Legere et non intellegere est tamquam non legere.
(Anonymous)

pron = LEH-geh-reh eht nohn in-tel-LEH-geh-reh ehst TAHM-kwahm nohn LEH-geh-reh.

Reading and not understanding is the same as not reading.

Comment: I am never more aware of the truth of this proverb than when I am teaching in a second language. When my Latin students and I have read something--at whatever level, whether a beginner's story or a poem of Catullus, for example--I have learned to ask: intellegitisne?
Do you understand? Quae quaestiones mihi habetis? What questions do you have for me? And then, I allow them to ask me questions, in Latin, about the text we have just read. They usually ask about a word, or phrase. Sometimes, they try to restate something they've read to see if they understand correctly. If they do not, then "Quaestiones vobis habeo--I have questions for you--I tell them. And I begin asking about details of the story, or the poem. I ask them to restate things for me in their own Latin words.

Recently, I asked my Latin 2 students to write a short piece, in Latin, from the perspective of the spider on the ceiling who was watching the scene that we read. Their piece had to begin: Aranea sum. E tecto, video . . . "I am a spider. From the ceiling, I see .
. . " It was clear to me, when I read their pieces, whether they had read and understood.

For me as a reader, and for me as a teacher of language, the crux of the matter is time to reflect, to question, what we have read. So, I might amend this saying: Legere et considerare est intellegere. To read and to reflect is to understand.