Now let us look at how we read. When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, jerky movement. We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate. Each time they fixate, we see a group of words. This is known as the recognition span or the visual span. The length of time ofr which the eyes stop ---the duration of the fixation ----varies considerably from person to person. It also vaies within any one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text. Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness.

　　Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page. As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation. For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second. One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side. Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive fixation. All these exercises are very clever, but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently. Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words. Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which

　　trains a person to read isolated words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text.

　　Q:

　　1. The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following facts except ________ .

　　A. one’s familiarity with the text

　　B. one’s purpose in reading

　　C. the length of a group of words

　　D. lighting and tiredness

　　2. The author may believe that reading ______.

　　A. requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation

　　B. requires a reader to see words more quickly

　　C. demands an deeply-participating mind

　　D. demands more mind than eyes

　　3 What does the author mean by saying “but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently.” in the second parapraph?

　　A. The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted.

　　B. The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both the ability to see and to comprehend words.

　　C. The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve an efficient reading.

　　D. The reading exercises mentioned has done a great job to improve one’s ability to see words.

　　4. Which of the following is NOT true?

　　A. The visual span is a word or a group of words we see each time.

　　B. Many experts began to question the efficiency of eye training.

　　C. The emphasis on the purely visual aspects is misleading.

　　D.The eye training will help readers in reading a continuous text.

　　5. The tune of the author in writing this article is ________

　　A critical

　　B neutral

　　C prssimistic

　　D optimistic

　　【答案及详解】

　　答案：CCCDA

　　1 C。事实细节题。第一段提到了影响视幅的因素：不同的人，不同的阅读目的，对材料的熟悉程度，光线，疲劳。C“一组词的长度”不是能影响视幅的因素，是本题的答案。

　　2 C。观点态度题。作者在第二段第二句提到，眼睛训练课程只注重了阅读的视觉因素。倒数第二句书哦，阅读要求具备理解单词间关系的能力。因此选项C“阅读需要大脑的深度参与”正确。作者没有否定阅读的视觉因素的必要性，但是也没有说读者应该练习拓宽视幅，加快阅读速度。所以AB两项都不正确。作者没有对大脑和眼睛在阅读过程中的重要性进行对比，所以不选D

　　3 C。 作者在这句话中先是肯定了那些阅读练习提高看单词的能力，然后提出了有效阅读概念。后面句中还指出，有效阅读需要的是理解单词间的联系的能力。所以作者的意思应该是那些(训练眼睛的)阅读练习对与有效的阅读无益。B与文章相反。D句是蕴涵其中一个意思，却不是作者想表达的方向。

　　4 D。 第二段最后一句说，眼睛训练对于帮助读者阅读连贯文章无益，所以D是错的，是本题答案。

　　5 A。 参考前面的结构剖析，作者写本文的主要目的是对那些只关注阅读的视觉因素的阅读能力课程进行批判，所以答案应该是A。