Are Books an Endangered Species?,Preparation,Reading Through,Exercises,Merry Learning,Preparation,Getting the Message,Getting the Message,Directions: Answer the following questions according to the text.,1. How many books were there in the “library” of the authors home? 2. What does the book symbolize? 3. What is more frightening than the problem mentioned above? 4. What effects has this reading problem brought to the cultural marketplace? 5. Why does the author say that we are living in a passive age.,Key,Getting the Message,1. There were hundreds of books in that room. 2. The book is a symbol of the permanence of thought and the handing down from one generation to the next. 3. Of those same college freshman, many had ranked in the top half of their high school classes. 4. Commercial book sales are sliding quickly. 5. Because a cultural consumer prefers those passive activitieslistening to a record, sitting through a movie, watching cartoons on televisionsrequiring nothing of the cultural consumer, except for his mere presence.,Reading Through,New Words,endanger dominate bookshelf grandparent plot gradual unmistakable permanence parcel scarce,reinforce freshman elementary chancellor plentiful marketplace slide fiction instance,exceed cartoon consumer mere presence participant outlet reverence inspection primitive more,Phrases and Expressions come of age hand down close by carry around so far sit through time and again on the go,Main Idea and Structure,First reading: Scan the text and try to catch the main idea. The following words are for your reference to organize the idea: information age, precious symbol, the reading of books, endangered species,Second reading: read the passage again and try to identify the structure of this passage.,For your reference,For your reference,With the coming of information age, the reading of books could not be given the reverence. In this passage, the author mainly put the focus on the present situation of book which has been a precious symbol of the permanence of thought. The contrast between the past and the present shows the difference in the changing view of reading, also including his own view. So the problem is: May the book be a new addition to our list of endangered species?,Main Idea,Structure,Part I (para. 1 ),The authors recall about the book stored in his familys library,Part II (para. 2-4 ),Part III (para. 4-5),The present situation of the reading of books,The analysis on the present problem and the reason caused the problem,Intensive Reading: Para. 1,Are Books an Endangered Species? In the house where I grew up, we had a room we called the library. It wasnt a real library, of course. It was just a small room that was dominated by a television set. But there were bookshelves built into all four walls, and hundreds of books surrounded us in that room. The books, collected by my parents and grandparents throughout their lifetimes, were a part of my childhood.,Chinese,Para. 2,My generation, the generation that came of age in the 1950s and 1960s, may be the last to appreciate being surrounded by millions of words working together to create plots of every kind. These days, in the 1970s, we are seeing a gradual, but unmistakable, movement away from such things. The booka precious symbol of the permanence of thought, the handing down of wisdom from one generation to the nextmay be a new addition to our list of endangered species.,Chinese,Para. 3,I have a friend who runs a bookstore in a college town close by. He says that he can certainly notice the changing of the tides just by looking at the things students are buying, and not buying, right now. “You know how we used to see people carrying around book bags?“ he tells me. “Well, now I look out the window of my shop, and all I see are students carrying parcels from the record stores. Students who like to read are scarce these days.“,Chinese,Para. 4,And he may be right. Stories of problems young people have with reading are not new, though things seem to be getting worse. Recently, the head of the University of Illinoiss branch campus in Chicago reinforced the reality of such a problem in saying that 10 percent of the freshmen at his university could read no better than the average student in elementary school. As sad a statement as this is, there is something that will frighten you even more: of those same college freshmen, the chancellor reported that many had ranked in the top half of their high school classes!,Chinese,Para. 5,The consequences such a reality brings to the nation are abundant, and will become even more plentiful in the years to come. Such serious effects are already being felt in the cultural marketplace, where commercial book sales are sliding quickly. A first-rate work of fiction, for instance, if it has any luck at all, will sell perhaps 3,000 copies in its first run. But what about a music record? Well, a new group on the music scene, “Boston,“ recently re