So much to do, so little time. So much information, so little time to read. In this age there is more information than ever before. There is not enough time to read everything we want to read. However, you can take in and understand more information in shorter time through speed-reading. This article will not make you read 3,000 words per minute, but it will show you how to increase your speed greatly. You will also learn the basic techniques of speed reading, along with the dos and don’ts of speed-reading．
When you first learned to read, you would say the word out loud and sound it out. Then you might whisper the word because people can become annoyed when you read aloud. The stage you are now at is saying the word in your head．Most people tend to read this way. Saying the word in your head will cut your reading speed tremendously.
How do you calculate your reading speed? The speed is measured by how many words per minute you can read. Get some reading material, preferably a book. Find out how many words are on the page. Time yourself one minute. Start your timer and start reading. When the timer sounds, stop at once. If you counted 500 words on the page and you read half of the page, then you are probably reading at 250 words per minute.
The first thing about speed-reading is looking at the word and recognizing it. Don’t say the word in your mind, just look at it and recognize its appearance. Later you will recognize groups of four words or more to increase your speed. This is the first and most important step in speed-reading.
The next step is technique. As with any other skill, speed-reading requires technique. You should first be sitting up straight with your book on a horizontal surface, such as a table or desk. Next, should be able to see the entire page．This is necessary if you want to recognize clumps of words. Lastly, you should be focused. It’s hard to read a lot of noise. Find a quiet place to read. This will help your understand of the text. You need something to guide your eyes while reading. Then right, you should use your hand, Remember when you were little, you would read using your finger. That is a great technique, only now you're using your hand to underline each line．Move your finger smoothly across page．No need to go rush , start our slow. Keep your eyes focused on words as you recognize them while using your hand as a guide. This will increase you speed.
The third step is practice. Practice makes perfect. Set time intervals（时间间隔）. Read using different techniques, but make sure you understand what you’re reading.Which of the following statements in true according to the text?
| A．Now there is limited information than ever before. |
| B．Now conditions ask people to use less time to know more information. |
| C．No people can read what they like. |
| D．The less you read, the more time you will spend. |
What is the subject discussed in the text?
| A．What speed-reading is. |
| B．Why we need speed-reading. |
| C．Now it has much information, less time. |
| D．People should practice speed-reading in different kinds of ways. |
Which of the following shows the right way for the speed-reading from the text?
a．Ask for some techniques.
b．Look at many words and recognize them.
c．Practice more.
| A．c, a, b | B．c, b, a | C．b, a, c | D．a, c, b |
The underlined sentence “you should be focused” in the fifth paragraph means that .
| A．a person should devote his attention to it while reading |
| B．your feelings will be hurt while reading |
| C．a person should smooth away difficulties while he reads |
| D．you should pay attention to your faults while you are reading |
To speed up your reading, you should 。
| A．sit up straight with your book flat and use something to guide your eyes |
| B．say every word out loud and sound it out |
| C．know it is necessary to read quickly |
| D．underline some important words while you say them |
认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。
注意：每空格1个单词。
Maybe you are an average student. You probably think you will never be a top student. This is not necessary so, however. Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to. Here’s how.
1) Plan your time carefully. When you plan your week, you should make a list of things that you have to do. After making this list, you should make a schedule of your time. First your time for eating, sleeping, dressing, etc. then decide a good, regular time for studying. Don’t forget to set aside enough time for entertainment. A weekly schedule may not solve all your problems, but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.
2) Find a good place to study. Look around the house for a good study area. Keep this space, which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room, free of everything but study materials. No games, radios, or television! When you sit down to study, concentrate on the subject.
3) Make good use of your time in class. Take advantage of class time to listen to everything the teachers say. Really listening in class means less work later. Taking notes will help you remember what the teacher says.
4) Study regularly. When you get home from school, go over your notes. Review the important points that your teacher mentioned in class. If you know what your teacher is going to discuss the next day, read that material will become more meaningful, and you will remember it longer.
5) Develop a good attitude about tests. The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you remember your new knowledge. The world won’t end if you don’t pass a test, so don’t be overly worried.
There are other methods that might help you with your studying. You will probably discover many others after you have tried these.
