学进去

“Hey, how are you doing? I’m Courtney. What grade are you in? What’s your favourite book? Elephant and Piggy? Yeah, I got it.”

If you think you have walked into a library with a _________ like that, you are exactly wrong. _________, you’ve entered the workplace of Courtney Holmes, known as the Storybook Barber (理发师).

Two years ago, his small town held its first yearly Back to School Party, offering needy families a _________ to learn about free resources in the community. Holmes, a warm-hearted barber agreed to take part. Though he was very busy, he choose to donate his _________ to give free haircuts to needy kids so that they’d look tidy on that first chose to donate his day of school. Suddenly, a(n) _________ went through his mind, “The kids should go on getting their free _________ by having to read a book to me.”

The idea was so _________ that he continued it for the next two years. Kids aged 5-10 would grab a favourite book, sit in the barber chair, and _________ while Holmes snipped (剪). If they stuttered (结结巴巴) over a word, Holmes was there to _________.

After the haircut, they’d __________ the books, from the characters and vocabulary to the themes — just like in school, only more fun. Holmes realized that not every __________ had the time to read with their kids. He had a talk with his neighbour Mr. Smith, “You have four kids, and you are so __________ that sitting down and listening to them read is the last thing you have time to do. Just bring in your kids and let them read to __________.”

Holmes added, “I, too, __________ the free snip-and-reads. Last month, there was a seven-year-old boy, Bob, who tried hard to read through his book, stuttering over words, and then I asked the boy to take the book home and practice. __________ the kid came back a few days later, he read it with no problems. That inspires (鼓舞) me,” said Holmes.