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| Bertha Ingram had been collecting them for more than 40 years. Every once in a while she would bring home a new book. She'd sit with it on her leg, looking at the meaningless black marks without moving the eyes and cry. She was not stupid. She simply had not had the 1 to learn to read. Her parents were sharecroppers in Florida in the 1920s. Sharecroppers did not own the 2 they farmed. Instead, they gave a part of their crops ( plants grown on farms for food ) to the owner.lt was quite a hard way to 3 , and both of Bertha's parents worked hard in the fields. Often Bertha had to leave school to help. Before she was a teenager, Bertha's schooling was 4 . Bertha Ingram didn't leam to read 5 her early married life, either. She wanted to, but she was always too busy. She worked all day. Bertha Ingram's mind was sharp (敏锐地). As a housekeeper for other people, she had to memorize telephone messages. She became a good cook too, but she had to 6 everything she did because there was no cookbook she could read, and she couldn't write down what she had done. In 1978 Bertha Ingram became very ill with a stroke (中风). This illness 7 her to lose the use of one arm and both legs. It also weakened her ability to speak. 8 she began to get better, she had a 9 thought - for the first time in her life. Because she couldn't work, she had the time to leam to read. In her town there was a special program that taught adults to read, but Bertha Ingram was quite nervous. Would people laugh at her? Would they 10 to teach her? It didn't happen that way. She had a teacher who worked very hard with her. After the first day Ingram could 11 wait to get to the library. As she leamed to read, Ingram got more and more confidence (信心) in herself. She became a reader at religious (宗教的) services, joined neighborhood groups, and 12 at meetings in city hall. Finally she wrote a book telling about her life. At age 63, Bertha Ingram proved that learning never comes too late. | ||||
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