Books for all: Selah's literacy journey为所有人提供书籍:西拉的捐书之旅

主题语境：社会公益 篇幅：349词 篇 建议用时：6分钟

1 When Selah was five years old， she came homefrom her first day of kindergarten and told herparents that many of her classmates didnt knowhow to read. She then asked her parents to giveaway 20 hundred thousand books. Selah's momNicole Thompson thought that this equaled twomillion books！

2 Her parents began to do their own research after hearing Selahs lofty plans. They foundthat there is a huge amount of illiteracy （文盲） in America. In fact， 85 percent of chil⁃dren in the juvenile prison system were functionally illiterate， and that two⁃thirds of stu⁃dents who cannot read proficiently by the end of the fourth grade will end up in prisonor on welfare.

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

4 “In addition to being exposed to reading， children are not excited about reading whenthey do not see themselves on the pages of the book，” Nicole Thompson said. Shenoticed limited representation of characters of color in kids' literature.“ We are justtrying 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 thatwas published in November， 2019 and that was the beginning of Penelope the PiratePrincess series. The main character Penelope looks like Selah and also loves scienceand space.

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

Reading

Check

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 seebooks as something positive. 该组织促使家庭养成阅读的习惯，让孩子们能够将书籍视为积极的东西。

【点石成金】本句是一个复合句。so that引导的是一个目的状语从句；positive是形容词，作不定代词something的后置定语。

Ⅱ. Text⁃centered chunks

give away 赠送

on welfare 接受生活救济

on board 在船上；在飞机上；在火车上

be exposed to 被暴露于……

do one's part 某人尽力而为

heal a wound 愈合创伤

on the right track 步入正轨