2. Reading Skills Comprehension: Bookshop

BOOKSHOP

1. A bookshop is not something you find in every gall or mohalla these days. Books, which were once a permanent accompaniment for youngsters in their formative years, are fading out of their list of engagements.

2. Ask any youngster which is the latest book he has read, and he will be baffled. Apart from a few consistent readers, others just befool themselves with a bookseller’s name or lament the curriculum load for justifying themselves, like this seventeen-year-old school-goer who says, ‘I just read my Physics book.’

3. Television has been blamed for this calamitous situation, which is producing square-faced people and a bookless society. Furthermore, today’s children are under pressure to be smart and popular and to succeed on a social level. Parties, dancing and hanging out at different places begin early. Moreover, computers, video games, the Internet, swimming lessons, cricket and a youngster’s passion for an hour-long tete-a-tete on the telephone with friends eat up all their leisure time.

4. A child who is constantly under pressure to live up to his parents’ expectations, which are at times unreasonable, does not like to throw himself into another set of books after the laborious school work, unless he comes from a family of readers where the engrossing work of Shakespeare and Dickens are just a matter of pulling them out from the shelves.

5. Many parents also believe that today’s children have become more aware and demand logical reasoning for everything. They can no longer be fooled by fairy tales or animal stories, as they have not seen any fairies or animals except for those old and tired ones in the city zoo. This has made them more interested in movies or TV serials than a turtle talking to a rabbit or a frog changing into a prince.

6. But a visit to the capital’s leading bookstores presents a contrasting picture of youngsters’ reading habits. These bookshops claim they are doing healthy business and have many regular buyers from this age group.

7.Though the works of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Mark Twain no longer interest teenagers, bestsellers from Daniel Steele, Sidney Sheldon and Jeffery Archer are on the list of all reading teens. Self-help books, such as those on personality development or relationship management, are also picked up by many of them.

8. Mystery books like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys are popular with kids and Mills and Boons and other romance novels with their fairly predictable formula with teenage girls. For parents of children below ten, volumes of Panchatantra Stories, Amar Chitra Katha and other bedtime stories are worthy purchases as these teach the child what is wrong in their own special way. What seems to be the case is that parents have surrendered to others what was their most precious right—that of making their children what they should become. With the old techniques of child rearing losing ground, modem parents must consciously spend time with their children. Taste and enthusiasm for literature can be communicated artfully to children by reading bedtime stories to them, encouraging them to play historical characters and giving books as birthday gifts.

9. The family reading which was once popular in the West could well be adopted here. Reading aloud the works of great men by parents to their children not only forms a warm bond between them but also attracts young minds to the world of books which gives them a chance to explore the sea of life.

Word-Meanings

Para 1. 1. accompaniment: companion 2. Formative (adjective): having a lasting influence on somebody’s character

Para 2. 1. Baffled (verb): confounded 2. Consistent (adjective): regular 3. Lament (verb): to regret

Para 3. 1. Calamitous (adjective): troublesome 2. tete-a-tete (noun): intimate talk

Para 4. 1. Laborious (adjective): requiring excessive work and effort 2. Engrossing (adjective): absorbing

Para 5. 1. Logical (adjective): reasonable

Para 7. 1. teenagers (noun): a person aged between 13 and 19 years

Para 8. 1. Predictable (adjective): that which can be foretold 2. Artfully (adverb): tactfully

Para 9. 1. Bond (noun): link 2. Explore (verb): search

Questions:

1. Choose the correct option:

(a) What is blamed the most for taking teenagers away from good books?

(i) Cinema (ii) Television (iii) Dance shows (iv) Music programmes

(b) Which of the following is a mystery book?

(i) Macbeth (ii) Panchatantra

(iii) Nancy Drew (iv) Amar Chitra Katha

(c) Whose book is popular among teenagers?

(i) Jane Austen (ii) Mark Twain

(iii) Shakespeare (iv) Sidney Sheldon

(d) What was popular in the West?

(i) Story reading (ii) Family reading

(iii) Reading ancient stories (iv) Writing stories

(e) Parents have surrendered their most ‘precious right’ which is:

(i) loving the child (ii) making the most of their child

(iii) rearing their child (iv) planning their child’s future

(f) Reading aloud helps parents………….. their children

(i) explain the difficulties of life to (ii) develop a closer relationship with

(iii) explain the future (iv) Both (ii) & (iii)

2.Answer the questions briefly:

(a) Why do some children ignore books?

(b) Why are some children fond of reading books?

(d) How do teenagers pass their leisure time?

(e) Find the word from the passage which means ‘absorbing’ (para 4)?

(f) What is the general belief about youngsters’ reading habits? How is it countered?

Answers:

1.(a) ii (b) iii (c) iv (d) ii (e) iii (f) ii

2.(a)The social pressure to look smart and be well-known makes some children ignore books. So, they prefer attending parties, dancing and hanging out with their friends.

(b)Some children read books for enjoyment, thrill, charm and entertainment. Mystery books, bestsellers and self-help books are their favourites.

(c) In order to inculcate the love for books in their children, parents should read bedtime ‘. stories to them, encourage them to play historical characters and give books as a birthday ‘gifts.

(d) Teenagers pass their leisure time watching TV, playing video games, attending hobby classes and talking to friends and phone.

(e) engrossing

(f) Nowadays, it is believed that youngsters don’t read books. However, bookshop owners claim that many youngsters are regular customers who come in and buy various types of reading material.

Download the above Passage in PDF Worksheet (Printable)