introduction to Reading 1 comprehension ‘THE READING HABIT fst of our learing happens through observation, Tha isthe natural way of Teaming anyhow: Reading helps us Tpeven more and takes Jeaming beyond ubservation. Good lamers ac always good observers. Good readers Fo fact beter aries. Ifyou ae inclined to learning and knowledge, siartthe reading habit today ‘Good readers have «better comfort level inthe eading compreheasion part of competitive examinations “eatin fics ofthis book has always plat equal importance on RC (Reading Comprehension) and non- FHC questions —S0% ofthe verbal setion has always been RC. And RC is leas as important as any ther fpetion type in the other examinations as well “he television and the inte have almost wiped out the reading habit. We need to consciously switeh off Ube television andthe internet in order to curl up in & quiet comer with a great book. Ifyou ean do that, the fowards will be obvious to you in afew weeks, Good readets seem tobe bette judges of sitatons, and the well- fend scem to be beter equipped to deal withthe vicissitudes of if, Readiag confers wisdom to complement Four intelligence. And this wisdom makes you fur ready. A youngstem must red well Most suesessfil opt inthe work! are excelent readers, I'you have the reading habit, yow ae akeady beter tha the others who tnt read. Th the long tem the success you achieve in your career wil also depend on your reading. Hence read well ‘Most edacated youngsters wish ha they could read more Ye, somehow ey do not apply themselves to this task because itis time consuming and sometimes even boring. Kyou wish ead more, you can systematically tevlop the habit Earmark atime-—pethsps, an hour everyday before you po to sleep. Have afew books ready ih you. Leam to Keep away from the television, the intemet, and the mobile phones, If you find yourself Tratching for something to waich on TV or for something else too, stop an¢ pick up a book, Sta visiting book ores Make a list of books that you would like to read. Set target ofa book per week ora book in two weeks. Some school inthe U,Shave DEAR (Drop everything and read) during the shot hous. Whenever you fe ke, {eat drop everything els in your life and rea, “The intelectual pleasure that you gain rom reading will draw you i, The habit wil gather a momentum on ts ‘nn. And before you know i, you will see that you cannot do without reading, It gives you that chive something that you have been looking for. Between courses, between jobs, several times in my life, books have helped me {et away fom the frustrations in life ‘Remember ths: The books that help you mot ae those which make you think the most. The hardest way “oflearsing is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a greet tinker isa ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty Theodore Parker sr SPEED READING Speed reading isa speciic technique by which speed readers take in groups of words and avoid regression in ter to process large amounts of text in shorter ime. There is some kind of mystery and glory attached to this technique, And speed reading clases and books add to tis glorification. Moch has been sad and writen stout ‘ye span, fixation et, and students are urged to increas their eye span, reduce fixation time etc. People who have tied and failed ate many though there are people who have succeded,4 & READING COMPREHENSION ‘What Is speed reading? tis technique in which one reads faster by taking ina group of words in once glance (ation) and moves on to the next group, thus processing a Tange numberof words in short durations The speed reader doesnot need tg Teareas because the enhanced concentration gives a better comprehension, How fast should | be abl to read? ‘Most graduates read at around 250 words per minute (wpm). You can find out your speed by reading for one ‘minute and counting the numberof words you have read Though this speed isnot bad, when i comes difficult text lke the passages in the CAT, oe is frced to reduce the speed to probably 100 wpm or $0, because the ext is dificult, Hence acquiring restr speeds in normal reading, say round 450-SO0 wpm and then reducing tt 250 or 300 wpm in the examination makes you sess free How can | improve my reading speed? You can improve your reading sped by reading more and by consciously making an effort to read faster, This is the fist step. ‘Are there techniques I can use to improve my reading speed? ‘Yes, There are. But just asthe art of swimming faster is mastered by swimming more and more, the art of faster is also mastered threugh reading more and more. What are those techniques? “Those techniques incudo: ist, leaning to take in a group of words in one glance (fixation) rather than ead word by word, One's eye-span isthe number of words that one can comfortably readin one glance without shifting focus. Bye-span difers from person to person and improves with practice; hence there iso ideal eye span For example the phrase or the idea unit ‘The technique of speed reading’——can be readin one glance by focusing your eyes sof slightly above the word of in one glance end without sifting focus, Longer sentences cen be broken down into phrases (groups of words) that make sense, and each group can be red in one fixation rather than word by word and in several fixations IF you try to read groups of words you will immedistely experience that you ae reading much faster, "For example try to rea the next paragraph in fewer fixations. For your convenience in identifying the phrase 1°Y"is put aftr each group of words that you shoud try t read in one glance by focusing sfly slightly above ‘he middle word in that group. ‘Speed reading ean help youto read and understand/riten information/much more quickly /This makes it an essential skllin any environmentwhere you have to maste/large volumes of information quickly, orvin fst-moving professional environments ‘The phrasing habit the way you ead the ahove text) ishlpful in increasing your speed. The “isnot necessary ‘when you practice. Use the newspaper fortis pupose as newspaper are printed in narrow colutans to feciltate speed reading. "Next, you have to get rd of regression, and work litle on vocalization