Expanding Vocabulary Through Reading

The following article in today's UDN offers good tips not only on how to expand our vocabulary but also on how to select appropriate English reading material to read.

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=226760

 According to Mr. Chen (陳超明教授), a good way to expand vocabulary is through reading. Choose an international magazine, which caters to your interest or is related to your job. Read a passage every day. Start with an easy one, by which Mr. Chen means less than 20 new words for a 150-200-word passage. For the first reading, read the passage through without stopping to look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary. When coming across a new word, just guess its meaning with the help of the known words.

This way is not new to many people; however, it seems difficult for us not to satisfy our curiosity, or better put, not to tolerate ambiguity. Take me for example. When I read TIME and run into new words, my eagerness to learn about the unknown often drives me to consulting the dictionary. In my opinion, whether to look up new words depends on our purpose--to read for a general idea, for specific information, or to learn more words. When it comes to expanding vocabulary, although we do learn word meanings from context, to know a word better, we still need a dictionary.