Do you know that a fast reader can get the ideas better than a slow reader can? Of course, you save time by reading fast, but it is not the main reason for fast reading. The main reason is that you understand better what you are reading when you read fast.

    As your eyes move along the line of a book, they make fixations（注视）. It is important that you see several words at a fixation. It is also important that your eyes leave a group of words quickly and move onto another group. The number of letters or words that you see at a fixation are called your eye span（视幅）. With practice you can learn to read faster than you usually read.

The way in which you read always has something to do with what you are reading and why you are reading. You should know the different ways of reading so that you can use the fight and necessary way. Here are four ways of reading, but not all, they may help you read faster.

1. Skimming （浏览）is an important kind of reading. It can be used when you wish to go over something that you have forgotten. You may skim to find a lost place of a sentence that you have read and can't remember. You may skim to get an idea of a story.

2. Fast first reading and then rereading certain parts carefully is important. You may use this kind of reading to study a science lesson or a history lesson.

3. You need to do careful reading and rereading sometimes. This kind of reading is necessary for making a careful study of the main school subjects, working out math problems, studying rules for playing a game, or reading directions.

4. Fast reading is used when you read stories for pleasure. You may also do fast reading when going over the lessons you have already known well.

1．Which is a better way of reading, seeing a group of words or a word at a fixation?

2．If you forget an important date in your history lesson and want to find it in the book, what way of reading should you use?

3．What's the good point of reading fast?

4．Why does the writer talk about different ways of reading?

5．What's the main idea of the passage?

Do you know that a fast reader can get the ideas better than a slow reader can? Of course, you save time by reading fast, but it is not the main reason for fast reading. The main reason is that you understand better what you are reading when you read fast.

     As your eyes move along the line of a book, they make f'txations (注视). It is important that you see several words at a fixation. It is also important that your eyes leave a group of words quickly and move on to another group. The number of letters or words that you see at a fixation are called your eye span(视幅). With practice you can learn to read faster than you usually read.

     The way in which you read always has something to do with what you are reading and why you are reading. You should know the different ways of reading so that you can use the fight and necessary way. Here are four ways of reading, but not all; they may help you read faster.

1. Skimming(浏览) is an important kind of reading. It can be used when you wish to go over something that you have forgotten. You may skim to find a lost place of a sentence that you have read and can’t remember. You may skim to get an idea of a story.

     2. Fast first reading and then rereading certain parts carefully is important. You may use this kind of reading to study a science lesson or a history lesson.

     3. You need to do careful reading and rereading sometimes. This kind of reading is necessary for making a careful study of the main school subjects, working out math problems, studying rules for playing a game, or reading directions.

     4. Fast reading is used when you read stories for pleasure. You may also do fast reading when going over the lessons you have already known well.

1. Which is a better way of reading, seeing a group of words or a word at a fixation?

2. If you forget an important date in your history lesson and want to find it in the book, what way of reading should you use?

3. What's the good point of reading fast?

4. Why does the writer talk about different ways of reading?

5. What’s the main idea of the passage?

　　Do you know sotriething about tree rings (年轮)? Do you know they can tell us what the weather was like, sometimes even hundreds of years ago?

　　A tree will grow well in a climate with lots of sunshine and rainfall. And little sunshine or rainfall will limit the growth of a tree. We can see the change of climate by studying the tree rings. For example, to find out the weather of ten years ago, count the rings of a tree from the outside to the inside, if it is near to the eleventh ring, then the climate that year was bad.

　　Tree rings are important not only for studying the history of weather but also for studying the history of human. Many centuries ago there lived a lot of people at a place in New Mexico. But now you can find only sand there --- no trees and no people. What happened?

　　A scientist studied the rings of dead trees there. He found that the people had to leave because they had cut down all the trees to make fires and buildings. As all the trees had gone, the people there had to move.

(1) ________ in good climate.

[　　]

A．Tree rings grow far from each other

B．Tree rings become thinner

C．Tree don't need sunshine or rainfall

D．People can cut down most of the trees

(2) The scientists are interested in studying tree rings because tree rings can tell ________.

[　　]

A．whether a tree was strong or not

B．whether people took good care of the trees or not

C．whether the climate was good or not

D．how old the trees were

(3) If you want to find out the weather of twenty years ago, you should study ________ of a tree from the outside to the inside.

[　　]

A．the twentieth ring

B．the tenth ring

C．the nineteenth ring

D．the twenty-first ring

(4) Why did people usually live in places with lots of trees?

[　　]

A．Trees could tell the change of the weather.

B．Trees brought lots of sunshine and rain.

C．Trees could make weather not too hot or too cold.

D．Trees could be used for burning and for building houses.

(5) The people had to leave the place in New Mexico ________.

[　　]

A．because bad weather stopped the growth of trees

B．because they no longer had water and the land became sand

C．because they didn't have enough trees for burning

D．because there was too much rain there