The Costa Book Awards consistently pick winne...

The Costa Book Awards consistently pick winners that are both of the moment and subsequently endure. It’s our pleasure to confirm this year’s Category Winners.

First Novel Award Winner

Book: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Author: Gail Honeyman

Eleanor is 31 years old; work finishes on a Friday and begins again on a Monday. Between, her only company will be two bottles of vodka and her own solitary, unique wit (机智) . It is contentment, of a kind, but an unexpected shared experience suddenly opens the door to possibility. Challenging reader expectations with a living, breathing character, Gail Honeyman’s debut is a funny and moving diamond.

Biography Award Winner

Book: In the Days of Rain

Author: Rebecca Stott

The Exclusive Brethren were a closed community who believed the world is ruled by Satan. Into this is born Rebecca. Her father had been an influential Brethren Minister. As her father lay dying, he begged her to help him write the memoir. He wanted to tell the story of their family who for generations had all been members of a fundamentalist Christian sect.

Poetry Award Winner

Book: Insider the Wave

Author: Helen Dunmore

To be alive is to be inside the wave, always travelling until it breaks and is gone. These poems are concerned with the borderline between the living and the dead ----- and the acutely intense being of both.

Children’s Award Winner

Book: The Explorer

Author: Katherine Rundell, Hannah Horn

Four children survive their aircraft plunging into the Amazon jungle, but for Fred and his friends it’s only the beginning of a cruel battle for survival. Brimming with adventure and a real command of character and incident, Rundell has few peers in superb children’s fiction.

1.What kind of life does Eleanor lead?

A. Funny and touching.　　 B. Ordinary and happy.

C. Exciting and complex.　　 D. Boring and lonely.

2.Why did Rebecca Scott write In the Days of Rain?

A. To pass on her family traditions.

B. To share the life of fundamentalist Christians.

C. To help her father fulfill his last wish.

D. To introduce beliefs of the Exclusive Brethren.

3.For a young adventurous soul, which book seems more appealing?

A. The Explorer.　　 B. Insider the Wave.

C. In the Days of Rain.　　 D. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine .

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The Costa Book Awards consistently pick winners that are both of the moment and subsequently endure. It's our pleasure to confirm this year’s Category Winners.

First Novel Award Winner

Book: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Author: Gail Honeyman

Eleanor is 31 years old; work finishes on a Friday and begins again on a Monday. Between, her only company will be two bottles of vodka and her own solitary, unique wit (机智). It is contentment, of a kind, but an unexpected shared experience suddenly opens the door to possibility. Challenging reader expectations with a living, breathing character, Gail Honeyman’s debut (初次登台、开张)is a funny and moving diamond.

Biography Award Winner

Book: In the Days of Rain

Author: Rebecca Stott

The Exclusive Brethren were a closed community who believed the world is ruled by Satan. Into this is born Rebecca. Her father had been an influential Brethren Minister. As her father lay dying, he begged her to help him write the memoir. He wanted to tell the story of their family who for generations had all been members of a fundamentalist Christian sect.

Poetry Award Winner

Book: Inside the Wave

Author: Helen Dunmore

To be alive is to be inside the wave, always travelling until it breaks and is gone. These poems are concerned with the borderline between the living and the dead — the underworld and the human living world – and the acutely intense being of both.

Children's Award Winner

Book: The Explorer

Author: Katherine Rundell, Hannah Horn

Four children survive their aircraft plunging into the Amazon jungle, but for Fred and his friends it’s only the beginning of a cruel battle for survival. Brimming with adventure and a real command of character and incident, Rundell has few peers in superb children's fiction.

1.What kind of life does Eleanor lead?

A.boring and lonely. B.funny and touching.

C.exciting and complex. D.ordinary and happy.

2.Why did Rebecca Stott write In the Days of Rain?

A.To introduce beliefs of the Exclusive Brethren.

B.To help her father fulfill his last wish.

C.To share the life of fundamentalist Christians.

D.To pass on her family traditions.

3.For a young adventurous soul, which book seems more appealing?

