' +JJJJ ?\>m0M='+l> /+l   d]@ŵLҦ]]L L}BBL] 鷎귭෍ᷩ췩緈JJJJx Lȿ L8ᷭ緍췩 緍i 8 `巬 췌`x (`(8`I`B` ``>J>J>VU)?`8'x0|&HhHh VY)'&Y)xꪽ)' `Hh`V0^*^*>&` aI꽌ɪVɭ&Y&&Y& 꽌ɪ\8`&&꽌ɪɖ'*&%&,E'зЮ꽌ɪФ`+*xS&x'8*3Ixix&& 8  '  & x)*++`FG8`0($ p,&"_]` L/浍굺L  !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?  1#"""  (9"1 ( ,.(0# 2  /#0/#0 *?'#07#00/0/'#07#0:"4<*55/**5/*%5/)1/)1/)1/)'#0/#0*5/*75/**5/*:5//#0/#0'#07#0:::*::'#07#0EB H  @H !D)"E` @ $ C ` DQ &J80^݌Hh ü ü݌ ռ ռ ռA ļD ļ? ļAEDE?HJ>h Լ ռ ռ ռ`HJ>݌h Hh݌`HIHHHHhHH݌hHhHh݌H6 VDP (ED Z $0x8x D- ܸDD# H8`?E Vk *f???0xE Hh D#-EEE8` D ܸx D - ܸx8`-0ݩ?ʥD EEE`   vLDcpq` [` ~  LӜu`".Q`pNФbptťܥm2<(-Py0\|e<6e<g< JJJJj귍hI  aUL@ kU8  L  Q^R(jQ0l^l\  wUuW ԧ H h@ [_ /QSIRb_L`LLLL`ª`LQLYLeLXLeLee ўQH\(h0L& Ꝥ$`( R \ZLl8 ўR HH\`\Z[YS6`LxQɿu3'RͲʎRʎ]]]ɍuL͟ɍ}RLRɍg^H8 ^hZLɍR LͲɊRR% QLܤͲ Z@ -^ ş\[Z QY\[Z8`l6Lş_Ȍb_Ͳ] )Y h( ֭ͲLɍ [LLĦ__ ^ 9 LҦ3 9 a   0LjLY u< (_9 ˭ɠuɠK_9 ?LˆʎõĵL õ ĵµ aµ`` L̦µ_bJLuLz`  ȟ QlXJ̥KlV  ȟ QlV eօ3L e3L &RL &QL d L4 Ne)n `@-eff L f`L . tQLѤ LҦL` OPu d L Ne)noon 8ɍ` ^f\õL ^NR  RΩLҦ)\Z ʽ LHv 3h`0h8` [L NС õ`A@` ŵL^L iõ`  \ 濭0 \  ȟ Q ^\lZl l get a whole lot of reading done; and that is why you got into this course--isn't it? andreading it in bits and pieces is the best way I know that you can do just that. Besides, in the next ten or twenty or fifty years you wil necessarily that you have a better head than the next person; it is just that you have discovered the potential of your own mind. But most of us are so put together that we have constant-ly to be reminded of our own potential; toting a book around hundred times a day that you can do a lot in a very few seconds;and THAT, after all, now that you know how fast your head can work, is all that you need. If you read well, it is not you aren't doing anything else, are you? Why be bored? Life is too short. This simple and painless process will remind you a everpossible. They PLAY. Carry a book around with you and read it whenever you aren't doing anything else. Read on the bus; read while waiting for a phone call to go through; read while waitingfor an elevator; read in the line at the supermarket. Hey, r you begin to understand things--you will hang on to whatever speed you have. But that is WORK; and all sensible people avoid work when You can practice on your own. If, every day, you will race through five or ten minutes of reading just as fast as you can, taking no heed of comprehension--indeed, speeding up wheneve somebody erases your disk, or lightning shorts out your computer, or you are sent by your company to the frozen wastes of the arctic where Edison is only a rumor. What then? But let us be realistic; the idea that you will stop in for a morning refresher or an afternoon pacifier with the SPEED READING TUTOR program once a day or twice a week for the next eleventy-seven years is doubtless a silly one. Suppose thatram like this has over a classroom course is that, once you have thehardware and software in your possession, the course can go on as long as you want it to, anywhere you want it to. If your capacity for self-punishment (or your ambition) is vast, you might even begin the whole process over again from square one. Take your choice. One of the advantages a prog cando that either to find out your current reading cruising speed, or to practice at high speed. (We suggest that you spend most of your practice time at about twice your current comfortable speed.) Fortunately, you have the SPEED READING TUTOR program still by you. At any moment, you can drop back in for eye exercises--T-Scope or Eyerobics. Whenever you want to time a book, you amas, amat." Nor does it make the teacher feel as if all her work has borne great fruit. It is, therefore, a matter of concern to the both of us that you (1) continue to improve or at least (2) not lose what you have gained. We worry about those things too. Any teacher does. It doesn't do you a whole lot of good to blast through Latin II with an A+, if six months later you cannot understand "amo, heseskills I have gained will vanish away like unto the morning dew. On the other hand, if you are like most of us, there are a couple of little nagging itches rummaging around in the back of your brain, as follows: (1) maybe if I worked at it some more, I could get better still; and (2) maybe next Wednesday all t reading faster than 99% of the folk walking around loose, and doubtless that is an occasion for marching bands, fireworks, andhonorary degrees. If, as the text flashes up on our screen, or as the computer beeps you through your book text, you can comfortably manage 1000, or 2000, or 4000 wpm, then congratulations. You are #Y"Life is too short" #N"Many hands make light work" 10. A stock phrase which the author uses in this article is #N"That's the way the ball bounces" #N"That's life" #N"How about that?" #Nindifference #Ndespair #Nhostility 9. The author's attitude toward your future reading progress is one of #Yconcern #Nanxiety #Ycarry a book around #Nread fast for five minutes a day #Nrepeat the course 8. The author suggests that the best way to avoid backsliding is to #Nmeditate #Nplay Eyerobics #Na library #Nnone of these 7. Which of these is mentioned as a place to read? #Na YMCA dressing room #Na freezer locker #Ya supermarket #Ywork #Nnone of these 6. Whenever possible, the author says, sensible folk avoid #Nreading #Nwriting #NLatin #N95% #Y99% #N99.9% of the population 5. If you can read well at 1000 wpm, you are reading faster than #N90% #N93% #NHeisenberg #NFreud 4. The article mentions #YEdison #NBell #NEinstein #Nflexibility #Ninterest #Nmodernity 3. An advantage which a computer course has over a classroom course is its #Ncheapness #Ypermanence #N3 times comfortable speed #N4 times comfortable speed 2. It is suggested that you practice at #N1.5 times your comfortable speed #Y2 times your comfortable speed #N2.5 times comfortable speed #Y"Amo, amas, amat" #N"Illegitimus non carborundum" (1. A Latin phrase found in this article is #N"Arma virumque cano" #N"Gallia est omnia divisa in partes tres" #N"Forsan et haec olem meminisse iuvabit"                 we can more easily find that state of mind again.) o it again for a while. It's like the student juggler who says, "Look at me! I'm keeping four balls in the air at -- OOOPS!!" But once we have done it, (1) we know we can, and our confidencewill help us do it again, and (2) we know how it feels, and (Once we notice that, of course, we are in the position of the Zen novice archer who says, "Hey! Guess what! I just turned it loose without thinking about it!" and then can't d isn't so much like running faster and faster as it is like picking up one's feet and flying. hearing, and still understanding. We see that reading fast ore comfortable with them. Furthermore, as we have said, we begin to discover, more or less unconsciously, easier and more efficient ways of moving our eyes through the stuff. One day, quite unexpectedly, we realize that we're reading without tend to exhaust ourselves in the effort. Pretty soon, however, by dint of constant practice, we find ourselves getting used to those higher speeds, and feeling m Most of us, when we start practicing at a new speed, tend to lock up. Reading first at 500, then at 750, then 1000 and 1500 seems like running faster and faster and faster, and wen action which characterizes the good athlete. Not the physical posture, obviously. You would look pretty silly reading with a baseball glove on your hand and your hands on your knees. It's the mental posture we're after; that same sort of relaxed alertness, sharpness without tension, ease i thefields of action: downhill skiing, say, or tennis or golf or football. Now, something like that posture is what we need to strive for in reading. You can readily see the analogy between the posture (physicaland mental) of the outfielder, and that of the skilled driver inhis own car. You can probably think of other analogies froml totally exhaust me. nt in a fender. I don't know the car's weaknesses and strengths. Ijust cannot feel a PART of the car, as I can when I'm in my own vehicle. A half an hour of that sort of driving will give me little tension pains in my back and my neck; a day of it wil a great deal of fatigue. On the other hand, I despise driving other people's cars, even rented cars. I am always afraid I am going to put a de at a good speed. You lean a bit on the corners, as if to help the car; you are relaxed and easy, on the one hand, but totally alert on the other. You can drive like that all day without You do much the same thing if you are a good driver, behind the wheel of a car you know well, moving easily through traffic auseit was BOTH RELAXED AND ALERT, and you could stand that way for an hour without getting tired, but at the same time be ready to move in any direction at a second's notice. Ready for anything,committed to nothing, was the way he put it. most relaxed position; I know, because in my faroff youth I played the outfield. Our coach told us that we should assume that position bec Next time you go to a baseball game, watch the outfielders atthe moment the pitcher begins his windup. They stand easily, bent at the waist, with hands on knees and head up. It is a #Yis afraid of denting a fender #Nis afraid of running out of gas. 10. The author, when in someone else's car #Nis afraid of blowing the motor #Nis afraid of unfamiliar controls #Nis confident because of his skills #Nhas practiced on borrowed instruments #Nnever plays anyone else's instruments. 