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  3. How to Find Time to Read Do you want to know how to improve yourself all the time without having to spend more time reading

How to Find Time to Read Do you want to know how to improve yourself all the time without having to spend more time reading

admin2010-06-11  46
问题                                How to Find Time to Read
    Do you want to know how to improve yourself all the time without having to spend more time reading because you get involved in work everyday? Does it sound too good to be true? Well, read on, please.
An Average Reader
    If you are an average reader you can read an average book at the rate of 300 words a minute. You cannot maintain that average, however, unless you read regularly every day. Nor can you reach that speed with hard books in science, mathematics, agriculture, business, or any subject that is new or unfamiliar to you. The chances are that you will never attempt that speed with poetry or want to race through some passages in fiction over which you wish to linger. But for most of the novels, biographies, and books about travel, hobbies or personal interests, if you are an average reader you should have no trouble at all in absorbing meaning and pleasure out of 300 printed words every 60 seconds.
    Statistics are not always practical, but consider the following: If the average reader can read 300 words a minute of average reading, then in 15 minutes he can read 4 500 words. Multiplied by 7, the days of the week, the product is 315 000. Another multiplication by 12, the months of the year, results in a grand total of 1 512 000 words. That is the total number of words of average reading an average reader can do in just 15 minutes a day for one year.
   Books vary in length from 60 000 to 1 000 000 words. The average is about 75 000 words. In one year of average reading by an average reader for 15 minutes a day, 20 books will be read. That’s a lot of books. It is 4 times the number of books read by public-library borrowers in America. And yet it is easily possible.
Sir William Osier
    One of the greatest of all modern physicians was Sir William Osier. He taught at the Johns Hopkins Medical School He finished his teaching days at McGill University. Many of the out-standing physicians today were his students. Nearly all of the practicing doctors of today were brought up on his medical textbooks. Among his many remarkable contributions to medicine are his unpublished notes on how the people die.
    His greatness is attributed by his biographers and critics not alone to his profound medical knowledge and insight but to his broad general education, for he was a very cultured man. He was very interested in what men have done and taught throughout the ages. And he knew that the only way to find out what the best experiences of the race had been was to read what people had written. But Osler’s problem was the same as everyone else’s, only more so. He was a busy physician, a teacher of physicians, and a medical-research specialist. There was no time in a 4-hour day that did not rightly belong to one of these three occupations, except the few hours for sleep, meals, and bodily functions.
    Osler arrived at his solution early. He would read the last 15 minutes before he want to sleep. If bedtime was set for 11:00 Pm, he read from 11:00 to 11:15. If research kept him up to 2:00 AM, he read from 2:00 to 2:15. Over a very long time, Osler never broke the role once he had established it. We have evidence that after a while he simply could not fall asleep until he had done his 15 minutes of reading.
    In his lifetime, Osler read a significant library of books. Just do a mental calculation for halfa century of 15-minute reading periods daily and see how many books you get. Consider what a range of interests and variety of subjects are possible in one lifetime. Osler read widely outside of medical specialty. Indeed, he developed from this 15-minute reading habit a vocational specialty to balance his vocational specialization. Among scholars in English literature, Osler is known as an authority on Sir Thomas Browne, seventeenth century English prose master, and Osler’s library on Sir Thomas is considered one of the best anywhere. A great many more things could be said about Osler’s contribution to medical research, to the reform of medical teaching, and to the introduction of modem clinical methods. But the important point for us here is that he answered supremely well for himself the question all of us who live a busy life must answer. How can I find time to read?
    The answer may not be the last 15 minutes before we go to sleep. It may be 15 minutes a day at some other time. In the busiest of calendars there is probably more than one 15-minute period tucked away somewhere still unassigned. I’ve seen some curious solutions to the problem of finding time for reading.
A Pfc
    During army days in the last years of the way I discovered a Pfc in my squadron who seemed unusually well read. I found in his file a remarkable civilian and military biography. His four years of service include two overseas, all meritorious but without heroics. Had all of his recommendations for promotion gone through he would have had not only his commission, but probably the rank of captain. But here he was, still a private first-class--because, despite the military emphasis on education, efficiency, loyalty, and all other criteria for determining promotion, accident plays a most important part. Every time this Pfc had been recommended for promotion, except once, he had been transferred, or come up against a table of organization limitations, or a new change in regulations, or a superior officers who had filled out the forms incorrectly or forgotten them in his third right- hand drawer. And so he had remained a Pfc, and had taken his reward in reading. The amount he did in the army was enormous.
    I was curious about his method. And one day, before I asked him I found a partial answer. Every day the enlisted men put in an hour of drill and formations. During that time at least one fairly long period of rest was called. Imagine my surprise on my first visit to the drill field when, at the command "rest!" I saw one man in the whole long line pull out a paper pocket and begin to read, standing up.
    When I talked with him, I found that from boyhood he had already developed the habit of carrying a little book in his pocket which he read every minute when he was not doing anything else. He found a book especially useful and relaxing during the periods of waiting which all of us experience daily-waiting for meals, buses, doctors, hair cuts, telephone calls, dates, performance to begin, or something to happen. There were his 15 minutes a day, or more. There were his 20 books a year 1000 in a lifetime.
One’s Own 15-minute
    No universal formula can be prescribed. Each of us must find our own 15-minute period each day. It is better if it is regular. Then all additional spare minutes are so many bonuses. And, believe me, the opportunity for reading--bonuses are many and unexpected. Last night an uninvited guest turned up to make five for bridge. I had the kind of paper book at hand to make being the fifth at bridge a joy.
    The only requirement is the will to read. With it you can find the 15 minutes no matter how busy the day is. And you must have the book at hand. Not even seconds of your 15 minutes must be wasted starting to read. Set that book out in advance. Put it into your pocket when you dress. Put another book beside your bed. Place one in your bathroom. Keep one near your dining table. Then plan your time very carefully. Make a list of all your weekly tasks and make a schedule or chart of your time. Fill in committed time such as eating, sleeping, meeting, classes, etc., and then decide on good, regular time for reading.
    You can not escape reading 15 minutes a day, and that means you will read half a book a week, 2 books a month, 20 a year, and 1000 or more in a reading time. It’s an easy way to become well read.
The words "the amount" in Paragraph l0 refer to ______.
选项
答案the amount of reading
解析 根据第10段的最后1句的上下文，可知此处的数量指阅读量。
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