[转帖]如何閱讀一篇文章

如何閱讀一篇文章

A Note on READING

Harry Shaw

金陵選註

May 23, 2002

1. 本文是一篇嚴謹的散文。文中多對稱結構(parallel structure)。

2. 本文說明閱讀與寫作之間的密切關係；詳讀(intensive reading)與略讀(extensive reading)之不同，娛樂性的閱讀(reading for pleasure)屬於略讀，知識性的閱讀(reading for information)屬於精讀；如何訓練速讀(speed reading)，及如何有效閱讀(effective reading)等。

3 為幫助網友閱讀：

a. 片語，字首，或字尾用底線標示。

b. 本文中動名詞 (gerunds)甚多，用斜体標示。

c 本文中分詞及分詞片語(participles & past participles)，用粗体標示。

d 生字解釋置於文後。

1. Reading and writing are two aspects of same process--the communication of thoughts, moods, and emotions. When you write effectively, you convey your ideas and feelings. Since reading and writing are inseparably linked, it is important that in trying to learn to write well you learn to read well. It has not been conclusively proved that all great writers were efficient readers, but the experience of generations of college students has demonstrated a striking parallelism between efficient reading and effective writing. Furthermore, although the pervasive influence of motion pictures, radio, and television may eventually alter the situation, at least we know that a good general education cannot now be imparted to anyone unable to read both accurately and reflectively.

2. Most of our reading is not accurate or reflective. When we read a light short story or novel, a mystery story or a comic book, we are usually seeking relaxation and quite naturally skip and skim. Ordinarily such reading fare neither deserves nor receives careful attention and subsequent reflection. But when we attempt similarly to read a meaty fiction and drama, closely reasoned essays and biography, or carefully and concisely wrought poems, we become confused or receive all too little of the meaning intended. Desultory and inattentive reading is proper when applied to unimportant writing; the danger is that frequently we attempt to read anything and everything at the same speed and with the same degree of concentration.

3. Reading effectively is reading with both speed and comprehension. You will shortly discover, if you have not already done so, that one of the main differences between college and high-school work lies in the amount of reading required. It has been estimated that college students today have more than five times as much required reading as did those of 1900. Assignments of several thousand words each in such courses as history, economics, sociology, and political science will force you to increase your reading speed, even if you already are a rapid reader

4. By a conspiracy of silence in high schools and colleges, until recently little attention was given to rapid reading. But the necessity for skipping and scanning at last has been recognized; one eminent educator recently remarked, "Success in college depend upon reading speed.

5. Our rate of reading is connected with the number of fixations that our eyes make

as they move across a page. Our aim should be to reduce the number of fixations, to read not word-by-word but by thought phrases. As we lengthen the span of our eye movements, our reading rate will increase and so will our comprehension: then we will be reading not in isolated units but in context. A skillful reader infrequently has to refer to the beginning of a sentence he has finished; he will have carried the thought through in one rapid series of lengthened glances. The best advice, of course, is to “with your head, not with your eyes”; so doing will increase comprehension by reducing fixations of the eyes and increasing concentration. Practice finding main ideas in a passage and separating them from subordinate thoughts; learn to find key words and key sentences and to distinguish them from merely illustrative material. Because of lengthy assignments in many of your courses, you will have ample opportunity for such practice.

6. Speed in reading is important, but it is relatively easy to attain. Developing the power to deal thoroughly with a writer’s ideas and to evaluate them is more difficult. Comprehension of reading is thinking with the author, absorbing his ideas. It involves re-creating the thought and experience of the author, forming images, and increasing vocabulary by constant use of a dictionary. Comprehension results from reading with concentration, slowly if necessary but always reflectively.

7. When you read as a reader, your purposes should be to acquire information, to form opinions, to draw conclusions. You endeavor to stock your mind with ideas for use in thinking, discussion, and writing. You look for new problems, answers to questions, visual details which widen your experience and understanding. Careful reading of any selection should help you to partial understanding of the author's life and background, to a statement of central theme and purpose, to a concept of the organization of main divisions and supporting material. This kind of reading must be painstakingly careful.

8. When you read as a writer, your attention should be focused not only upon the specific approaches already noted but also upon the author's technique, his methods of manipulating material. It should become habitual for you to study a writer’s choice and use of words, his sentence and paragraph structure, even such relatively prosaic matters as punctuation and mechanics. Look consciously for the methods by which he secures his effects: aids to interest, such as humor, irony, anecdote; appeals to emotions, the logicalness of the presentation. Reading as a writer involves reading thoroughly, imaginatively, creatively. It implies a consideration of subject matter, style (the imprint of the author's personality on subject matter), and technique.