He backs up his pitch with facts. Numerous studies, including recent reports by the Center for the Study of Reading and the National Council of Teachers of English, confirm that reading to children builds vocabulary, stimulates imagination, stretches the attention span, nourishes emotional development, and introduces the textures and nuances of the English language. Reading aloud is, in essence, an advertisement for learning to read.
Trelease laments that elementary-school students are too often conditioned to associate reading with work. "We have concentrated so hard on teaching children how to read that we have forgotten to teach them to want to read," he says.
His audience is surprised to hear that only 22 percent of eighth-graders read for fun daily, while 65 percent watch three hours or more of television each day. Research also indicates that average reading proficiency drops when TV viewing reaches about three hours a day. Their parents'habits are no better: a recent survey shows a decline in newspaper readership among U.S. adults.
Lest there be any doubt about the stakes involved, Trelease makes a bold claim. Reading, he says, is the single most important social factor in American life today. "The more you read, the smarter you grow. The longer you stay in school, the more money you earn. The more you earn, the better your children will do in school. So if you hook a child with reading, you influence not only his future but also that of the next generation."
Trelease found his calling not because it spoke to his intellect, but because it nurtured his emotions. When his two children, Elizabeth and Jamie, were young, Trelease and his wife, Susan, fed them as many books as meals. "I read to my kids because my father had read to me, he says. "I just wanted them to have the good feelings I hadhad."
gave food to a person （Para. 5）
【正确答案】：fed
【题目解析】：喂养。
