Passage 2 Tommy Hilfiger is known for his clothing. He has made millions of dollars as a fashion designer. He is world famous. And to think, he almost quit high school. Hilfiger didn’t like to read. He also hated math. In fact, he admits that he was not a good student at all. Learning was hard for him. “ I felt bad about myself in school when I couldn’t get the work,” he said. Hilfiger made jokes instead of doing schoolwork. Often, he skipped class. Hilfiger got poor grades, but teachers knew he wasn ’t a problem child. He was just a child with a problem. That problem was dyslexia (阅读障碍). Dyslexia is not a disease. It is a condition that makes it hard for a person to use words. People with dyslexia have trouble when they try to read. Letters and words may seem out of order. A letter d might look like a letter b . The word dog might look like bog . A young child with dyslexia can have a hard time learning the ABC’s. An older child may not be able to make sense of a word. Hilfiger struggled with numbers and letters. “I didn’t know what was wrong,” he said “Everybody thought I was a screw-up.” To cover up his reading problem, Hilfiger turned into a class clown. He told jokes. His parents, though, didn’t laugh. “It was scary when I brought my report card home,” he said. “I had to repeat tenth grade.” At 18, Hilfiger and two friends had a plan. They drove three hours to New York City. They bought lots of bell-bottom pants. The pants were very popular in the late 1960s. They returned home and sold the pants to friends in their small hometown. Hilfiger and his friends made money. They opened a store called People’s Place. They sold clothes, candles, and other items. He soon opened three more stores. He liked selling clothes. “Then I started thinking, ‘I really want to design the clothes,’” he said. Hilfiger told clothing makers about his design ideas. A couple of people gave him breaks. Self-taught, Hilfiger designed clothes people could not find anywhere else. Word spread about him. That was more than 30 years ago. Today, people around the world wear his clothing. 31. When Tommy Hilfiger was at school,he often