If we are to help students develop reading skills in a foreign language, it is important to understand what is involved in the reading process itself. If we have a clear idea of how “good readers” read, either in their own or a foreign language, this will enable us to decide whether particular reading techniques are likely to help learners or not.

In considering the reading process, it is important to distinguish between two quite separate activities: reading for meaning (or “silent reading”) and reading aloud. Reading for meaning is the activity we normally engage in when we read books, newspapers, road signs, etc.; it is what you are doing as you read this text. It involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey, in other words “making sense” of a written text. It doesn’t normally involve saying the words we read, not even silently inside our heads; there are important reasons for this, which are outlined below.

Reading aloud is a completely different activity; its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the information to someone else. It is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom; common examples are reading out parts of a newspaper article to a friend, or reading a notice to other people who can’t see it. Obviously, reading aloud involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it. Because our attention is divided between reading and speaking, it is a much more difficult activity than reading silently; we often stumble and make mistakes when reading aloud in our own language, and reading aloud in a foreign language is even more difficult.

When we read for meaning, we do not need to read every letter or every word, nor even every word in each sentence. This is because, provided the text makes sense, we can guess much of what it says as we read it.

1.The passage is mainly about ____________.

A. reading skills B. silent reading

C. reading processes D. reading aloud

2.The underlined word “stumble” in Paragraph 3 means ____________.

A. step over something and fall

B. repeat something or pause for too long

C. walk with heavy movements

D. speak in a fluent and confident way

3. We can infer from the passage that the author will continue to ____________.

A. discuss in detail how to read aloud

B. introduce some more reading activities

C. tell how good readers read in their own language

D. explain why we needn’t say the words when reading for meaning

4. We can conclude that ____________.

A. reading silently is easier than reading aloud

B. to understand a sentence, you have to read all the words in it

C. silent reading involves looking at a text and saying the words silently to yourself

D. there’s no difference between reading in one’s own language and in a foreign one

They baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert (警觉). Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze(凝视) starts to lose its focus — until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns: she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?

Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects (a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise (同样地) when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.

1.The experiment described in Paragraph 1 is related to the baby’s__.

A. sense of hearing B. sense of sight

C. sense of touch D. sense of smell

2.Babies are sensitive to the change in______.

A. the size of cards B. the colour of pictures

C. the shape of patterns D. the number of objects

3.Why did the researchers test the babies with drumbeats?

A. To reduce the difficulty of the experiment.

B. To see how babies recognize sounds.

C. To carry their experiment further.

D. To keep the babies’ interest.

4. Where does this text probably come from?

A. Science fiction. B. Children’s literature.

C. An advertisement. D. A science report.

From Art to Zoo, the Smithsonian, the world's largest museum and research complex, has something to interest kids and students of all ages.

Plan ahead online with The Official Kids Guide to the Smithsonian Institution – an interactive guidebook just for kids.

The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World

November 25, 2014 – 2018

Museum: Natural History Museum

Location: 2nd Floor, West

Explore how we learn about past ecosystems and organisms through the study of their fossils and find what goes into making a large-scale fossil exhibition. Watch fossils being prepared in a working fossil preparation lab.

As We Grow: Traditions, Toys, Games

August 22, 2012 – Indefinitely

Museum: American Indian Museum

Location: 1st Floor, near Imaginations Activity Center

All children play. Native American children play like any others, but their toys and games are more than playthings. They are ways of learning about the lives of grown men and women and ways of learning the traditions of their families and their people. The toys, games, and clothing come from all over North, Central, and South America, representing many tribes and many time periods.

The First Ladies

November 19, 2011 – Indefinitely

Museum: American History Museum

Location: 3rd Floor, Rose Gallery

On view are more than two dozen gowns, including those worn by Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, and Jacqueline Kennedy. Four cases provide in-depth looks at Mary Todd Lincoln, Edith Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson and their contributions to their husband's presidential administrations.

Apollo to the Moon

July 1, 1976 – Permanent

Museum: Air and Space Museum

Location: 2nd Floor, East Wing

This gallery traces NASA's manned space program beginning with Project

Mercury's Freedom 7 (1961); then the Gemini Project (1965 – 66); followed by the Apollo Program

(1967 – 1972), with Apollo 17 as the last manned exploration of the moon.

1.The purpose of the text is to ______.

A. promote some scientific projects

B. highlight some children activities

C. release some entertainment videos

D. introduce some museum exhibitions

2.If you are interested in American history and politics, you can go to ______.

A. the 1st Floor B. the East Wing

C. the Rose Gallery D. the Natural History Museum

3.Which of the following has been on for the longest time?

A. The First Ladies.

B. Apollo to the Moon.

C. As We Grow: Traditions, Toys, Games.

D. The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World.

4.If you visit all the four locations, you can _______.

A. see gowns once worn by Edith Roosevelt

B. help prepare a dinosaur fossil exhibition

C. learn about Apollo 17's space exploration

D. play with children's toys from Central America

Article writing has been a way of conveying information through the web. If you’ re a writer, being able to let them stay on your article for more than two seconds is already a success. Your writing style can create more readers for your content if you know how to catch the attention of readers.1.

Be Direct-to-the-Point

Website writing differs from print writing. People do not want to spend much time on a website because they want to get the information they need.2.

Be Informative

Articles for web content are briefly written. They flesh out the information without decorations. Be sure that your articles are not confusingly worded. 3.Make sure you organize your facts logically so that your reader can effectively process them.

Be Conversational

4.Be conversational so that readers can grasp what you mean in your article. With quality content, engage your readers so that your article will have that personal and human touch.

Be Connected

Most article writers just place sentences that state a certain fact to form a paragraph. However, in readers’ hopes, these writers fail to establish a human connection.5. So it is important to make the connection smooth and not abrupt.

A. Stay away from decorations when writing online content.

B. Most readers like to read articles that“speak”to them.

C. Connection will allow the readers’ minds to effectively process what is written.

D. Get to your point directly so that your readers can process the information.

E. Here are some important points to consider before writing online.

F. Article writing is a fun way of establishing a connection with a reader and a writer.

G. Complex sentences tend to wrongly lead your reader and make them confused.

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