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.

    Bikes are popular in the Dutch（荷兰）. In fact, nearly half of all travel in the Dutch is by bike. Now, one Dutch bike designer（设计师）, Thomas, has taken the country's interest in bikes by making a school bus bike.

    The big bike has eight sets of pedals (踏板) for kids, a driver seat for an adult, and three other seats, comfortably letting little kids for their trip to and from school. The bike even has a motor, which can help with high hills or at times when few kids on it.

    So far, Thomas tells Fast Company, he's sold 25 school-hikes, at a price of $ 25,000 each—less than it would cost to buy a traditional school bus with the same number of seats. Along with the traditional color, the bikes are colored yellow so that they can be seen easily.

    Thomas says he's sold school bus bikes to neighboring countries such as Belgium. England and Germany, but so far, the school bus bike hasn't been sold in the United States. If the U.S. agrees to buy this kind of school bus bike, it could do a lot of good to improve exercise for a young age and help them keep healthy.

    One day last November, Liz Douglas went shopping. She spent hours at the supermarket. After she paid for all the things she bought, she went back to her car and put the shopping bags on the back seat (后座) of the car. Then she started to drive home.

    Ten minutes later, it began to rain heavily. Soon, Liz found it hard to see the road clearly. There was a lot of water on the road, so she drove slowly. Although Liz was an experienced driver, she felt afraid.

    突然，Liz看见她前面的一棵树并试图停车。But it was too late. Liz closed her eyes. She hoped that the airbags (气囊) in the car would work when the car hit the tree. Unluckily, they didn't.

    However, Liz was lucky. When the car hit the tree, a bag of bread flew out of one of the shopping bags. The car turned over, and the bread landed between Liz' s head and the roof(顶部) of the car. It stopped her head from hitting the roof of the car.

    About half an hour later, firefighters (消防队员) helped Liz get out of the car. They sent her to the hospital, but she went home soon because she didn't get hurt badly. Her head was free and she only had a few cuts. Liz's son went to get the things Liz bought from the car and gave the bag of bread to her. She was going to keep it as a souvenir (纪念品) because it brought her good luck.

( B )

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, there is always a reason to smile and be happy.

    Some of the biggest trees started off as the smallest seeds,{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    Life may fly by in the blink of an eye,{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, sadness too, I have felt it all, ever since I met you.

    There are two sides to every story,{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.