阅读理解

    This brief book is aimed at high school students, but speaks to anyone learning at any stage of life.

    Its formal, serious style closely matches its content, a school-masterly book on schooling. The author, W. H. Armstrong, starts with the basics: reading and writing. In his opinion, reading doesn't just mean recognizing each word on the page; it means taking in the information, digesting it and incorporating it into oneself just as one digests a sandwich and makes it a part of himself. The goal is to bring the information back to life, not just to treat it as dead facts on paper from dead trees. Reading and writing cannot be completely separated from each other; in fact, the aim of reading is to express the information you have got from the text. I've seen it again and again: some one who can't express an idea after reading a text is just as ineffective as someone who hasn't read it at all.

    Only a third of the book remains after that discussion, which Armstrong devotes to specific tips for studying languages, math, science and history. He generally handles these topics thoroughly and equally, except for some weakness in the science and math sections and a bit too much passion (激情) regarding history to his students, that was a hundred times more than my history teachers ever got across. To my disappointment, in this part of the book he ignores the arts. As a matter of fact, they demand all the concentration and study that math and science do, though the study differs slightly in kind. Although it's commonly believed that the arts can only be naturally acquired, actually, learning the arts is no more natural than learning French or mathematics.

    My other comment is that the text aged. The first edition apparently dates to the 1960s—none of the references(参考文献) seem newer than the late 1950s. As a result, the discussion misses the entire computer age.

    These are small points, though, and don't affect the main discussion. I recommend it to any student and any teacher, including the self-taught student.

True or False （判断下列句子是否符合短文内容，符合的用"T"表示，不符合的用"F"表示）
Richard is an exchange student from the USA. He is teaching his friends at Rose Garden School how to play Softball. He is explaining the rules.
Richard:     First, we need a bat, a ball and some bases.
Ben:        What are bases?
Richard:     They are flat squares that show you where to run. After you hit the ball, you have to run around the bases.
If you stand on a base, you are safe. If you are running to a base, and the other team touches the base with the ball, then you are out.
Jennifer:     Oh, I see. How would I hit the ball?
Richard:     Have you seen baseball on television?
Jennifer:     I have.
Richard:     Well, Softball is like baseball, only the ball is bigger and softer too.
Jennifer:     Do you like volleyball? I love it.
Richard:     I like to play beach volleyball. It’s different from volleyball.
Ben:        How?
Richard:     In beach volleyball, you only have two people on each team and the court is smaller.                                                                         
Jennifer:     Do you play on the beach?
Richard:     Yes. It’s good because if you dive for the ball, you don’t hurt yourself.
Ben:        Do you play football at your school?
Richard:     Which kind of football?
Jennifer:     I don’t understand there more than one kind? I thought everyone play the same kind of football.
Richard:     No. In the USA, we have football and soccer. Soccer is a game that is played around the world.
In other countries, soccer is called football. In the USA, we also play a different game called football.
In this game, you throw the ball and you have to wear a helmet to play.
Jennifer:     Well, I want to play softball.