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purpose of reading is to try to get out of a text as much as possible the message that the writer has tried to put into it. However, we may find it vulnerable: the result of the readers’ interaction will vary from one to another, and a reader does not necessarily achieve what the writer expects. There is much that remains to be explored with in the span between the writer and the reader: what constraints prevent the reader from sharing the message (meaning) with the writer? A teacher’s role, I think, is to bridge the gap and help the students become efficient readers. 3. Some Tangible Errors in Reading Comprehension The Chinese language is totally different from the English language. The former belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family and the latter to the Indo-European language family. Therefore, When Chinese learners attempt to understand a text in English, they face linguistic problems in various respects: spelling, gender, verb forms, tenses and word order. In addition to these, I’d like to discuss some other obstacles between writers and readers. 3.1 Lexical and syntactical errors. Words such as “imaginative” and “imaginary” and “respectable” are often misunderstood and misused by Chinese learners as in their mother tongue words have virtually no inflexions. In my classroom, however, I have found my students more liable to stumble over articles and prepositions. I believe the reason is that these particles are never used in the Chinese language and hence difficult to handle. For example, they may find it difficult to understand these two sentences: I am never at a loss for a word, and he is never at a loss for the word. A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. The first speaker aims at “his” proficiency of wording and “my” casual choice of words, and the second speaker wants to tell that a man is no more necessary to a woman than a bicycle to a fish. The Chinese student might feel at a loss for the meaning because he or she often overlooks the confusing “small words” such as articles and prepositions. Students may be asked to distinguish varied shades of meanings when particles are used before the teacher offers his help. Chinese is an analytic language and the relationship between the different parts of a sentence is based on reasoning. English, however, is a synthetic language and the relationship between the different parts is usually decided by analysis of those connecting words and the sentence structure. Naturally, in most cases the ambiguity can be cleared up when we look at the context, but sometimes even the context doesn’t help. We have to make clear about “Which governs what” before we have a better understanding, especially those lengthy ones with complicated structures. Look at this sentence: The start-up program for the reactor must not be commenced before completion and formal acceptance of fire precautions and associated installations by the competent authorities in question and by the insures or their representative. For the Chinese students who are not used to the connecting words “of” “by” “for” etc. this sentence is really a challenge for them. A careful analysis based on common sense and grammatical knowledge can dissolve the mystery. The key to the problem lies in he two series of related phrases: Completion of associated installations by the competent authorities in question Formal acceptance of fire precautions by the insurers or their representative Another exampl