preface
This book of selections is designed for college students in developmental
reading. In recent years the term developmental has become significant as
colleges generally are coming to recognize the possibilities of increasing
the reading efficiency of their students. On the one hand， developmental
reading for college students is distinguished from clinical help for handi-
capped readers. On the other， developmental recognizes that almost any-
one can learn to read better than he does. Developmental reading means
improving general proficiency， increasing accuracy of comprehension，
achieving some flexibility of rate.
The Materials. There are thirty reading selections in this text. They vary
in style and subject matter from easy to very difficult. The first seven
selections are written at a popular level and should offer no problem to
any college student. The last nine are quite mature. The middle group is
at a comfortable adult level， approximately that of periodicals like Time
and Atlantic Monthly.
It seems to the editors that an exact designation of reading difficulty
is， for the present at least， unwarranted. In spite of the current vogue for
reading formulas， which try to assess reading ease on a mathematical
scale， it is almost impossible to consider word and sentence length in con-
junction with content and arrive at fine distinctions in level of difficulty
and reader interest. As a guide， hmvever， the first seven selections-the
easiest-are rated Level 1. The next group， which presents some challenge
but should be within the capabilities of most college students， is rated
Level 2. The last nine selections， which are more difficult， are rated
Level 3.
Most of the selections are from 1000 to 2000 words in length. Each is
relatively complete even though some are taken from a longer work. All
the selections are long enough to give a fairly reliable speed score in
words per milmte; and all have enough content to make a good com-
prehension check possible.
~ In subject matter， the selections are of getaeral interest. They re-
fleet something of the usual reading of educated adults: history and
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