Why Geography?Written by James Chartwell
In this modern age, haven't all earth's locations been found, named, and mapped? Just about.So, why geography? The citizens of many of world's countries still don't realize that ignorance of geography can affect their political stability, economic success, and environmental health. Sure, it's important to know where things are located. But even more important is learning in what ways those places are affected by their environments and their population. That, too, is geography. Our survival is dependent on our awareness of things like where greatest amount of carbon dioxide is being produced and where rain forests are being destroyed. It would help us to know why terrorists want to attack. To help tsunami survivors we need to know something about places affected. Geography is fundamental to all these things. It's easy to see why people believe myth that geography is only mapmaking, map reading, and knowing where everything is. For instance, TV game show contestants will be asked questions such as "what is river that flows through Zambezi, Zambia?" In cases like this, answer can be known by having studied a map. Knowledge of where places and events are located is important and useful. Knowing where something happened gives event more significance. Perhaps you've heard this story: A high school student in United States applied to a domestic university. The admissions employee that reviewed and denied application noted that applicant needed to go through foreign admissions office. The student was from New Mexico. Geography is so much more than knowing where something is or happened. Do you know capital of Bolivia? The answer is La Paz and Sucre -- two different places. Here's why: In 1899 Bolivia's Conservative Party was overthrown by Liberal Party during Federal Revolution. Tin mining, which was in area of La Paz, had become an important industry for country, and tin entrepreneurs supported Liberals. So, Liberals wanted to move capital from Sucre to La Paz. They only partially succeeded. The constitutional capital is now Sucre and administrative capital is La Paz. Now that you know "why," you are much more likely to remember "where."
| | Skimming - will it improve your reading speed?Written by Melvin Ng
A cornerstone of ability to speed read is ability to skim. However, many argue that skimming is in fact cheating - i.e. you're not really reading at all! The following is a brief outline argument in favor of why skimming will improve your reading speed (and ability).Basically, skimming is most rudimentary form of reading. The object of skim reading is not to necessarily comprehend all that is being read, but rather to familiarize yourself, as quickly as possible, with text being read. In this regard, skimming materials, by reading index, subject headings and sub-headings, allows you to prepare yourself so that when time comes, you can race ahead and speed read at pace - as you are already familiar with text. Consequently, your overall reading speed will be vastly improved. In addition, skimming allows your subconscious chance to absorb main ideas of a text. These are later cemented by your speed reading of contents. The combination of these two methods allows you greater comprehension of what you are reading. Conversely, if you are reading from cold, there is more chance you'll miss certain points or issues. If you want, think of it as if you are watching a movie for second time: don't you always see parts of movie second time that you didn't see first, which makes second viewing all more relaxing and pleasurable? How to Skim Read Having ascertained that skimming will increase our reading speed, we now need to know how to skim read. Whilst there are many different methods adopted to skim reading, following are essential elements: * read index of a text - note that it is essential that you do this so that you get general ideal of what text is about;
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