Little boys don't like reading any more and even little girls don' t enjoy it as much as they once did: this is the accepted wisdom inside the book industry –and in many British families, too. Parents and booksellers tend to blame the growing appeal of online entertainment and handheld games, but research from the US is challenging these assumptions.
Michael Norris, an American publishing expert, will release findings in the monthly Book Publishing Report which show that, despite the best intentions, it is well-meaning mothers and fathers who often stop their sons and daughters from picking up the reading habit.
Parents have too much of a role in deciding which books their child is going to read," said Norris. It is turning children off. "
The results of a number of surveys Norris has carried out with hundreds of American booksellers over the past year have provided the basis for a series of tips for parents designed to help children find enjoyment in books.
One of his tips is to make sure children talk directly to a librarian or a book seller, while parents stand well back. Parents should allow children to choose their own reading material. Even if a mother or father is just standing with the child when the bookseller asks them what they like to read, we have found that the child will give an answer they think their parent wants to hear. It will not be the same answer they would give alone, said Norris.
Norris said, “What we have found is that parents should not worry whether a title looks too young or too old for a child. If it is children’s favorite book, then let them take it.” Children, added Norris, often enjoy reading books that are easy for then let them take it.” Children, added Norris, often enjoy reading books that are easy for them to understand. “My father made me read The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy when I was much too young, which, I think, was totally wrong, and I have never read another Clancy since,” said Norris.
1. What did Norris think prevents children from enjoying reading?| A．Children’s interest in handheld games |
| B．The declining market of the book industry |
| C．Parents’ influence on children’s book selection |
| D．The growing popularity of online entertainment |
| A．It is meaningless |
| B．It mainly focuses on British families |
| C．It is published to improve book sales |
| D．It is mainly carried out by Norris |
| A．Introduce new books regularly |
| B．Discuss popular books with their children |
| C．Let children choose books for themselves |
| D．Often seek expert advice from booksellers |
| A．It showed parents’ worries about kids |
| B．It made him love reading |
| C．It was quite necessary |
| D．It was totally wrong |
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【推荐1】Good volunteers bring a lot of energy to the project. The efforts of volunteers prove invaluable for worthy causes such as helping the needy at soup kitchens or digging a well to provide an undeveloped village with fresh water. But there may be some volunteer who wanders around with his head buried in his smartphone, which is not much better than having no volunteers at all
Empathy
First and foremost, a volunteer should care about the people or animals-who need his help.
This means the volunteer looks past cultural, religious and social differences and is only concerned that his efforts are making a positive impact on the lives of others.
Passion
Passion is an important quality that a good volunteer should possess.
Professionalism
Team Player
It's important for a volunteer to be a self-starter, but it's equally important for him to know how to work as part of a team.
| A．He must also respect the privacy of the people he helps. |
| B．He knows how to cooperate with other volunteers with passion. |
| C．What inspires someone to be a volunteer? |
| D．What qualities does a good volunteer need to possess? |
| E．Volunteering is still in great need even though more and more people take on board. |
| F．A good volunteer is reliable and dependable. |
| G．Volunteering for his favorite cause isn't just another way to spend a Saturday. |
【推荐2】As we all know, the spine (脊柱) stands at the center of your health, providing your body with structure and support. It also contains your spine cord, a massive collection of nerves sending electric signals from the rest of your body to your brain.
Maintaining good posture is one of the most important things you can do to keep your spine healthy. Proper posture means standing or sitting while keeping your spine straight, except for its natural curves. Posture comes into play even when you are asleep. Sleeping on your side puts less stress on your spine than most other positions.
Finally, your diet affects the health of your spine because many vitamins are necessary for bones and nerves. In particular, vitamins B and D are essential to keep bones healthy, so you may want to consider taking a supplement.
