On the subject of reading, Francis Bacon, who lived at about the same time as Shakespeare, wrote these words: "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." This good advice shows how it is possible to read different types of books in different ways. For example, you might pick up a travel book and read a few pages before going to sleep. It is enough to dip into it and read bits here and there. In a word, this is "tasting".
Some stories are for "swallowing". Imagine that you have found a good story, and what is even more important, the time to enjoy it. You might be on holiday, or on a long train journey, ff it is a good book, you might say, "It's so good that I can't put it down." But not all stories belong to this class. Reviewers sometimes describe books as "hard-to-put-down" or "hard-to-pick-up-again".
Other books are for reading slowly and carefully. If it is a book on a subject that you are interested in, you will want to "chew and digest it". That does not mean reading it too slowly. When you pick up a book for the first time, check that it is not too difficult. Do not start a book unless you can see from the first few pages that it is one that you can easily read and understand.
Next, if it is not a story, get an idea of the organisation of the book. Read the back cover and the introduction. Look at the pictures and the short texts below them. Turn to the front of the book and look at the contents. This way you can decide whether the book is likely to interest you, and if so, then you can decide which parts of the book will be most useful and interesting.
Here are some more reading tips. First, read a chapter quickly to get a general idea. Then, if you wish, you can read it once again more slowly, using a dictionary when necessary. Second, do not stop every time you come to a word or a phrase you do not know. Quite often you will find the unknown word appears again, perhaps several times, and by the end of the chapter you will have guessed its meaning. That is how we learn the meaning of words in our own language. Imagine that you come across this sentence in a book: "The house was beginning to get cold, so Daisy pulled her red, woollen cardigan out of her bag and put it on." If you do not know the word "cardigan", you can guess from the situation that it is made of wool and is put on to keep warm, and is therefore likely to be an article of clothing.
By making guesses about the information and organisation of a text, you will be better prepared to understand the meaning of the whole article as well as new words. For example, if the title of the article you are going to read is "The Generation Gap", you can start by thinking what you already know about the topic. You probably know that the generation gap refers to differences in opinions, thinking, and lifestyles between people of different generations. You can guess that the article will describe some common differences and perhaps explain why they exist and what problems there might be. If your guess is correct, the article will probably have paragraphs that compare and contrast the thinking of two or more different groups of people. There will probably also be paragraphs that discuss causes and effects. Since you know from your writing class that most articles have three main parts --an introduction, a body and a conclusion--you can guess what each part will talk about. In this case, the introduction will probably define the generation gap, provide some background information, and point out some of the important questions. The body will contain the comparison and cause and effect paragraphs. In the conclusion, the writer will probably summarise the situation and try to answer some of the questions mentioned in the introduction.
With a bit of practice, you can become quite good at predicting the content and organisation of an article. You may also learn to predict what words will be used and what questions will be answer6d. The more guesses you make, the better you will understand the reading. If your guess is right, you will of course understand the article and it will be easy to remember the main ideas -- because you already knew them. It doesn't matter if your guesses are wrong. They will still help you to understand and remember the ideas better. When you read the article and come across something you didn't know or expect, you will pay more attention to it. Finally, since you have prepared well, you can spend more time on the difficult and confusing parts. Without this preparation, you would have to deal with everything at once.
Finally, decide what to read. Start by making a list of all the types of books you enjoy reading in Chinese. If you hate science stories, you are unlikely to enjoy reading them in English. If you enjoy reading short stories in Chinese, look for collections of English ones. Are there any hobbies or sports you particularly like? If so, look out for books, articles or magazines about them. You can enlarge your knowledge and learn some English at the same time. |