General English Level 6 V 3
UNIT 01 Eat up! TOPIC 05 Food and society
Reading READING 01 Introduction to speed reading
How fast can you read? Speed reading is an excellent way for you to improve your reading speed and your comprehension.

There are two speed reading activities in General English Level 6. Write down your scores after this speed reading activity. Compare them with your scores for the other speed reading activity. See how much you have improved.


Introduction to speed reading

For speed reading activities you must be able to do two things: read fast and understand what you have read.

The activities are in three parts.


1. Reading

1 To begin the Speed Reading exercise, click the Start button. The first few lines of the reading text appear in a small window.
2 Click on the up arrow and down arrow to see the rest of the text. A timer will count the time while you read. You must finish the reading passage in five minutes. If you are not finished after five minutes, the text will disappear.
3 Click the Stop button as soon as you finish reading the text. The Speed Reader will then show you how fast you were reading.

Reading speed shows as words per minute. Educated native speakers can achieve around 180 words per minute. You should aim for about 100.


2. Comprehension

After the reading, ten questions will appear, one by one. You will not be able to see the reading text while you answer these questions.

Answer each question according to the information given in the reading text.

Your comprehension score and reading speed will appear after you finish the last question. The reading score is on a scale from 1 to 10. A score of 10 means that all answers were correct. At this level of General English, your score should be at least 5.


3. Vocabulary exercise

You will see questions asking the meaning of words from the text. To find the meaning of the words in this exercise you will need to see how each word was used in the reading text. A reading window on the right will show you the part of the text that the word comes from. You should use the text to work out the meanings.

Choose the meaning that is closest to the meaning in the text.

When you have completed the last item in the exercise, you will see your vocabulary score, your reading speed and your comprehension score. Write down your scores so that you can compare them with your scores in the other speed reading exercises.

Now go to 02 READING Traditional wedding food.