A person who had been sedentary for a lifetime would not think that she could rise up from her sofa, head out the door, and run a breezy 10 K. Instead she would work up to it slowly, starting with a few strolls around the block perhaps, then longer walks, then a little jogging, and so on. The same applies to the reading of texts written in an unfamiliar idiom or genre, or written in an age whose stylistic preferences differ from our own.
