The information I     1    (collect) over the last few years leads me to believe that speed reading may be less     2    (use) than most people think. The claim that you can read and comprehend over 30,000 words per minute is overstated. One researcher proved this in a study where irrelevant and illogical sentences were added to a text. The “speed readers”     3     were tested didn’t notice the irrelevant lines — the non-speed readers spotted them immediately.

I’ve interviewed people who have attended the introductory sessions     4     (offer) by some speed reading courses.     5     (them) stories indicate that improper methods are sometimes used to sell the courses. Here’s how: First, you’re asked to read a passage from a book     6     which most persons would be unfamiliar. Your reading speed and comprehension are tested during this exercise. Then, after about half     7     hour of instruction, another reading test is given. But this time the reading is one most educated Americans know well — such as Huckleberry Finn. Not     8     (surprising), persons attending these introductory sessions find that their “exit” speed and comprehension are better than their “entry”    9     (perform).

I’m one of the fiction readers who appreciate the beauty in good writing. Occasionally I’ll read a passage or sentence over and over just     10     (let) the beauty of its construction soak(渗透) in. Good writing must be read carefully and thoughtfully to be fully appreciated.

Witches’ Loaves

Miss Martha Meacham kept the little bakery on the comer (the one where you go up three steps, and the bell rings when you open the door.)

Miss Marths was forty, her bank-book showed a credit of two thousand dollars, and she possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic heart. Many people have married     1    chances to do so were much inferior to Miss Martha’s.

Two or three times a week a customer came in, in whom she began to take an interest. He was a middle-aged man, wearing glasses and a brown beard     2    (shape) to a careful point. He spoke English with a strong German accent. His clothes were worn in some places, and wrinkled in     3    . But he looked neat, and had very good manners.

He always bought two loaves of stale bread. Fresh bread was five cents a loaf. Stale ones were two for five. Never     4    he call for anything but stale bread.

Once Miss Martha saw a red and brown stain on his fingers. She was sure then     5    he was an artist and very poor. No doubt he lived in a garret (阁楼), where he painted pictures and ate stale bread and thought of the good things to eat in Miss Martha’s bakery.

Often     6    Miss Martha sat down to her chops and light rolls and jam and tea, she would sigh, and wish that the gentle-mannered artist might share her tasty meal instead of eating his dry bread in his draughty garret. Miss Maltha’s heart, as you have been told, was a sympathetic one.

In order to test her theory     7    his occupation, she brought from her room one day a painting that she had bought at a sale, and set it against the shelves behind the bread counter. It was a Venetian scene. A splendid marble palazzo stood in the foreground—or rather fore-water. For the rest there were boats-with a lady     8    (dip) her hand in the water—clouds, sky, and shades of color in plenty.

No artist could tail to notice it.

Two days afterward the customer came in.

“Two loaves of stale bread, if you blease.”

“You haf here a fine bicture, madame,” he said while she     9    (wrap) up the bread.

“Yes?” says Miss Martha, indulging in her own calculation. “I do so admire art and” (no, it would not do to say “artists” thus early) “and paintings,” she changed her tone. “You think it is a good picture?”

“Der balance,” said the customer, “is not in good drawing. Derbairspective of it is not true. Goot morning, madame.”

He took his bread,     10    (bow), and hurried out.

Legends of the Condor Heroes《射雕英雄传》，    1    (write)by Jin Yong， is best-seller- in China. Chinese martial arts ( 武术)have long been regarded as    2    important symbol of Chinese culture, and are one of the most popular cultural    3    (export)from China to the West. However, most of them remain relatively    4    (know)among Western readers.

Jin Yong's Wuxia novels have been translated    5    English before for the academic research-but these were expensive to buy and quickly out of print. Legends of the Condor Heroes is thus the first of Jin Yong's Wuxia novels that    6    produce)in English for general distribution.

“Contact between China and the West    7    ( deepen)since China’s opening up began in the late 1970s. But for lack of linguistic( competence，    8     was only in the last 15 to 20 years that cultural contact came, " said Holmwood. He also believes that Wuxia fiction is not only unique to China and East Asia,     9    it also has elements in common with modern fantasy and epic historical romance       10    has been popular in the West.

His primary goal is that in the future Jin Yong's Wuxia novels will encourage more people to explore the Chinese language and the culture.