I Want to Read Faster

Mary: I’ve read a detective story. It wasn’t very good so I wasted

(тратить, терять время) much time.

Jane: Oh, it takes me now not more than an hour to read a novel.

М.: Really?

J.: Two months ago it would have taken me about two days. It is

a pity you didn’t join me when I was taking speed-reading course.

М.: Two things hold me back. Doubts that any system could radi­

cally and permanently increase my speed. And money for the courses.

J.: But I thought that if I could double my speed, the sum would­

n’t be so much.

М.: Sure, you are right. By the way, some authorities say it isn’t

reading. Though a lot of unread newspapers, books and maga­zines about the house might fall on me. My present work day reading is 200 words per minute, it is very slow. How are those speed reading courses?

J.: Great, today 50,000 students a year take these courses.

М.: How long does this course last?

J.: Eight weeks, a 2,5 hour session a week plus an hour a day drill.

М.: What is your speed now?

J.: The final test showed that my speed was 1520 w.p.m. The

book was the same we have used for our entrance exam.

М.: But you can lose the technique.

J.: It is another question. The only wide survey (опрос) of

ex-students — 1800 of them — showed that after a year one third of the people weren’t using the method at all. Another third said they use it sometimes and that probably they have kept speed. But the rest of the students said they were reading faster than a year later.

B. Answer the following questions:

1. Are you a fast or a slow reader?

2. In what situations can fast reading be useful in your opinion?

3. Would you like to improve your reading speed? Why?

4. Can all books be read quickly? Why (not)?

Exercise 4. Comment on the following statement.

Every student ought to be able to read very fast.

One point of view: Reading requires thought; one needs time for thinking, reading

ought to be a kind of dialogue with the author — this requires time; quality is more im­portant than quantity.

A contrary point of view : Fast reading does not mean careless reading, nothing is left out, thinking can be very fast, fast reading is reading for meaning, it saves time (экономить) also for thinking, it is very important for a person to get a great deal of information in as little time as possible.

Exercise 5. Conduct a scientific meeting on: «Laser and its applications».

Use texts 10A, 10B, and IOC as a basis for the preparation of an oral talk (устное сообщение), short abstracts (краткие тезисы), summary (реферат) of the presenta­tion and for the discussion of the theme (тема).

Useful Words and Phrases of Scientific Communication at a scientific meeting, conference, round-table discussion, symposium, colloquium, seminar, session, con­gress, etc.

Stages of a meeting	Phrases
	Chairman
Opening a meeting	I declare the meeting open. Right, can we start? Ladies and Gentlemen, are we ready to begin? OK then, perhaps we could make a start?
Introducing a speaker	I have a great pleasure to introduce Dr. (Prof.) Baker, an expert in ... Our first speaker, Dr Baker, will speak on...
Interrupting a speaker	May I draw your attention to the fact that this point will be discussed later?
Opening a discussion	And now I’d like to open the discussion on the presentation given by Dr Baker. Are there any questions to Dr Baker?
Ending a discussion	May I propose that we stop there?
Thanking	Fm sure Pm speaking for everyone when I say how grateful we are to Dr Baker for his informative (excellent) presentation, (talk, speech, lecture). Pd like to thank everybody here.
Ending a meeting	I declare the meeting closed. Speaker
Introducing the report	Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great honour to address this meeting (conference); Pd like to talk in my report about ... First of all (in the first place) Pd like to name the main points of my paper.

While reporting

Ending the report