A.Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine B.In the Days of Rain

C.Inside the Wave D.The Explorer

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

A research found that people shown silent videos of piano competitions could pick out the winners more often than those who could also hear the music. It underlines the importance of our sense of vision, say scientists. Their study concludes that the best predictor of a winner’s musical performance was the visible passion they displayed, followed closely by their uniqueness and creativity.

Chia-Jung Tsay, from University College London, UK, is the study’s author and herself a concert pianist. She was interested in how music was judged and found that even professional musicians were unaware of how much they were using visual information over sound. “For the last two decades, I’ve taken part in various competitions. Through this experience, I found that depending on what type of evaluations were used, the results might vary widely. This led me to wonder about how much visual information really affects these important decisions,” she explained.

More than 1,000 participants in the study were given samples of either audio, silent video or video with sound, and asked to rate the top three finalists from 10 international classical music competitions. The actual competition winners were only correctly identified by those who were randomly assigned(分配) the silent videos.

Dr Tasy said the findings were quite surprising, especially because both trained musicians and those without training had stated that sound was most important for their evaluation. “Regardless of levels of expertise, we still seem to be led primarily by visual information, even in this field of music,” she said. “Classical music training is often focused on improving the quality of the sound, but this research is about getting to the bottom of what is really being evaluated at the highest levels of competitive performance. She added, “We must be more mindful of our inclination(倾向) to depend on visual information at the expense of the content that we actually value as more relevant to our decisions.”

1.According to the study, who would most probably win a piano competition?

A. One who plays with great passion.

B. One who plays unique music.

C. One who plays creatively.

D. One who has a sense of vision.

2.The participates in the study were asked to__________.

A. watch classical music competitions

B. assign the silent videos

C. pick out the best three competitors

D. decide who the winner is

3.What probably led Dr Tsay to carry out the study?

A. Her love for music.

B. Her desire to explore.

C. Her experience as a competitor.

D. Her curiosity in musical education.

4.Where does this text probably come from?

A. A text book.                                                                   B. A sports magazine.

C. A story book.                                                                 D. A science website.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Imagine that the genome (基因组) is a book. The book consists of 23 chapters with thousands of stories made up of paragraphs, words and letters on different levels. There are one billion words in the book, which makes it longer than 5,000 volumes the size of this book, or as long as 800 Bibles. If I read the genome out to you at the rate of one word per second for eight hours a day, it would take me a century. If I wrote out the human genome, one letter per millimeter, my text would be as long as the River Danube. This is an enormous document. A huge volume, a cook book of great length, and it all fits inside the extremely small nucleus (核) of a tiny cell that fits easily upon the head of a pin.

The idea of the genome as a book is not, strictly speaking, even a metaphor (比喻), It is true to a great extent. A book is a piece of digital information, written in one-directional form and defined by a code that translates a small alphabet of letters into a large dictionary of meanings through the order of their groupings. So is a genome. The only complication is that all English books read from left to right, while some parts of the genome read from left to right, and some from right to left, though never both at the same time.

While English books are written in words of different lengths using twenty-six letters. Genomes are written entirely in three-letter words, using only four letters, And instead of being written on flat pages, they are written on long chains of DNA molecules (分子), The genome is a very clever book, because in the right conditions it can both photocopy itself and read itself.

1.How do human genomes read according to the passage?

A. Only from left to right.    B. Only from right to left.

C. From both directions at the same time   D. From one direction at a time

2.We can learn from the passage that the human genome ______.

A. is as long as the River Danube

B. can be easily placed on the head of a pin

C. is coded with and alphabet of four letters

D. is smart enough to read and take photos of itself

3.It can be concluded that the passage is mainly written for ______.

A. specialists in the field      B. general readers

C. natural scientists        D. readers with academic background

4.The real purpose of the author’s comparison of the genome to a book is ______.

