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THE WEEK IN READING: THE BEST NEW BOOK RELEASES FOR APRIL, 2017
Void Star by Zachary Mason
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 400 pages
Zachary Mason creates a world in which the line between human and computer is completely erased, yet he still manages to make the reader feel for all the characters—both man and machine—equally. Add that to a highly addictive plot and an exploration of memory’s impact on our identity, and you’ve got one of the most richly complex novels of the year.
An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal
Penguin Press, 416 pages
It’s not uncommon to come across a complete takedown of the American healthcare system as it stands today. But what is uncommon is what Elisabeth Rosenthal has done in this must-read exploration of what we are (and aren’t) doing right: She has the answers we’ve all been searching for in a potential post-Obamacare world. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America by Óscar Martínez
Verso, 288 pages
El Salvador and Honduras have had the highest homicide rates in the world over the past ten years, with Guatemala close behind. Every day more than 1,000 people—men, women, and children—flee these three countries for North America. Step outside yourself for a couple hours and immerse yourself in one of the most incredibly vivid, well-reported journeys through Central America that you will ever experience.
Sunshine State by Sarah Gerard
Harper Perennial, 384 pages
Sarah Gerard deftly takes the reader through the most essential issues of our time—homelessness, addiction, incarceration—via a coming-of-age lens in the state of Florida, where, as we all know, anything goes.
The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day
William Morrow Paperbacks, 432 pages
An incredibly complex and smart novel, The Day I Died contains all the features of a small-town murder mystery but takes it one step further with a narrative about a woman’s unbreakable search for the answers to not just a crime but about her own identity.
1.If you want to know about social problems in the US, you will probably choose _______.
A. Void Star B. A History of Violence
C. The Day I Died D. Sunshine State
2.Which statement is NOT true according to these books?
A. Void Star is a science fiction with a highly addictive plot.
B. The American healthcare system is favored by all Americans.
C. A History of Violence perhaps involves violence problems.
D. The Day I Died is a novel not only about a murder mystery.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Dear Amy,
My in-laws are all the products of failed marriages, so there are blood relatives and step relatives to deal with on both sides of the aisle.
For years, my in-laws have told my children that my wife’s stepmother’s grandchildren are their cousins.
This alone is not true, since these kids are only involved in our lives due to marriage. I just keep talking to my kids and explaining to them the way the family tree works and that these kids are not their cousins.
At one point, my oldest son got mad and told one of these kids that he was not his real cousin, and then my in-laws confronted my son about what he said. They were apparently upset about it.
Amy, I am not going to create a world that does not exist. They are stuck on taking in these kids that have zero actual blood relation to them at all.
I stand my ground on this, and my wife just thinks that I am being an ass. Your thoughts?
Disturbed Dad
Disturbed Dad,
Before you spend the rest of your life carefully studying a family tree at every potluck dinner, remember that “family” isn’t some exclusive club that you get to join by having two or more of the same biological relatives.
People in highly functioning and inclusive families will tell you that all you have to do to be a part of any family is to be considered part of the family. This means being included, regardless of your biological status, and reveling in relationships that are auntlike, grandparent-like or cousinlike. It is wise to explain truthfully all of these many and varied relationships to your children, but to use loaded terms like “real family” only underlines your emotional ignorance about relationships.
Your in-laws are doing a wonderful thing accepting these children, so put down the genealogy chart and apologize. After all, if we follow your logic, then your in-laws shouldn’t be accepting you as family either; you aren’t related to them by blood, so you aren’t their “real family.”
The good news is, if you continue to treat your wife’s family this way, you won’t have to worry about keeping the blood relatives and the step-relatives in this family straight — given your lack of good manners, these family members might disregard you in favor of someone who is more open, accepting and inclusive.
Amy
1.The Disturbed Dad’s in-laws were upset because _______.
A. they all had failed marriages B. they knew of the Dad’s thoughts
C. one of the grandsons got mad D. some kids had no blood relation
2.What’s Amy’s attitude towards the Disturbed Dad’s opinion?
