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.

博览群书能给你提供种种必要的生存技能

因为进入了电视时代，社会生活的各方面都把图像和声响放在越来越重要的位置。所以有许多人认为我们应该迅速地改掉阅读这一生存所必须具备的技能，但实际情况根本就不是这样。

现在良好的阅读能力是比过去任何时候都更加重要的一种生存技能。书面的文字资料依然是高等教育和就业市场上能找到较好职位的垫脚石。

对学生来说，几乎任何课程都必须经过阅读；对成年人来说，坚持天天读，就是一条通往幸福快乐能够抓住大好机遇的一条平坦大道，否则就会成为你前进路上的绊脚石。因此，良好的阅读习惯不但是学生学习的重要技能，对任何人都是一种重要的生存技能。

快速游览--拿到阅读材料先用极短的时间马上看看标题、篇章题目、小节的题目及文中的大号字体，以便能抓住这份材料的主要思想内容。快速游览的目的就是要迅速地理解你从这份阅读材料中所期望获得的信息，以便你能知道在你接着继续读下去的时候你将会读到些什么内容。

各类地图、图表、曲线图和图片都是很有用的线索，为帮助读者去理解所读的材料的内容和组织结构提供一些启示。这种简易可行的快速浏览的技巧有助于你在阅读中抓住中心思想、段落大意，因为在你开始阅读以后你就会知道你将要读到的内容。

阅读速度--还有一种良好的阅读习惯就是快速阅读。不能把"欲速则不达"这句话套用到阅读上。事实上绝大多数人的阅读实在是太慢了。也许此时此刻你在新闻记者本文时的速度要比为了更好地理解本文所需要的阅读速度更慢。多次调查研究都表明了，读得快阅读效果最好，读得慢就不能集中精神，因而也就丧失了理解力，由于感到枯燥，思想上就会开小差，心不在焉。

切记，阅读速度太慢只能妨碍你集中注意力。如果你要求你的思路能与你的阅读速度保持同步，那你是能做到的。一贯用你所能达到的最快的速度来阅读，向你的理解力挑战，那么把你的思想全神贯注到所阅读的材料上就是很容易做到的了。

积累词汇--对于一个养成了良好阅读习惯的人来说，每一页文字资料里不只是包含一些词句，还饮食有一些观点、行动、思想和感情。但是，这一切都是通过词汇表达出来的。你所认识的词汇越多，你越会觉得你不是在阅读一个一个的孤立的单词，你越会更加去体会文章的内容和作者的意思。扩大了词汇量将会帮助你读得效率更高更快。

很多人干脆把他们所不认识的词跳过去不管它。当然，这样会妨碍你对文章的整体理解。还有些人一遇到生词就停下来查词典，这种做法也会减慢你的阅读速度，会影响你不能全神贯注不能全面理解。

每遇到生词，你可以不用去查词典，就能扩大你的词汇量。这里教给你两手绝活：

一是每遇到一个生词，你稍稍停留片刻，把这个生词先存贮到脑海里；

二是从上下文所提供的线索，从这句话的语言环境来试着猜一猜这个词的意思。

使用这种方法就会出现这样的情况：在下文中你会一遍又一遍地见到这个词。每再见到一次你就会对该词的意义有更强烈的印象。不久，这个生词就会变成熟词，那么它的意义也就清楚明白了。

使用这种方法的关键是要处处留心那些生词。不要对这些生词置之不理。这样，你就会发现你的词汇量每天都在扩大。有了很丰富的词汇量才能极大地提高你快速阅读的速度，才能使佻理解得更深刻。

像上述这些良好的阅读习惯能帮助学生们和在职的成年人取得更大的成熟。由于养成了这些良好的阅读习惯，增强了这些简单易行的重要的生存技巧，在校读书的特殊环境，学生和日常生活的真实环境，就会变得更舒适，你就会取得更大的成就并从中获得更大的益处。