This week, we’re sharing our favorite recent reads. To help round out our recommendations, we also tapped some folks who you’ve heard on Code Switch before — novelists, scholars, poets and podcasters.
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
“The book is an extraordinary, honest and sympathetic look at adoption, race in America and families in general. It’s also such an engaging read. I stayed up way too late one night reading it because the story just pulled me in. And I’ve recommended many of my friends to read it so I can talk about it with them.” — Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date, The Proposal and the forthcoming book The Wedding Part.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
“It’s a deeply-moving coming of age story of Michelle Obama in her early life. There are such moving anecdotes about how this family just invested everything in the possibility of giving their children a better life. It’s not a sweet book, but at the same time, it’s deeply hopeful about the possibility of what happens when you work hard, what happens when you love hard.” — Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage, Silver Sparrow and other books.
Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya Chemaly
“What really impressed me about this book is this idea that women should be allowed to express their anger, particularly in Latin American families and communities. I just think Soraya goes into this incredible detail citing scientific studies and different works of literature that really convey the necessity to female anger, not only for the health of women, but for the health of equality in society.” — Jean Guerrero, reporter with KPBS and author of Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir.
1.Who wrote The Wedding Date?
A. Tayari Jones B. Jean Guerrero
C. Jasmine Guillory D. Soraya Chemaly
2.Which book tells a bitter story with hope?
A. Becoming B. All You Can Ever Know
C. Silver Sparrow D. Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir
3.What’s the purpose of the passage?
A. To sell books. B. To comment on books.
C. To share reviews of books. D. To collect opinions of books.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Our hero’s origin story started this past February in the Perine family living room in Birmingham, Alabama. Austin, a 4-year-old boy, and his father, Tad Perine, were watching a program on Animal Planet about a mother panda leaving her cubs. “I told him that the cubs would be homeless for a while,” Tad says. “Austin didn’t know what homelessness meant, but he was sad and wanted to know more.”
Seeing this as a teachable moment, Tad took Austin to the Firehouse Ministries, a local shelter that provides housing, food, and other services for homeless men. As they drove by the redbrick building, they saw a group of 25 homeless men standing on the street corner. “Dad, they look sad.” Austin said. “Can we take them some food and make them smile?” That day, Austin used his allowance to buy each man a Burger King sandwich and handed the food out himself. Seeing what their presence meant to the men at the ministry, Austin and Tad returned the next week.
After he returned every week for five weeks, word of Austin’s acts of kindness spread through social media and national news outlets. Burger King jumped aboard, agreeing to donate $1,000 a month for an entire year toward the cause. Soon, churches and shelters across the country began inviting Austin to come to distribute food in other areas. Whereas before Austin and Tad could feed 25 to 50 people at a time; now, thanks to corporate and community support, they can feed 800 to 2,000 people at once.
As for Austin, he continues to give out food, smiles, and his inspirational message of love. “It makes me feel like I’m saving the day.”
1.How does Austin feel when seeing the TV program?
A. Surprised B. Joyful
C. Grateful D. Unhappy
2.Why did Tad drive Austin to the local shelter?
A. To donate some money for the homeless.
B. To ask for some help from the homeless.
C. To teach him the meaning of homelessness.
D. To introduce Austin to the staff there.
3.What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 3?
A. To confirm Austin’s influence.
B. To praise Burger King’s donation.
C. To thank the community’s support
D. To convey appreciation of the homeless.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. A Teachable Moment
B. A Boy Fighting Against Hunger
C. A Kind Family Helping the Poor
D. Tad’s Inspirational Message of Love
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The tons of plastic we’re dumping in the oceans is finding a new home—the stomachs of our beautiful marine animals. Yet another reminder of this fact washed ashore in Eastern Indonesia this week. A large amount of waste, including drinking cups and flip-flops, was found in the stomach of a whale that died off the coast near Kapota Island.
The 9.5-metre sperm whale (抹香鲸) was found by rescuers from the Wakatobi National Park. The whale had swallowed 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, and more than 1,000 other kinds of pieces of plastic, park chief Heri Santoso told the reporter.
“Although we have not been able to deduce the cause of death, the facts that we see are truly awful,” said Dwi Suprapti, a marine species conservation co-ordinator at WWF Indonesia. She said it was not possible to determine if the plastic had caused the whale’s death because of the animal’s advanced state of decay (腐烂). But this is only the latest.