A. Objective. B. Negative.
C. Doubtful. D. Cautious.
3.Amy may agree that _______.
A. the Dad shouldn’t be narrow-minded about the family tree
B. it’s necessary to consider biological relationships in a family
C. the Dad shouldn’t be accepted as family by their in-laws
D. it’s good news for the family members to disregard the Dad
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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Have you been told you have penicillin allergy? Did your parents tell you that you had a reaction as an infant or child, so you should never take it again? Has it been so long since you had a reaction to penicillin that you don’t remember what happened? If you fit any of these descriptions or are just not sure if you have penicillin allergy, there’s good news for you: Chances are, you probably don’t have it.
Between 10 to 20 percent of Americans believe they have a penicillin allergy, but a recent study at Mayo Clinic found that only 10 percent of those people are truly penicillin allergic. In other words, 9 out of 10 people who think they have penicillin allergy are avoiding it for no reason. Even in people with documented allergy to penicillin, only about 20 percent are still allergic 10 years after their initial allergic reaction. It’s not necessarily a permanent condition.
Why is this important? Aren’t there many other antibiotics you can use if you have penicillin allergy? Penicillin has been around since 1928. Penicillin and its related medicines include amoxicillin, methicillin and amoxicillin-clavulnate. These medicines are highly effective treatments for many bacterial infections, such as strep throat and ear infections. Of course, there are alternative antibiotics, but these are often much more expensive and carry a higher risk of side effects. Typically, these alternative antibiotics are broad-spectrum, meaning they fight many types of bacteria, both good and bad. That can lead to development of drug-resistant bacteria, or deadly “superbugs”. This increases the risk for all of us in the future of not having an effective antibiotic to treat our infection.
How do you find out if you have penicillin allergy? Board-certified allergists can test you. First, the allergist will get a history from you about your possible allergy. Typical questions include: How long ago did you have the reaction? What type of reaction occurred, and how soon after you took the penicillin did the reaction appear? The testing is done on the forearm by pricking the skin with a needle. If the results are negative and there is no reaction, penicillin will be injected in the skin. These tests are not painful, and results are available in 15 minutes. A positive reaction may lead to some swelling and itching where the test was placed, which usually goes away within an hour.
In very rare cases, an allergic reaction occurs. This can include hives, swelling, wheezing and/or difficulty breathing. The allergist is trained to treat this rare condition quickly if it happens. If all skin testing is negative, you may be given an oral dose of penicillin in the office. The oral drug challenge is used to verify that you don’t have penicillin allergy. Usually, you’ll be observed in the office for 30 minutes to make sure you have no problems.
If you find out you don’t have a penicillin allergy, notify your physicians that it’s now safe for you to take penicillin. They can take “penicillin allergy” off your chart for good!
1.What can we know about penicillin allergy according to the passage?
A. Most people believe that they are penicillin allergic.
B. People with documented allergy will have it forever.
C. About 90 percent of people are truly penicillin allergic.
D. Many people with initial allergy can avoid it later.
2.Which is NOT the drawback of the alternative antibiotics?
A. They cost much more than penicillin.
B. They can treat many bacterial infections.
C. They can result in drug-resistant bacteria.
D. They also fight good bacteria when used.
3.If you have a positive reaction in skin tests, _______.
A. you can’t leave the office within an hour
B. your skin is supposed to swell and itch
C. it is not safe for you to take penicillin
D. you’ll be given an oral dose of penicillin
4.Which can replace the underlined word “verify”?
A. confirm B. attach
C. declare D. control
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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My timing has always been a little off with Elizabeth Strout. I’ve read and pretty much admired everything she’s written, but, for whatever reason, the books of hers I’ve picked to review have been the good ones, like Amy and Isabelle and The Burgess Boys, rather than the extraordinary ones, like Olive Kitteridge, which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. Anything Is Possible is Strout’s latest book and it’s gorgeous. Like Olive Kitteridge, Anything Is Possible reads like a novel constructed out of linked stories. In fact, it’s hard to know exactly what to call this — a novel or a short story collection. In any case, these stories are animated (栩栩如生) by Strout’s signature themes: class humiliation, loneliness, spiritual and, sometimes, reawakening. When Strout is really on her game, as she is here, you feel like you’ve been carefully lowered into the unquiet depths of quiet lives.
