  A monotone Boolean (OR,AND) circuit computing a monotone Boolean function f
is a read-k circuit if the polynomial produced (purely syntactically) by the
arithmetic (+,x) version of the circuit has the property that for every prime
implicant of f, the polynomial contains at least one monomial with the same set
of variables, each appearing with degree at most k. Every monotone circuit is a
read-k circuit for some k. We show that already read-1 (OR,AND) circuits are
not weaker than monotone arithmetic constant-free (+,x) circuits computing
multilinear polynomials, are not weaker than non-monotone multilinear
(OR,AND,NOT) circuits computing monotone Boolean functions, and have the same
power as tropical (min,+) circuits solving combinatorial minimization problems.
Finally, we show that read-2 (OR,AND) circuits can be exponentially smaller
than read-1 (OR,AND) circuits.
