Four-year-old becomes world's youngest author

貴州 羅躍梅

阿聯酋男孩賽義德·拉希德·穆海里以4歲的年齡，成為全球年紀最小的出版過作品的男性作者。

主題語境：新聞人物 篇幅：330詞 建議用時：6分鐘

1 At the age of 4, little Saeed Rashed AlMheiri from Abu Dhabi,UAE,is the world's youngest person to publish a book.His record was verified on 9 March 2023,after he sold over 1,000 copies of his children's bookThe Elephant Saeed and the Bear.

2 But Saeed is not the only record breaker in the family.In fact, he was inspired to write his book by his older sister AlDhabi,who used to hold the record title for the world's youngest person to publish a bilingual (雙語的)book (female).Less than one year later,she broke the record for the youngest person to publish a bilingual book series(female)at the age of 8.

3 Saeed said cheerfully,“I love my sister so much and I enjoy playing with her all the time.We read,write,draw and do so many activities together.I wrote my book as I felt that I could have my own book too.”

4 Saeed then went on to explain the plot of his book.“It is about the elephant Saeed and a polar bear.The elephant had a picnic and he saw a polar bear.He thought the bear was going to eat him but, in the end, the elephant showed kindness and said‘Let's have a picnic together!’.Then they became friends and showed kindness to each other.”

5 With his mother and his sister's guidance, Saeed learned how to write and soon started coming up with original stories.He loved describing the characters of his book, as well as drawing them.“The drawing was tricky and the polar bear looked scary at first, but it's always fun to draw,”he said.

6 When asked how he feels about his achievement, he said,“I'm happy and proud that I did something nice like my sister AlDhabi! I love when my friends feel happy for me too.”When asked if he'd consider breaking any other records in the future, he said“YES!”without any hesitation.

Reading Check

Vocabulary1.What does the underlined word“verified”in paragraph 1 mean?

A.Balanced.

B.Proved.

C.Designed.

D.Impressed.

Detail2.Who encouraged Saeed to write his own book?

A.His sister.

B.His mother.

C.His teacher.

D.Himself.

Detail3.What does the bookThe Elephant Saeed and the Bearfocus on?

A.Inspiration.

B.Animals'nature.

C.Humans and nature.

D.Kindness and friendship.

Inference 4.Which of the following can best describe Saeed?

A.Caring and determined.

B.Honest and responsible.

C.Confident and talented.

D.Curious and helpful.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

In fact,he was inspired to write his book by his older sister AlDhabi,who used to hold the record title for the world's youngest person to publish a bilingual book (female).事實上，他寫這本書的靈感來自他的姐姐阿爾扎比，她曾經是世界上最年輕的出版雙語書籍作者（女性）紀錄頭銜的保持者。

【點石成金】本句是一個復合句，who 引導非限制性定語從句，修飾先行詞AlDhabi。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

at the age of 在……歲時

be inspired to 被激勵；得到啟發

used to do 曾經

hold the record 保持紀錄

go on 繼續

come up with 想出