How to Improve Speed Reading Skills

    Speed reading is one of many skills that can improve your reading comprehension and shorten your study time. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    Look at groups of words, not single words.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. However, if you can get into the habit of reading groups or chunks of words at one time, then you can read much faster. Start by trying to look at a group of three or four words at once, then work up to looking at an entire line of words. Focus on words that give the sentence meaning, such as the nouns and verbs and pay less attention to the filler words, such as “A, the, and, etc.”

    Scan for keywords.

    Scanning is a highly effective way of extracting answers from a text without really reading it. If you know exactly what you are looking for—a name, a date, a statistic, or a specific word—you can find it quickly by skipping over large chunks of the text. To scan, first visualize the word, number, or phrase you would like to find. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. The information you are looking for should pop out at you.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    You can train yourself to read faster by timing yourself as you go. Start by getting your base time. Set a timer for fifteen minutes, and speed read as you normally do. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Do not count the words, just the pages or paragraphs. Record your figures: for instance, you might write “15min/6.5 pages.”

A. Then, run your eyes rapidly over the text

B. Race the clock

C. Check your comprehension

D. If you read a text one word at a time, then this will slow your reading speed way down

E. Here are some Speed Reading Techniques

F. One of the reasons you read slowly is that you have to pause sometimes to understand what a passage is saying

G. When the timer goes off, check to see how far you have got

    The future of Australia's solar industry is looking bright after a record 3.5m panels(嵌板)were installed on rooftops last year, giving the equal output of a medium-sized coal-fired power station. The record 1,057 MW of capacity (产能) in small scale systems installed across the country broke the previous record set in 2012, figures from the Clean Energy Regulator showed on Tuesday.

    Australia's solar power prosperity could almost double capacity in a year, The data also revealed that the average system size has also doubled since then from three to six kilowatts as average prices continued to fall. A fully installed 5KW system costs an average of $5,930 in Australia, according to the energy broker Solar choice.net.au. Its records show that the price has roughly halved in many capital cities since 2012.

    The regulator's executive general manager, Mark Williamson, said there was increasing interest in renewals as a way to take control of electricity bills. But more importantly, he said it was also good news for reducing carbon emissions.

    “We are seeing a wide cross section of Australians—households, community centers, schools, and small businesses—receiving rewards under the small scale renewable energy scheme,” Williamson said, “Our data shows consumers are embracing renewable energy to take control of their electricity bills. ”

    In 2017, there was a 41% increase in installing renewable energy capacity across all states and territories compared to 2016. Queensland led the way with installed capacity at 295MW, with the Australian Capital Territory taking top place for the biggest annual increase by 57 %. “I he data collected by the Clean Energy Regulator in 2017 reflects the industry is going from strength to strength, It looks like 2018 will be another big year for the solar industry.”

    The total of installed capacity for last year is expected to rise to 1,070MW when all the data is collected. A large coal-fired power station such as Loyd Yang A in Victoria's Latrobe Valley has a capacity of 2, 200MW.

    When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings. Sometimes she said I was thin. Sometimes she said I was lazy. Other times she said I wasn't a good student. And still other times she said I talked too much, and so on. I tried to put up with her.

    At last, I became very angry with her. With tears in my eyes, I ran to my father, who listened to me quietly and asked, "Are the things she said true or false? Mary, haven't you ever wondered what you're really like? Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that agree with her comments. Pay no attention to the things she said that don't concern you."

    I did as he told me. Much to my surprise, I discovered that over half the things were true. I brought the list back to my dad. He refused to take it. "That's just for you," he said. "You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. When something said about you is true, you'll find it will be helpful to you. Don't shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you think is right."

    Many years have passed. The situation often appears in my mind. In our life we often meet with some trouble and we often go to someone and ask for advice. Some advice you will treasure all your life!

    Since English biologist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, scientists have vastly improved their knowledge of natural history. However, a lot of information is still of the speculation, and scientists can still only make educated guesses at certain things.

    One subject that they guess about is why some 400 million years ago, animals in the sea developed limbs (肢) that allowed them to move onto and live on land.

    Recently, an idea that occurred to the US paleontologist (古生物学家) Alfred Romer a century ago became a hot topic once again.