9. You would infer that the author #Nenjoys playing other people's musical instruments #Yis most comfortable with an instrument he knows #Nis neutral on the question #Nuncommitted and unready #none of these 8. The coach said the player should be #Ncommitted to anything, ready for anything #Nready for nothing, committed to anything #Yready for anything, committed to nothing #Ntension generates energy #Ntension is a result of poor posture. 7. You would infer from the article that #Ntension is the mark of the neurotic #Ytension should dwindle as skills build #Ntension is unavoidable #Ntired feet #Nstrained eyes 6. Driving in a rented car gives the author #Ypains in the neck #Nwhite knuckles #Nsore feet #Ybaseball #Npool 5. In his youth, the author played #Ngolf #Nfootball #Ntennis #Ngardening #Nracing 4. A pastime mentioned in the article is #Nchess #Yjuggling #Njogging #Nskiing #Nplaying golf #Yflying 3. Reading fast, ideally, is not like running faster and faster; it is more like #Nplaying the outfield #Ndriving #Ntennis #Nskiing 2. A sport NOT mentioned was #Ngolf #Ysoccer #Nfootball #Nshortstop #Youtfielders (1. The analogy from baseball asks you to watch the #Ncatcher #Npitcher #Nbasemen                 boutturning loose the arrow.") reader. You will recognize the old refrain: Musician, think ofthe music, not the instrument. Lover, think of the beloved, notyour love. Marksman, think of your target, not the weapon. (All together now: "Turn loose the arrow without thinking a The sooner you get past the mechanical business of reading fast, and into a concentration on the material which you are swimming through, the sooner you will become a really good more widely. Recognize that you are capable of understanding, and understanding with joy, all the things that anyone else is capable of understanding. e. Well, now it is time to begin thinking like a good reader. En- courage your curiosity about all sorts of things. Begin to read Now, the point of all this for you is that the same set of values and attitudes that brought us to reading fast by accidentcan help bring you there on purpose. We said, some time back, that you needed to act like a good reader before becoming onad no such difficulty; but many of us were told "Listen, I want youto READ that, not just look at the pictures." ("But sir, I am reading it." "Don't lie to me kid!" (POW!)) Usually it was someone else who discovered it for us. Some- where in the late middle ages, a monk was accused of witchcraft because he could read without moving his lips. Most of us h fast, quite without any conscious intent on our part. ine,we discovered that books were full of things worth knowing, and we plunged in to find out as many of those things as we possiblycould. Those of us who were lucky enough to avoid traps of sub-vocalization and mental hearing found ourselves reading e were reading fast; we never wanted to read fast; we never did anything to make ourselves read fast. We just wanted to read EVERYTHING. Somewhere along the l Among these off-the-wall things which one seems, as often as not, to fall into quite unexpectedly, was, for many of us, the business of reading fast and well. Most of us had no idea w so; one becomes lovable because of one's concern about other people. Nobody ever became smart by trying to get smart; one becomes smart by having a sincere interest in something. And soon. Most of us learned in high school that chasing after popular-ity was the surest way to avoid being popular. It seemed that only when one could refuse to give a hoot about popularity, one became popular. One does not become lovable by trying to ber- pose was to make motor cars. (He also said that if you make a lot of good motor cars, you do indeed make money; but that, he implied, was sort of an afterthought.) It is similar with a lot of other good things. Asked whetherthe purpose of the Ford Motor Car company was to make a profit for its stockholders, Henry Ford (the first) said no: its puy tofind themselves saints. Hunting for sainthood would, it seems to me, be the surest way of not finding it. ut how to become saints. St. Francis was preoccupied with his fellow creatures; St. Thomas was interested in reconciling revelation and philosophy; St. Paul had a church to found. I imagine that all of them were quite surprised and quite happ in fact, the question is a dumb 'how high is up' sort of question. That makes sense to me. I am pretty sure that none of the great saints of any church spent their energies worrying abo What I THINK koan means (and I hasten to add that I have not spent weeks and months meditating on it) is that trying to achieve holiness is not the way one achieves holiness; that,ne of my favorites goes like this: student asks teacher, "How may I achieve holiness?" Teacher takes off his sandal and beats student soundly about the head and shoulders (as a teacher, thatpart I like). Student achieves sudden enlightenment. a crack at it. Actually, a lot of these apparently dumb stories, which go bythe name of KOAN, seem to contain quite a bit of insight. O story. I know a lot of dumb stories. Ask my friends and family. I ought to be a great hit in that job, if I could only have universe; Zen teacher tells student a dumb story for weeks and months, until he understands. Then, doubtless, the student comes back with another question and is handed another dumb I think that's a nifty way to become an abbot; but I think the Zen teachers have a better routine. Zen student comes to teacher with heavy questions about the meaning of life and the scullion comes in and says "Hey guys, we've got to wash the dishes!" In response, everybody jumps up shouting, "That's it!"and the kitchen scullion becomes the new abbot. ing to decide on a successor to the recently dead saint and wise manwho had been abbot. All the monks are sitting around in medita-tive positions, each one saying something heavier than the next in hopes of being chosen the new headman, when the kitchen  One of the reasons that Zen Buddhism appeals to me is that ittickles my sense of the ridiculous. Zen literature is full of funny stories like the one about the abbey full of monks try           s isbecause it is always for all the marbles. And the reason they say there is no tomorrow is because there is never, at this verymoment, a tomorrow. We are always at risk, always at hazard. wasready to repent and hear the Good News. I knew then what every poet and child, every athlete and saint knows. The reason they say this is for all the marble andeverything of importance fell into place. I no longer cared what I would run at Boston, or indeed if I ran at Boston at all.What I cared about first was health, and then being able to run again. No past runs or future triumphs would comfort me. I suddenly and for all time intensify its value. Some years ago, that happened to me. I had run a personal best marathon in Oregon, and came home full of what I would accomplish at the Boston Marathon. Five days later, I came down with the flu, What we need is an element of present danger, an intimation of tragedy, some feeling of powerful implacable forces at our doorstep. We need a threat to the commonplace which will h, you will turn loose the arrow without thinking about turning loose the arrow, and then we will be... not DONE, but part way home. The bottom line, after all, is not how well you can do while the computer is keeping time on you or pushing you through a selection; the bottom line is HOW WELL YOU READ WHEN YOU ARE NOTTHINKING ABOUT READING FAST. Some day, before we get throug times before your head could forget it. It's the same thing with reading. Therefore, we ask you to be patient with us as we ask you to do things over and over again. you have to ask your hands. If you play guitar and are asked how to make a C minor chord, you move your left hand to find out. Your hand knows what your head has forgotten. But your head had to learn it first, and you had to practice it many Aristotle, "no royal road to learning." Nonetheless, all of us have accomplished just this in many fields of action. Those of you who type know that, if asked where "y" is on the keyboard, To make any such skill - downhill skiing, playing piano, reading music, baking bread - such second nature that one can hardly think about the details without messing them up, is not easy, nor is it accomplished immediately. "There is," said nch vowels; and your driving instructor knew that if you worked at it long enough you would be able to shift gears without thinkingabout it. about how fast you are reading. No really good reader does. Your parents would not have wanted you to think about walking all your life; your French teacher hoped fervently that you would come to the place where you could forget all about Fre At any rate, if you come out of this course where we hope youwill, that is where you will be. We do not expect, for heaven'ssake, that you are going to spend the rest of your life worrying a- zines over the past decade, have found that meditation before a game immensely improves their performance. "Zen tennis" was a term much bandied about for a while. master. Many great American athletes have achieved a hard-won naturalness on the playing field simply by practicing until the mind could take for granted what the body was being asked to do.Others, as you will know if you have been reading sports mag That is where we hope you come out. How do you get there? The eastern