An embodiment of the present invention is a method of presenting a media work which includes: detecting media work content properties in a portion of the media work; associating a presentation rate of the portion with the detected media work content properties; and presenting the portion at the presentation rate; wherein the media work content properties include one or more of: (a) indicia of a number of syllables in utterances; (b) indicia of a number of letters in a word; (c) indicia of the complexity of grammatical structures in portions of the media work; (d) indicia of arrival rate of newly presented objects; (e) indicia of temporal proximity of between events in portions of the media work or (f) indicia of number of phonemes per unit of time in portions of the media work.