Criticism is judgement．A critic is a judge．A judgement study and think about the material presented to him, accept it, correct it, or reject it after thinking over what he has read, watched or heard.
Another word for criticism is appreciation．When I criticize or appreciate some objector another, I look for its good points and bad points．In reading any printed or written matter, I always have a pencil in hand and put any comments in the book or on a separate paper．In other words, I always talk back to the writer.
That sort of critical reading might well be called creative reading because I am thinking along with the author, asking him questions, seeing whether he answers the questions and how well he answers them．I mark the good passages to store them in my memory piece of writing; where, how and why could or should I improve upon it?
You might think that doing what I suggested is work．Yes, it is, but the work is a pleasure because I can feel my brain expanding, my emotion reacting and my way of living change.
Reading exercises is a great influence on a person．If pictures, still or moving, accompany the reading, the memory will retain the material for a long time.
Just as evil books can corrupt, so also can good books gradually work a change on a corrupt person.
Let's get back to the beneficial effects of thinking while reading．It helps us to enlarge our minds．We understand more about the universe, its people and many of its wonders．We learn to think and observe in new ways．We certainly do get a feeling for the language we are reading．All good writers in any language have been readers who read critically and continuously.
小题1:The writer says a critic________．
| A．asks what he does not understand |
| B．talks back to the author |
| C．understand the background on which the works are based |
| D．looks for the good and bad points of the material he has read |
小题2:According to the writer, creative reading is________.
| A．raising questions and answering them for the author. |
| B．reading and giving comments on the materials one has read. |
| C．thinking in the same line with the author. |
| D．storing up facts in one's memory. |
小题3:By the phrase “thinking along with” in the third paragraph, the writer means________.
| A．following one's thought closely | B．accepting |
| C．considering | D．agreeing |
小题4:According to the writer, critical reading________.
| A．makes a person rich | B．enables a person to write fluently |
| C．broaden a person's horizons | D．gives a person extra work. |
小题5:We can learn from the passage that all good readers ________.
| A．understand more about their surrounding than others. |
| B．have a thorough insight to the problem in life. |
| C．have the feeling of the language they read. |
| D．have read extensively(广泛地)and critically |