read selected value from select tag of HTML using javascript code

My HTML code is as:

 <div id="detail">
    <div class="d_left">
    Page <strong>1</strong> of 107
    </div>
    <div class="d_center">
    <table>
    <tr>
    <td><a href="#">Previous</a> | <a href="#">Next</a>
    <img src="/webProject/store/images/arrow.png" align="absmiddle" alt="">
    </td></tr></table>
    </div>
    <div class="d_right">
    Sort by:
     <select name="featured" size="1" id="item1">
          <option>Featured Items1</option>
          <option>Featured Items2</option>
          <option>Featured Items3</option>
          <option>Featured Items4</option>
        </select>
    </div>
</div>

Now, I want to read selected value from <select name="featured" size="1" id="item1">. How can I do this using JavaScript?