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FOUR BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ
Caroline LeavittCruel Beautiful World
At age 16 Lucy is a lonely orphan living with older sister Charlotte and devoted aunt Iris in Waltham, Massachusetts. On the last day of school, she runs away with her 30-year-old teacher, William, and settles in a hillside shack in rural Pennsylvania, near his new teaching job. Though Lucy feels increasingly isolated, William won’t allow her any outlet. Leavitt draws upon a real-life crime that involved a girl she knew in high school. She tells her story from multiple viewpoints, building tension and empathy for Lucy and Charlotte as tragedy swallows them.
Steven Price
By Gaslight
Price, an award-winning Canadian poet, achieves an extraordinary achievement of Dickensian storytelling in his weighty second novel. His hero is William Pinkerton, son of the founder of the legendary detective agency, who finds clues in his late father’s safe to the case of William Shade. This mythic thief had disturbed and upset his father. William tracks a Shade accomplice（共犯）, Charlotte Reckitt, to London, only to find she’s been found dead in the Thames. Also on the scene is Adam Foole, who is obsessed with Charlotte, who he met while stealing De Beers diamonds from a South African mine. Price ably arranges dozens of interlinking plotlines as he spans three continents and several decades, from American Civil War battlefields to Scotland Yard at the end of the 19th Century.
GeFei
The Invisibility Cloak
Beijing-based GeFei (pen name for Liu Yong) won the 2015 Mao Dun Literature Prize for fiction “describing the changing spirit of Chinese society” over the past century. The Invisibility Cloak, his first English publication, revolves around Cui, a divorced man who creates customized hi-fi speakers for Beijing’s newly wealthy and a few intellectuals. Beijing’s rapid expansion has left Cui longing for an invisible life away from the city. His chance comes when he agrees to build a world-class sound system for a gangster（黑社会老大）. GeFei’s nice irony, translated from the Chinese by Canaan Morse, should find many fans.
Tim Harford
Messy
The temptation to be neat and tidy may be powerful, but “we would be better served by embracing a degree of mess,” Harford argues. His defense of the creative potential of the imperfect, crude, random, vague, difficult, diverse and even dirty is refreshing. Reaching into the arts, politics, business, science and technology, Harford makes a compelling case for opening up to disorder and luck.
1.Which author does NOT tell a story in his / her work listed above?
A.Caroline Leavitt B.Steven Price
C.GeFei D.Tim Harford
2.Jack is an American who would like everything to be neat and tidy. He loves reading novels with ironic humor and detective stories. He is going to work and live in Beijing for the next three years, and he is very curious about the place he is soon heading to. Which book will he most likely choose to read now?
A.Cruel Beautiful World B.By Gaslight
C.The Invisibility Cloak D.Messy
3.This page is intended for people who want to ______.
A.buy newly-published books at a discount
B.recommend books to friends and family
C.know what books are worthwhile to read
D.understand the current trend in literature
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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In April, 1967 my brother, Harvey Cooley, met a soldier, David Lawson during basic training. In their free time, they hung out together. As the weeks went by, they grew very close, almost like brothers. However, after basic training, soldiers moved on to advanced training. They thought they would never see each other again.
One day in September, 1967, these men were both in California waiting for transport to the front. Harvey and David had an unexpected surprise when they ran into each other. They talked very briefly since they had got to report in five minutes. They agreed to meet after they were discharged(退伍)from the service. Harvey wrote a brief note which he gave to David showing the date and location they were to meet.
Harvey never made it back home. He died while saving two soldiers during enemy fire. David did not learn of Harvey’s death until the mid 1980s. he wrote a letter to Harvey after he returned home and asked if they could postpone their meeting to a later date. His letter was unanswered. David felt then that Harvey must not have made it back. He knew Harvey would surely have answered his letter if he had been able to.
While David was searching the internet for Information about Harvey, he found a poem dedicated(献给) to Harvey by me. He sent me an email and told me about his friendship with Harvey and we swapped phone numbers.
David called me and we talked about his friendship with Harvey. While on the phone with David, I learned about the note Harvey had written for him. David still had the note and sent me a copy of it.
It is amazing, to say the least, that David was able to track(追查到) me down. Even more amazing is the fact that he still had Harvey’s note after all these years. David told me it was a joy to finally hear from Harvey through me after over forty years.