and sub voealiation, What is regression and how do | get rid of t? Regression is going through the same text again and agai. Research says that an average reader regresses 20% ofthe times, In other words, for every one hour an average reader reads, he/she wastes 12 minutes reading the same thing over and over again. Ths is a colossal waste of time, Regression happens because of vocabulary constrains, unfamiliar subject matter, and less of concentration. The fist two ate personal constraints and neod to be addressed personally. Loss of concentration isa result of slow input leading to mind drift. When you read slowly the minds fored to drift into matters picked up from memory. This leads to a decrease in comprehension, ‘You go back—you are slower; mind drifts again; you get bored and become even slower—this ia vicious cycle INTRODUCTION TO READING COMPREHENSION ILS you get eng in because of infin reading in vide to reduce regression, make the reading process more efficient. Get actively involved inthe text. faster and with concentration, Your eyes will then move smoothly and constantly forward across the teat niizing or eliminating regression. ut ifthe text demands that you regress in order to analyse beter, do reyress—but consciously, Conscious rearesion is nota time killer. 1tis done to get better comprehension. Hence do no think regresion i alogether ogatve. Inthe exam it may be even necessary. oes speed reading affect my comprehension? ‘yes it does. Ifyou don't read much, you wll experince that your comprehension suffers with speed, But as you pratce wit seed reading, the aster inpu wll result in better concentration and improve your comprehension athe than affect it edversely How does speed improve my concentration and comprehension? Comprehension is the result of your concenttation, When you read slowly, your mind has the freedom (timed spuee) 10 rit into cher thoughts. When you read faster, your mind does not fd it necessary 10 “aif — this improves Your concertration, An enkanced concentiation gives a beter comprehension, The itony is that a long fs you are reading slowly the mind will rif, and you wil feel the noed to read again or repress. So you can famprove your concentaion by deciding to read fas. ‘Then why do | experience a loss of comprehension when | try to read fast? ‘Because you ae trying to change a habit of several years, you experience a Joss of comprehension. With practice you il beable to improve your speed and comprehension, oes speed reading run the enjoyment of reading? 1o.In fact reading fst and without regression is ike watching a movie. Ifthe movie is played too slowly ‘or with constant rewinding itis less enjoyable, Likewise, speed reading enhances the enjoyment of reading, tecause speed reading leads to greater concentration for longer period, interrupted by fewer iittions. Speed reading means you ae reading athe speed your mind is able to proces that information. That is why movie (television programme is abl to hold your interest beter than a book. The bean is fd information (images) at ‘veh faster rate than words (print) are input. Hence speed cannot spol the fun but increases it How long do | have to practice? you practice for 45 minutes to an hour per day fortwo weeks, you must beable to experience the diference Is there anything else Ihave to take care of? Yes. You nee to make sure that ll your pratce/experiment with speed is limited to easy text, Its wise fo avoid the kind of text that you have difficulty with Do not experiment with your textbook or study material. Do not experiment with dente and serious stuf Inthe beginning, limit youself to texts tha are comfortable for you and the comprehension of which not erucial, Newspapers, magazines, and bestsellers (novels are excelent material to experiment with speed. With diligent practice with this material your reading speed wil significantly improve, ‘This will in turn improve your speed with more dificult material late on. ‘Lam generally stow in reading because of vocabulary constraints. Speed reading isnot a magic ballet, One needs to be proficient inthe language that one is trying to gain speed. In fact the more comfortable one ie inthe language; the faster one is in reading that language. For example, by leaming the tecniques of speed reading i isnot possible to read Chinese or Greek if one does not know those languages. Since vocabulty is an aspect of one's proficiency in that language, it is file to work on speed if ‘he has severe vocabulary constraints However, by persistent reading one can improve one's vocabulary and language skills as well,6 @ READING COMPREHENSION INTRODUCTION TO READING COMPREHENSION ¢ 117 What is meant by vocalization? _ynat is meant by skimming and scanning? Are they important skis too? ‘Vocalizaton isthe habit of reading stout —using your lips tread Reading is ment process Eyes input othe Tlie tages of th words triggering the dea contined nthe words, andthe tin processes that idea. Egg peeve put deve andthe Brain is tho processor. We donot need thet input When one ea sla thers er uublctapot~hrough the eyes and through the ears. The only problem is: you read as fest a8 you speak. Ang) aserptt Ppa at furor five hundred words per minute! Get rid of vocalization mmediately by Sopping ocalze Is not necessary at all for reading well kinming and Scanning are two diferent processes, Skimming is reading the text quickly inorder o assess its sre and cont. Air skimming one may decide wt to read itor tread it. This is mpotan in competitive miinations in which there are several passages to choose from. Skimming will help in choosing the right fosspes i very show tin. Seanning is going over the whole text in orde to find specific information that you are looking for, Seamning is yin you do when you have to find the telephone number of person in a directory. Scanning is important when Jontave locate spec pees of infomation inthe pasta while asewering a question, Wat is meant by sub vocalization? Is it negative too? ‘Skimming is done to bu faniliarity with cho given text, Seanning presupposes familiarity with the given i ex, orat least familiarity with what you are looking fo. ‘Sub vocalization is speaking the word in one's mind. It is nt negative. Ifyou try W stop sub vocalization, your comprehension will suffer severely. However, by reading faster and fester without vocalization and regression, Sub vocalization automatically gets minimized, Reading without sub vocalization means: the eyes project th ‘words to the brain and there is instant comprehension because the bran instantly comprehends what the word ‘ands for In other words, there i iret eye-mind transfer of dess. We hardly readthe word ‘slop’ en road sig ‘bards. We hardly read ub voclize) the brand names of ou favourite items. Aim atminimizing sub ocalizaiog ty reading a lot rather than through conscious efforts. 