A. to focus on the differences between the two

B. to lay emphasis on the similarities between the two

C. to simplify the concept of the human genome

D. to give an exact description of the human genome

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Children are used to the parties that consist of junk food, loud music and the like．However, today's environmental condition is serious, so to save our environment, we need to do our bit by making small changes in our activities like planning our kid's birthday parties in an eco-friendly manner．

The first idea for the "green" birthday party is selecting a "green" location．You can put some choices in front of your child like gardens, parks and farms and let him or her select one for the party．The benefit of choosing a natural outdoor location is that it doesn't require much decoration, which will save your money．Also, it'll bring your child close to nature．

Secondly, go "green" while you're listing out the required materials for the party． Use reusable and recyclable materials like cloth table covers instead of plastic．For decorations, avoid plastics by using natural things like plants, candles, etc．What's more, you can avoid using paper invitations and invite people by sending e-mail invitations to them．

Thirdly, plan the food according to the 'green theme．Serve delicious but healthy food to the guests．Fruits, vegetables and nuts can be the most appropriate parts in party food as they taste great, and are extremely healthy．Home-made cakes will also serve the purpose very well．

Lastly, conduct "green" activities．For giving children a learning experience, take them on a trip to the nearest farm and let them see the working system there．After the learning experience, let them play together in a park．Also children can make up stories which you can write down for them．These written pages will be colored by the kids and will be their return gifts．

Plan a unique but wonderful birthday party for your kid and enjoy．If we all contribute to this cause, soon we'll see our earth back in her green coat．

·Taking children to a farm or park to 80．_________

·Taking down stories created by children, which will be their return gifts after being colored

III．Benefits

Planning a unique but wonderful birthday party helps save the earth．

高三英语任务型阅读中等难度题查看答案及解析

At the end of every year, Time picks the best 25 inventions that are “making the world better and smarter”. Here we have picked three of this year’s inventions that could be a part of your life in the near future.

The levitating(悬浮的) lightbulb

This special lightbulb was invented by US artist and scientist Simon Morris. He got the idea of making a lightbulb float from hoverboards(悬浮滑板)，which he used to dream of having as a kid.

But the floating is not the most amazing part. The rejection force between the opposite ends of the magnets(磁铁)，which were put in the bottom of the bulb and in the wooden base, does the job. What’s new here is a technology called induction (电磁感应). It allows the lightbulb to get power from the base even they are not in contact.

Shoes that tie themselves

They’re not what you think-shoelaces that tie themselves in the way we tie them. Instead, the new shoes have small motors that control their laces. When you step in them, your feet will hit a sensor（传感器）in the shoes and the motor will automatically tighten the laces.

But the shoes weren’t just designed for lazy people’s needs. They could actually give athletes an advantage during competition. They are also useful for people who cannot move their arms or fingers easily.

The no-touch thermometer

Taking your body temperature usually means putting a thermometer (体温计) in your armpits (腋窝) and staying still for minutes. It may be easy for you, but it’s an impossible task for little kids.

Now, with the new thermometer, users can simply put it 2.5 centimeters from a patient’s forechead and press the button, and it can get the reading in two seconds.

1.The levitating lightbulb is special in that ________.

A. floating is the most amazing part of the levitating lightbulb

B. the inventor of the levitating lightbulb is more than a scientist

C. it makes use of the rejection force between opposite ends of magnets

D. induction allows the lightbulb to get power even when unconnected with the base

2.How is the no-touch thermometer different from other ones?

A. It makes it easier to take kid’s temperature.

B. You need wait two minutes for the reading.

C. You don’t need to press the button.

D. It should be put in one’s armpit.

3.In which part of a newspaper can you possibly read this text?

A. Education.　　 B. Sports.　　 C. Science.　　 D. Entertainment.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

-How many chapters does the book have?

-It ____ three chapters.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

It is reported that two schools,_____are being built in my hometown, will open next year.

A. they both　　 　　　　　　　　 B. which both

C. both of them　　 　　　　　　 D. both of which

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

. It is reported that two hotels，_____ are being built in my hometown，will open next year.

A．they both  B．which both   C．both of them  D. of which both

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

It is reported that two schools,_____are being built in my hometown, will open next year.

A. they both　　 　　　　　　　　 B. which both

C. both of them　 　　　　　　 　 D. both of which

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析