|
Pavan’s favourite activity is playing football outdoors. His second favourite is playing football indoors, and in third place is practising football skills against the sofa. Reading – the pursuit that Francis Bacon claimed “maketh a full man” – comes further down the eight-year-old’s list, behind school, going to discos, buying stuff, chatting to people, watching TV and playing on his Xbox games console. 8岁小男孩潘万(Pavan)最喜欢的活动是在户外踢足球，其次是在屋里踢足球，位居第三的，是在沙发上操练球技。培根(Francis Bacon)所谓“读书使人充实”的阅读，在潘万的活动计划名单中非常靠后，远在上学、跳迪斯科、购物、聊天、看电视以及玩Xbox游戏机之后。 Would he ever pick up a book for pleasure? “No,” Pavan shoots back jovially. “If I’m bored, I will ask my mum if I can play on her phone.” By this point, I am relieved that Michael Gove is not part of our conversation at a homework club in Harlesden Library, north London. 他会出于喜欢而读书吗？“不会，”潘万兴奋地摇摇头说。“自己若是心烦了，就会纠缠妈妈玩她的手机。”说到这里，我感觉如释重负，因为英国教育大臣迈克尔•戈夫(Michael Gove)不会成为我们在伦敦北部哈里斯登图书馆(Harlesden Library)举办的家庭作业俱乐部的谈话内容了。 The UK education secretary has long feared that British children are “just not reading enough”. The same concern has been raised by publishers and literacy charities, which worry that new distractions – computer games, online videos, social networking – are pushing books off the shelf. More than 60 per cent of 18-to-30-year-olds now prefer watching television or DVDs to reading, according to a survey for the charity Booktrust. A similar proportion of young people think the internet and computers will replace books in the next 20 years. | 
