Reading is a good habit, but the problem is that there's too much to read, and too little time to read every word of it. So ①we need to find good ways to read faster. There are hundreds of skills (技巧) to help you read more in less time. Here are two skills that I think are especially good.

Preview (预看) —if it's long and hard. This skill is especially useful for ideas of heavy reading like long magazine articles (文章) and business reports (报告).

    Here's how the preview goes.

●Read the first two paragraphs (段落) and the last two paragraphs carefully.

●Then read only the first sentence of the other paragraphs.

    This skill doesn't give you all the details (细节, 详情). It stops you spending time on things you don't really want or need to read.

    Skim (略读)—if it's short and simple (简单的). Skimming is a good way to get ideas of light reading like popular magazines or sports and entertainment (娱乐) papers.

    Here's how to skim.

    ●Get your eyes to move fast. Sweep across each line.

    ●Pick up only a few ②key words in each line.

    Everybody skims differently. You and I may not pick up the same words when we skim the same piece, but we'll get a similar (相似的) idea of what it's mainly about.

    Republic of Kenya is a country in Africa, with a population of about 48,000,000. Nairobi is the capital of Kenya, Kiswahili and English are its official languages, and it also has many local languages. Kenya covers 582, 646 square kilometres. It has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. On Kenya's land, fruit, vegetables, coffee, tea, corns and wheat are the main agricultural produce. The people in Kenya like cross country running, road running, soccer, boxing and so on. Kenya won several medals during the Beijing Olympics, six gold, four silver and four bronze, making it Africa's most successful nation in the 2008 Olympics

Republic of Kenya

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Size: {#blank#}2{#/blank#}km²

Official languages: Kiswahili, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

population: {#blank#}4{#/blank#}million

Sports: cross country running, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} soccer, boxing

    Once a king got two nice falcons(猎鹰) from his son. He had never seen such beautiful falcons before. He loved them so much and he ordered the best falconer to train them to fly.

    After several months, the king came to see how the training was going on. He found that one falcon had already been able to fly high in the sky, while the other one was staying on the branch(树枝) of a tree quietly without moving.

    The king called all his falconers together and ordered them to try every way they could to make it fly. But none of them succeeded. One day, while the king was taking a walk in the forest, an idea came to his mind. He decided to find someone who knew the natural environment well to solve the problem. Then he sent for a farmer who lived in the forest into his palace to train it at once.

    The next morning, the king saw the other falcon flying above in the sky freely. "It is unbelievable!" shouted the king. "How could you make it happen?"

    The farmer replied, “It's very easy. I just cut off the branch where the falcon rested.”

    It is always the same to humans. We all have "two flying wings in our hearts as well, but we often seem not to notice them and stay where we feel safe and comfortable. We won't realize we can fly so high and freely until the "branch" we are resting on breaks.

    New York is a very large city with more than eight million people. How do so many people move on their way to work or school? In New York you can travel by subway, bus, taxi and private car.

    The subway runs on the railroad lines under the city. Travelling by subway is the fastest way to get around the city. The second way to travel around the city is by public bus. It is a slower way to travel. This is because the traffic is very heavy.

    You can also travel around the city by taxi. This is very expensive, but the taxi will take you to every place you want to go. If the traffic is heavy, the taxi will be slow too.

    During the mornings and afternoons, there is the "rush hour". This is the time when the traffic is very heavy with people going to and from work. The last way to get around New York is using your private car. It is inconvenient（不方便的）because you will perhaps be driving during the "rush hour". The best time to travel around the city is from 9 am to 4 pm, because it isn't the "rush hour".

    What do you think of when talking about India? The Taj Mahal(泰姬陵)? Song and dance? The list goes on and on. India is an interesting and mysterious country with a long history. It is one of the four oldest civilizations(文明) in the world.

    Home to more than 1.2 billion people, India is the country with the second largest population in the world. The country is also the birthplace of many famous people. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is a great poet. His poems use fresh and beautiful language to describe nature and his love for India. Many Chinese children learn his works at school.

    Besides, fast economic development is making India a rising power. India is strong in the information technology (IT) industry. By the end of 2012, 2.5 million Indian people were working at its IT companies. One third of them worked in Bangalore. The city is called the Silicon Valley(硅谷) of India. It is the centre of the IT industry in India. IT products from India are common in people's lives. If you buy a computer, some of the software may have been made in India.

    Many young people love Bollywood films. Most of these films tell stories with a happy ending. They have exciting music and dance. Some of the best ones are Slum-dog Millionaire (2008) and 3 idiots (2009). Yoga comes from ancient India. It helps people deal with their stress. It is said that curry was made in India more than 5,000 years ago. Traditional Indian curry is spicy. Indian people usually have curry with rice. Curry soup is also one of their favourites.