route has typically been meditation; the western, practice. They are not as far apart as one might think. Which approach works better seems to vary with student and with ed "instinct shooting" of firearms is now being taught in our country.) That person had thoroughly learned how to read well; he had learned how to turn loose the arrow without thinking about the bow, or the arrow or turning loose. (A thing sometimes cally more than I am conscious of my heart beating. Now," he con- tinued, "I will never have to worry about the speed at which I am reading again. I shall just read, and the speed will take care of itself." Learning to read fast is the same thing. "Now I have it," a student once said. "Now I know how to read without thinking about reading, without being conscious that I am reading, ann "A" and a "T" and made CAT out of it. Later on, we could forgetabout that process and just read "cat" directly. d ofconscious decision-making about picking up one foot after another. Similarly, with reading, we at one stage read a "C" and a" But the adult, or even the older child, never thinks about that.He doesn't even think "Now I will walk; now I am walking; now I will stop walking." Only if he is unlucky enough, later in life, to suffer a little stroke, will he go back to that kin Or, again: when you were a toddler, every step was a matter of conscious volition. You can almost hear the wheels going around in a child's head: "Which foot do I begin with here? is the first person plural of the future tense and therefore ends in -erons." Later on, when you have mastered the language, you will not even think of those things. sciously. "Ah," you say to yourself, "that is a French u or a German ch, and I must pronounce that strange and alien sound in a peculiar way which I have learned." Likewise, you consciouslyobey the new rules of grammar which you have learned: "This If you already know something about oriental thought, maybe that makes perfectly obvious sense to you. If you are, like me,a western rationalist, it may take a bit of thinking about. When you begin to learn a language, you make each sound con-day,out of fatigue or boredom or inattention, Herrigel released thearrow without being conscious of it. The master bowed to him. "You did not shoot," he said. "IT shot." Of course, trying to turn loose an arrow without thinking about turning it loose is one of those impossible things like not thinking of a blue giraffe: possible as long as one is not trying to do it, impossible if one is trying. Finally, one his student, your front hand will raise up and you will botch your aim. Only when the arrow is released almost of itself, almost without consciousness on your part, will it be well shot. When the Zen master was satisfied - after several weeks - that the bow was being "drawn spiritually," he instructed his student to draw an arrow back and release it without thinking ofreleasing it. If you think about turning it loose, he told r an obviously macho construct, or readiness to take life, as it is a sort of Samurai self-possession without the usual accompanying self-consciousness. A useful parallel is found in the books of Carlos Castenada, whose old Native American shaman, Don Juan, is always advising his students to do things "like a warrior." I take it that the "warrior" pose is not so much a matter of overt hostility, o exercises in this course, and for many of the articles we have asked you to read, is that we believe they will help you to do just that. Because I have found that, while at least half of learning anything is practice, the rest (and maybe the hardest) is getting your head right. Part of the reason for many of thein anything like its totality, but a western translation which might help might read something like this: "Before you begin to try to do something, it is useful to first get your head right." One of the interesting things which the Zen master told Dr. Herrigel was that he must "draw the bow spiritually." Not beinga Zen master, I cannot presume to understand that direction master Zen in the little time he had (many people have dedicatedlifetimes to do this), he decided to study an art associated with that philosophy. Thus he hoped to gain some insight into the system as a whole. He chose to study archery. andthought to improve his time while there in the study of Orientalthought. Realizing, sensibly enough, that he could hardly hope to Some time back, a book appeared entitled Zen in the Art of Archery (not to be confused with the book of similar title aboutthe maintenance of motorcycles). The author, a German philo- sophy professor, had gone to teach at a Japanese university, #NFaulkner #Ynone of these. 10. An author mentioned was #NTwain #NShakespeare #NHemingway #Nmeditate #Ynone of these. 9. The author hopes that you #Npractice speed reading the rest of your life #Ntake up archery #Nstudy Zen #Ydrawing the bow spiritually #Nreleasing the arrow spiritually #Nnone of these. 8. What the author expresses as "getting your head right" was expressed by the Zen master as #Nstanding with proper spirit #Nbehaving like a warrior #Ntranslate from your second language #Nmeditate #Yuse the grammar without thinking about it. 7. You would infer from the article that when you speak your native language, you #Nconsciously obey the rules of grammar #Nconsciously make the proper sounds #Nnot thinking of a spotted turtle #Nnot thinking of Zen philosophy #Nnot thinking of shooting a rifle. 6. Not thinking about turning loose the arrow is, the author says, like #Ynot thinking of a blue giraffe #Nnot thinking of a pink elephant #YAristotle #NDescartes. 5. A philosopher mentioned was #NHegel #NPlato #NAristophanes #Nshifting gears #Ydigging a ditch. 4. Reading well is NOT like #Ndownhill skiing #Nplaying guitar #Nwalking #Nshortstops #Ntight ends. 3. Zen meditation was mentioned as being used by American #Nhalfbacks #Ytennis players #Nsoccer players #NItalian #NDutch. 2. A language mentioned in the article was #NSpanish #NRussian #YGerman #NDon Lope #NDon Sancho. 81. A Native American shaman was named #YDon Juan #NDon Carlos #NDon Manuel                                  oetsand saints and athletes to some degree? Yet we refuse to make the commitment. Refuse to accept our own reality and work with it. So we live in the might-have-been world of the past and thenever-will-be world of the future. h what he did yesterday, or would even bother thinking about it. Their pure concern is the present. Why should we common folk be different? Are we not all p my children how not to stall a car, the likelihood that I will stall my car becomes overwhelming. We have already dealt with that whole line of thought in another article. And even that is a bit of a contradiction, because as soon asyou begin to worry about comprehending, your comprehension begins to suffer. As long as I don't worry about stalling my car, everything is fine; as soon as I begin to teach one of s facts. What you do with your memory, then, is not really a problem dealt with in this course; your ability to comprehend is what we are concerned about. can remember anything. Without such motivation, what I remembertends to be largely (as far as I can tell) a matter of chance, afearful and irrational hodgepodge of tag-lines from bad plays, botched pool shots, casual conversations, and totally uselesn the subject can be quickly summed up: once you comprehend some- thing, the remembering of that thing is largely a matter of perceived motivation. Give me enough real motivation, and I ed, most of us would be supremely unqualified to do so. I, for example, can manage to forget my wife's office phone number three times a day, while at the same time remembering every wordof Act III, Scene ii of King Lear. What little we do know o that every child is not an only child. But, while our ability to forget is often a blessing, it is equally often an annoyance. It is not our purpose here to give a memory course. Inde Mercifully enough, we do not remember everything we compre- hend. I do not, nor do I wish to, remember every detail of my last visit to my dentist. Women, I am told, forget a good deal about the trials of childbirth, which accounts for the fact "Shoe" with a different sort of attention; and when finished, I would have filed it under "Keep for a while" rather than under "Discard." I was reading. I was simply passing an idle moment between coffeeand the boiled egg. Now, had I been planning a learned paper for next year's Popular Culture Convention, which would deal with the impact of the strip "Shoe," then I would have read ut now, at two in the afternoon, I cannot remember what happened ina particular comic strip. Did I understand while I read? Of course. Why do I not remember? Because I knew while I was reading that I would have no particular future use for what I am writing. But if you come up to me in ten years and ask me aboutit, it is unlikely I shall remember anything about the matter. This morning I read the comic strips in the morning paper; bsly,in order to retain one must first comprehend; but a great many things that are comprehended are not retained for any long period of time. At this very moment, as I am writing these words, I comprehend perfectly well (well, PRETTY well) what people confuse retention with comprehension: "How well do you comprehend, I mean retain, at 1000 words per minute?" It seems to me these are two different questions. Obviou forwhat we can understand, as