With an investment of
3 breaths and 1 thought
most people will find
that they can read faster and remember more of what they have read.
In order to offer my
reading tip there needs to be a little preparation.
Firstly I have
ensured that the 3 font’s used take up the same amount of space on the line.
I have taken the
material from, The Back of Beyond, a book written in the 1930’s
by S. L. Bensusan and
printed by Blandford Press Ltd and illustrated by Joan Rickarby.
I chose these
passages because the language is slightly different
and the subject familiar to
most readers.
Please use the
stopwatch function on your mobile/cell phone or whatever
and time how long it
takes you to read the passages.
This is not a race; as when race-reading
you may glaze over the words and not actually ‘read.’
The point is to
observe your reading process
and the emotions you
experience when reading these passages.
Now please read this
first passage before reading further.
SPRING 37
–Frost in April.
Round me are the fruit farmers, no sons of the soil, but for the
most part men with money who have taken to the work because it is a
comparatively new industry in a well-adapted area. Fruit seems to thrive here
when conditions are good. But three times in as many years the best lade hopes
of those who spare no pains and no outlay in the cultivation of their land have
suffered partial wreck. A fine promising spring has justified every optimistic
estimate and then the fruit farmers have recalled the Master’s familiar lines: “To-day he put forth The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms
– The third day comes a frost, a killing frost And – nips the root.” I have a
neighbour who is a fruit farmer in the truest sense of the term; he has studied
his job and he works on his smallholding from early morning to late afternoon
doing all that may be done. It is impossible not to admire his industry, even
though I believe that modern orcharding which is based upon the free use of
poisonous materials is wrong and must in the long run be harmful to Mother
Earth whose reprisals will prove hard to bear. But I went past this neighbour’s
fields on a Saturday afternoon and he was quite content. His land was clean and
in excellent heart, the long rows of Cox’s Orange were heavy in bud, the
strawberries showed promise of abundant fruit, the cherries were like a shower
of snow with the sun on it. “We’re three or four weeks earlier than last year,”
he said. “Now we have to hope that we shan’t have late frosts, or that if they
come they won’t be severe.” The week-end mornings and afternoons were radiant,
the nights clear and with an ever deepening cold. On a Sunday night the
thermometer registered twelve degrees of frost. Monday morning showed the
strawberry plants on my own land bright and shining and the black currant
clusters touched with a crimson stain. The apple blossom looked to be
un-touched, but if you opened one there was a deep discolouration within the
stigma. On Tuesday I passed my neighbour busy with his cultivator and asked
him, a little nervously, how he had fared. “Like everyone else round here,” he
replied. “More than half the crop gone.” And then, because he is that sort of
man, he began to talk of the plight of the big local growers who would be so
hard put to find work for their staff and of the village women who earn good
money through the summer months picking each crop. I had been told of gales in
Worcestershire and frosts in Cambridge, each doing serious damage to blossoming
fruit, but trouble afar can never be so real to you as it is in your own and
neighbour’s fields e may have sympathy, but we lack imagination. 491 words.
Having
completed this timed passage, please note how easy it was
to
consistently leave the last word on the line and find the first word on the
line below.
If you had
to go back over words in order to understand what had been read
–or remember
going back on words if this is a common occurrence for you.
This is
your mechanical response to reading justified line
with the Word document font: Tempus Sans ITC at size 10.5
Make a
note of how long did it took you to read the passage,
your
emotional response to the material
and later
try and recount what you can remember.
This font is Calibri (body) at size 11
””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Now to
read the following passage
but this
time before you time your reading.
Set The Intention
that you’ll remember what you read in a relaxed manner.
Before you
start reading take three breaths - in this way.
First deep
breath in and when you breathe out say the word: Relax
Second
breath in and when you breathe out softly say the word: Soften
Third
gentle breath in and when you breathe out whisper the word: Flow
Now read>>>>>>>
Our own fruit has paid a heavy penalty
but we grow only for the house and rely in part upon
glass.
There again we have a south slope with a wood behind it
and there is some protection here.
