Speed reading is not just about reading first. 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 (1) __________ in any environment (2) __________ people have to master a large volume of information. Professional workers need reading skills to help them (3) __________ 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.
(4) __________ there are various methods to increase reading speed, the trick is deciding what information you want first. For example, if you only want a (5) __________ 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 how to ignore irrelevant detail, there are (6) __________ improvements you can make to your reading style which will increase your speed.