2 . Read the poems below and then complete the table.

	Wind on the Hill	Dream	A Match
Subject	1	2	3
Images	4	5	6
Rhymingwords	7	8	9
Rhetorical devices	10	11	12

3 . The scent of hot bread drifting from the shops along the Street of Flour was sweeter than any perfume Arya had ever smelled. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the pigeon. It was a plump one, speckled brown, busily pecking at a crust that had fallen between two cobblestones, but when Arya’s shadow touched it, it took to the air.

Her stick sword whistled out and caught it two feet off the ground, and it went down in a flurry of brown feathers. She was on it in the blink of an eye, grabbing a wing as the pigeon flapped and fluttered. It pecked at her hand. She grabbed its neck and twisted until she felt the bone snap.

Compared with catching cats, pigeons were easy.

She tied the pigeon to her belt and started down the street. A man was pushing a load of tarts by on a two-wheeled cart; the smells sang of blueberries and lemons and apricots. Her stomach made a hollow rumbly noise. “Could I have one?” she heard herself say. “A lemon, or…or any kind.”

The pushcart man looked her up and down. Plainly he did not like what he saw. “Three coppers.”

Arya tapped her wooden sword against the side of her boot. “I’ll trade you a fat pigeon,” she said.

“The Others take your pigeon,” the pushcart man said.

The tarts were still warm from the oven. The smells were making her mouth water, but she did not have three coppers... or one. She gave the pushcart man a look, remembering what Syrio had told her about seeing. He was short, with a little round belly, and when he moved he seemed favor his left leg a little. She was just thinking that if she snatched a tart and ran he would never be able to catch her when he said, “You be keeping your filthy hands off. The gold cloaks know how to deal with thieving little gutter rats, that they do.”

Arya glanced warily behind her. Two of the City Watch were standing at the mouth of an alley. Their cloaks hung almost to the ground, the heavy wool dyed a rich gold; their mail and boots and gloves were black. One wore a long sword at his hip, the other an iron cudgel. With a last wistful glance at the tarts, Arya edged back from the cart and hurried off. The gold cloaks had not been paying her any special attention, but the sight of them tied her stomach in knots. Arya had been staying as far from the castle as she could get, yet even from a distance she could see the heads rotting atop the high red walls. Flocks of crows squabbled noisily over each head, thick as flies. The talk in Flea Bottom was that the gold cloaks had associated themselves with the Lannisters, their commander raised to a lord, with lands on the Trident and a seat on the king’s council.

1. The story is set in a place where ______.

A．people raised pigeons	B．only privileged people lived
C．people sold and bought food	D．the watchmen received training

2. In depicting the inviting smell of the tarts, the writer used ______.

A．metaphor	B．overstatement
C．personification (拟人)	D．rhetoric rhyme

3. What is the key meaning of the underlined word “seeing” in the context?

A．Remembering people’s appearance so that you can recognize them.

B．Perceiving people’s intention so that you can properly talk to them.

C．Understanding people’s living conditions so that you can help them.

D．Knowing people’ strengths and weaknesses so that you can beat them

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Arya was more hunger than terrified in the story.

B．The Lannisters was a big enemy of the gold cloaks.

C．The atmosphere of the castle was agreeable and welcome.

D．The authority treated the executed people’s dead bodies in a cruel way.

4 . Not Waving but Drowning

Stevie Smith (1902-1971)

Nobody heard him, the dead man, but still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought, and not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking, and now he's dead.

It must have been too cold for him, his heart gave away, they said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always （Still the dead one lay moaning）.

I was much too far out all my life, and not waving but drowning.

‘Not Waving But Drowning’ by Stevie Smith describes the emotional situation of a speaker whose true sufferings go unnoticed by all those around her. The poem begins with the speaker stating that there is a dead man who is not really dead. He is not dead because his story has more to offer to the world. His death came at the hands of apathy (冷漠). The speaker knows this to be true as she is struggling out in the ocean waters. She’s trying desperately to get someone’s attention but all the onlookers believe her to be “waving” rather than “drowning”. Then the speaker criticizes the emotionless reaction of the beach-goers by describing their words regarding the dead man. They see him, attempt to recall something about his life, and then declare him dead without ceremony They believe that it must have been “too cold” for him and that his heart gave out. The speaker continues to say that it has always been “too cold” for her. She has always been too far out to the sea to make people understand her, especially now when she needs understanding the most.

