Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

‘Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.’

SPEEDY GONZALES
SPEED-READING
On a basic level, reading is the process of decoding a series of symbols (letters, numbers and punctuation marks) in order to access their meaning. In a wider sense, reading opens up unlimited worlds to us, from taut psychological thrillers to histories of the world – it’s wonderful to lose yourself in a great story.
Reading is a fundamental skill that most of us learn in childhood, and, rather unsurprisingly, we get more efficient at it the more we practise it. Studies suggest that the average adult reads between 175 and 350 words per minute. However, it’s possible to develop skills to enable you to read even faster than this while still absorbing and understanding the words your eyes are scanning. Speed-reading is thus not only about reading quicker, but also reading better.
GETTING UP TO SPEED: MASTERING THE ART OF SPEED-READING
Here are some tips to help you improve your reading skills:
1. Find an environment conducive to reading – somewhere quiet and peaceful where you’ll be able to concentrate.
2. Read in chunks. When we’re first taught to read, we’re encouraged (quite rightly) to read word by word. However, more seasoned readers should be capable of reading blocks of words. If you really think about how you read naturally, you’ll likely discover that you already read a group of several words at a time, with y

eading is a fundamental skill that most of us learn in childhood

reading opens up unlimited worlds to us, from taut psychological thrillers to histories of the world – it’s wonderful to lose yourself in a great story.

Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

Nice? It’s the ONLY thing,’ said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. ‘Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,’ he went on dreamily: ‘messing – about – in – boats; messing—’

From The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity.

Demonstrative pronouns, meanwhile, can be used to indicate something without actually naming it. We use this and that for singular nouns and these and those for plurals. This and that also signify nearness (both in terms of time and space) while these and those imply something further away

When you don’t want to or are unable to refer to a specific noun, you can use an indefinite pronoun instead. Common examples include all, any, anything, everyone, a few, no one, one, several, someone and something.