Unit 1 A land of diversity reading课时作业

　　Ⅰ.阅读理解

　　If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write. The idea that we must be readers first in order to be writers is repeated throughout books on writing and is often the first piece of advice published authors give to ambitious novelists. "The more we read, the faster we can perform that magic trick of seeing how the letters have been combined into words that have meaning，" writes best­selling author Francine Prose in Reading Like a Writer.

　　In a study done by the University of Florida, researchers surveyed students' reading materials and habits. Upon analyzing their findings, the researchers concluded that students who read academic journals and literary fiction scored higher in terms of writing complexities (复杂事物) than those who read popular fiction or web content published on sites.

　　However, Andrew Jarosz, a psychology professor at Mississippi State University, points out that this study had a relatively small sample size and says it's too soon to draw the conclusion.

　　"It could indeed be that reading complex materials leads to more complex writing，" he said. "Alternatively, what if those who are better writers prefer to read complex materials that mirror their own writing abilities? It is entirely possible that the relationship goes in the other direction."

　　Jarosz says other factors may also be responsible for why some people write at a higher level than others, including intelligence, working memory capacity and the ability to store and process information at the same time.

　　Susan Reynolds, author of Fire Up Your Writing Brain, believes that deep reading - thoughtful and slow reading that's rich in complexities and sensory details - is essential for a better writer. She encourages writers to abandon television and commercial fiction and instead read poetry and literary fiction, which encourages a deeper reading. Research has found that deep reading is different from other types of reading when we skim for information.

By reading, writers not only gather knowledge, but they also gain a better