Four Asian nations—Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand—account for 50% of the plastic waste in the oceans, according to a report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. The Philippines is second to Indonesia when it comes to putting away plastic waste in the oceans, according to a study published in the journal Science in January. Of the 3.2 million mismanaged waste it produces every year, 1.29 million ends up in the ocean.
A report released earlier this year stated that the amount of plastic in the ocean is likely to increase.
1.What can we know about the sperm whale?
A. Its stomach is the home of plastic waste.
B. It died of swallowing lots of plastic waste.
C. It was the first whale to eat plastic waste.
D. It had eaten much plastic waste before its death.
2.Which can best replace the underlined word “deduce” in paragraph 3?
A. confirm B. cause
C. approve D. contain
3.Which country dumps the most plastic waste into the oceans?
A. Thailand B. Indonesia
C. Vietnam D. Philippines
4.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. Philippines puts away 1.29 million tons of plastic.
B. A sperm whale was found dead near Kapota Island.
C. Much dumped plastic waste was found in a dead whale.
D. We should take measures to reduce the waste in whales.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
It hurts to keep secrets. Secrecy (保密) is associated with lower well-being, worse health, and less satisfying relationships. Research has linked secrecy to increased anxiety, depression, symptoms of poor health, and even the more rapid progression of disease. There is a seemingly obvious explanation for these harms: hiding secrets is hard work. You have to watch what you say.
New research, however, suggests that the harm of secrets doesn’t really come from the hiding after all. The real problem with keeping a secret is not that you have to hide it, but that you have to live with it, and think about it.
To better understand the harms of secrecy, researchers first set out to understand what secrets people keep, and how often they keep them. They found that 97% of people have at least one secret at any given moment, and people have, on average, 13 secrets.
Across several studies, researchers asked participants to estimate how frequently they hid their secret during conversations with others, and also how frequently they thought about the secret outside of social interactions. They found that the more frequently people simply thought about their secrets, the lower their well-being.
Following up this research, a new paper reveals why thinking about secrets is so harmful. Turning the question around, the consequences of telling secrets are examined. Researchers found that when a person reveals a secret to a third party, it does not reduce how often they have to hide the secret from others who are still kept in the dark. Rather, it reduces how often their mind wanders toward the secret in irrelevant moments.
Therefore, if you choose to still keep something secret, talking to another person can make the world of difference. Secrets don’t have to hurt as much as they do.
1.Which is not one of the harms of keeping secrets?
A. Being physically sick. B. Mental problems.
C. Harmed relationships. D. Hiding somewhere.
2.Why is keeping secrets so harmful?
A. Because you must hide them.
B. Because you often think about them.
C. Because it’s difficult to keep secrets.
D. Because you must watch what to say.
3.How can people reduce the harm of keeping secrets?
A. By working hard. B. By keeping 13 secrets.
C. By thinking about the secrets. D. By telling secrets to a third person.
4.Which is the text probably taken from?
A. An advertisement B. A research report
C. A biology textbook. D. A travel brochure.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
This Is Why Traffic Lights Are Red, Yellow, and Green
Ever wondered why blue doesn’t mean go and brown mean stop?1..
The idea that red means stop and green means go has impacted our lives in more ways than just traffic signals. We have been taught from a young age that the color red means danger.2.. But why were those particular colors chosen for traffic lights in the first place? For something we have to look at every day, why couldn’t they have been prettier colors like magenta(紫红) and turquoise (天蓝色)?
It’s important to know that before there were traffic lights for cars, there were traffic signals for trains. At first, railroad companies used red to mean stop, white to mean go, and green to mean caution. As you could imagine, train conductors ran into a few problems with the color white meaning go— 3., with train conductors thinking they were all clear when they really weren’t. Railway companies eventually moved to the color green meaning go, and it’s been that way ever since.
As far as red goes, that’s always been a color that indicated danger, long before cars were even around. Red is the color with the longest wavelength. 4.. The color yellow was used to caution drivers because it has a slightly shorter wavelength than red, but not as short as green.
5.. Employ these driving rules first and know that traffic lights have certainly come a long way.