Many of the actions necessary to keep your spine healthy are the same as those used to keep your health in other ways.
| A．It can be hard on your back to stay still for too long |
| B．So, to have a healthy spine, you should take the following factors into account |
| C．Try the following exercises to keep your spine more flexible |
| D．So protect your back, the rest of the body will benefit |
| E．Exercise is also an important factor in your spine’s health |
| F．Doing yoga to protect your spine is also a necessary step |
| G．However, the latter can also be absorbed from sunlight |
【推荐3】We all see and hear about extraordinary people and wonder why we can't be like them.It's not the big things but small things that make someone extraordinary.
They are generous with praise.Remember the time when you worked really hard but got nothing in return.
They are helpful.Never hesitate to help someone.
They apologize when needed.
We all make mistakes，but what makes a person big is that he is ready to apologize.
They're in charge of their emotions.
Sometimes it is very important to stay silent，especially when you're angry.You don't want to end up saying things you didn't really mean to.
| A．They are open to criticism. |
| B．Don't try to hide behind excuses. |
| C．It hurts when your efforts are not recognized. |
| D．Before you say anything，consider others' feelings. |
| E．Give the person in front of you a smile and thank him or her. |
| F．When you don't understand how something works，let an expert show you. |
| G．Don't say something not clear like，“Can I help you？” because they might say，“No，I'm good.” |
【推荐1】There are many things to consider when discussing the matter of e-books vs. printed books, but eventually, it boils down to the reader’s preference.
On the other hand, those who prefer e-books often say that a whole lot of weight is removed from their shoulders.
Manc Slater, director of 7 Speed Reading, weighs in on the debate. “Clearly, the winner in this round is none other than the person doing the reading, no matter which method they choose.
| A．Packing for trips is bad enough as it is. |
| B．But these are only physical considerations. |
| C．There simply is no way to not enjoy reading. |
| D．When it comes to this, printed books are still a better choice. |
| E．What people should be focused on is learning how to read faster. |
| F．Fans of printed books claim that there is still nothing like the smell of paper. |
| G．However, there is no conversation and nothing to encourage the child to use language. |
【推荐2】Returning to a book you’ve read many times can feel like drinks with an old friend. There’s a welcome familiarity — but also sometimes a slight suspicion that time has changed you both, and thus the relationship. But books don’t change, people do. And that’s what makes the act of rereading so rich and transformative.
The beauty of rereading lies in the idea that our bond with the work is based on our present mental register. It’s true, the older I get, the more I feel time has wings. But with reading, it’s all about the present. It’s about the now and what one contributes to the now, because reading is a give and take between author and reader. Each has to pull their own weight.
There are three books I reread annually. The first, which I take to reading every spring, is Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. Published in 1964, it’s his classic memoir of 1920s Paris. The language is almost intoxicating (令人陶醉的), an aging writer looking back on an ambitious yet simpler time. Another is Annie Dillard’s Holy the Firm, her poetic 1975 ramble (随笔) about everything and nothing. The third book is Julio Cortázar’s Save Twilight: Selected Poems. Because poetry. And because Cortázar.
While I tend to buy a lot of books, these three were given to me as gifts, which might add to the meaning I attach to them. But I imagine that, while money is indeed wonderful and necessary, rereading an author’s work is the highest currency a reader can pay them. The best books are the ones that open further as time passes. But remember, it’s you that has to grow and read and reread in order to better understand your friends.
1. Why does the author like rereading?| A．It’s a window to a whole new world. |
| B．It extends the understanding of oneself. |
| C．It evaluates the writer-reader relationship. |
| D．It’s a substitute for drinking with a friend. |
| A．It’s a brief account of a trip. |
| B．It’s a record of a historic event. |
| C．It’s about Hemingway’s friends in Paris. |
| D．It’s about Hemingway’s life as a young man. |
| A．Debt. | B．Allowance. |
| C．Reward. | D．Accomplishment. |
| A．He loves poetry. | B．He’s an editor. |
| C．He’s very ambitious. | D．He teaches reading. |
【推荐3】Reading is thought to be a kind of conversation between the reader and the text. The reader puts questions, as it were, to the text and get answers. In the light of these he put further questions, and so on.
