Reading Provides Necessary Survival Skills
With the coming of the television age and the increasing emphasis on pictures and sound in all quarters of our society, many people would have us believe that we are moving rapidly away from reading as a necessary life skill. But this is not the case at all.
Good reading is a more important life skill than ever before and the printed word continues to be the cornerstone of both higher education and better positions in the job market.
For students, almost all studying involves reading. For adults, reading is day to day, either a stumbling block or a smooth path to pleasure and opportunity. This is why good reading hobits are not only an important study skill for the student, but also an important life skill for anyone.
SCANNING - You can get a good idea about the material by taking a few moments right off to read the title, chapter headings, section titles and headlines. The purpose of scanning is to get a quick understanding of what to expect from the reading, so that you will know what you are reading as you go along.
Maps, charts, graphs and pictures are clues that will help the reader to cue in on the content and organization of the material. This simple technique of scanning can help you read for ideas because you will know where you are going when you begin to read.
READING SPEED - Another good reading habit is reading fast. The expression "haste makes waste" does not apply to reading. In fact, most people read much too slowly. Right now you are probably reading this slower than you need for good comprehension. Studies show that fast readers are the best readers, and that slow readers often lose their concentration and comprehension abilities because their minds will wander out of boredom.
Remember, nothing hurts concentration more than reading too slowly. Your mind will keep up with your reading speed if you ask it to. By always reading at your top speed, you challenge your understanding and make it easier for your mind to concentrate on the material.
VOCABULARY BUILDING - For a person with good reading habits, a printed page contains not only words but ideas, actions, thoughts and feelings. But all these things are built on words. The more words you are familiar with, the less you are ware of reading words and the more you are aware of content and meaning. Expanding your vocabulary will help you to read more effectively and rapidly.
Many people simply skip over words they do not understand. This, naturally, hurts their overall comprehension. Other people stop at each new word and look it up in the dictionary, but this method can slow down your reading, affecting concentration and comprehension.
But you can build your vocabulary without using a dictionary each time. Here are two rules:
Pause for a moment on each new word and let it register in your mind.
Try to guess what the word means from context clues, from the words around it.