A. And the color green means it’s OK to move forward
B. Turns out, there’s a perfectly good explanation for it
C. It can be seen from a greater distance than other colors
D. bright white could easily be seen from a distance by us
E. bright white could easily be mistaken for stars at night
F. Why don’t we use blue to mean go and brown mean stop
G. So don’t get mad next time you’re impatiently waiting at a traffic light
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
A butcher was really surprised when he saw a dog coming inside the shop. He went over to the dog and noticed it had a _______ in its mouth. He took the note, which _______ “Can I have twelve sausages and a leg of lamb, please. The dog has ______ in his mouth.” _______, there was really a ten-dollar note there. So he took the money and put the sausages and lamb in a bag, placing it in the dog’s mouth. The butcher was so ______. He decided to follow the dog.
He followed the dog to a bus stop. The dog stopped and started looking at the ______. The dog checked out the time, and then sat on one of the benches _______ . Along came a bus. The dog went around to the front, looked at the number and ________. The butcher, by now, ________, followed it onto the bus.
The bus traveled through the town and out into the suburb. _______ it got off with the_______ still in its mouth. Several minutes later, the dog turned into a house. It walked up the path, and dropped the bag on the _______. Then it walked back down the path, quickly _______ for the door, and ______ itself against the door. But there’s no answer at the house, so the dog had to wait at the door.
After a while, there finally was a _______ to the situation. A big guy opened the door, and started kicking the dog and ______ him. The butcher ran up, and said “Why do you shout at the dog? It is really a _______.” The guy responded, “You call this clever? This is the second time this week that this _______ dog’s forgotten its _______.” On the way back home, the butcher thought to himself, “Greed may ________ have limits for the dog owner.”
1.A. tip B. note C. parcel D. list
2.A. knew B. wrote C. read D. felt
3.A. money B. coins C. bones D. gold
4.A. Unexpectedly B. Undoubtedly C. Disappointingly D. Surprisingly
5.A. curious B. dangerous C. ashamed D. frightened
6.A. number B. timetable C. post D. bus
7.A. patiently B. anxiously C. restlessly D. painfully
8.A. flew off B. got off C. came on D. climbed on
9.A. open-minded B. open-ended C. open-mouthed D. open-hearted
10.A. Finally B. Firstly C. Secondly D. Thirdly
11.A. sausage B. bone C. ticket D. bag
12.A. balcony B. step C. ceiling D. wall
13.A. paid B. applied C. dashed D. asked
14.A. enjoyed B. amused C. taught D. threw
15.A. starting point B. turning point C. bottom line D. front line
16.A. comforting B. praising C. scolding D. admiring
17.A. servant B. genius C. master D. butcher
18.A. stupid B. clever C. unforgettable D. thoughtful
19.A. mission B. aim C. key D. route
20.A. still B. even C. ever D. never
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容 (1 个单词) 或括号内单词的正确形式。
A study by researchers showed that texting on mobile phones could help smokers quit smoking.
The study 1.(publish) on Tuesday in a journal showed among smokers 2. received a 12-week-long mobile phone-based message on quitting smoking, 6.5% stopped smoking by the end of the study.
The researchers from the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in China said the intervention (干预) could have a 3.(great) reach than in-person treatments. It has great potential to improve population health and should 4.(consider) for large-scale use in China, according to the study.
They 5.(conduct) a trial across China from August 2016 to May 2017, covering 6. total of 1,369 adult smokers. Participants were assigned to a 12-week intervention consisting 7. either high-frequency or low-frequency messaging, or to a control group that received text 8.(message) unrelated to quitting. Twelve weeks later, 6.5% of them stopped continuous smoking 9.(active) in the high-frequency group 10. 6% got rid of smoking in the low-frequency group. 1.9 % of them stopped smoking in the control group.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共 有 10 处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号( )，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。 修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改 10 处，多者 (从第 11 处起) 不计分。
Years ago, all my parents were involved in a serious car accidents. Uncle Bob took on the role as a father to him. I lived with him during that period. He allowed me stay with him though his home was not really bigger. He showed his care and love for me by pay attention to my health, education and what I needed at that time. I really appreciated the time he spent with me. We used to go on the trips together. We would just spend days either playing our guitars and reading our favorite car magazines. I always felt gratefully towards him. He was like a father figure who will always give me encouragement.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
假设你是李华，2022年北京冬奥会正面向全国学生招募志愿者，你希望成为其中一员。 请根据提示用英文给组委会写一封信：
1. 自我介绍：年龄，性别，学历等;
2. 个人条件：英语好，善于交际等;
3. 希望获得批准。
注意：
1. 词数 100~120 左右;
2. 书信格式及开头均已给出（不计入总词数）;
3. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Sir/Madam,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
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Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析