    Romer thought that tidal (潮汐的) pools might have led to fish gaining limbs. Sea animals would have been forced into these pools by strong tides. Then, they would have been made either to adapt to their new environment close to land or die. The fittest among them grew to accomplish the transition (过渡) from sea to land.

    Romer called these earliest four-footed animals “tetrapods”. Science has always thought that this was a credible theory, but only recently has there been strong enough evidence to support it.

    Hannah Byrne is an oceanographer (海洋学家) at Uppsala University in Sweden. She announced at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Oregon, US, that by using computer software, her team had managed to link Homer's theory to places where fossil deposits (沉积物) of the earliest tetrapods were found.

    According to the magazine Science, in 2014, Steven Balbus, a scientist at the University of Oxford in the UK, calculated that 400 million years ago, when the move from land to sea was achieved, tides were stronger than they are today. This is because the planet was 10 percent closer to the moon than it is now.

    The creatures stranded in the pools would have been under the pressure of “survival of the fittest”, explained Mattias Green, an ocean scientist at the UK's University of Bangor. As he told Science, “After a few days in these pools, you become food or you run out of food... the fish that had large limbs had an advantage because they could flip (翻转) themselves back in the water.”

    As is often the case, however, there are others who find the theory less convincing. Cambridge University's paleontologist Jennifer Clark, speaking to Nature magazine, seemed unconvinced. “It's only one of many ideas for the origin of land-based tetrapods, any or all of which may have been a part of the answer,” she said.

    Festivals are a great way to experience a destination in a different way. This article will fuel your wanderlust（漫游癖）and guide you to the best festivals.

    St Patrick's Day

    Where: Dublin, Ireland & New York, USA

    When: 17 March

    St Patrick's Day has taken place in New York city on March 17th since 1762. On this day, the whole city turns green. Many Irish make traditional bread on this day. It is one of the most fun days the of the year in New York City every year, when the whole city turns into a big green party.

    SXSW

    Where: Austin, USA

    When: 10-19 March

    Like free things? Yeah me too! Free food, drink and music sound good? Welcome to Austin, Texas. SXSW is a festival for those who work in the music and film industries. There are "free" shows. You di have to pay but not by handing over cash; you have to give some time to queue but it is worth it to see some popular stars.

    King's Day

    Where: Amsterdam, Netherlands

    When: 27 April

    Every year on April 27 Amsterdam turns a very bright color of orange for King's Day, which is the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. It is a crazy fun celebration when the center of the city is car, bus, and bike-free. It is a market day, when anyone can sell pretty much anything. Tips: Take a jacket with you, wear orange, and bring cash.

    Just for Laughs

    Where: Montreal, Canada

    When: 14-30 July

    For comedy lovers there is no other festival in the world better than Montreal's Just for Laughs. The festival concentrates most of its shows in the Latin Quarter. During the day street performers delight the crowds and at night the city comes alive with comedy all over the city.

Isatou Ceesay was born in 1972 in a small village in Gambia, Africa. As a teenager, Ceesay was forced to drop out of school because of poverty. She carried some goods with many girls like her to sell in the market to raise herself At that time, the plastic bags, being strong and light, became popular in Gambia. The problem was that people did not reuse the bags and simply threw them behind their homes. Over time, the houses were surrounded by trash.

Ceesay lived in such an environment for many years. She kept learning from the surrounding environment and planned to take action to change. In 1997, she started a recycling movement called One Plastic Bag in Gambia. She educated women in Gambia to recycle plastic waste into income for themselves. In the beginning, the movement had a mission to educate their village colleagues about the need to reuse garbage and recycle plastic waste, rather than letting the garbage increase behind their homes.

Over time, the movement became big and able to support and provide income for women around. It was also able to greatly reduce plastic waste in Gambia. But the work of collecting trash turned to be taxing. During the rainy season, plastic waste became wet and difficult to take, and after that it still took patience to dry it before it could be processed.

Ceesay said, "As a habit, people are used to pouring their garbage behind their houses, and because it is not visible, they forget it. But the bad effects again knock on your door very quickly — dirty air, various diseases and so on. Of course, if one man's house is clean but his neighbor's is not, then the man is also not healthy."

For 17 years, Ceesay has contributed to one of the most important problems about the plastic waste. In 2012, she got the TIAW Difference Maker Award in Washington, DC, United States. Her story was written into a book, which inspires many others to join or become makers of change in their own communities.