It is hardly necessary for me to cite all the evidence of the depressing state of literacy. These figures from the Department of Education are sufficient: 27 million Americans cannot read at all, and a further 35 million read at a level that is less than sufficient to survive in our society.
But my own worry today is less that of the overwhelming problem of elemental literacy than it is of the slightly more luxurious problem of the decline in the skill even of his middle-class reader, of his unwillingness to afford those spaces of silence, those luxuries of domesticity and time and concentration, that surround the image of the classic act of reading. It has been suggested that almost 80 percent of America’s literate, educated teenagers can no longer read without an accompanying noise (music) in the background or a television screen flickering at the corner of their field of perception. We know very little about the brain and how it deals with simultaneous conflicting input, but every common-sense intuition suggests we should be profoundly alarmed. This violation of concentration, silence, solitude goes to the very heart of our notion of literacy; this new form of part-reading, of part-perception against background distraction, renders impossible certain essential acts of apprehension and concentration, let alone that most important tribute any human being can pay to a poem or a piece of prose he or she really loves, which is to learn it by heart. Not by brain, by heart; the expression is vital.
Under these circumstances, the question of what future there is for the arts of reading is a real one. Ahead of us lie technical, psychic, and social transformations probably much more dramatic than those brought about by Gutenberg, the German inventor in printing. The Gutenberg revolution, as we now know it, took a long time; its effects are still being debated. The information revolution will touch every facet of composition, publication, distribution, and reading. No one in the book industry can say with any confidence what will happen to the book as we’ve known it.
The picture of the reading ability of the American people, drawn by the author, is ________.
根据文章第一段第一句“我无需举例说明那种令人沮丧的受教育状况”。句中“depressing”的意思 与“bleak”相近，由此可推断作者描绘的这幅画面是相当黯淡的。
The author’s biggest concern is ________.
根据文章第二段第一句“目前我担心的倒不是基本文化水平这个大问题，而是一个较为奢侈的问题， 即全神贯注地进行经典性的阅读方面的退化”。因此选D。
A major problem with most adolescents who can read is ________.
在第二段第二句和倒数第二句作者提到“大约80%的有文化、受过教育的十几岁的年轻人没有背景音 乐和闪烁的电视屏幕的陪伴就无法阅读”和“而这种在背景音的干涉下阅读的新方法使人们不可能对所阅读 的东西全神贯注地加以理解”，由此可推断C是正确的。
The author claims that the best way a reader can show admiration for a piece of poetry or prose is ________.
根据文章第二段倒数第二句“将散文或诗歌，不是用脑，而是用心背下来，这是人们欣赏他们所喜欢 的诗歌或散文的最好的方式”，因此A正确。
About the future of the arts of reading the author feels ________.
在第三段第一句，作者写道“在这种情况下，阅读艺术的将来确实是一个真正的大问题”。在最后一 句，作者又提到“图书界没有人能充满信心地预言到底会发生什么情况”，因此可推断，作者对阅读艺术的 将来感到难以把握。故选B。