We often hear people say that someone can read ten lines at a glance, but is it really possible for someone to read ten lines at a glance?
In the 60th chapter of the Chinese classic novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," there is a vivid description of speed reading. It reflects the story of the ancient speed reading master Zhang Song. The story goes: Yang Xiu boasted to Zhang Song about the talent of Cao Cao and asked someone to take out Cao Cao's book "Meng De Xin Shu" from a box, claiming that it was written by Cao Cao imitating the 13 chapters of Sun Tzu. Zhang Song read the book from beginning to end and laughed, saying, "Even a three-foot tall child in Shu can recite this book, so how can it be considered new? This was written by an anonymous author during the Warring States period. Cao Cao stole it and passed it off as his own. It's just a trick to deceive you!" Yang Xiu didn't believe it. Zhang Song immediately recited the entire book of "Meng De Xin Shu" without a single mistake. Yang Xiu was amazed and said, "Your ability to remember is truly extraordinary!" After hearing this, Cao Cao ordered the book to be torn up and burned. Later, there was a poem praising Zhang Song, saying, "Unique in appearance and extraordinary in character, with a clear and high vision. His words can move the waters of the Three Gorges, and his eyes can read ten lines. He is courageous and knowledgeable, his writings encompass the vast universe. He has read the works of all the schools and philosophers, leaving nothing behind." This story shows that Zhang Song, who had an unimpressive appearance, had the incredible ability to read ten lines at a glance and remember everything, which even impressed the talented Yang Xiu.
"Reading ten lines at a glance" is a phrase used to praise someone's intelligence, but it is an exaggeration. Let's first understand what vision and visual field are.
Vision: The prerequisite for vision is the intact and effective structure and function of the eyeball. The front of the eyeball has a circular "window" called the pupil. Light enters the eyeball from here, then passes through the lens, which acts like a magnifying glass to focus the light onto the retina at the back of the eye, forming an image. The visual information is transmitted to the brain's visual center through the optic nerve, resulting in vision.
Visual Field: When a person's eyes are stationary and focused on a fixed object in front of them in a straight direction, they can also perceive other objects in a certain space around that object. This perception of spatial range is called the visual field. The ability to focus on a fixed object in front of the eyes is called central vision, which is commonly referred to as visual acuity. The spatial range that is perceived beyond the central fovea, which is the area of the retina with the highest concentration of photoreceptor cells, is called peripheral vision or visual field.
Human vision has a certain range, but only a small portion of it can be seen clearly. The photoreceptor cells are more concentrated in the central fovea and its surrounding area, while they are sparsely distributed in the periphery. Therefore, only when the image falls on the central fovea and its nearby area can it be perceived clearly.
However, reading text has certain patterns, and sometimes you can predict what comes next based on what you have read before. Therefore, reading ability and speed can be trained and improved. However, it is impossible to read ten lines at a glance in terms of visual perception.
