Stay on Top of Your Reading

Stay on Top of Your Reading

 

By Richard G. Ensman Jr.

 

Thousands of pages of reading material are put in front of you each month. How can you manage to digest it all?

 

They just keep coming and coming: newspapers, magazines, professional journals, reports and stacks of other published material dumped on your desk each day. Most people can’t make a dent¹ in such a pile, so they either read at random² or discard much of it in frustration³.

 

Don’t let it be that way for you. A few reading skills can help you plow⁴ through far more published material than you ever imagined.

 

Use the table of contents and index

 

When available, these allow you to pinpoint⁵ items you’d like to read, either by subject area or title.

 

Scan headlines and topic sentences

 

Look over the headings, which encapsulate the information that follows. More importantly, find the topic sentence, usually the first or second sentence of a paragraph.

 

Study the sidebars and illustrations

 

These typically explain key points, provide glossaries⁶ of terminology⁷, or analyze⁸ the implications of the article’s content. If the illustrated⁹ material captivates you, read the text for more information.

 

Use the “skim-read-skim” method

 

When you must absorb a lot of information, first, scan the material, glancing at titles and topic sentences and highlighting with a pen. Then, go back and read the material. Lastly, skim the key points again to help you remember them.

 

When reading newspapers, concentrate on the first few paragraphs

 

Most news stories are written in the “inverted¹⁰ pyramid style,” with the key facts and conclusions contained in the first few paragraphs of the story.

 

Clip and read

 

Scan each periodical as it comes in and clip the articles with titles or headlines of special interest to you. Discard everything but the clipped material; read the clippings at your convenience.

 

Using these reading skills can vastly reduce the number of hours you spend reading — and leave you with more time for other priorities.

Vocabulary Focus

digest (v) [di5dVest] to read or hear new information and take the necessary time to understand it

make a dent (v) to slightly reduce a large amount of something

plow through (v) to continue doing something steadily¹¹, even if it is difficult

encapsulate (v) [in5kApsjuleit] to express or show concisely¹² the most important facts about something

有效率地阅读

杨嘉倩  译

每个月都有数千页的资料等你去阅读。你该如何消化它们呢？   

 

报纸、杂志、专业期刊、报告和好几迭印刷品接踵而至，每天不断地堆到你的桌子上。大部分的人都没法减少这些堆积如山的资料。所以他们不是随便看看，就是沮丧地把大多数的资料扔掉。   

你大可不必如此。一些阅读技巧，可以帮助你费力啃完比你想象还多得多的出版物。    

善用目录和索引：若有目录及索引，你可借着浏览主题或题目准确地找到你想读的东西。   

扫视标题和主题句：浏览标题，因为它们能精确地归纳后续内容。更重要的是，找到主题句，通常在段落的头一两句找得到。   

仔细阅读边栏和图解：它们会解释重点、提供术语词汇表或分析文章内容的涵义。如果这些说明性的资料吸引你，就阅读正文以获得更多信息吧。   

使用“浏览─阅读─浏览”的方式：当你必须吸收大量的信息时，先扫视资料，快速瞥过题目和主题句，并用笔标出重点。然后回头阅读正文。最后再浏览重点以帮助你牢记。   

看报纸时，将注意力集中在前面几个段落：大部分的新闻报道都是用“倒金字塔”方式所写。这个书写方式将重要的事实与结论放在报道的前几段。   

剪辑再阅读：收到每份期刊时，先扫视并将你觉得题目或标题打动你的文章剪下，丢掉剩余的部分。有空时再阅读剪下的文章。   

运用这些阅读技巧可以大量削减你花在阅读的时间，并且给你更多时间做其它重要的事。

 

译注：scan与skim都有浏览之意，但scan是为了搜寻特定重要讯息，skim则是为了抓住内容大意。

1 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

2 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

3 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

4 plow   

n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough

参考例句：

• At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
• We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后，我们将马上耕田。

5 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

6 glossaries   

（书尾的）词汇表，难词汇编( glossary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Textbooks sometimes have glossaries at the end. 教科书有时在书末附有词汇表。
• InsWeb: Auto Insurance Learning Center-Provides articles, reports, glossaries and information auto insurance. 提供汽车保险相关常识、报告、词汇等资讯。

7 terminology   

n.术语；专有名词

参考例句：

• He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
• The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。

8 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

9 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

10 inverted   

adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Only direct speech should go inside inverted commas. 只有直接引语应放在引号内。
• Inverted flight is an acrobatic manoeuvre of the plane. 倒飞是飞机的一种特技动作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

12 concisely   

adv.简明地

参考例句：

• These equations are written more concisely as a single columnmatrix equation. 这些方程以单列矩阵方程表示会更简单。 来自辞典例句
• The fiber morphology can be concisely summarized. 可以对棉纤维的形态结构进行扼要地归纳。 来自辞典例句