1am comfortable with on paper reading but not with reading on screen. What should! do? ‘We generally process more text on paper (books, newspapers, magazines et.) than on the computer sereen, ‘atdoes not mean the kil st applicable to reading onscreen i completely different. Fest oF all get rid of the ‘rinse (iCany) that reading on scren i dificult, Its as natural as reading on paper. The only difeence is we owot handle (manipulate) seen the way we handle a paper ot book. Hence we are physically restrained (that Spy Kindle and other devices) "The first thing we should develop to be comfortable with on-screen reading isthe ability to sit upright in ‘one postion for as lng as we want to read, The second is to get used tothe format ofthe text presented in an (amination. Thed, purely fom the examination point of view, deal with our habit of using a pacer or making tots in the margin et. as this isnot possible during on-screen reading Is there anything else | can do to increase my reading speed? Yes, Bring ina sense of urgency when you stat reading. When you studied for yourexaminations you were abe to complete your syllabi in shorter time with greater comprehension. This happened because there was sense of turgeney to complete the portion, Ifyou are able to approach any kind of text with such a sense of ugeney, you tll be abe toa least double your reading speed, aswell as improve your comprehension What should! do to got used to on-screen reading and tothe format? Fit, read a lot on screen, without giving up the habit of reading on paper. A newspapers are now avilable nln. Numberess books (including classics) ate avalable in the elestoni form, Make it habit to red your dhly newspaper online. Download books and red them on-screen a apart of your preparation fr exams. ‘The width ofthe tex in an editorial, generally, i the width ofthe pane in which you have the text in an exam, ‘Make sure that you do not miss the editarals—on paper or on screen. Look fr practice material that gives you testinbvo columns on a page rather than the way tis page is written. Do nt use your finger or another pace or try to make notes etc. while doing this. Substitute making notes or underlining wth mentally repstring the key sont in what you are reading; thus improve your comprehension without the help of exteal devices, Diligent racic this way would make reading on sereen as natural as reading on paper. Ifyou have any more queries you ‘an write to englshusage@gmail.com, What is meant by efficient or active reading? Efficient or active reading means while reading you are actively involved in the ideas that are contained in the text—and not passively wandering through the text. Ialso means to actively reading the texto pick up the main points thatthe text histo offer rather than passively waiting forthe text to communicate those points to you ‘The way you study your academic textbooks i called active reading. When you saly your textbooks there ian éagemess to undersand them ands conscious effort to understand the main points and the supporting details of the topiinatter. You try to register in your mind the main points ofthe topic and she details that suppor these ‘main points. This is called active reading The passages in Reading Comprehension should be read atively. ow wel you have understood the passage depends on how efficiently or ativey you have rea te passge Does active reading mean understanding the structure of the passage? See RRIGCO IP RETENGTONT RCHMMOUES: ‘Yes. When you study your textbooks you do pay attention tothe hierarchy in which te main points occur, and the) reasons fer hat hierar, don’t you? This hierarchy isthe structure ofthe passage. Youare quick o notice the fora) ‘against euments on atopic in your textbooks, You also enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of something fen the reasons, You also notice how a solution is arrived at through analysis, All thes are related othe suctre of the tex, Hence when yu ae eading actively you cannot but become aware ofthe stricture ofthe content Ie ist thing to beat in mind while taking and prepanng a Keading Comprehension (RC) rst is that Reading Comprehension questions tes your reading and comprehending sills. CAT especialy, in these questions est Your comprehension rigorously. Hence, whenever you are solving Reading Comprehension questions, make sure that you have: ‘+ adequate comprehension ofthe passage ‘adequate comprehension ofthe question + adequate comprehension of each option “The eror in Reading Comprehension answers arse because we fend to compromise onthe comprehension ‘one or the other factors mentioned above Do | have to practice active reading as well? ‘Without a doubt! Make active reading a habit for competitive examinations, You have to work under severe tine] constrains in ll examinations. Hence any reading that you do in competitive examinations has to be ative. Ii especially so for Reading Comprehension because, generally, ther is ft to read. Winat is called mind mapping etc? Comprehension of the passage ‘The comprehension ofthe pastage may be compromised because of vocabulary constrains, unfamiliar subject "uti, the complexity ofthe sentences in the passage, or the complexity ofthe ideas. ‘What is discussed above, your comprehension of the main points ofthe passage and how they are arrange and ‘hat details suppor each point is called the mind map of the essay. For more on mind mapping, you could the Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan.