一目十行

yīmù-shíháng
idiom #60,251

Meanings

  1. 1 to take in ten lines at a glance
  2. 2 to read very rapidly
  3. 3 to skim through quickly

Examples

HSK 3
Tā dúshū yīmùshíháng, yī wǎnshang jiù kànwán le yī běn xiǎoshuō.
He reads ten lines at a glance - he finished a whole novel in one evening.
HSK 7-9
Kǎoshì shíjiān jǐn, zhǐnéng yīmùshíháng de liúlǎn tímù.
With exam time tight, all I could do was skim the questions at a glance.

Tips

history
From 《梁书·简文帝纪》, which says of Emperor Jianwen of Liang that 读书十行俱下 ("in reading he took in ten lines at once"). Song poet Liu Kezhuang later set the four-character form: 五更三点待漏,一目十行读书.
mistakes
here is háng ("line of text"), not xíng - the same reading as in 银行, 一行字. Pronouncing it xíng is a common slip.

Stroke Order

shí
xíng