well as what we need to understand, becomes a way of life. A similar observation may be made about retention. Many and learned Muslim scholars have read and reread the words delivered by the Messenger of God; and the more they study, the more likely they are to confess that what they understand is insignificant in comparison with what they do not. Settlingbut none of us is likely to achieve it in this world. Learned rabbis have been pouring over the Talmud for decades; learned priests have been immersing themselves in the Gospels for years; n asfast as it could be processed; that is, to read as fast as one could understand, as well as one wished to understand. It is, as we have seen, a bit silly to say "I want to understand it ALL, one hundred percent." As an ideal, that is wonderful; Now, as we have indicated before, the speed of understanding is, at almost any level, considerably faster than the speed of speech, the speed of hearing, and most people's speed of reading. The ideal, of course, would be to input informatio mildly interested Atlanta Braves fan. Naturally, the way my father reads and understands the sports pages and the way I do are two totally different matters. ten multiple-guess questions in his hot little hand. A different reader might understand differently. My father, for instance, is a baseball nut--one of those guys who remembers everybody's batting average back to 1916. I, on the other hand, am your Here are a few more points to consider. First, in real life we are rarely tested on our reading comprehension. I read the paper in the morning, and I know whether or not I understand what I read without some gnome popping out of a closet with and experience of the reader as they are of the reader's reading skill; and (3) the quiz scores in this course are to be comparedwith each other rather than some ideal score. When we dealt with comprehension last time, we emphasized these points: (1) everybody understands something, but nobody understands everything; (2) tests of comprehension are as much a measurement of the whims of the test-maker and the tastes #Nno change in comprehension #Nheadaches #Neyestrain. 10. Worrying about comprehension while reading is likely to lead to #Ydecreased comprehension #Nincreased comprehension #Nthe Medieval Studies Convention #Nthe Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. 9. The author mentions #Nthe Modern Language Association Convention #Nthe Science Fiction Research Convention #Ythe Popular Culture Convention er way around #Ncomprehension and memory are necessary to each other #Ncomprehension and memory are unrelated to each other #Nimprovement in memory may impede comprehension. 8. You would infer from the article that #Ycomprehension is necessary for memory, but not the other way around #Nmemory is necessary for comprehension, but not the oth #Nlearning lines of Shakespeare #Nmemorizing baseball statistics #Nnone of these. 7. You would infer from the article that one might improve one's memory by #Yconsciously finding motivation #Ntaking a memory course #Ntheir husband's office phones #Ythe trials of birth. 6. Many women, the author says, forget #Ntheir childhoods #Ntheir weddings #Ntheir divorces #NRomeo and Juliet #Nnone of these. 5. The author can remember a scene from #NHamlet #YKing Lear #NMacbeth #Ythe Talmud #Nnone of these. 4. Which of these is mentioned? #Nthe Torah #Nthe Kama Sutra #Nthe Apocrypha #NNew York Mets #NChicago Cubs. 3. The author is a fan of the #YAtlanta Braves #NCleveland Indians #NDetroit Tigers #Ya baseball fan #Nnone of these. 2. The author's father is #Na soccer fan #Na football fan #Na hockey fan #NMary Worth #Nnone of these. ,1. The article mentions the comic strip #NPogo #NB.C. #YShoe                     it for the saint or the athlete. Their characteristic fall from grace is in the contemplation of future triumphs. Heaven, per- haps, or a masterpiece, or a world's record. No athlete ever lived, or saint or poet for that matter, who was content witlf has been willing to settle for a living; how much there is on earth, how inexplicable, marvelous and endless creation is." For such a man, Perfection Past is no temptation. Nor is n't comprehend the stuff about which the questions were asked very well, you may well have understood a bunch of other stuff which the test-maker did not! mentof your comprehension. If you began at 60% and ended at 20%, you probably didn't comprehend as well at the end as at the start; on the other hand, if you began and ended at 40%, you didn't do your comprehension any harm; and, although you did All we can say, really, is that the same person made up most of the tests in this course, and one is likely to be about as good or as bad as the next; and, over the period of the course, you are likely to get some sort of rough comparative measureo your own previous experience and interests; part to the way in which tests were made; and part to the skill or lack of skill with which you read. ionsand you were told that your score was over 40, or 60, or 100%, or whatever. After that, you took other tests, and your score went up sometimes and down sometimes. Part of that up and down is to be attributed to the material you were reading; part t Nevertheless, in a course like this, it is important to have some sort of measurement of comprehension. When you did the first test in the New Student lesson, you answered ten quest stand"; that nobody can say, on the one hand, that she or he understands all there is to know on any subject, however small; and that, conversely, nobody, however dim of mind or uninformed on a subject, can be said to know absolutely nothing. Does that mean, then, that all knowledge is futile? Of coursenot. It does seem to mean that all human knowledge is tentativeand incomplete; that all human statements should be preceded with "as far as we now know" or "as nearly as we can under- con-structed and worked out. The more we work at things, then, the more it becomes obvious that true knowledge, true understanding,is an illusion that flees forever in the front of us as fast as we seem to be closing in on it. never meet, however far they are extended? Likely not; and the proof is that non-Euclidian geometries, in which any or all of these axioms are not true, have been to be incomplete if we take a moment to examine the premises on which the Euclidian geometry is based: do we really understand WHY things equal to the same thing are equal to each other? HOWa line can have only one dimension? WHY parallel lines can highest form of earthly knowledge, and why his school had a signover the door: "If you don't know geometry, you can't come in.") Even that sort of complete comprehension, however, provesg something completely when we are working out a mathematical proof than at any other time; an exercise in plane geometry, forexample, gives us the feeling of really containing something totally. (That may be why Plato thought that math was the z #??     İҠ:İҠİҠ*İҠ*İҠİҠİҠ2İҠ*İҠİҠ> İҠ!İҠ.İҠ. The entertainer continues to read each of the messages in thesame manner, leaving an audience completely mystified and badly puzzled as to the way and means employed. After each question the medium says: "You do not know me, sir. Nor could I have received that thought from anyone else." The spectator who wrote the question in each instance admits,upon being questioned by the entertainer, that the medium is right. Taking a slip from the hat, he holds it unopened to his forehead, reads what is written on it and supplies a suitable answer. "Now, sir, will you kindly mix these messages in this hat I hold? Thank you." d orthe name of some friend or relative who has passed away on your slips; sign them with either your full name or initials, fold them any way you care to, and place them into this hat as I passit among you. "I shall proceed first to distribute a number of slips of paper among you." (This is done.) "I wish you to write any short message you desire answere "I use no such methods. I haven't the time nor the staff necessary. I do this message reading in a spirit of mystifica- tion and fun. I am not a spiritualist, but a performer who willdo my best to mystify and entertain you. systems, an assistant gathering the messages and giving the required information to the 'spirit reader' via notes in lead pencil on the ends of envelopes. rit message giver who offers tidy sums of money to anyone proving he is either a guesser or tampers in any way with the messages. "Truth is, these faking clowns use the most simple of "You would laugh at me if I were to claim any sort of spirit aid, for which I wouldn't blame you. But bear this cold fact in mind: there are thousands of intelligent people who sit in large halls for hours listening to the smooth voice of a spi "I do not hear spirit voices here and there because you are not spiritualists who would believe such ordinary commonplace impositions, nor do I claim any supernatural powers. pump information from the writers of messages, I will demon- strate that I am able to read the messages you will write as well as give answers in keeping with your thoughts. rit message readers work. "There are many different methods, and as I am unable to depend upon twenty or more confederates who mix with you and "I am not so fortunate as to be able to collect for this nexteffect five dollars a minute from gullible, misguided people whobelieve in spirits," patters the psuedo medium, "but I will try and give you, ladies and gentlemen, my conception of how spi           8. Reading very slowly tends to #Nincrease concentration #Nenrich one's retirement #Nresult in improved comprehension #Nthe working class #Nroyalty 7. The novel appealed to #Nthe old clerical class of literates #Nthe upper class #Ythe middle class #N250 words per minute #N300 words per minute 6. Most people do not talk more rapidly than #N100 words per minute #N150 words per minute #Y200 words per minute #N200 words per minute #N250 words per minute #N300 words per minute. 