The National Endowment for the Arts recently released
the results of its “Reading at Risk” survey, which described
the movement of the American public away from books and
literature and toward television and electronic media.
According to the survey, “reading is on the decline on every S1________
region, within every ethnic group, and at every educational level.”
The day the NEA report released, the U.S. House, in a tie S2________
vote, upheld the government’s right to obtain bookstore and
library records under a provision of the USA Patriot Act. The
House proposal would have barred the federal government
from demand library records, reading lists, book customer S3________
lists and other material in terrorism and intelligence investigations.
These two events are completely unrelated to, yet they S4________
echo each other in the message they send about the place of
books and reading in American culture. At the heart
of the NEA survey is the belief in our democratic S5________
system depends on leaders who can think critically, analyze
texts and writing clearly. All of these are skills promoted by S6________
reading and discussing books and literature. At the same time,
through a provision of the Patriot Act, the leaders of our
country are unconsciously sending the message that reading
may be connected to desirable activities that might S7________
undermine our system of government rather than helping
democracy flourish.
Our culture’s decline in reading begin well before the S8________
existence of the Patriot Act. During the 1980s’ culture wars,
school systems across the country pulled some books from
library shelves because its content was deemed by parents S9________
and teachers to be inappropriate. Now what started in schools
across the country is playing itself out on a nation stage and S10________<
