Books for all:Selah's literacy journey

山東 位春玲

五歲的小女孩西拉看到幼兒園里的許多同學不會閱讀時，就決定為自己的同學們捐兩百萬本書。多年來，她的家人一直在為西拉的這個宏愿而努力。

主題語境：社會公益 篇幅：349詞 篇 建議用時：6分鐘

1 When Selah was five years old, she came home from her first day of kindergarten and told her parents that many of her classmates didn't know how to read.She then asked her parents to give away 20 hundred thousand books.Selah's mom Nicole Thompson thought that this equaled two million books!

2 Her parents began to do their own research after hearing Selah's lofty plans.They found that there is a huge amount of illiteracy (文盲) in America.In fact, 85 percent of children in the juvenile prison system were functionally illiterate, and that two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the fourth grade will end up in prison or on welfare.

3 After understanding the need for books and establishing a love for reading, Selah's parents were on board.In 2018, they created the nonprofit Empowered Readers Literacy Project (ERLP).This organization promotes families to form reading habits so that children can see books as something positive.More than 2400 kids and their parents participated in the march for literacy on Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday in the project's first event in the first year.They also run an adventure time readers club and an initiative Project 500 to get books into children's hands.

4 “In addition to being exposed to reading, children are not excited about reading when they do not see themselves on the pages of the book,” Nicole Thompson said.She noticed limited representation of characters of color in kids' literature.“We are just trying to do our little part to heal big wounds that the uneducated have,” she said.

5 Selah, along with her younger sister Syrai, wrote a book with the help of their father that was published in November, 2019 and that was the beginning ofPenelope the PiratePrincessseries.The main character Penelope looks like Selah and also loves science and space.

6 In two years, the ERLP donated 8000 books, including Selah's own series.Although her goal of 20 hundred thousand books is still quite far, Selah is on the right track.

Reading Check

Inference1.How did Selah's parents react to her request for books?

A.They thought little of it.

B.They regarded it as a joke.

C.They thought it impossible.

D.They took it very seriously.

Gist2.What's the main idea of paragraph 2?

A.Illiteracy is the main cause of crime in America.

B.There is a high level of illiteracy among American kids.

C.Selah's parents find it difficult to carry out their research.

D.The majority of American kids drop out of school by grade 4.

Detail3.What's the goal of ERLP?

A.To make more parents love reading.

B.To raise kids' awareness of reading.

C.To get rid of illiteracy among kids entirely.

D.To collect more books for kids in juvenile prisons.

Detail4.What's the problem Nicole Thompson discovered in kids' books?

A.There were very few characters of color.

B.Their covers were not attractive enough.

C.There were less beautiful colors in them.

D.Their plots were not interesting enough.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

This organization promotes families to form reading habits so that children can see books as something positive.該組織促使家庭養成閱讀的習慣，讓孩子們能夠將書籍視為積極的東西。

【點石成金】本句是一個復合句。so that 引導的是一個目的狀語從句；positive 是形容詞，作不定代詞something的后置定語。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

give away 贈送

on welfare 接受生活救濟

on board 在船上；在飛機上；在火車上

be exposed to 被暴露于……do one's part 某人盡力而為heal a wound 愈合創傷

on the right track 步入正軌