5. If you read four hours a day, you can read an extra two books a week if you increase your speed #Y100 words per minute #N150 words per minute #Nmimeograph machines #Nthe spirit duplicator #Ncommunications satellites. 4. One method of spreading information which was NOT mentioned was #NTV #Yradio #Ytens of thousands of dollars #Nhundreds of thousands of dollars. 3. In Chaucer's day, twenty volumes would cost in the #Ntens of dollars #Nhundreds of dollars #Nthousands of dollars #Nthe discovery of the New World #Nthe new popularity of the novel #Nimproved transportation. 2. One of the reasons for the information explosion which began in the Renaissance was given as #Nimproved sanitation #Ythe invention of moveable type #Nto pass tests #Yto cope with the rapid pace of change. 01. The underlying reason for learning to read fast is #Nto become a better student #Nto handle one's job better #Nto enrich one's old age                highrate of change was the introduction of printing with moveable type. In the Middle Ages, the "twenty volumes of Aristotle, bound in black and red" which the clerk in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales possessed, would have cost the equivalent of perhaps ftionand communication all worked together to put an end to the era of somewhat slower change which we call the Middle Ages. One of the important elements which helped fuel that new When this era began, naturally, depends upon your perspec- tive. Many historians see it as beginning in the Renaissance, when improvements in food production, sanitation, transporta There are as many reasons for wanting to read fast as there are literate people, but all of them stem from a very important and increasingly apparent fact: we are living in an era of VERY RAPID CHANGE. you've awakened to the fact that your novel-reading pace is at a crawl, and ten minutes of reading at that speed puts you into a sound and dreamless sleep. Maybe you have recently retired and have accumulated a fifty-year backlog of things you've always wanted to read. Unfortun- ately, after fifty years of slogging through office memos, Or you are a person who has just moved into a position of newresponsibility, and you have discovered that being an executive means shuffling far too many papers, carrying a heavier brief- case full of "homework," and having less time to yourself. lack information, but rather you cannot deal with the informa- tion you do have quickly enough. Or perhaps you have just gone through a set of exams - SATs or the like - and the results were worse than you anticipated. Maybe it has occurred to you that it is not so much that you Maybe you are a student who is beginning to realize that there are more assignments than you can conveniently attend to; that just READING, to say nothing of STUDYING your assignments is seriously cutting into your loafing and socializing time. Why do you want to read fast, anyhow? Something got you or somebody else to unbelt the money for this program, to say nothing of the investment you already have in your computer. #Nby mid-course #Nby the end of the course. 10. You should be reading a hundred words a minute faster #Nimmediately #Nbefore the end of your first lesson #Ybefore the end of your second lesson #Na return to the old ways of doing things #Nnone of these. 9. In the future, you would infer, we may look for #Na slower rate of change #Nabout the same rate of change #Yan increased rate of change #Nimpoverish one's mind #Yput one to sleep. You will do much better than that. But even a modest gain of100 words per minute would bring you an extra hundred books a year. That would be worth doing - and you'll probably have gained that extra hundred words a minute before you have words; in a day, an extra 24,000 words. In a week of five days,you would read 120,000 more words than you are reading now, in no more time: an equivalent of two ordinary-sized books. Say you read, on and off the job, about four hours a day. Suppose you increase your speed a modest 100 words per minute. This would mean that in an hour you would read an extra 6000 creep along at 250 to 350 words per minute. Even a modest increase in that speed can result in an enormous increase of information. hat.Most people do not talk much faster than 200 words per minute, if that fast. We can only witness so many events, even with TV to help us. What we CAN do to help us accumulate more informa- tion is to increase the speed at which we read. Most peopleh would make what has happened since the invention of printing seem a mere beginning. We can only listen to so much, and relatively slowly at t Where it all will end is impossible to foretell; but it seemsthe widespread use of computers and communications satellites will inevitably bring about an explosion of information whicppedoffice to turn out reading matter by the ream. became cheaper still, so much so that by the 1940s one could buya paperback book with the wages of a laborer's half-hour. The typewriter, the spirit duplicator, the mimeograph machine and later, the photocopier, made it easier yet for any well-equiles from their birthplace - in fact or in mind. With the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' development of mechanical typesetting and power presses, printed material class reader began to delve into history, geography and science in a way that would have amazed his ancestors who, unless they became involved in a war, never ventured more than twenty mi appealed to the growing middle class rather than to the old-timeclerical class of literates, began to flower. The same middle As soon as books became cheaper, and more people started reading, the information explosion began to occur. Over the next couple of centuries, such art forms as the novel, whichr- getting that there just wasn't that much around to read. For Charlemagne, literacy would have been about as useful as the ability to program a computer would be for a resident of the Sahara today. When books became cheaper, it became worth while for the ordinary man to learn how to read. We are inclined to look downour noses at illiterate medieval rulers like Charlemagne, foortyor fifty thousand dollars in today's money. That was because each letter in each copy had to be copied by hand. Printing made books much cheaper. ost mystifying spirit effects known; for its very simplicity is unfathomable by the average audience. outthe hat containing the messages, as there is no evidence now remaining to give away the trick. In the hands of a capable performer, this is one of the m sealed message reading, and is very effective when properly presented. At the end of the question reading the entertainer passes The remaining messages are read in this same way, leaving theoriginal prepared message, written by the assistant, until the last. This trick is also known as the "one ahead" method of He pretends to read the next slip taken from the hat, but again he is just mentally reciting from memory the message and name he has just learned. He then opens the message held in his hand as if to verify that he was right, but in reality to memorize the question actually written on that sheet of paper. He does not open the message in his hand until after he has read it, and after he has given a suitable answer. of the audience. This he pretends to mentally read, but in reality he reads the prearranged message and name from the slip the assistant wrote. The medium begins by placing the hat containing the messages on a small table which stands in front of him. He takes out oneof the folded slips which he knows has been written by a member This "planted" message is folded by the assistant in a way that the performer will have no difficulty in locating it among all the other messages in the hat. The entertainer has a secret assistant seated among the spectators who writes a certain name and message, as prearrangedbetween them, before the entertainment begins. supernatural means of accomplishing an effect which is nothing more than a simple conjuring trick. Secret: This is an excellent effect and much in use by so- called spirit message reading mediums who falsely lay claim to finished your second lesson. 