Making Web reading quicker!

While I was answering a Reading Comprehension question in a Mock CAT, my mind started drifting, while reading the paragraph. I noticed that, I could read a article in a newspaper better than a paragraph in RC section. It could have been something to do with the complexity or the vagueness of the subject in the paragraph. But I sensed it was neither. Then I came across another paragraph in another test, which I was able to answer quicker and better. I felt I had more concentration while reading it. So I concluded it had nothing to do with the paragraph as such, but the way the paragraph is printed!

So back to the topic. SPEED READING. I heard about this after my experience in the tests. Have you ever wondered why the newspapers print in multiple columns? It is definitely not to save space (in fact this will consume more space). It is to make reading easier, quicker, and more importantly a better experience. This is because of human anatomy. The way that our eyes scan the text and send it for processing. When we have a long sentence our eye has to make two kinds of movements - Horizontal + Vertical. But when the print is in (multiple)columns, then the eye has to make only Vertical movements. Shorter line lengths not only make the material easier to read, but also easier to retain (this explains the RC paragraphs ;) ).
Please read this article to understand this concept better.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5366/is_200702/ai_n21283148

Now how to implement this study on Web articles(where we can get more information than in newspapers)? No need to sweat. There are lots of solutions.

1. Anyone familiar with JavaScripts will know about GreaseMonkey. It is a add-on to firefox. If you have not used it till now, no need to worry. GreaseMonkey Download. Click on Add to firefox, and Install this add-on.

2. Next step is to add a JavaScript to this plugin. You can find thousands of GreaseMonkey scripts on http://userscripts.org

3. But the one that we are interested right now is Wikipedia Automatic MultiColumn & Cleaner Display. Once you install this script, you can read all your favorite Wikipedia articles in multi-column format.

Happy Wiki reading!