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

　　解題思路
　　1 C。事實細節題。第一段提到了影響視幅的因素：不同的人，不同的閱讀目的，對材料的熟悉程度，光線，疲勞。C“一組詞的長度”不是能影響視幅的因素，是本題的答案。
　　2 C。觀點態度題。作者在第二段第二句提到，眼睛訓練課程只注重了閱讀的視覺因素。倒數第二句書哦，閱讀要求具備理解單詞間關系的能力。因此選項C“閱讀需要大腦的深度參與”正確。作者沒有否定閱讀的視覺因素的必要性，但是也沒有說讀者應該練習拓寬視幅，加快閱讀速度。所以AB兩項都不正確。作者沒有對大腦和眼睛在閱讀過程中的重要性進行對比，所以不選D
　　3 C。 作者在這句話中先是肯定了那些閱讀練習提高看單詞的能力，然后提出了有效閱讀概念。后面句中還指出，有效閱讀需要的是理解單詞間的聯系的能力。所以作者的意思應該是那些(訓練眼睛的)閱讀練習對與有效的閱讀無益。B與文章相反。D句是蘊涵其中一個意思，卻不是作者想表達的方向。
　　4 D。 第二段最后一句說，眼睛訓練對于幫助讀者閱讀連貫文章無益，所以D是錯的，是本題答案。
　　5 A。 參考前面的結構剖析，作者寫本文的主要目的是對那些只關注閱讀的視覺因素的閱讀能力課程進行批判，所以答案應該是A。