Just a few growers can put up a smoke barrage against
frost
but the cost is said to work out nearly twenty pounds an
acre over a term of years,
a notable addition to the cost of production,
and the result of burning crude oil that invades
neighbouring houses and gardens
is so un-pleasant that in Kent some growers have been
restrained by law;
the Public Health Act of 1936 would appear to offer a
much-needed protection.
Apparently late frosts lay an indifferent hand upon
England,
but I think the grip must needs be heaviest on our East
coast.
To sense the trouble, think of the work done since the
last crop was gathered,
the pruning and dressing, the feeding of the soil,
ploughing and cleaning,
all the preparations to market the crop, the dovetailed
arrangements for labour,
the rising tide of work,
the feverish paces of June, July, and August when the outside help pours
in.
All this life and activity, all this energy and
legitimate aspiration
quenched between the dusk of one perfect day and the
dawning of another.
It looks as though Nature has borrowed her mood
from one of the old-time destroyers of humanity or the
latter-day reincarnations.
“Ask your wife to come across with you this afternoon
when you stop work
and we will talk of something else over the tea table for
a change,” I suggested to my neighbour.
“A good idea,” he said. “We’ll come.”
And I asked myself very doubtfully if I could hope to be
so brave in like circumstances.
The money loss doesn’t matter so much, we have all lost
our money in our time
and not always through our own fault; it is the
uncertainty that strikes us down
and forces us to ask cui
bono? What profit shall a man have of his labour under the sun?
Perhaps he gets it out of his greater courage to endure,
out of his ability to say
“My head is bloody but unbowed.”
I know that when I talked of the trouble to my neighbour
over beyond the wood
I was talking to a plucky man.
On the farm, troubles come gradually if at all.
Should the train spoil the hay it will swell the roots,
should drought parch the roots, the sun will ripen the
corn.
If pig prices are down, sheep may be a good market,
there is always time for recovery and readjustment,
or so it seems to me when I was farming.
But where trouble comes like a bolt from the blue, rapid
as an epileptic stroke,
or a motor-car accident, only courage, and fine courage
at that, avails.
One can but hope that when our own testing time comes,
we may remember and emulate.
497 words in Arial font, size 10 exactly.
Having
completed this passage, please note how easy it was:
To
consistently leave the last word on the line and find the first word on the
line below.
As far as
possible each line contained just one complete point aiding understanding and
retention.
This makes
the lines shorter and so is less of a strain on the eyes.
The Arial
font is reported to be the easiest font for dyslexic people to read.
Is this a consideration for your business and educational
publications? Tempus Sans 10.5
Is this a consideration
for your business and educational publications?
Calibi size 11
Is
this a consideration for your business and educational publications? Arial
size10
The
differences are subtle but important, rather like an eye exam chart.
Unfortunately Blogspot alters the fonts and so if you wish
you could copy and past onto a Word document and compare for yourself.
Did you have
to go back over words in order to understand what had been read?
I did go
back on an unfamiliar speech pattern.
No? This
is because you were in a different state of mind
having
more alpha brain waves mixed in with your beta waves.
This is a
more focussed way of reading.
Later try
and recount what you can remember.
Remember
you Set The Intention that you’ll remember what you read in a relaxed manner.
This
instructs your mind what to do with the material read
and
because you have more alpha waves mixed with your busy, busy chattering beta waves
your mind is
freer from extraneous distractions.
Make a
note of how long did it took you to read the passage, your emotional response.
With this
second passage, I agree that you are more familiar with the content and style
of writing
but did it
‘feel’ more comfortable to read?
Next try
finding the first words in a new chapter in a book with a solid block of print
and timing 2 or 3 minutes and read
this in your usual style.
When your
time is up mark the last word read with a soft pencil.
Turn the
book upside down and with a cocktail stick count each word
and mark
on a separate piece of paper each 100 count.
Please do
not estimate to save time!
Then find
the first words of another chapter and
Set The
Intention that you’ll remember what you read in a relaxed manner.
Then take
your progressively relaxing three breaths
and read
for the same amount of time.
Most
people will find that they can read and remember more of what they have read.
Now,
please take the time to encourage others by recounting your experience of this
tip
preferably
on my new FaceBook group: Advanced Reading Skills.
Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTubeHow to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?
Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:
www.innermindworking.blogspot.com gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life
www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com which takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others.
www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com just for fun.
To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”