What happens with this method is that you will see the word again and again. Each time you will have a stronger impression of the meaning. Soon, the new word will be familiar and its meaning clear.
The key to the method is to be alert to new words. Don't skip over them. You'll find you are adding to your vocabulary each day and a good strong vocabulary is a great help to reading quickly and with strong comprehension.
Good reading habits like these can help students and working adults alike to be more successful. The special world of school and the real world of school and of everyday life can be more comfortable, productive and rewarding with the addition of simple yet important life skills such as good reading habits.
博覽群書(shū)能給你提供種種必要的生存技能
因?yàn)檫M(jìn)入了電視時(shí)代,社會(huì)生活的各方面都把圖像和聲響放在越來(lái)越重要的位置。所以有許多人認(rèn)為我們應(yīng)該迅速地改掉閱讀這一生存所必須具備的技能,但實(shí)際情況根本就不是這樣。
現(xiàn)在良好的閱讀能力是比過(guò)去任何時(shí)候都更加重要的一種生存技能。書(shū)面的文字資料依然是高等教育和就業(yè)市場(chǎng)上能找到較好職位的墊腳石。
對(duì)學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō),幾乎任何課程都必須經(jīng)過(guò)閱讀;對(duì)成年人來(lái)說(shuō),堅(jiān)持天天讀,就是一條通往幸福快樂(lè)能夠抓住大好機(jī)遇的一條平坦大道,否則就會(huì)成為你前進(jìn)路上的絆腳石。因此,良好的閱讀習(xí)慣不但是學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)的重要技能,對(duì)任何人都是一種重要的生存技能。
快速游覽--拿到閱讀材料先用極短的時(shí)間馬上看看標(biāo)題、篇章題目、小節(jié)的題目及文中的大號(hào)字體,以便能抓住這份材料的主要思想內(nèi)容??焖儆斡[的目的就是要迅速地理解你從這份閱讀材料中所期望獲得的信息,以便你能知道在你接著繼續(xù)讀下去的時(shí)候你將會(huì)讀到些什么內(nèi)容。
各類(lèi)地圖、圖表、曲線圖和圖片都是很有用的線索,為幫助讀者去理解所讀的材料的內(nèi)容和組織結(jié)構(gòu)提供一些啟示。這種簡(jiǎn)易可行的快速瀏覽的技巧有助于你在閱讀中抓住中心思想、段落大意,因?yàn)樵谀汩_(kāi)始閱讀以后你就會(huì)知道你將要讀到的內(nèi)容。
閱讀速度--還有一種良好的閱讀習(xí)慣就是快速閱讀。不能把"欲速則不達(dá)"這句話套用到閱讀上。事實(shí)上絕大多數(shù)人的閱讀實(shí)在是太慢了。也許此時(shí)此刻你在新聞?dòng)浾弑疚臅r(shí)的速度要比為了更好地理解本文所需要的閱讀速度更慢。多次調(diào)查研究都表明了,讀得快閱讀效果最好,讀得慢就不能集中精神,因而也就喪失了理解力,由于感到枯燥,思想上就會(huì)開(kāi)小差,心不在焉。
切記,閱讀速度太慢只能妨礙你集中注意力。如果你要求你的思路能與你的閱讀速度保持同步,那你是能做到的。一貫用你所能達(dá)到的最快的速度來(lái)閱讀,向你的理解力挑戰(zhàn),那么把你的思想全神貫注到所閱讀的材料上就是很容易做到的了。
積累詞匯--對(duì)于一個(gè)養(yǎng)成了良好閱讀習(xí)慣的人來(lái)說(shuō),每一頁(yè)文字資料里不只是包含一些詞句,還飲食有一些觀點(diǎn)、行動(dòng)、思想和感情。但是,這一切都是通過(guò)詞匯表達(dá)出來(lái)的。你所認(rèn)識(shí)的詞匯越多,你越會(huì)覺(jué)得你不是在閱讀一個(gè)一個(gè)的孤立的單詞,你越會(huì)更加去體會(huì)文章的內(nèi)容和作者的意思。擴(kuò)大了詞匯量將會(huì)幫助你讀得效率更高更快。
很多人干脆把他們所不認(rèn)識(shí)的詞跳過(guò)去不管它。當(dāng)然,這樣會(huì)妨礙你對(duì)文章的整體理解。還有些人一遇到生詞就停下來(lái)查詞典,這種做法也會(huì)減慢你的閱讀速度,會(huì)影響你不能全神貫注不能全面理解。
每遇到生詞,你可以不用去查詞典,就能擴(kuò)大你的詞匯量。這里教給你兩手絕活:
一是每遇到一個(gè)生詞,你稍稍停留片刻,把這個(gè)生詞先存貯到腦海里;
二是從上下文所提供的線索,從這句話的語(yǔ)言環(huán)境來(lái)試著猜一猜這個(gè)詞的意思。
使用這種方法就會(huì)出現(xiàn)這樣的情況:在下文中你會(huì)一遍又一遍地見(jiàn)到這個(gè)詞。每再見(jiàn)到一次你就會(huì)對(duì)該詞的意義有更強(qiáng)烈的印象。不久,這個(gè)生詞就會(huì)變成熟詞,那么它的意義也就清楚明白了。
使用這種方法的關(guān)鍵是要處處留心那些生詞。不要對(duì)這些生詞置之不理。這樣,你就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)你的詞匯量每天都在擴(kuò)大。有了很豐富的詞匯量才能極大地提高你快速閱讀的速度,才能使佻理解得更深刻。
像上述這些良好的閱讀習(xí)慣能幫助學(xué)生們和在職的成年人取得更大的成熟。由于養(yǎng)成了這些良好的閱讀習(xí)慣,增強(qiáng)了這些簡(jiǎn)單易行的重要的生存技巧,在校讀書(shū)的特殊環(huán)境,學(xué)生和日常生活的真實(shí)環(huán)境,就會(huì)變得更舒適,你就會(huì)取得更大的成就并從中獲得更大的益處。