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The Wildernessby McKay Coppins (Little Brown, non-fiction, on sale now) The explosive story of the Republican Party’s painstaking efforts to find its way back to unity and national dominance. After the 2012 election, the GOP(大佬党) was in the wilderness. McKay Coppins has had unique access to Republican presidential candidates, power brokers, lawmakers, and Tea Party leaders.
Blood, Salt, Water by Denise Mina (Little Brown, fiction, on sale now) In the latest Alex Morrow story, a wealthy businesswoman disappears from her Glasgow home without a trace. Salt water lifts blood. Only salt water. Loch Lomond is a mile deep but the woman’s body surfaced anyway. “Set in Glasgow, still midnight falls within this umbrella of Tartan Noir with the flawed detective hero, Alex Morrow.”
Time and Time Again by Ben Elton (Thomas Dunne, fiction, on sale Jan. 29) In this time-traveling adventure which begins in 1914, ex-soldier Hugh Stanton goes attempts to prevent World War I. “A fun, smart, adventurous book, a work of science-fiction as big on ideas as action,” says The Sydney Morning Herald.
A Gift From Bob by James Bowen (Thomas Dunne, non-fiction, on sale now) London street musician James Bowen tells the story of how his cat Bob helped him overcome bad childhood memories of Christmas. Bowen and the real Bob are acting in the 2016 film version of Bowen’s best seller A Street Cat Named Bob, which stars Joanne Froggatt of Downton Abbey fame.
Beatrice and Benedick by Marina Fiorato (St. Martin’s Press, fiction, on sale now) A fresh take on the lovers from Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing imagines Beatrice and Benedick’s back story. “Full of passion, myth, and wit…a delight,” says Booklist.
1.Which of the books is not available for the time being?
A. The Wilderness B. Blood, Salt, Water
C. Time and Time Again D. A Gift From Bob
2.Who wrote a book based on a real story?
A. Denise Mina B. Ben Elton
C. Marina Fiorato D. James Bowen
3.It can be known from the passage that _____.
A. McKay Coppins used to be a political figure
B. Alex Morrow also appeared in other detective stories
C. Bowen and the real Bob are the most popular characters
D. Marina Fiorato interprets Shakespeare’s comedy differently
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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A seaside Long Island village on Saturday honored the memory of a girl whose message in a bottle was found after Superstorm Sandy, discovered by cleanup workers a dozen years after she threw it into the ocean.
A plate was placed on a rock near the bridge, where the bottle was discovered in December. It reads: “Be excellent to yourself dude(朋友),” the same message inside the bottle. The note, a line from the 1989 Keanu Reeves movie “Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,” was written by Sidonie Fery and threw into the ocean inside a bottle. She died in 2010 at the age of 18 in a fall from a cliff(悬崖) in Switzerland.
The bottle only traveled a mile or two westward from where it was likely deposited to the location where cleanup workers found it. It was intermingled with broken clothes, boating equipment and a range of sea trash.
But because the note included the girl's New York City phone number, what otherwise would have been a worthless piece of trash became a priceless souvenir. Workers in Patchogue, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Manhattan, called the number and returned the bottle to her mother, Mimi Fery.
Fery said she sobbed when she heard workers had found the bottle and was grateful to them. “It's unbelievable,” she said Saturday of the ceremony. “The town is amazing, my daughter was a lovely and lively person and very fun, she would do fun things. She always brought joy to everybody no matter how she felt.”
The plate also reads: “I learned that even though someone is very small they may have a big heart” and bears a photo of a smiling, young Sidonie along with the date the bottle was found: Dec. 6, 2012.
1.The passage is mainly written to _____.
A. tell us how to write a note B. inform us of some useful tips
C. share with us a moving story D. introduce the bottle message
2.The underlined word “intermingled” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _____.
A. crowded B. mixed up
C. filled up D. secured
3.Which is the correct order of the events mentioned in the passage?
a.Sidonie fell from a cliff and died.
b.Sidonie wrote a line and threw it into the ocean in a bottle.
c.Keanu’s movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” came out.
d.A plate was placed to honor the memory of Sidonie.
e.Cleanup workers found the bottle and called Fery.
