Enhance your critical reading skills in just 20 short lessons. Learn to dissect a story, find the main idea, and draw conclusions through study of practical exercises. With passages from literature, essays, technical writing, and articles, this handy guide includes lessons with hundreds of exercises in test format to help you acquire or refresh essential reading comprehension skills.

Are men cleverer than women? Is a poor man cleverer than a rich man? And what about teachers? Are they always cleverer than their students? The people in these six well-known folk tales from around the world all want to be clever. But are some of them just stupid?

When Viktor Sarav takes a job at Ballantine's, Angie and her brother Don -- the young owners of the New York fashion company -- are pleased. But soon there are strange deaths in the company. Is there a vampire at work at Ballantine's? Vera Donato, a company director with secrets to hide, is against Viktor. But Ed Valdemar, the company lawyer, trusts him. Who is right?

Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, the wolf cub White Fang soon learns the harsh laws of nature, growing fiercer and more independent in his struggle to survive. Yet buried deep inside him are distant memories of affection and love. Can he learn to trust man again?

Set in mid-17th century Boston, this tale of passion, puritanism and revenge is one of the foremost classics of American literature. Its heroine, Hester Prynne, is compelled by her own moral autonomy to wear the scarlet letter but she emerges as a woman with her integrity intact.

Ellen Shore's family is an ordinary American family, and Ellen is six years old when her brother Al is born. Her parents are very pleased to have a son, but Ellen is not pleased, because now baby Al comes first. And when they are adults, Al still comes first. He begins a rock band and makes records. Soon he is rich and famous -- very rich, but he gives nothing to his sister Ellen. She has a difficult life, with three young kids and very little money....

Pebbles on the beach: Abby is a teenager, and doesn't talk much to her parents. Abby's dad works hard for an oil company, and Abby's mom doesn't like her freinds. Then, one summer, Abby stays with her crazy Aunt May in California. Here, with Aunt May ahd her young neighbours Diego and Bianca, she learns to see things differently. But, one night, there's an oil spill on the beautiful beach near their home. What can Abby, her aunt, and the neighbours...

Rip Van Winkle & the Legend of Sleepy Hollow: In the first of these stories, Rip Van Winkle sleeps for over twenty years, and then wakes up to a world that he no longer understands. In the other story, Ichabod Crane, the school teacher, meets a headless rider in the middle of a dark night. These two classic tales of the supernatural by Washington Irving have been popular for nearly two hundred years. A pretty face: Zoe Baker works in a bookstore....