Unit 4: Special Education - Reading

Read text carefully, the choose the correct answer.  Hearing – impaired people cannot hear sounds well. How do they ‘hear’ words and talk? Many hearing-impaired people use American Sign Language (ASL). They talk with their hands. Sometimes two hearing-impaired people talk to each other. They both use ASL. Sometimes a person who can hear interprets for hearing-impaired people. The person listens to someone talking, and then he or she makes hand signs. There are two kinds of sign language. One kind has a sign for every letter in the alphabet. The person spells words. This is finger spelling. The other kind has a sign for whole words. There are about five thousand of these signs. They are signs for verbs, things and ideas. Some of the signs are very easy, for example, eat, milk, and horse. You can see what they mean. Others are more difficult, for example, star, egg, or week. People from any country can learn ASL. They don't speak words. They use signs, so they can understand people from other countries. ASL is almost like a dance. The whole body talks. American Sign Lan­guage is a beautiful language.

Choose the one option - a, b, c or d - that best fits each of the num ­bared blank. Louis Braille was born in 1309 (7)...................Coupvray. He was a French (8) ..................of the blind. He (9).............. was blind from the age of three, and in 1818 he went to the National Institute (10).................. the Young Blind in Paris. Soon showing marked (11)......................... in both science and music, he became famous in Paris (12)................... an organist and violoncellist. In 1826 Braille began teaching the blind in the (13)................ . Braille is known for his idea of (14).................. the Briberies. Point writing (15)...................... of embossed dots and dashes on cardboard;. the Braille system (16).................... from it is used successfully today, in slightly modified form, and in many countries.