reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of books this year, but I want you to read them just for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that's enough for me. Also I'm not going to ask you what words mean."

　The children sat stunned and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and seriously," Mr. Holt, do you really mean that? " I said just as seriously, " I mean every word of it."

　During the spring she really astonished me. One day, she was reading at her desk. From a glimpse of the illustrations I thought I knew what the boos was. I said to myself, " It can't be," and went to take a closer look. Sure enough, she was reading Moby Dick, in the edition with woodcuts. I said, " Don't you find parts of it rather heavy going?" She answered, "Oh, sure, but I just skip over those parts and go on to the next good part."

　This is exactly what reading should be and in school so seldom is --- an exciting, joyous adventure. Find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, go on to something else. How different is our mean-spirited, picky insistence that every child get every last little scrap of " understanding" that can be dug out of a book.

1. According to the passage, children's fear and dislike of books may result from______ .

A. reading little and thinking little

B. reading often and adventurously

C. being made to reading much

D. being made to reading aloud before others

2. The teacher told his student to read _______ .

A. for enjoyment B. for knowledge

C. for a large vocabulary D. for higher scores in exams

3. Upon hearing the teacher's talk, the children probably felt that ___________ .

A. it sounded stupid

B. it was not surprising at all

C. it sounded too good to be true

D. it was no different from other teachers' talk