《新思维英语阅读Ⅲ》教学辅导(第3章)(2)

challenging./ For example, Shakespeare is on the curriculum/ for my 11th grade class this term,/ but many of them have problems with basic English communication skills. / I don't mean to throw out Shakespeare,/ but something is wrong here — / there is a gap between the curriculum/ and the reality of the students' skills and needs./ Keeping our students connected/ by giving them better tools of communication in a common language/ is essential.

Now go back to Reading One and practice reading it once through in this manner: quickly, smoothly, and in groups of words.

Reading Skill: Improving Reading Pace by Skipping Unknown Words (2)

It is not necessary to know every word, in order to understand a sentence or paragraph. There are many words which are not important to a general understanding of the passage. Good readers often skip over words they do not know, and words which are not important for

the general meaning. There are two techniques for this:

1. Skimming. It is a good idea to skim through the passage very quickly, just as you learned to do in Chapters One and Two, noticing the title, paragraph headings, underlined words, etc., in order to get a general first idea of the passage.

2. Skip unknown words. After skimming to get the general idea, go back and read more carefully, but still keeping up a fast pace. Read in groups of words, and skip unknown words. Don't break the reading flow by reaching for your dictionary. You can get the important ideas from a passage even with many unknown words.

Practice

1. Read the following paragraph. Every eighth word is missing. Do NOT try to guess the missing words. Simply skip over the blank. Read the passage and answer the T/F

questions which follow it.

I am writing to you on behalf ____ the International Montessori Society established in 1979 ______ support the effective application of Montessori principles ______ the world. The Society provides a range _______ support services for Montessori education, including teacher _______, publications, conferences, and counselling. Our membership program _______ interested schools and individuals into a world-wide _______ of communication for Dr Montessori's great vision ________ a "new education".

It is clear that some missing words (e.g. prepositions, nouns, conjunctions) sometimes do not influence the understanding of the paragraph.

Reading Skill: Improving Reading Pace by Timed Reading (3)

Technique # l: Timed Reading

Another way to increase your reading speed is to practice reading against the clock. Many students have a reading rate of only 50 words per minute. If you are reading at less than 200 words per minute, you are certainly reading word by word. As you learned in Readings One and Two, this