8. When you do something too slowly, you may also do it badly because of #Yboredom #Nlack of training #Ydon't have any fun #Nread three books a day #Nare fast drivers 7. According to the selection, many people mistakenly think that fast readers #Nread all the time #Nhave had a lot of training #Nweep #Napplaud #Nwalk out 6. "I'll read it later when I get out of college and have time" would be likely to make an older audience #Nsneer #Ylaugh #Nbecause of good motivation #Yfor fun 5. Most good readers read fast #Nbecause of good training #Nbecause they want to improve themselves #Nto keep up with the world #Nmalnutrition #Ndistraction 4. Bookworms generally don't read fast because of #Ylack of motivation #Nstupidity #Neyestrain #Nat the right time of day #Nwith the right instruction #Yat the right speed 3. From the article, you would gather that a task is most enjoyable when done #Nwith the right attitude #Nin the right company #N52,000 #N100,000 #Y365,000 2. In a year, the number of new books produced in the world is about #N1,000 #N12,000 #Ythree books a year #Nthree books a day (1. The average American college graduate reads #Na book a month #Nsix books a year #Na book a week                ou have a good idea of what a proper speed is on the road; and if your speedometer doesn't show you, a man with a badge probably will. the congestion and "open 'er up a little." Going too fast is silly,but going too slow can be just as dumb. Now, the difference between driving and reading is that y Furthermore, driving it at 55-60 would be more fun. If you live in a city and sometimes find yourself in the middle of the rush hour crawl, you know what a relief it is to get out of likely that your boredom and wandering attention would make you a danger to your fellow motorists, or cause you to drop the car into a ditch. not part of this game.) Driving it too fast, say 90 miles an hour, will put a terrible strain on you, to say nothing of endangeringlife and limb. But driving that distance too slowly, at 20 miles an hour, would be just as frustrating. In fact, it isoingit faster. Suppose, for example, you have to drive from New York to Chicago. (Suppose also that police cars and speedtraps are well, and the process will not be fun. But the other extreme isjust as agonizing: doing something too slowly gets boring, and your mind wanders, and in the end it is more tiresome than d The notion that doing things slowly is fun, while doing them fast is not, does not hold up under inspection. Of course, if you have to do something at an impossible speed, you won't do it g like three books a year - in a world that introduces a thousand new books a day! Somewhere along the road, people have fallen away from books. read slowly to enjoy the material. Often, when people are askedabout the last book they read, they say it was so many years ago they have forgotten its name but that it was very enjoyable indeed. The average American college graduate reads somethin One of the misapprehensions that most people have about what is called speed reading is that it is a lot of work. Sometimes people argue that they don't want to read fast; they want to #Nwait until you can clear some time #Ystart now #Nforget it 10. You would infer that if you want to do something, good advice would be #Nread a good book on the subject #Nhire a good teacher #YWashington would have reacted to 55 miles an hour #NFranklin would have reacted to a jet plane #NJefferson would have reacted to a road race 9. People react to the idea of reading at 1000 WPM, the article says, as #NBetsy Ross would have reacted to a Cadillac #NMoses would have reacted to a rocket #Nfatigue #Nover-compensation #Nlack of practice Numbers of people do the same thing in reverse. They avoid reality by living in the past. Nostalgia is their way of life. For them the good old days will never be equaled. Or emulated, for that matter, since these people rarely bestir themselvesive at work with no memory of breakfast and no idea of what kind of day it is. I am in perpetual concern or rumination about the future. day for the memory of yesterday or the fantasy of tomorrow. We desire to live anywhere but in the present. I see that in myself. I start the day with an agenda of things to be done that makes me completely oblivious of what I'm doing. I arr I agree. Life, except for a favored few, like poets and children and athletes and saints, is pretty much of a bore. Given the choice, most of us would give up the reality of to "Living the good life," wrote Nikolai Berdayaev, "is fre- quently dull and flat and commonplace." Our greatest problem, he claimed, is to make it fiery and creative and capable of spiritual struggle.          Youreally ought to be seeing that your endeavor to increase speed and comprehension not only allows you to read much more in less time, but enables you to enjoy more. Running is more fun than crawling. ch work. Your reading has probably improved since you started thiscourse; just turning your awareness to it is an excellent start.Sometimes you may feel that you are pushing more than is really comfortable, or results are not obvious enough to suit you. So often people say they will read when the kids are grown orwhen they retire or when they are too immobile to play golf. Reading has the unfortunate and unfair image of being too mu through three books in a day's time, comfortably. The good reader is typically a person who has sixteen other plates in theair and still wants to read and learn and know a whole lot more. Most good readers are emphatically not bookworms. There are too many other enjoyments wandering around loose. So reading gets sandwiched in among working at gardening and making music and enjoying cuisine; and yet it is still possible to get you surely enjoy spending the money you earn. Certainly you enjoyedacquiring this computer program! There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of happiness. minute sounds to them about the same as driving a car at 55 mph would have sounded to George Washington. Many people read fast simply because they enjoy it. Isn't that, after all, why most people do anything? You may or may not enjoy your job, but No such risk is involved in reading fast. Most people don'trealize how quickly and effectively they can read, with practiceand proper training, so the idea of reading 1000-1500 words per n- utes' worth of dishes. Not only will he complain bitterly that his whole evening has been ruined, but he doesn't do as good a job as he would if he got to it and finished in twenty minutes. We may approve of the 55 mph speed limit on grounds of conse Do something too slowly, and it is almost certain that you will mess it up. Everyone knows a person who, when it is his turn to do the dishes, can spend three hours doing twenty mily. And what was that all about? He was just too smart for 250 wpm. His head just didn't run well that slowly, any more than an automobile engine will run at a very slow speed. Run an engine too slowly, and it will stall. So will your head. 750 wpm - but his comprehension kept bumping around 30 to 50%. Finally, when his speed reached 1250, his comprehension came in loud and clear at 70%. From then on (he finished at about 3000 wpm), his comprehension ran 70, 80, and 90% almost continualas the test was concerned, he was a klutz; yet anyone could see that the test had to be wrong! As sessions went on, his speed went up and up - 350, 450,ed in a speed reading class. One student was a successful middle- aged man, obviously good at what he did, and obviously very intelligent. But on the first selection, which he read at about250 wpm, he scored a resounding 30% comprehension. As far her speed; speed is one of the most important ways to achieve concentration in reading. Here is a dramatic example of this principle which occurr- tration. A lot of people have found meditation techniques, re- laxation exercises, and other methods very useful. And a posi- tive attitude must be emphasized as important. But concentra- tion becomes a lot easier as you begin to do things at a hig my reading," a reasonable response is, "You're not reading fast enough." Changing your speed is not the only way to achieve concenn- trol of the rate of input and, once you learn how, you can speedup your reading rate until it matches the speed of your thought.Then you'll achieve real concentration, almost without being aware of it. Whenever someone says, "I can't concentrate on tremendous effort to center all one's thoughts on what the speaker is saying. When you read, the process is much easier. You are in coy- where near as fast as you can think; and that is why, in a room-ful of people listening to a lecture, you will see a quarter to a third of them in a glass-eyed trance. Listening really well, as we shall see in more detail in later readings, involves ae happening much more slowly than the speed of your thoughts. That is why it is so terribly hard for a lot of people reallyto listen to other people. Nobody in this world can talk an For most people, however, concentration is not so much a matter of will-power as it is of doing things at the proper speeds. And it is really hard to concentrate when things ar "I'm sure I could read faster," people often say, "if only I could learn to concentrate." These people think that concentra-tion is a matter of will-power, and almost anybody is willing toadmit that he or she has no will-power.           