Strout began working on Anything Is Possible at the same time she was writing her novel My Name Is Lucy Barton, which was published last year. Lucy, a dirt-poor child who grows up to become a celebrated writer, floats in and out of these interlocking stories. Some characters catch a glimpse of her being interviewed on TV; one travels to see her at a bookstore. An older Lucy even appears “in the flesh” in one story when she returns home to the small town in rural Illinois where most of these tales are set to visit her troubled brother; but Anything Is Possible also stands on its own. Indeed, a few of the characters here would be ticked off if they thought their stories depended in any way on that Barton girl. Strout’s writerly eye works like a 360 degree camera, so that a character or place that’s on the margins of one tale takes center stage in a later one. This technique sounds contrived, but Strout carries it off lightly.
①__ One of the most powerful stories here is called “Dottie’s Bed & Breakfast,” which is an establishment we readers glimpse earlier in the book. Dottie desires to be middle-class and she harbors a grudge (怨恨) against life because she’s had to rent out rooms to make a living. Dottie also possesses a sensitive nose for sniffing out the lower-class origins of some of her guests.
②__ “Shoes always gave you away,” comments a woman in a story called “Cracked” about a houseguest’s too-high cork wedges(坡跟鞋). And, in the final story here, called “Gift,” a once-poor man made good says, “The sense of apology did not go away, it was a tiring thing to carry.”
③__ But, back to Dottie. When an elderly doctor and his wife come to stay at her guesthouse, Dottie bonds over tea with the wife, Shelley, who shares a story about a long-ago social humiliation.
④__ At breakfast the next morning, however, Shelley obviously regrets that confidence and becomes the Doctor’s wife again. She freezes Dottie out and puts her back in her place as the inn-keep.
There’s comic satisfaction in seeing Dottie secretly spitting into the breakfast jam, but the more profound rewards of this story have to do with its recognition of the many varieties of human insecurity — or, as Lucy Barton herself more bluntly puts it, the many ways “people are always looking to feel superior to someone else.”
Other stories have to do with sexual shame, or with the tragic ways close neighbors or family members misread each other; but I’m making Anything Is Possible sound too grim when, in fact, so many of these stories end in an understated (低调的) gesture of forgiveness. Strout is in that special company of writers like Richard Ford, Stewart O’Nan and Richard Russo, who write simply about ordinary lives and, in so doing, make us readers see the beauty of both their worn and rough surfaces and what lies beneath.
1.The author of the article may have reviewed these books EXCEPT_______.
A. Amy and Isabelle B. The Burgess Boys
C. Anything Is Possible D. Olive Kitteridge
2.What can be inferred according to the second paragraph?
A. The book Anything Is Possible depends wholly on that Barton girl.
B. The character Lucy floats in and out of these disconnected stories.
C. An ordinary character in one story can be a leading role in another.
D. Elizabeth Strout isn’t skillful at describing small characters in life.
3.Shelley freezes Dottie out the next morning because _______.
A. she feels she is superior to Dottie
B. Dottie spits into the breakfast jam
C. Dottie desires to be middle-class
D. she regrets the confidence in Dottie
4.The sentence “Indeed almost all of Strout’s characters have sharp eyes and even sharper observations to make when it comes to that great American subject: class.” should be put in ______.
A. ① B. ②
C. ③ D. ④
5.The tone of the article can be described as _______.
A. depressing B. critical
C. appreciative D. indifferent
6.What might be the best title for the passage?
A. Anything Is Possible — unquietness depths of ordinary lives
B. Elizabeth Strout — an outstanding Pulitzer Prize Winner
C. Anything Is Possible — a collection of grim short stories
D. Elizabeth Strout — a writer with clever writing techniques
难度: 困难查看答案及解析