Reading is thought to be a kind of conversation between the reader and the text. The reader puts questions, as it were, to the text and gets answers. In the light of these he puts further questions, and so on.

For most of the time this “conversation” goes on below the level of consciousness. At times, however, we become aware of it. This is usually when we are running into difficulties, when mismatch is occurring between our expectations and meaning of the text. When successful matching is being experienced, our questioning of the text continues at the unconscious level.

Different people converse with the text differently. Some stay very close to the words on the pages; others take off imaginatively from the words, interpreting, criticizing, analyzing and examining. The former represents a kind of comprehension which is written in the text. The latter represents higher levels of comprehension. The balance between these is important, especially for the advanced readers.

There is another conversation which from our point of view is equally important, and that has nothing to do with what is read but with how it is read. We call this a “process” conversation as opposed to “content” conversation. It is concerned not with meaning but with the strategies we employ in reading. If we are advanced reader our ability to hold a content conversation with text is usually well developed but  not so our ability to hold a process conversation. It is precisely this kind of conversation that is of importance when we are seeking to develop our reading to meet the new demands being placed upon us by studying at a higher level.

1. Reading as a kind of conversation between the reader and the text becomes conscious only when _____ .

A. the reader’s expectations agree with what is said in the text

B. the reader has trouble understanding what the author says

C. the reader asks questions and gets answers

D. the reader understands a text very well

2. At a lower level of comprehension, readers tend to _______ .

A. read a text slowly                       B. read without thinking hard

C. interpreting a text in their own way         D. concentrate on the meaning of words only

3. A “process” conversation is related to _______ .

A. the application of reading strategies

B. matching out expectation with the meaning of a text

C. the development of our ability to check the details

D. determining the main idea of a text

4. According to the passage, it is of great importance for readers at a higher level to maintain a balance between _______ .

A. conscious and unconscious levels of comprehension

B. the reader’s expectations and the meaning of a text

C. lower and higher levels of comprehension

D. interpreting and criticizing a text

5. If we want to develop our reading ability at an advanced level, we should ______ .

A. learn to use different approaches in reading

B. make our reading process more conscious

C. pay more attention to the content of a text

D. take a critical attitude towards the author’s ideals

参考答案：Passage 17. B D A C A

阅读被认为是读者与文章之间的对话。读者向文章提出问题，然后得到答案，根据这些答案，读者再提出更深的问题，等等等等。
大多数时间，这种“对话”是在意识层次以下进行的。然而，有时我们会意识到这样的对话，这通常是当我们遇到困难的时候，也就是说当读者的预想跟文章的含义不一致的时候。理解与含义达到了一致时，我们对文章的提问便在意识层次之下继续进行。
不同的人与文章以不同的方式对话。有人特别靠近页面上的文字；有人则会带着丰富的想象离开字面，时而解读，时而批评，时而分析时而验证。前者代表了对文字含义的理解，后者代表了更高层次的理解。两者之间的平衡是非常重要的，对高级读者来说尤为如此。
还有一种对话，在我们看来这种对话同样重要，这种对话与读到什么无关而跟怎么读有关。我们把这种对话成为“过程”对话以对应“内容”对话。其关注的不是含义而是我们在阅读过程中所使用的策略。如果我们是高级读者，我们掌握内容对话的能力一般都得到了很好的培养，而掌握过程对话的能力并非如此。我们在培养阅读技巧以满足更高层次学习对我们提出新的要求的过程中，非常重要的正是这种能力。