First of all the Ruby code reads the text, splits it into an array and then saves it in XML format.

require 'rexml/document'
include REXML

a = "Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer 
review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, 
more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.".split(' ') 

doc = Document.new
doc.add_element('text')
oline = Element.new('line')

char_count = 0
a.each do |word|
  
  oword = Element.new('word')
  oword.text = word.to_s
  oword.add_attribute('length',char_count)
  oline << oword 
  char_count += word.length
  
  if char_count > 50
    doc.root << oline
    oline = Element.new('line')
    char_count = 0
  end
end
doc.root << oline
puts char_count
puts doc

Here's a sample of the XML created

<text>
  <line>
    <word length='0'>Open</word><word length='4'>source</word><word length='10'>is</word>
    <word length='12'>a</word><word length='13'>development</word><word length='24'>method</word>
    <word length='30'>for</word><word length='33'>software</word><word length='41'>that</word>
    <word length='45'>harnesses</word>
  </line>
  <line>
    <word length='0'>the</word><word length='3'>power</word>
    <word length='8'>of</word><word length='10'>distributed</word><word length='21'>peer</word>
    <word length='25'>review</word><word length='31'>and</word><word length='34'>transparency</word>
    <word length='46'>of</word><word length='48'>process.</word>
  </line>
  <line>
    <word length='0'>The</word>
    <word length='3'>promise</word><word length='10'>of</word><word length='12'>open</word>
    <word length='16'>source</word><word length='22'>is</word><word length='24'>better</word>
    <word length='30'>quality,</word><word length='38'>higher</word><word length='44'>reliability,</word>
  </line>
  <line>
    <word length='0'>more</word><word length='4'>flexibility,</word><word length='16'>lower</word>
    <word length='21'>cost,</word><word length='26'>and</word><word length='29'>an</word>
    <word length='31'>end</word><word length='34'>to</word><word length='36'>predatory</word>
    <word length='45'>vendor</word>
  </line>
  <line>
    <word length='0'>lock-in.</word>
  </line>
</text>

The XML is then transformed to SVG using the following XSL file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">

<xsl:output encoding="UTF-8"
            method="xml"
            indent="yes"/>
            
  <xsl:template match="text">
    <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="100%"
                  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" >
      <g id="sketch" class="sketch">
        <xsl:apply-templates select="line"/>
      </g>
    </svg>
  </xsl:template>
  
  <xsl:template match="line">
    <xsl:variable name="xfactor">12</xsl:variable>
    <xsl:variable name="yfactor">20</xsl:variable>
    <xsl:variable name="pos" select="position()"></xsl:variable>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="word">
      <xsl:with-param name="xfactor" select="$xfactor"></xsl:with-param>
      <xsl:with-param name="y" select="$pos * $yfactor + 10"></xsl:with-param>
    </xsl:apply-templates>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="word">
    <xsl:param name="xfactor"/>
    <xsl:param name="y"/>
    <text xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" font-size="12pt" x="{@length * $xfactor +10}" y="{$y}" id="t1"><xsl:value-of select="."/></text>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The final SVG output [twitxr.com] shows 5 lines of text with each word as a separate SVG text element.

This text-to-speech engine uses Ruby and festival. Listen to the output as an mp3 sample [twittergram.com]

Prerequisites:
sudo apt-get install festival lame
sudo gem install festivaltts4r

require "rubygems"
require "festivaltts4r"
				
"I'm talking".to_speech

Reference: Festival TTS for Ruby - Make your Ruby Strings talk! [rubyforge.org]

This example demonstrates how easy it is to copy and paste human-readable text from elsewhere and declare it as a string in your code.

string = <<RUBY_RUBY_RUBY
  <mydoc>
    <someelement attribute="nanoo">Text, text, text</someelement>
  </mydoc>
RUBY_RUBY_RUBY

Note: Remember to encase the text within a pair of strings, any string (the convention is to make it uppercase) and ensure it's not a reserved keyword, or a variable declared already.