limited time. So students are asked to read them correctly and with a certain speed. To do this, you should change your bad reading habit and raise your reading efficiency.
New words prevent you from reading fast. One way to overcome this problem is to guess. There are many ways to guess the meaning of a new word. First you should find some hints. Context, some phrases, such as "means", "refer to", "in other words", "That is to sag"; are all the hints.
Model 1.
A middle-aged professor said that his wife was too extravant, because no matter how much he give her for the household expenses, she always ran short.
In this sentence, the meaning of the word "extravagant" can be easily guessed.
Model 2.
Prometheus stayed chaied to the lock for many years, Then at last the mighty.
Hercules came forth and broke the bonds -but that is another of the wonderful stories of the Greeks.
In This pargraph, the words "stayed chained" is the hint , So you can guess what "bonds" means.
Model 3.
The tiny droplets that form on dust particles very small pieces of dust, to produce a cloud are far apart from each other.
In this sentence, the words after the dash shows the meaning of the word "partides" (微粒)
Besides the ways mentioned above, you can guess according to the word-formation, for example
Child-childless, Marx-Marxism
Large-enlarge, tell-foretell
Australian + satellite→ Aussate
State + run → state-run.
Sometimes you can't guess what the word means. If the word doesn't affect your reading, let it be. For example,
A German told me that all over China they use Gourmet powder in their food. It will give you higher blood pressure.
You may know that gourmet it a kind of thing that can be eat. But it doesn't matter whether you know what it is.
Another problem that affect your reading speed is you reading habit and you reading skill.
Some one reads word by word. Some one reads with his finger pointing to the words or with his head shaking. Those are all bad habits. You should read phrase by phrase. Don't blink your eyes so often and don't shake you head. Just move your eyeball. That's enough. If you want to get more word information, there must be a proper distance between your eyes and the reading material.
I think browsing is an important step while you are doing you reading comprehension.
Some students begin to read at once when he get a reading material, even without knowing, its title. But after reading for many times, he won't understand what the article says.
Looking through the material first means forereading. In an examination, you want to grain the information which the questions ask, you can't read the material in a usual way, you can't read the whole material word by word. You gad have to omit some sentence, sometimes even a whole paragraph, which have nothing to do with the questions.
I think you might read the given questions fast as well, then the material. There is an advantage to do this. When you read the material with the questions, you can save your time.
Model:
A Festival Atmosphere.
At midnight on New Year's Eve, people in Rome, Italy, throw out all the things they no longer want. The streets are filled with old chairs, beds, clothes and dishes.
In Madrid, Spain, the new Year comes in more quietly. People come to the main souare. Each holds a bag of grapes (葡萄). As the clock strikes twelve, the people eat the grapes----one for each stroke.
In Tokyo, capital of Japan, people eat noodles in New Year's Eve. This food is said to bring long life. Early the next morning, some Japanese families climb Mount Fuji, There they watch the first sunrise of the new Year.
1. This story is about New Year's Eve in ______.
A. Europe
B. Europe and Latin Aucerica.
C. Four capital cities.
D. Three countries.
2. The writer thinks New Year's Eve in Rome is _____.
A. interesting
B. dull
C. noisy
D. happy
3. The number of grapes that must be take. From each bag is _____.
A. one
B. twelve
C. thirteen
D. fourteen
4. People in both Spain and Japan spend the New Year's Eve ____.
A. throwing things away
B. eating a special food
C. climbing a mountain
D. watching the first sunrise
5. People climb Mount Fuji on the New Year's morning to ____.
A. look for happiness
B. meet their friends
C. enjoy the beauty of nature
D. do something strange
6. People who hope to gain long life from their New Year's food are the ____.
A. Japanese
B. Spanish
C. Italians
D. both A and B
Look through the questions first. No. 1,3,4,6 are the questions which are about the content of the article. This information is connected with the names, numbers or activities in the article, question No. 2 and No. 5 are comprehensive ones.
Then browse the article. From the questions and the title you may know that the article is about the festival custom of different countries. The article includes three paragraphs. Each talks of a different place ____ Rome, Madrid and Tokyo.
So when you have the first glance over the article, you've got the key to question No.1. After your glance, these things have been put into your brain:
Rome-throw out-are filled with-
Madrid-quietly-main square-grapes-one for each stroke
Tokyo-noodles-bring long life-climb Mount
Fuji-first sunrise
Now, you may have some idea of the out line of the article, Then you may read the whole material
4.Writing
Writing is one way of providing variety in classroom procedures. It provides a student with physical evidence of his achievements and becomes a course whereby he can measure his improvement. It helps to consolidate the students' grasp of vocabulary and structure, and complements the other language skills.
Sentence is the base of an article. So we should begin our writing with sentences. First, students should be asked to express with sentences-sentences making, then to write short articles.
1. Translation. Translate Chinese into English.
First, they should learn the five basic sentence drills. Then choose some typical sentences in the text as models, do sentence making after these models.
2. Sentence pattern exchanging. By rewriting the sentences, practise expressing the same meaning with different patterns.
3. Text shortening and rewriting. It helps to understand the text, and helps to write compositions. It can foster students' ability to summarize and to use the language freely.
III. conclusion
While you are training these four skills, you'd better make full use of your teaching instrument use varieties of ways to stimulate the students' interests.
Generally speaking these four skills can't be separated. People often say "First listening and speaking, then reading and writing". That's right. But I think this way of saying is fit for the beginning stage. For a senior middle school student, reading and writing is more important.
Before you are going to have a new lesson, do reading and writing first. Ask students to read the text in advance, and do some exercises connected with the text.
Listening and speaking are the major ways while teaching the new lesson. Be sure to let the lesson go on in a foreign language situation.
You can ask the students questions about the text, do some discussion, check the students' homework. This helps students raise their ability of listening and speaking. It also helps to understand or comprehend the text and the sentences.

Reference books:
1. 扶忠汉,北京三环出版社.1990
2. 周流溪.东北大学出版社.1995
3. 李庭芗.高等教育出版社.1983.3
4. Huang Yuefa《English Teaching Methodology》 1991.7


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