Question 40: Which statement about a perennial plant called “ocotillo” is supported by the text? A. It can switch between dormancy and activ...

Speed reading is not just about reading fast. It is also about how much information you can remember when you have finished reading. The World Championship Speed-Reading Competition says that its top competitors average between 1,000 and 2,000 words a minute. But they must remember at least 50 percent of this in order to qualify for the competition. Nowadays, speed reading has become an (7) __________ in any environment (8) __________ people have to master a large volume of information. Professional workers need reading skills to help them (9) __________ many documents every day, while students under pressure to deal with assignments may feel they have to read more and read faster all the time.

(10) __________ there are various methods to increase reading speed, the trick is deciding what information you want first. For example, if you only want (11) __________ outline of an issue, then you can skim the material quickly and extract the key facts. However, if you need to understand every detail in a document, then you must read it slowly enough to understand this. Even when you know what to ignore irrelevant detail, there are (12) __________ improvements you can make to your reading style which will increase your speed.