now.They are eternally present. And present with intensity and participation and commitment. They have to be. When the athlete, for instance, turns his attention from the decision to be made this and every second, he invites disaster. Should to any activity. But for those active in mind and heart and body, the child and the poet, the saint and the athlete, the time is always ed to; and all of it was fascinating, simply fascinating! Garibaldi, the class had to be moved into the big auditorium because word would get out and half the town would show up.) Sonow a generation of students knows more about British constitu- tional history and Giuseppe Garibaldi than anyone really car fascinating too). The Buzzer never took attendance, and there were always more people in the room than had signed up for the course. (And when he was teaching his favorite course, Italian History, and got close to talking about his hero, Giuseppe Partly, people came to see the fun; but mainly they kept coming because the Buzzer thought that what he was teaching was fascinating, simply fascinating (and everyone else found it - year-old. He stormed around the platform like a caged animal, banged on the blackboard with his walking stick, and once every week or two forgot where he was and walked right off the edge ofthe platform. d upand down his chest with a complicated hearing aid which gave himthe appearance of a telephone switchboard. That's where the nickname came from. At that time, he was nearly ready to retire, but he lectured with the fire and energy of a twenty Walter P. "Buzzer" Hall. Part of the allure was that the Buzzer was a picturesque and interesting man. He was short and very dapper, and decorate. At Princeton University in the '50s, there was a course called "British Constitutional History of the Nineteenth Cen- tury." That's the sort of title a college student could gag on!But people signed up for it because the teacher was the late You know that's true, if you think about it. Everyone has had a teacher, somewhere along the line in school, who took a subject thought to be hateful and made it simply fascinating!" Hold the belief that everything is interesting and there ARE NO BORING SUBJECTS! (There are boring writers, bored readers, boring speakers, and bored listeners; but there aren't any boring subjects.) en thinking about it. A related complaint is "I'm sure I could read faster if I were interested in the material; but this stuff is so boring If, then, you find reading difficult because your mind wanders, keep on cranking up the speed; pretty soon you'll be moving along at a clip that won't give you time for wool- gathering, and concentration will come about without your evrva-tion and safety, but most of us get more easily bored at 55 thanwe did at 75 a few years ago. 8. The publication mentioned in this article is #NScientific Discoveries in the U.S. #NThe Scientific Review #NThe Academy's Scientific Discoveries #Nassigned his nephew the task of revamping the design #Nretired from the hectic world of inventions #Yworked on other things but eventually improved the phonograph. 7. Once the original version of the phonograph was created, Edison #Nabandoned the invention since no one seemed interested #Ndedicated the next ten years to its perfection #Nwas considered an evil influence #Nelectrocuted one of Edison's top assistants. 6. After the initial introduction of the phonograph, it #Nbecame Edison's biggest selling invention of all time #Ysat in a laboratory for ten years #Nwas used by radio stations to play opera to the public #Nto play music in reverse to create new sounds #Yto turn lights on and off by audio signal #Nto help actors rehearse their lines. 5. One of the uses NOT expected by Edison for the talking machine was #Nto make clocks talk #Nto read to the blind or unlearned #Ndisbelief #Napprehension. 4. This presentation was met by the audience with #Yenthusiastic uproar #Napathy #Nanger, suspecting witchcraft was involved #Ythe Academy of Science #Nthe Louvre. 3. The presentation of the phonograph in Paris took place at #Nthe Arch of Triumph #Nthe University of France #Nthe Technical Academy #NPentellis #NPythagorus #NSid. 2. The representative who unveiled the phonograph in Paris was named #NRussetts #YPuskas #Na student in a university #Nafflicted with arthritis #Yalready well known for his inventions. <1. At the time of his invention of the phonograph, Thomas Edison was #Nunknown #Nbroke                     demywas requested to speak into the machine. In a loud clear voice he said: "The Academy thanks Mr. Edison for this interesting message." he original voice, which completely baffled the audience. They were, it seemed, convinced that some mystery was afoot. The lowness of the pitch was actually due to the crank's being turned at insufficient speed. Now, the President of the Aca This time it contained both question and answer, and the machine repeated in a humorous way: "Mister phonograph, do you speak French?" "Yessir." These words were clearly understood by everyone, but were spoken at a lower pitch than that of tatusrepeat the same words with all the inflections of the speaker's voice. The success was such that the distinguished company burst into applause and requested him to repeat the experiment. The American spoke a new sentence into the apparatus. r. Puskas stood directly in front of the apparatus and said in a loud voice and strong English accent: "The phonograph presents its compliments to the Academy of Sciences." A few moments later, amid a profound silence, the audience heard the appar enjoyable evening with it. The members had turned up in large numbers, and every seat in the public gallery was taken. When the meeting opened, Med his machine to the requirements of everyday use, and sent his representative, Puskas, with an improved model to Paris where itwas presented to the members of the French Academy of Sciences on March 11, l877. The learned society spent an unusually ful machine also reached Europe. There, however, no one believed inthe possibility of an apparatus capable of recording the spoken word and reproducing it again; `the usual American humbug' was the consensus of opinion. In the meantime, Edison had adaptg machine. The young man was Thomas Alva Edison, already well known for various successful inventions. The rumors about this wonder invention, he turned a crank and, to the amazement of those present, the apparatus said: "Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?" And so the instrument spoke for itself, introducing itself as the `phonograph' or talkin In December l877, a young man entered the editorial office of the "Scientific American" and showed the people there a simple machine of his own design which he had completed only the day before. Having given a brief explanation of his #Yused a tube of hardened wax for recording #Nreproduced sound inferior to that of the original machine. 10. Edison's revised version of the phonograph #Nrecorded on aluminum plates #Nrecorded on magnetic tape #Ndid not allow more than one recording to be made #Y1877-1887 #N1902-1912 #Nnone of these. 9. The years between which the events in this article took place are #N1847-1857 #N1897-1907 #NScientists Quarterly #YThe Scientific American. phonograph. Edison had no time to perfect his invention; he waspreoccupied with other problems concerning electric lighting andheating, plus his work on the telegraph and telephone. However,a man like Edison could not entirely abandon an idea once coas relegated as a curiosity, and it is difficult to believe that inhis time, Edison harbored such expectations of his machine. Ten years elapsed in which no improvement was made on the In the first ten years of its existence, the phonograph did not fulfill these expectations. To his bitter disappointment, Edison's best-loved invention was not put to any practical uses.It never got beyond the scientist's laboratory to which it w "It will become an addition to the telephone and store important conversations." "It will reproduce the voices of relatives and loved ones faraway, or record the voices of children and the last words of thedying. "It can be used to make toys and even clocks talk. "Actors can use it to memorize and rehearse their lines. "It can teach languages. Had Stanley had a phonograph at hisdisposal, he might have collected for the world's scholars all the dialects of Central Africa. t back in reverse, an entirely new aria can be produced. "It can read to the blind, or to those who can't read. "The phonograph may also be used as a composer of music. Whenever a beloved aria has been sung, it may be stored by the machine and reproduced on countless occasions. By playing i skilled speaker already referred to. "The phonograph will sing with voices; at home, grand opera may be enjoyed every night at the cost of a few pence. "An accomplished reader can speak stories into the phono- graph. The entire story can be recorded on a fairly small tinfoil, which can be duplicated millions of times. Families at home can listen to the story, read to perfection by the en send the tinfoil with the recording to his correspondents who play it back on their own phonograph. Such letters, addressed to persons who do not own a phonograph, can be copied by an employee of a phonographic agency. replied. "It will replace stenographers. When someone has many letters to write, he will dictate them to the phonograph, th apparatus was loudly acclaimed by large audiences. "What do you think the phonograph can be used for?" a visitoronce asked Edison. "For a multitude of purposes," Edison This presentation in the French Academy contributed greatly to the rapid spread of the fame of the new machine, causing manypeople to put it to the test themselves or at least to attend the demonstrations which were given. At each exhibition the From that point on, there was complete uproar so that it was only with the utmost effort that the Chairman succeeded in re- storing normal order. And the saint, for all his talk of heaven and hereafter, knows that everywhere is right here, that all of time is right now, and that every man exists in the person in front of him. He knows that every instant he must choose and continue