Passage 1
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 1. _________
region, within every ethnic group, and at every educational level.”
The day the NEA report released, the U.S. House, in a tie 2. ___________
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 3. ___________
lists and other material in terrorism and intelligence investigations.
These two events are completely unrelated to, yet they 4. ___________
echo each other in the message they send about the place of
books and reading in American culture. At the heart 5. ___________
system depends on leaders who can think critically, analyze
texts and writing clearly. All of these are skills promoted by 6. ___________
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 7. ___________
undermine our system of government rather than helping
democracy flourish.
Our culture’s decline in reading begin well before the 8. ___________
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 9. ____________
and teachers to be inappropriate. Now what started in schools
across the country is playing itself out on a nation stage and 10. ___________
is possibly having an impact on the reading habits of the American public.