1.What did Harvey and David decide to do after they met unexpectedly?
A.Meet after they returned. B.Leave the army.
C.Write a report. D.Go to advanced training.
2.What did David do when he didn’t hear from Harvey?
A.He decided to meet Harvey at a later time
B.He went to the front to look for Harvey
C.He feared that Harvey had died
D.He asked two soldiers about Harvey
3.The underlined word “postpone” in Paragraph 3 means ______.
A.talk about B.put off
C.attend D.call
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.A Note Kept for Over Forty Years B.Friendship Developed in the War
C.A Letter Never Answered D.Two Brothers Never Separated
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Two of the saddest words in the English language are "if only". I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they convey regret, lost opportunities, mistakes, and disappointment.
My father is famous in our family for saying, "Take the extra minute to do it right. " I always try to live by the "extra minute" rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an "if only" moment, whether it was something minor like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.
I don't only avoid those "if only "moments when it comes to safety. It's equally important to avoid "if only" in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had lost an opportunity to say "I love you" or "I forgive you". When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be there. But then I thought about the fact that he's 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up an opportunity to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.
I know there will still be occasions when I have to say "if only "about something, but my life is definitely better because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that eventuality (不测的事) . And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to make a personal connection, I know that I' m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for my emotional well-being.
1.Which of the following is an example of the "extra minute" rule?
A.Start the car the moment everyone is seated.
B.Leave the room for a minute with the iron working.
C.Wait for an extra minute so that the steak tastes better.
D.Move an object out of the way before it lets someone fall down.
2.Why did the author decide to go to her office on Good Friday?
A.To keep her appointment with the eye doctor. B.To meet her father who was already an old man.
C.To join in the holiday celebration of the company. D.To finish her work before the deadline.
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A.It is the most important thing to avoid “if only” in our daily life.
B.The author must have a good relationship with her children.
C.We should buy insurance to make our life better.
D.Avoiding “if only” can make the author comfortable.
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A.The Emotional Well-being. B.The Two Saddest Words.
C.The Most Useful Rule. D.The Peace of Mind.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Who needs friends? According to most psychologists（心理学家） we all do, especially nowadays when so many other aspects (方面 ) of modern life are changing. It seems that having friends keeps us both healthy and happy.
The number of TV series about groups of friends shows just how important friendship is to us. Psychologist Dorothy Rowe says that many of us now turn to our friends, instead of our families, for advice, comfort and security. One woman named Rebecca she interviewed even told her that if she had got to choose between her husband and her friend, she would choose her friend.
Since our friends mean so much to us, it is not surprising that the happiest marriages are also friendships. "Once the romantic stage of a relationship has passed, it is friendship that holds people together," says Rowe. If the couple do not make some changes, they will either get tired of each other and break up or stay together and seek friendship with others.
But is friendship equally important to women and men? According to author Rhonda Pritchard, women are more likely than men to have close friends. "You tell a friend things that you'd never tell a partner," says one woman she interviewed. For men, friendship is usually based on doing things together rather than the private conversations that are typical of women friends. Men share time and activities like building a fence or a business, running, riding a bike, fishing or watching football, but they don't often share their feelings.
Although many women find their relationships with a husband or boyfriend is not enough, many men say that their partner is their best friend. Even women who are very happily married are likely to become very unhappy without a close friend and can even find the breakup of a close friendship as painful as the end of a marriage.
Lasting friendships can provide a lot of the same support that families provided in the past, but the perfect situation is to have your family there for you as well. Friendships and family relationships can both change, but a friend will not consider you when making really important decisions in the same way that a family member will.
1.What did Rebecca think about friendship?
A.All of us need friendship.
B.Friends are as important as families.
C.Her friend means more to her than her husband.
D.One need not have too many friends.
2.Why do married men or women look for friendship?
A.They are encouraged by their partners
B.They do not get what they need from their partners.
C.They are not fairly treated by their partners
D.They think their friends are more romantic.
3.What is the main difference between men’s and women’s friendship?
A.Women often do things together with friends.
B.Men often talk to their friends about work and family.
C.Women often talk about business with friends.
D.Men seldom talk to their friends about their feelings.
4.What might women do when a close friendship ends?
A.They feel as upset as when a marriage ends.
B.They share feelings with their partners.
C.They treat their partners as friends.
D.They turn to their husbands for comfort.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析