How to become a better student
| General method |
How to |
advantage |
| Plan your time carefully |
Make a list |
Force you to realize |
| Make a |
||
| Find a good place to study |
Free of everything but study |
You can |
| Make good use of your time in class |
Listen to everything the teachers say |
Really listening in class means ___ |
| Taking |
||
| Study regularly |
Go over your notes |
|
| Help you |
||
| Develop a good attitude about tests |
Don’t be |
Remember your new |
Few buildings on earth can compete with the legendary beauty of the Taj Mahal. Towering over the ancient Indian city of Agra, the Taj Mahal is the grandest monument (纪念碑) to love ever created.
The lovers in this story are the 17th century Indian emperor Shah Jehan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. She took a leading role in advising him, which is something unusual for a woman to do for a husband who’s an emperor. Over the course of their nineteen-year marriage she gave birth to 14 children. But in 1631 while trying to deliver their fifteenth — she tragically died. He was heartbroken when she died. And after her death, he decided to build the world’s greatest monument ever built, for love.
He ordered the royal architects to design the most beautiful building the world had known and decided to name it after his beloved, Mumtaz Mahal. He called on twenty thousand workers and sent many more people to all corners of his country in search of valuable metals and jewels. And after seventeen years of hard work, Shah Jehan’s monument was completed and his beloved empress was moved to her final resting place.
Everything had gone according to plan, but Shah Jehan’s luck was about to change ... In 1658, just four years after the completion of the Taj Mahal, he was thrown out of power. Unfortunately, his son, Aran Azibe imprisoned him, his own father. And he spent the last seven years of his life in prison. And he was allowed to look at the Taj Mahal through a window. His life was in ruins, but when he died his last wish was promised. He was buried beside his beloved wife in the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was built for ______.
| A．Mumtaz | B．Shah | C．Mumtaz or Shah | D．Mumtaz and Shah |
The Taj Mahal was completed in ______.
| A．1658 | B．1662 | C．1665 | D．1654 |
What was unusual for Mumtaz Mahal according to the passage?
| A．She gave birth to 14 children for her husband. | B．She gave important advice to her husband. |
| C．She asked her son to imprison his father. | D．She planned to build the world’s greatest monument. |
Which of the following is TRUE about Shah Jehan?
| A．He was killed by his own son. | B．He lost his power as a result of the Taj Mahal. |
| C．He put his own son into prison. | D．He hoped to be buried together with his wife. |
An earthquake happens when two plates rub (碰撞) together. The earth plates travel in different directions and at different speeds. If one plate is slowly forced underneath the other, pressure builds up until the plates break apart. This process causes the ground to move. It is an earthquake. In other words, earth-quakes are the shaking of the earth’s surface caused by the earth’s rocky outer layer as a result of the energy stored within the earth. The strain within the rocks is suddenly released (释放).
The damage an earthquake causes depends on where it is and the time it is happening. If an unpopulated region is struck, there will be low loss of life or property. If it hits a large city, there may be many in-juries and much destruction. Many of the areas at risk are largely populated now. Major earthquakes hitting those areas today could produce terrible damage.
Actually, there are several million small earth-quakes every year. Large earthquakes such as the 1964 Alaskan quake that measured 9.2 on the Richter scale cause millions of dollars in damage. In the last 500 years, millions of people have been killed by earth-quakes around the world — including 240,000 in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China.
A 60-second or less earthquake can cause devastation that continues for years after the first tremor (小震). In 1972, a series of severe earthquakes struck Managua, Nicaragua. Fifteen years later, the city still looked the way it had a week after the earthquake hit, because the country did not have the necessary money to rebuild it.
