2. Finger reading. Some candidates, in order to concentrate, use their fingers or the tip of a pen to point at words while reading article word by word. In fact, this is not much different from silent reading. Once encountering an unfamiliar word, their reading will pause.
In general, intensive reading forms the foundation of reading. Without basic skills in intensive reading, fast reading becomes like water without a source or a tree without roots, akin to a cursory glance or swallowing something whole without digesting it.
3. Based on the logical relationship of the context, word formation, cue words (such as is called, refers to, mean, namely, etc.), punctuation marks (such as dashes, commas, parentheses), synonyms and antonyms, we can infer the meanings of words or phrases beyond the syllabus.
For regular practice, it is recommended that students who are preparing for the 2012 exam conduct intensive readings of articles with higher error rates that they have previously practiced. Not only should they understand the collocation relationships between words in each sentence and the coherence between sentences, but they should also translate difficult sentences into Chinese, repeatedly pondering the reasons for correct choices and the characteristics of wrong answers, achieving profound comprehension. Additionally, students can read more articles involving current social hot topics, such as transportation, the Olympics, cloning technology, euthanasia, genetic engineering, economic globalization, computers, networks, tourism, etc., and appropriately read various types of periodicals and magazines, such as The World of English, English Salon, 21st Century Newspaper, New Concept Book 4, etc.
To improve accuracy and reading comprehension speed, different reading methods must be adopted according to different reading purposes, such as detailed reading, skimming, and scanning. Detailed reading is for thoroughly understanding specific content and the author's viewpoints, which is highly targeted. Skimming is generally for answering questions about the main idea of the article, through which one can roughly understand the gist and central thought of the article. Scanning aims to obtain certain specific information (such as numerical questions or questions utilizing keywords in the question stem) to find answers to detail questions in the test article.
1. Reading aloud or silently. Both of these reading habits significantly affect reading speed. Oral reading word by word is definitely slower than visual reading. Often, the eyes finish reading a line before the mouth finishes. Additionally, reading aloud five articles of around 500 words each can be tiring.
English language education includes listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translating. However, for most postgraduate entrance examination candidates, the primary purpose of learning English in the future will be to understand professional English works in their field and stay informed about the latest developments in their profession. Therefore, the assessment of reading ability has increasingly gained importance in various domestic and international English exams, with difficulty levels rising annually, including in IELTS and TOEFL tests. Thus, the new curriculum strengthens the evaluation of reading to meet the demands of the times. Reading comprehension is the most important part of the English entrance examination for master's degree candidates. A high score in this section can place candidates in a favorable position during the exam.
3. Word lookup. This situation occurs when candidates habitually look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary while doing exercises, which inevitably severely affects the cultivation of normal reading speed.
To accelerate reading speed, one must first develop proper and good reading habits. The following four bad habits should be overcome:
However, strictly speaking, even someone with a very high level cannot entirely avoid the issues mentioned above. Students just need to grasp the degree well. It’s unavoidable to silently read or repeatedly deliberate over parts that aren't understood. But if after three attempts you still don't understand the structure of a sentence, you must continue reading because the subsequent text may help clarify the sentence. Moreover, some sentences might not need to be fully understood to correctly answer the questions.
4. Literal translation reading. During the reading process, one cannot directly comprehend the meaning of English in the brain; every sentence needs to be translated into the mother tongue to understand the original meaning.
As for whether to look at the questions first or read the entire article before answering them, it depends on the specific situation. If the candidate has a good memory and the article is relatively easy, one can adopt the method of quickly reading the full text before answering the questions. For more difficult or unfamiliar articles, it’s better to look at the questions first and then read the entire text. Don’t try to look at too many questions at once since human short-term memory capacity is limited. Generally, looking at one or two questions at a time is sufficient, and then search for the answers to those one or two questions in the original text.
4. Identify key vocabulary to determine the tone and attitude of the author. The author's tone and attitude are always explicitly expressed or implied through vocabulary.
The strategy for reading comprehension can be summarized as follows:
2. Carefully read the first and last paragraphs because answers to questions about the main theme are often found in the opening or concluding summaries of the article.