For most of the time this “conversation” goes on below the level of consciousness. At times, however, we become aware of it. This is usually when we are running into difficulties, when mismatch is occurring between expectations and meaning. When successful matching is being experienced our questioning of the text continues at the unconscious level.
Different people converse with the text differently. Some stay very close to the words on the page; others take off imaginatively from words, interpreting, criticizing, analyzing and examining. The former represents a kind of comprehension that is written in the text, while the latter represents higher levels of comprehension. The balance between these is important, especially for advanced readers.
There is another conversation that from our point of view is important, and that has not to do with what is read but with how it is read. We call this a “process” conversation as opposed to a “content” conversation. It is concerned not with meaning but with the strategies we employ in reading. If we are skilled readers, our ability to hold a content conversation with a text is usually pretty well developed. Not so our ability to hold a process conversation. It is just this kind of conversation that is of importance when we are seeking to develop our reading to meet the new demands being placed upon us by studying at a higher level.
1. Reading as a kind of conversation between the reader and the text becomes conscious only when ________.| A．the reader’s expectation agree with what is said in the text |
| B．the reader asks questions and gets answers |
| C．the reader has trouble understanding what the author says |
| D．successful matching is occurring |
| A．read a text slowly | B．read without thinking hard |
| C．interpret a text in their own way | D．concentrate on the meaning of words only |
| A．the development of our ability to check the details |
| B．determining the main idea of a text |
| C．what reading material is read |
| D．the application of reading strategies |
| A．it’s important for readers to have conscious and unconscious levels of comprehension |
| B．readers should take a critical attitude towards the author’s ideas |
| C．readers should learn to use different approaches in reading different texts |
| D．readers should pay more attention to the content of a text |
I was forced to think about popularity not too long ago in a talk I had with my daughter. Margy had to change schools when my busy work schedule made it necessary for me to move houses. I suppose that, for a girl in her teens, entering a new school is like spending a season alone in the tropical jungles. At least that’s how Margy found it at first. However, as the school year drew to a close, one student after another came to her. I told Margy that I would have been more concerned if she had been an instant social success in her new school. Nobody can please everyone. If you try to do so, you will find values as lasting as soap bubbles blown into the air.
Some teenagers claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in a certain way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon into a larger cocoon.
I know that it has become harder for a young person to stand up against the popularity wave. Our way of life makes a young nonconformist stand out like a Martian. These days there’s a great barrier for the young person who wants to find his or her own path. But the barrier is worth climbing over. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. Well, go to it. Be yourself. Popularity will come with the people who respect you for who you are. That’s the only kind of popularity that really counts.
1. Why was the author worried about his daughter’s popularity in her new school?
| A．She might find no true friends. |
| B．She would ignore her academic performance. |
| C．She had no idea of her own. |
| D．She might betray her true self. |
| A．They’re afraid of getting lost in life. |
| B．They have difficulty understanding each other. |
| C．They lack the courage to be truly different. |
| D．They find it hard to gain popularity as expected. |
| A．Someone who cares about others’ opinion. |
| B．Someone who desires popularity greatly. |
| C．Someone who behaves in his own way. |
| D．Someone who wants to please others. |
| A．To persuade readers to pursue valuable popularity. |
| B．To tell parents how to guide their children. |
| C．To criticize the present values and beliefs. |
| D．To suggest a good way to be popular. |
【推荐2】Just about 50 years ago, needing money to support my family — my novels weren’t best-sellers — I had the idea of taking the longest train trip imaginable and writing a travel book about it. The trip was improvisational (即兴的). I didn’t have a credit card. I had no idea where I’d be staying nor how long this trip would take. And I’d never written a travel book before. I hoped my trip wouldn’t suffer a lot, though it was obviously a leap in the dark.
I set off with one small bag containing clothes, a map of Asia, a travel guidebook and some travelers’ cheques. I was often inconvenienced, sometimes threatened, now and then disturbed for bribes (贿赂), occasionally laid up with food poisoning — all this vivid detail for my narrative (叙述).
