For the most part reading a lane is a combination of observed reaction when you throw the ball and feel.
Or if you ask the bowling alley they are usually more than willing to either show you the pattern or at least tell you what it is. Depending on how you throw the ball will determine how to play each pattern.
There are a lot of places to pickup terminology.
Bowlingball.com's Bowlversity has quite a bit of information
http://www.bowlingball.com/BowlVersity/
or bowlingchat.net's wiki
http://wiki.bowlingchat.net
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