Children's Reading Competition in Shanghai Book Fair

　　At the just-concluded Shanghai Book Fair, one of this year's highlights has been the Charlotte's Books Reading Competition, which was set up to try to encourage more children to read.

 

　　CRI's Yunfeng has more from Shanghai.

 

　　A Chinese boy reads a paragraph from the well-known short novel The Happy Prince on a center stage in the Children's section of the Shanghai Book Fair. He is very attentive¹ in his reading, and although he loses his footing at the pronunciation of certain words, he does his best to read the story loudly and clearly.

 

　　Off the stage, the other young competitors are busy preparing, reading the paragraph again and again. Yu Jiayi is a 7 year ago girl who sounds innocent when reading aloud; she says she likes reading a lot.

 

　　The judges of the Charlotte's Books Reading Competition are professional readers. Liang Hui, a host at Radio Shanghai tells the young competitors to use their voices to build the characters in the story. Apparently², the children could not control their voices very well. Huang Ying, a producer at Shanghai Film Dubbing³ Studio says that as a judge she is looking for potential and hoping to hear the joy of reading from them.

 

　　"We are NOT looking for perfect pronunciation and intonation⁴ from the children, but for their love of words and sounds. I would be happy if I could see their passion and understanding of the story they read."

 

　　Liang Hui, an experienced radio host, says reading aloud is one of the best ways to help children build up their abilities in reading comprehension and self- expression. In the context⁵ of competitions, children usually try their best to learn quickly and win.

 

　　Wu Hong is Vice⁶ Chief Editor of Shanghai Translation Publishing House, and one of the event organizers. He says that the publishing house started the reading competition last year. Having observed the previous young participants, they now organize a range of activities, including this reading competition, in the hope of attracting more interest from children.

 

　　More than ten competitors, young and old, that were selected from hundreds have read on the stage. It appears that no one really cares about the result of the competition; everyone is here to enjoy reading and share in the joy of reading aloud.

1 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 dubbing   

n.配音v.给…起绰号( dub的现在分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• There are mainly two forms of film translation: dubbing and subtitling. 电影翻译通常主要表现为两种形式：配音和字幕翻译。 来自互联网
• Its auspices, dubbing the program has won national awards in China. 其主持配音的节目多次获得中国全国奖项。 来自互联网

4 intonation   

n.语调，声调；发声

参考例句：

• The teacher checks for pronunciation and intonation.老师在检查发音和语调。
• Questions are spoken with a rising intonation.疑问句是以升调说出来的。

5 context   

n.背景，环境，上下文，语境

参考例句：

• You can always tell the meaning of a word from its context.你常可以从上下文中猜出词义来。
• This sentence does not seem to connect with the context.这个句子似乎与上下文脱节。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。