Reading Speed Test
Read a passage as fast as you honestly can, click finished, and get your reading speed in words per minute.
The old lighthouse stood at the edge of the harbor, where the fishing boats returned each evening with their catch. For more than a hundred years its lamp had guided sailors safely home, turning slowly through fog, rain and clear summer nights. The keeper, an elderly man named Tomas, climbed the narrow stairs every evening at sunset. He polished the great glass lens, checked the oil, and watched the sea settle into darkness. Tomas loved the quiet hours. He read books by lamplight, listened to the waves below, and wrote letters to his sister in a distant city. When storms came, the tower shook and the windows rattled, but the light never failed. Sailors said that as long as the lighthouse burned, no ship from their village would be lost. When Tomas finally retired, the whole harbor came to thank him, and the new electric lamp was lit in his honor on a calm evening in June.
Honey bees live in colonies that can contain tens of thousands of individuals, yet they coordinate their work with remarkable precision. When a scout bee discovers a rich source of flowers, she returns to the hive and performs a special movement on the honeycomb known as the waggle dance. The angle of her dance in relation to the sun tells the other bees the direction of the flowers, while the length of the central waggle run communicates the distance. Remarkably, the bees adjust their reading of the angle as the sun moves across the sky during the day. Other workers then fly directly to the reported location, even if it lies several kilometers away. Scientists have confirmed this system through careful experiments with marked bees and artificial feeding stations. The dance is one of the most sophisticated forms of communication known in any insect, and it shows how much information can be shared without anything resembling human language.
By six in the morning the market was already alive with color and noise. Farmers unloaded crates of tomatoes, mangoes and leafy greens, calling out prices to the early shoppers who carried woven baskets on their arms. The smell of fresh bread drifted from the bakery stall, mixing with cardamom, fried onions and the sharp sweetness of cut melon. Porters hurried between the rows with loaded carts, warning everyone aside with friendly shouts. In the cloth section, bolts of bright fabric hung like flags, and tailors measured customers beside humming sewing machines. Children weaved through the crowd with trays of tea, earning coins from grateful stallholders. By noon the sun stood high, the best produce was gone, and the lanes slowly emptied. The shopkeepers swept their stalls, counted the morning earnings, and settled down for a quiet hour of rest before the evening crowd returned.
Status: Press Start, then read the passage at your normal honest pace.
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Words per minute
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Seconds taken
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Passage words
How to use
- Choose a passage, then press Start Reading and read it fully at an honest pace.
- The moment you finish, press I Finished Reading.
- Read your words per minute score and the guide below it.
Typical adult reading speeds for non fiction are roughly 200 to 300 words per minute with good comprehension. Speed alone means little without understanding, so read honestly rather than skimming.