MANY Brazilians cannot read. In 2000, a quarter of those aged 15 and older were functionally illiterate. Many 1 do not want to. Only one literate in three reads books. The 2 Brazilian reads 1.8 non-academic books a year—less than half the figure in Europe and the United States. In a recent survey of reading habits, Brazilians came 27th out of 30 countries, spending 5.2 hours a week with a book. Argentines, their neighbours, 3 18th. The government and businesses are all striving in different ways to change this. On March 13th the government 4 a National Plan for Books and Reading. This seeks to boost reading, by founding libraries and financing publishers among other things. One discouragement to reading is that books are 5 . Most books have small print-runs, pushing up their price. But Brazilians' indifference to books has deeper roots. Centuries of slavery meant the country's leaders long 6 education. Primary schooling became universal only in the 1990s. All this means that Brazil's book market has the biggest growth 7 in the western world. But reading is a difficult habit to form. Brazilians bought fewer books in 2004, 89million, including textbooks 8 by the government—than they did in 1991. Last year the director of Brazil's national library 9 . He complained that he had half the librarians he needed and termites (白蚁) had eaten much of the 10 . That ought to be a cause for national shame. A) average B) collection C) distributed D) exhibition E) expensive F) launched G) named H) neglected I) normal J) particularly K) potential L) quit M) ranked N) simply O) treasured