Five students set a world record after reading aloud for 300 straight hours in the Dominican Republic.
The students began reading July 7 at a library just northwest of the capital, taking turns before a microphone. They chose to read the complete works of historian and former Dominican President Juan Bosch. The project was being transmitted live on the Internet.
The students had planned to stop Wednesday but decided to extend the reading until early Saturday to complete 365 hours of reading, one hour for each day of the year.
Guinness World Records recognized the university students for breaking the previous record of 240 hours set in 2009 by a group of women from Miami Dade College.
"This is a very important case because it deals with reading and promotes intellectualism," said Michael Janela, a Guinness official who certified the record.
He called it a tremendous sacrifice. "There is no time to sleep, or even to eat," he said.
Carlos Jose Reyes, a 34-year-old librarian，hopes the new record will inspire young people to read at least one hour a day and encourage business owners to help update books in libraries across the Dominican Republic.
"We only have out-of-date books that do not fulfill students' expectations," he said.


据《赫芬顿邮报》7月20日报道，多米尼加共和国5名大学生连续大声朗读300多小时，创造了新的世界纪录。

7月7日，在距离首都西北部不远的一个图书馆内，学生们开始轮流在扩音器前朗读，他们选择的朗读内容为多米尼加历史学家、前总统胡安•博什的著作全集。整个朗读过程通过互联网实时直播。

这些学生原打算在20日停止朗读，但后来他们决定延长到23日，完成365个小时的连续朗读，这代表一年中每天朗读1小时。"

吉尼斯世界纪录协会承认这些大学生打破了2009年由美国迈阿密戴德学院的一群女生创造的连续朗读240小时的纪录。


负责鉴定工作的吉尼斯世界纪录官员迈克尔・哈内拉说："这是一个非常重要的事件，因为这是关于阅读、提倡知性主义的事情。"


哈内拉称之为巨大的奉献，他说："学生们没有时间睡觉，甚至连吃饭的时间都没有。"

34岁的图书管理员卡洛斯•约瑟•雷耶斯希望这项新纪录可以激励年轻人每天至少读书1小时，同时鼓励商业人士帮助更新多米尼加共和国图书馆内藏书。

雷耶斯说："馆内只有一些过时的书，根本没办法满足学生的需求"。

• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• project [prə´dʒekt, ´prɔdʒekt] v.设计；投掷 n.计划 (初中英语单词)
• wednesday [´wenzdi] n.星期三 (初中英语单词)
• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• tremendous [tri´mendəs] a.可怕的；巨大的 (初中英语单词)
• inspire [in´spaiə] v.鼓舞；使感悟；吸入 (初中英语单词)
• encourage [in´kʌridʒ] vt.鼓励；怂勇；促进 (初中英语单词)
• northwest [,nɔ:θ´west] n.&ad.西北(部) (高中英语单词)
• historian [his´tɔ:riən] n.历史学家 (高中英语单词)
• decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
• microphone [´maikrəfəun] n.扩音器，话筒 (英语六级单词)