to his concentration falter, should his mind wander to the next hole, the next set, the next inning, he will be undone. Only the now exists for him. aph on a large scale and, according to the American reporter, the machines were likely to become as widespread and indispensable as the sewing machine or typewriter. s, etc., so that the owner of a phonograph may enjoy all these pleasures in his own home. The necessary steps were taken to produce the new phonogro interesting and popular use in making songs sung by famous singers more widely known, reproducing sermons and speeches, spreading the words of famous men and women, familiarizing people with great music and playing back the calls of animal cylinder. A typesetter could obtain his copy directly from the phonograph. Edison even speculated that the phonograph could be put t lawyer or witness might talk as rapidly as he wished; each word would be indelibly recorded on the wax cylinder. Civil and military orders could be given by means of a phonograph The same reporter described a few uses to which, according toEdison, the phonograph may be put. At legal inquiries, it couldserve as an incorruptible witness; it would have only a single story to tell and cross-examination could not upset it. A of the degree of perfection achieved by the machine was the true rendering of whistles and whispers; every inflection of the human voice was faithfully reproduced. reporter's absence. Upon his return to the laboratory, he heardthe article reproduced so clearly that he understood every word although the names in it were unknown to him. Another proof A staff reporter of the "Scientific American" was present at a few experiments conducted with the new phonograph in Edison's laboratory. An article was read from a newspaper during the rotating; it simply revolved round its axis, and the mouthpiece with diaphragm and stylus traveled along the surface of the wax cylinder. The machine was no longer worked by hand but driven by an electric motor. ssedupon a tinfoil wrapped round a cylinder, but on a hollow tube ofhardened wax. These impressions could be removed to permit the wax surface to receive new sound impressions. A second altera- tion affected the cylinder which no longer moved along while As an unusual New Year's gift to its readers, the "ScientificAmerican" in a December 1887 issue gave an account of the new Edison phonograph showing, among other things, the following improvements. The acoustic vibrations were no longer impresn- ceived; nor would he confess his inability to accomplish what he believed to have achieved, or nearly achieved - already. It is therefore hardly surprising that Edison once again took up his favorite machine in an attempt to perfect it. re. Always observant. When he does this well, he teaches us how to live more fully. "The feeling of life is in every line of the poem," writes James Dickey of the "Odyssey" by Kazantzakis, "so that the reader realizes time after time how little he himse choose among the infinite possibilities of acting - and being. He has no time to think of the future. Nor has the poet. He must live on the alert. Always awa Life relented, and soon dyed hair ceased to be shocking. By the late 1960s nearly 70 percent of American women were reportedto use hair coloring, as well as an estimated two million men. e censor panel to research the ad's impact on Life's women employees. The result: not a single woman claimed to see any- thing in the ad but the intended meanings. Having already faced this objection from Clairol executives who worried about the ad's double entendre, Richard Gelb, the son of Clairol founder Lawrence Gelb, challenged the all-mal that hair coloring should become a family affair. But Life turned the ads down flat. The teaser line was too suggestive, said copy sensors. Readers might ask themselves: "Does she or doesn't she WHAT?" rs that no garish, telltale hues would reveal their secret. Clairol planned to invest their whole magazine ad budget for the new campaign in a family magazine like "Life," reasoning The sunwashed outdoor settings enhanced the image of natural-ness, while the ad copy, "Hair Color So Natural Only Her Hair- dresser Knows for Sure," reassured timid prospective custome bility, leading readers to see the woman model as "a mother, aunt, sister, teacher, or any other figure the viewer might choose for herself as a symbol of good moral character and good taste." Faults," a copywriter named Shirley Polykoff masterminded the "Does She or Doesn't She" campaign, inventing not only the teaser line but the notion of putting a child in every ad. The child, she explained, added an aura of warmth and respecta- Clairol called in the mammoth advertising firm of Foote, Cone & Belding to reconstruct America's view of hair dye. According to Fairfax Cone's autobiography, "With All It's company believed they had perfected a line of hair colorings - Miss Clairol - good enough to find a huge market. The only barrier to success was the need to make hair dye socially acceptable. r kept it a guilty secret. No more than seven percent of all women dyed their hair. These prejudices confronted Clairol at a time when the  In 1955 most Americans still associated tinted hair with shady ladies or, at best, aging actresses. Like lipstick, rouge and mascara in the years before World War I, hair dye carried a moral stigma: "decent" women who colored their hai         8. A branch of human thought mentioned in the article was #Nnon-Newtonian physics #Nnon-Aristotelian logic #Nnon-Platonic metaphysics #Nabsolute #Narbitrary 7. The author seems to think that all human knowledge is #Ytentative #Nworthless #Nfinal #Nyour past experience #Yyour state of health #Nthe material you read 6. One of the following was NOT mentioned as a cause of your comprehension scores: #Nyour own interests #Nthe way the tests were made #Nincomprehensible #Yrelative 5. The comprehension tests in this course are #Nvalueless #Nabsolute #Nunnecessary #NSt. Mark #NSt. Thomas Aquinas 4. The quote about "knowing in part" came from #YSt. Paul #NSt. Augustine #NSt. Jerome #Nswimming forty laps #Nreading 1000 words a minute 3. One of these skills was mentioned: #Nframing a house #Nplaying guitar #Ytyping forty words a minute #Nreading #Nnone of these 2. An admissions requirement for Plato's Academy was #Nalgebra #Ygeometry #NFrench #Nbrown #Yone blue and one brown ,1. The girl's eyes were #Ngray #Nblue #Nblack !! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!!""" " " " " """""""""     f those easily defined skills; when we say "Ah, now I understand!"sometimes we mean "I can take that away and make some use of it"or "That theory seems to explain the observed data well enough" or "I get your drift." Maybe we come closer to understandin possession of an easily defined skill: a relatively simple pro- cess will tell me whether you can play "Trees" on the trombone in the key of B-flat, or lay up a straight brick wall, or type forty words per minute. But comprehension is just not one o There are so many variables, therefore, both in the material read, the whims of the test-maker, and the minds of the readers,that testing for comprehension is an exceedingly difficult and tricky business. It is relatively easy to test for the interested in people's eye colors. On the other hand, if you ask me what Sherlock Holmes' companion's name was, I don't have to read any selection to know that it was Watson; I've already read the Holmes stories, and I already know the answer. at I wouldn't pick that fact up at ANY speed, unless it was peculiarly and particularly important ("Because Susan had one blue eye and one brown eye, she was widely believed in her village to be a witch"). Mostly, I'm just not particularly Furthermore, when making a test for a group of anonymous people, there is no way the test-maker can take into account theexperience, knowledge, skills and interests of the readers. If you ask me "What color were the girl's eyes?" I would say thian,(5) English") or a test in which nobody will get anything, except perhaps by luck (example: "The fifth word in the twentieth line is __________"). ive and conscious, you understand SOMETHING. Anybody, with a littlethought, can make up a test on which almost anyone can get 100% (with questions like "The language in which this selection was written is (1) Hungarian, (2) Aleut, (3) French, (4) Lithuan Similarly, there's no such thing as zero comprehension, once you think about it. You can fail to answer any of the questionsasked you, and get zero on a test, but as long as you are alt understand 100% of the implications of what you had read. As St. Paul quite justly pointed out, operating in this vast universe with our wonderful but still limited human intellects, we always "know in part and prophesy in part." There isn't any such thing as 100% comprehension; you may get100% on a test, but that only means you answered all the questions the test-maker cared to ask you. If you'd WRITTEN thematerial, if you'd MEMORIZED the material, you still wouldn' #Nphilosophy #Nhistory #Ymathematics #Nsociology 10. You would infer that, correctly or not, most of us would feel surest of our understanding (other things being equal) in #Nliterature #Naesthetics #Nmusic appreciation #Nreading comprehension 9. In which of the following fields would you expect, from the article, to be able to make a significant test? #NI.Q. #Yshorthand #Ynon-Euclidian geometry #Nnone of these