The shaking of the earth is sometimes not the greatest disaster. It is in the ensuing fires and floods that often the greatest damage occurs. In the 1906 earthquake, it was the fires caused after it that did the majority of the damage. An earthquake can also destroy dams high above a city or valleys, causing floods to sweep down and sweep away everything in their path. Which of the following is the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．An earthquake comes from inside the earth. | B．The earth has great energy in storage. |
| C．How the earth plates move. | D．How an earthquake happens. |
How many examples are used in the passage to show the damage and destruction earthquakes cause?
| A．Three. | B．Four. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
Which of the following is mentioned to show that an earthquake can kill too many people?
| A．The 1976 Tangshan earthquake. | B．The 1964 Alaskan quake. |
| C．The 1972 Managua earthquake. | D．The 1906 earthquake. |
The underlined word “ensuing” in the last paragraph probably means ______.
| A．causing too much heat and great damage | B．causing many injuries and much destruction |
| C．happening as a result of another event | D．happening suddenly and unexpectedly |
The Olympic Games are seen as the greatest test of an athlete’s ability and are supposed to celebrate the spirit of fair play. But in fact, sportsmen have been using drugs to cheat their way to victory since the Games first began.
In the early years, athletes ate mushrooms(蘑菇)and plant seeds to improve their performance. Nowadays, this kind of cheating has a name doping(服用兴奋剂).
Just last month, Britain’s top sprinter(赛跑选手) Dwain Chambers and several American athletes tested positive(呈阳性)for the drug THG. Until a coach secretly gave a sample of THG to scientists, no one knew how ho test for it.
“We’re like cops(警察)chasing criminals—athletes are always adapting and looking for areas we haven’t investigated,” said Jacquew de Ceaurriz, a French anti-doping expert.
Since the first drugs test was carried out at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, many cheats have been caught out. The most famous case in history is that of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson.
He broke the 100 meters world record in winning gold at the 1988 Seoul(汉城)Olympics. But days later, he tested positive for drug use, lost his gold medal and was banned from the sport. Five years later, he returned to action—only to be found positive again and banned forever.
China has also had problems with drug cheats. At the 1994 Asian Games, 11 Chinese athletes—seven of them swimmers—tested positive for banned drugs. Sports organizations promised that cheating on this scale would not happen again.
Experts are also worried that doping can damage a person’s health. It is believed to increase the risk of liver and kidney(肝肾)diseases, and women may experience reproductive(生育) problems. As long as they can stay ahead of the scientists, it is unlikely the cheats will stop. But experts say there is a limit to what can be achieved and that athletes will not be able to change their bodies using gene(基因)technology.
“For the moment, genetic doping does not exist,” said de Ceaurriz. “Even in 10 or 15 years it will not be done easily—the scientific community(界)will not let it happen.”Which of the following is not the way that some athletes cheat to their better sports achievements?
| A．Eating mushrooms. | B．Taking drug THG. |
| C．Taking genetic doping. | D．Eating plant seeds. |
How many countries are mentioned in the passage in which there were athletes doping?
| A．Two. | B．Four. | C．Sic. | D．Eight. |
We can infer from the passage that ____.
| A．scientists get a lot of information about drugs before the athletes take doping |
| B．taking doping will never happen again because of the serious test |
| C．few athletes used drug cheats before the first drugs test was carried out at the 1968 Olympics |
| D．problems with drug cheats are still serious though they are severely tested |
Which statement of the following is true?
| A．Many police are sent to chase criminals of taking doping during the Olympic Games. |
| B．The drug test was carried out until the 1968 Olympics. |
| C．There is the possibility that women athletes taking doping will give no birth to a child. |
| D．Ben Johnson was banned from sports forever for being tested positive for drug use at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. |
Thomas Edison was one of ten said to be the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all of the history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius.“ There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He said that what people called genius was mostly hard work.
But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature, he often said, is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.
Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.
Edison could not understand how anyone could be uninterested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what ideas he had about life. “ Work,” he answered. “Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Edison invented the electric light. |
| B．Many other people have changed Edison’s life. |
| C．Edison has changed the life of many other people. |
| D．Few men in history can change other people’s life. |
Edison thought .
| A．he could be happy if he was a genius |
| B．genius plays the most important part in one’s success |
| C．hard work could do better than genius |
| D．genius could do better than hard work |
Edison was .
| A．very much interested in nature |
| B．interested in discovering the secrets of nature |
| C．interested in changing people’s ideas |
| D．uninterested in making people happier by discovering the secrets of nature |
In Edison’s opinion, .
| A．thinking can supply people with enjoyment and pleasure as well as help |
| B．people’s success lies mostly in genius |
| C．hard work is the second important thing in making people successful |
| D．there are few secrets for him to discover later |