阅读理解
I've written this article and you're
reading it. So we are members of the same club. We're both literate—we can read and write. And we both
probably feel that literacy is essential to our lives. But millions of people
all over the world are illiterate. Even in industrialized Western countries,
such as the UK and the USA, approximately 20% of the population have "low
literacy levels". But what exactly does that mean?
My parents both left school at 14. They
could read and write, but except for a quick look at the daily newspaper,
reading and writing didn't play a big part in their lives. There were very few
books in the house. My mother was amazed because the woman who lived next door
always wrote a list of what she needed before she went to the supermarket. Why
couldn't she remember? We laughed about that for weeks. Our family didn't write
lists! And when I was only 14 years old my father gave me an important letter
that he'd written to the bank and asked me to check it for grammar and spelling
mistakes. And there were quite a lot. He never usually wrote letters or
postcards or even Christmas cards. So when he had to write he wasn't
comfortable or confident. Does that mean that my father had a "low level
of literacy"? I don't think so.
There are lots of different definitions
of literacy. Some experts define it as having the reading and writing skills
that you need to be independent in your everyday life. So, for example, if you
can read instructions, write a cheque, fill in a form, —anything that you need to do in
everyday life—then
you are "functionally literate".
Other people say that you are
illiterate if you think that you are illiterate. In other words, if you feel
that you can't read or write as well as you would like to.
If you live in a society where most
people are literate then you will feel ashamed or embarrassed and avoid
situations in which you have to read or write. The father of a friend of mine
finally admitted to his family that he couldn't read when he was 45 years old.
He bought the newspaper every day and pretended to read it—and believe it or not, his family had
no idea.
We often forget that writing is a
recent invention. Many years ago, the word "literate" meant being
able to communicate well in speaking, in other words what we now call
"articulate". Story telling was an important activity in the past and
still is today in some societies. Reading was often a cooperative activity—someone would read aloud to a group,
often from a religious text such as the Koran or the Bible.
Only a hundred years ago, in the United
States, you were considered to be literate if you could sign your name to a
piece of paper. It was an important skill. You were not allowed to vote if you
couldn't sign the voting register, so literacy was connected with political
rights, and many people were excluded from the democratic process.
Nowadays we see reading and writing as
being connected, but that wasn't so in the past. Many people could read, but
not write. Writing was a skilled profession. If you needed something written
then you paid an expert to write it for you.
And of course, rich and important
people have always employed people to write things for them. Important company
bosses dictated letters to their secretaries or personal assistants. And now
with new computer software you can dictate directly to your computer.
Being illiterate can have a big effect
on people's lives. For example, a study in the UK showed that people who write
and spell badly are seen as careless, immature and unreliable, and often
unintelligent. So it is more difficult for them to find jobs, even when reading
and writing are not necessary for the work.
World-wide statistics show that
literacy problems are associated with poverty and a lack of political power.
More women than men are illiterate. Illiterate people have worse health, bigger
families and are more likely to go to prison. So literacy campaigns must be a
good thing. But don't forget that an illiterate person, or someone with a low
level of literacy, isn't necessarily stupid or ignorant—and may not be unhappy at all.
Knowledge and wisdom isn't only found in writing.