What I repeated in the more than four-month trip was the pleasure of the sleeping car. Writing on board the Khyber Mail to Lahore in Pakistan, “The romance associated with the sleeping car comes from the fact that it is extremely private, combining the best features of a cupboard with forward movement. Whatever drama is being shown in this moving bedroom is heightened by the landscape passing the window...” A train is a carrier that allows residence.
I wrote The Great Railway Bazaar on my return in 1974, and it appeared to good reviews and quick sales. That’s the past. Nothing is the same. All travel is time-related. All such trips are unique and unrepeatable. It’s not just that the steam trains of Asia are gone, but much of the peace and order is gone. Who’d risk an Iranian train now or take a bus through Afghanistan?
But I’ve been surprised by some of the more recent developments in travel. I rode on Chinese trains for a year and wrote Riding the Iron Rooster, but now China has much cleaner and swifter trains and modernized destinations. A traveler today could take the same trip I took in 1986-87 and produce a completely different book.
All travel books are dated. That’s their fault that they’re outdated, and it’s their virtue that they preserve something of the past that would otherwise be lost.
1. What happened at the beginning of the author’s trip to Asia?| A．He made full preparations for the trip. |
| B．He had expected the journey to be rough. |
| C．He organized the trip with his family’s support. |
| D．He started the trip out of his passion for traveling. |
| A．For its long distance. | B．For its full equipment. |
| C．For its reassuring privacy. | D．For its romantic scenery. |
| A．He couldn’t write another bestseller. | B．Train trip was no longer popular. |
| C．The landscape in Asia was gone. | D．Transportation and travel had changed a lot. |
| A．Reflecting on the evolving nature of rail travel. | B．Recalling an unrepeatable journey to China. |
| C．Offering advice on preparing for a train trip. | D．Demonstrating the features of travel books. |
【推荐3】The letter arrives from a school that your son told you is his dream school. You dare not open it，instead，you hand it to him when he arrives home from school. You watch as his eyes light up and you know this is the beginning of something. You are just not sure what. Your son insists that the coach must really want him since he took the time to write him a letter. Is this in fact true？Did he write other kids and if so how many？How would you know？
The simple fact of the matter is that you can read very little into that first letter. Coaches cast a wide net in the first few stages of the recruiting(录取)cycle. That letter may in fact，be the first and last time your son ever hears from that particular coach. Think about it：if he has not seen your sons transcripts or his standardized test scores，if you have not visited the school，if he has no knowledge of your financial needs，can it be anything significant？
So how do you treat these letters or emails？Is there some format you can apply？Say tor instance，three letters mean real interest…or three letters and a call means a greater degree of interest？
My experience in deal with cases of various applications is that answers will not come automatically. Call the coach and find out how real the interest in fact is. "Is my son a top recruit in your mind？" "How many players at his position will you be recruiting this year?" By asking these simple and direct questions，you as a parent，will have established a dialogue and hopefully figured out how much interest，if any really exists. However，here comes the challenge. Applicants and parents are vague with coaches about their intention and level of interest all the time. In fact，the coach's situation is no less confusing than yours. He is fighting a similar battle on multiple choices. There is little clarity on either end.
Enjoy that first letter. Let's hope it is one of many and let's hope you apply a bit of realism with a bit of wishful thinking about how happy your son should be when this is all over.
1. How did the parent feel about the letter that his son got from his dreamed school？ ______| A．expectant | B．hesitant |
| C．doubtful | D．hopeful |
| A．determine the level of interest from coach |
| B．build up a communication with the coach |
| C．identify the real intention of the coach |
| D．understand more about the situation of the coach |
| A．a consultant to help students with their application |
| B．a parent with similar experiences |
| C．a school authority that supervises the application |
| D．a coach in charge of the application |
| A．remind parents of the importance of the first letter from coaches |
| B．tell parents how to react to the first letter from coaches |
| C．advise parents to ignore the first letter from coaches |
| D．warn parents to be realistic towards the first letter from coaches |
