 feet / to a narrow snow-covered ledge below. “We were lucky that ledge was there,” said the climbers, / “otherwise, we would have fallen over 2000 feet.” / If the ledge had not been there, / the two climbers almost certainly / would have met their death.To Sum up:Skimming and scanning are partial不完全的 reading only, thus they result in partial understanding.Choosing speed flexibly is only one of the factors for becoming an efficient reader. Other factors include good comprehension, the ability to read chunks of words and the integrated综合的 use of various reading skills.The simple fact is that the number one thing that you have to do everyday is to read.