A. c-b-a-e-d B. c-b-e-a-d
C. c-a-b-d-e D. c-a-b-e-d
4.Which of the following can best describe Sidonie?
A. Helpful and optimistic. B. Small but promising.
C. Lovely but pitiful. D. Smart and beautiful.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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Ask people in the UK what the words “Sunday roast” mean to them, and they’ll probably take you back to their grandmothers’ dining rooms – maybe with a few stories of “the greatest puddings” and “the best ever steak”. But now the traditional Sunday roast seems to have been left back in the old days. According to the Daily Mail, just one in 50 British families sits down to this weekly meal together.
There are many reasons why the roast is becoming less popular. In the busy modern world, where breakfast is a slice of toast eaten on the way to work or school and lunch is a quick sandwich in front of the computer screen, people just don’t seem to have the time or patience to make a roast.
And Sunday was once a day when people could easily go to the kitchen to cook. Nowadays, people are often out shopping or at the cinema until it’s far too late to start thinking about heating the oven(烤箱) up.
However, a recent article from The Telegraph warned against being carried away by our tight schedules: “It would be a shame to let this fine old tradition disappear.”
The Guardian further explained that the eating of the big meal is only the half of it. The Sunday roast also makes for relaxed morning activities in the kitchen, and the table becomes the perfect place to share good food and chat with family and friends. “For busy moms and dads, even if you can manage to turn off your mobile phone and the TV only once a week and turn the Sunday roast into a real family event, children can have fun cooking the food and clearing up together.”
1.The best title for the passage is probably _____.
A. Sunday—Best Time for Family B. Sunday Roast Dying Out
C. It’s the Perfect Time for Us D. Let’s Sit Down Together
2.Why do people pay less attention to Sunday roast?
A. They have a busy lifestyle. B. They have no interest in cooking.
C. They don’t think it worthwhile. D. They are living in the modern society.
3.What does the underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refer to?
A. A recent article. B. A traditional kitchen.
C. The fine old tradition. D. Sunday morning activity.
4.How does the author feel towards Sunday roast’s dying out?
A. Doubtful. B. Positive.
C. Sorry. D. Uncertain.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Your alarm goes off on your phone, and instead of turning it off and going on sleeping, you pick it up and stupidly say, “Hello?”
You are, to use the technical term, suffering sleep drunkenness(迷糊), those first few confused minutes people sometimes experience after waking, according to a just-published paper in Neurology( 神经学). For the first time, the phenomenon has been studied in a general adult population.
In telephone interviews the researchers conducted with more than 19,000 healthy individuals, about 25 percent reported experiencing some sort of sleep-drunk episode(插曲) in the last year, and 12 percent said this happens to them at least once a week.
Most of their stories were actually pretty funny, said Stanford University School of Medicine psychiatrist(精神病学家) Maurice Ohayon. One man picked up his alarm clock and mistook it for his phone, holding a two-minute conversation on it. Another participant woke in the middle of the night and couldn’t find the bathroom in her own home. Other common examples are that foggy feeling you get when you first wake up with a start on a Saturday before realizing it’s the weekend, or when you wake up in a hotel room and can’t immediately figure out where you are.
Ohayon explains that an abrupt awakening, to our poor, half-asleep brains, signals an emergency — a time for action, not reason.
“For most people, and especially if this only happens to you every once in a while, it’s nothing to worry about. But for people who experience sleep drunkenness once a week or more, you might as well refer to professional help to have a sound sleep.”
1.The intended readers of the passage are probably _____.
A. adults who don’t sleep well
B. teenagers who don’t have enough sleep
C. people who suffer sleep drunkenness
D. researchers who are fond of sleep disorder
2.We can know from the first 3 paragraphs that _____.
A. it’s stupid to leave the alarm on when sleep
B. after waking all people struggled for awareness
C. there are many studies on adults’ sleep patterns
D. it’s common for adults to suffer sleep drunkenness
3.The fourth paragraph tells us that sleep drunkenness _____.
A. occurs in different occasions
B. comes without any reason
C. hits when people are sleeping
D. attacks those who are clouded
4.What will be talked about after the last paragraph?
A. Something to expand your sleep time.
B. Ways to improve your sleep pattern.
C. Methods of curing sleep drunkenness.
D. Tips on how to help you to sleep better.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.