University Tips is here to help you prepare for the English exams and tests that are coming your way. It gives you practise answering questions similar to those you may have at school and also on the University Entrance Examination.
Read the following story by Anchalee Kongrut from the Bangkok Post. Then, answer the questions that follow.
The Skytrain walkway in front of the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre is usually noisy and bustling with human traffic. But on a recent Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere there was unusually tranquil. A group of youngsters were standing around, silently reading.
After one hour, the group dispersed. There left no posters or pamphlets to explain their action, and they didn’t pin up a manifesto. There was no donation box to solicit funds.
The young people were protesting against the huge budget set aside by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to finance its World Book Capital publicity efforts.
“We don’t want to organise a campaign,” Sakrapee Rinsarn, one of those responsible for organising a theatrical demonstration named Standing and Reading Quietly, said. “We just want to raise the question of why the BMA thinks it’s necessary to spend 1 billion baht on the Bangkok World Book Capital campaign.
“We are not a formal organisation. We just designed a campaign to show that reading is a simple activity that shouldn’t cost much,” 24-year-old Sakrapee said. Sakrapee graduated from Burapha University with a major in book publishing.
The reference to reading quietly is a dig at the World Book Capital slogan coined by the BMA — Reading Out Loud Across The City.
In 2011, Bangkok was designated by UNESCO as World Book Capital 2013, a move intended to give international recognition to a city which promotes a culture of reading and has good facilities for book enthusiasts.
The Reading Quietly campaign began during a discussion between Sakrapee and some friends who love reading. They were disturbed by the BMA’s lavish spending on the World Book Capital project and decided to do something simple to make the general public question this use of tax-payers’ money.
The friends used social media sites to publicise their event, and asked which area in the city they thought most suitable for an attention-grabbing stunt. The Skytrain walkway read-in was their second event.
Another person involved in the protest was Rapi Songkuntham, a Matayom 5 student at Triam Udom Suksa.
“I think the BMA’s spending for Bangkok World Capital runs counter to the reality of books and how you get people interested in them,” Rapi said.
While the BMA’s campaign is due to wind up soon, Sakrapee, Rapi and their friends are determined to continue their efforts by launching Library In Your Hands, a campaign and challenge to the BMA’s plan to build more public libraries.