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Speed reading is a necessary and vital skill in the Internet age. We skim over articles, e-mails and tweets to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of the text. With so much information available through our electronic devices, it would be impossible to get through everything if we read word by word, line by line.
But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, one which claims to have benefits beyond intellectual stimulation.
A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smartphones. They sink into comfortable chairs and read in silence lot an hour.
Unlike typical book clubs, the point of the slow reading club isn’t to exchange ideas about certain books, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to the story, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the traditional way of reading.
Traditional readers, like Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to understand others. Some of these benefits have been backed up by science. For example, a study of 300 elderly people published by the journal Neurology last year showed that mature people who take part in activities that use their brain, such as reading, suffer less memory loss as they get older. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand others’ mental states and beliefs — a key skill in building relationships.
Yet technology has made us less careful readers. Computer and phone screens have changed our reading patterns from the top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading order we traditionally used, to a wild skimming and skipping pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text online that has many links to other web pages also leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says British journalist Patrick Kingsley, only half joking. Because of the Internet, he claims we have become very good at collecting a wide range of factual tidbits, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, think and relate all these facts to each other.
36. Speed reading is a necessary and vital skill in the Internet age because people .
A. have to grasp the meaning faster B. have much more information to read
C. no longer read word by word, line by line D. must use their smartphones more frequently
37. Members of the Wellington book club are expected to .
A. read peacefully for an hour B. make coffee for the other members
C. regularly swap ideas about books D. turn off their smartphones for recharging
38. According to the Neurology study, who is most likely to suffer memory loss?
A. A 65-year-old man who rarely reads.
B. A 79-year-old woman who reads regularly.
C. A 17-year-old middle school student who seldom reads.
D. A healthy 24-year-old university graduate who often plays games.
39. Kingsley believes that the Internet .
A. has lowered people’s overall intelligence levels
B. has reduced people’s ability to analyze information
C. has provided people with too much useless knowledge
D. has stopped people from doing important and useful work
40. The last paragraph is written to .
A. explain the secrets of others’ minds
B. urge people to read as slowly as possible
C. encourage people to read more about science
D. describe the problems caused by electronic reading
D
Stockholm’s street magazine sellers no longer only take cash -- they now take cards too.
In the most cashless society on the planet, Swedish street magazine sellers have been equipped with portable card readers to accept credit card payments.
“More and more sellers were telling us that people wanted our magazine but weren’t carrying cash,” says Pia Stolt, the magazine’s publisher. “So with the help of a local computer company, we came up with a way to accept payment electronically.
“We didn’t know how it would turn out, or whether people would be unwilling to give their credit card information to a stranger on the street,” says Stott, “but the results have been great -- sales are up 59%.
“Swedes are pretty trusting and we’re used to taking up new technology so this was the perfect solution,” adds Stott. “The cashless society campaign we’re seeing in Sweden is definitely a good move as far as we are concerned — it’s unstoppable.”
Banks and stores invested heavily in card payment systems in the 1990s and now local consumers are using them in huge numbers. Today, four out of five purchases are made electronically in Sweden and going totally cash-free is the next step.
Sweden’s public transport system has already been cashless for several years, after local public workers complained that handling cash had become dangerous. “Bus drivers were getting attacked for their money so Sweden banned cash on public transport,” says Am Arvidsson, the president of Cashless, an organization supporting the move to a cash-free society. “There were also a number of bank robberies, so four years ago, the banks began to move away from cash. Now, all of Sweden’s big banks operate cash free wherever possible, and the number of bank robberies is at a 30-year low. ”
There is, however, concern about how well Sweden’s 1.8 million pensioners — out of a total popu1ation of 10 million — will adapt. “A lot of elderly people feel excluded,” says Johanna Hallén of the Swedish National Pensioners’ Organisation. “Only 50% of older people use cash cards regularly and 7% never use cash cards. So we want the government to take things slowly.”
The digital payment revolution is also a challenge for tourists, who need pre-paid tickets or a Swedish mobile to catch a bus in the capital. “There’s a worry about crime and theft as well,” says Arvidsson. “Figures show that computer-related credit card crime has almost doubled in the last decade.”
41. Why has the change to cashless selling been so successful in Sweden according to Stolt?
A. Paying by cards costs less and is much quicker.
B. Selling electronically is more convenient and safer.
C. Swedish people are trusting and they welcome new technology.
D. Swedish people are more willing to buy from street sellers.
42. The demand for a cashless public transport system first came from .
A. transport companies to reduce their costs
B. banks so they could increase their profits
C. transport workers to protect their safety
D. the government to improve transport times
43. Which of the following about Sweden is true according to the passage?
A. No new banknotes will be produced in the future.
B. It is the first country to have cash-free buses.
C. Local people don’t feel comfortable carrying cash.
D. There has been a huge reduction in bank robberies.
44. Why does Johanna Hallén think the cashless society should be introduced slowly?
A. She worries that computer-related crime will increase.
B. She is concerned about the inconvenience to foreign travellers.
C. She believes that it’s not easy for older people to get used to it.
D. She feels it is everyone's right to be able to use cash if they wish.
45. What information is most likely to follow the last paragraph?
A. The difficulties people face in a cashless society.
B. Some benefits a cashless society will bring to banks.
C. The reasons for the change in customers’ attitudes to cards.
D. Some possible solutions to the problems of a cashless society.
