06年12月新六級

　　The National Endowment for the Arts recently released

　　the results of its “Reading at Risk” survey, which described

　　the movement of the American public away from books and

　　literature and toward television and electronic media.

　　According to the survey, “reading is on the decline on every S1________

　　region, within every ethnic group, and at every educational level.”

　　The day the NEA report released, the U.S. House, in a tie S2________

　　vote, upheld the government’s right to obtain bookstore and

　　library records under a provision of the USA Patriot Act. The

　　House proposal would have barred the federal government

　　from demand library records, reading lists, book customer S3________

　　lists and other material in terrorism and intelligence investigations.

　　These two events are completely unrelated to, yet they S4________

　　echo each other in the message they send about the place of

　　books and reading in American culture. At the heart

　　of the NEA survey is the belief in our democratic S5________

　　system depends on leaders who can think critically, analyze

　　texts and writing clearly. All of these are skills promoted by S6________

　　reading and discussing books and literature. At the same time,

　　through a provision of the Patriot Act, the leaders of our

　　country are unconsciously sending the message that reading

　　may be connected to desirable activities that might S7________

　　undermine our system of government rather than helping

　　democracy flourish.

　　Our culture’s decline in reading begin well before the S8________

　　existence of the Patriot Act. During the 1980s’ culture wars,

　　school systems across the country pulled some books from

　　library shelves because its content was deemed by parents S9________

　　and teachers to be inappropriate. Now what started in schools

　　across the country is playing itself out on a nation stage and S10________

　　is possibly having an impact on the reading habits of the

　　American public.