On the surface the poem is about a man who drowns because his movements are mistaken for friendly waving. Taken less literally, however, it speaks to the pain of being misunderstood and the frequent failure of communication between human beings, closely related to which is its potential suggestion of mental illness. That is, the poem can be taken as an extended metaphor (暗喻) for the specific pain of diseases like depression, which makes the man feel like “drowning” yet unable to effectively ask for help. It’s worth noting here that Smith herself struggled with depression for much of her life, and her own experience likely informed the poem. The man’s mistaken gestures, in this reading, indicate the divide between appearance and reality, between how people dealing with such illness are feeling inside and how the world sees them or how they present themselves to the world.

1. What’s the first paragraph mainly about?

A．An introduction of the poet.	B．The explanation of the poem’s content.
C．The appreciation of the poem's images.	D．An analysis of the poem's creation background.

2. What does the underlined phrase “without ceremony” possibly mean?

A．Casually.

B．Definitely.

C．Formally.

D．Violently.

3. According to the passage, what’s to blame for the man’s death in the poem?

A．His inner desire for death.	B．His misleading gestures for help.
C．His being drowned for so long a time.	D．His failed communication with people around.

4. What can we conclude from this passage?

A．People usually believe what they see.

B．People can't turn a blind eye to whoever is in trouble.

C．People should re late to what those in need truly need.

D．People with mental illnesses must help themselves out.

5 . 【课文原文】

A FEW SIMPLE FORMS OF ENGLISH POEMS

There are various reasons why people compose poetry. Some poems tell a story or describe a certain image in the reader’s mind. Others try to convey certain feelings such as joy and sorrow. The distinctive characteristics of poetry often include economical use of words, descriptive and vivid language, integrated imagery, literary devices such as similes and metaphors, and arrangement of words, lines, rhymes, and rhythm. Poets use many different forms of poetry to express themselves. Now we will look at a few of the simpler forms.

Some of the first poems a young child learns in English are nursery rhymes. They are usually the traditional poems or folk songs. The language of these rhymes, like Poem A, is to the point but has a storyline. Many children enjoy nursery rhymes because they rhyme, have a strong rhythm, and often repeat the same words. The poems may not make sense and even seem contradictory, but they are easy to learn and recite. By playing with the words in nursery rhymes, children learn about language.

One of the simplest kinds of poem is the “list poem”, which contains a list of things, people, ideas, or descriptions that develop a particular theme. List poems have a flexible line length and repeated phrases which give both a pattern and a rhythm to the poem. Some rhyme 〔like B and C〕, while others do not.

Another simple form of poem that amateurs can easily write is the cinquain, which is made up of five lines. With these, you can convey a strong picture or a certain mood in just a few words. Look at the example 〔D〕.

Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that consists of 17 syllables. It has a format of three lines, containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. It is not a traditional form of English poetry, but is very popular with English writers. It is easy to write and, like the cinquain, can give a clear picture and create a special feeling using very few words. The haiku poem 〔E〕 on the right is a translation from Japanese, which shows a moment in the life of a delicate butterfly.

English speakers also enjoy poems from China, those from the Tang Dynasty in particular. A lot of Tang poetry has been translated into English, such as this one〔F〕.

With so many different forms of poetry to choose from, you may eventually want to write poems of your own. Give it a try!

A

Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,

Papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.

If that mockingbird won’t sing,

Papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.

If that diamond ring turns to brass,

Papa’s gonna buy you a looking glass.

If that looking glass gets broke,

Papa’s gonna buy you a billy goat.

If that billy goat won’t pull,

Papa’s gonna buy you a cart and bull.

B

Mother

Hundreds of stars in the deep blue sky,

Hundreds of shells on the shore together,

Hundreds of birds that go singing by,

Hundreds of bees in the sunny weather,

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,

Hundreds of bees in the purple clover

Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,

But only one mother the world over.

George Cooper

C

LIFE

Life can be good,

Life can be bad,

Life is mostly cheerful,

but sometimes sad

Life can be dreams,

Life can be great thoughts

Life can mean a person,

Sitting in court.

D

Brother

Beautiful, athletic

Teasing, shouting, laughing

Friend and enemy too

Mine

E

A fallen blossom

Is coming back to the branch.

Look, a butterfly!

F

Where she awaits her husband

On and on the river flows.

Never looking back,

Transformed into stone.

Day by day upon the mountain top,

wind and rain revolve.

Should the traveller return,

this stone would utter speech.

Wang Jian

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The characteristics and examples of five forms of poems.

B．Encourage readers to write their own poems.

C．Reasons of people composing poetry.

D．Different types of poems.

2. Match the main idea with each poem.

A. It is a list poem which shows the diversity of life. B. It is a description of a lovely brother. C. It is a translation of a Tang poetry, which describes a woman who waited for her beloved husband to come back from a journey. D. It is a nursery rhyme that illustrates a father’s love for his baby. E. It is a list poem expressing the love for his mother. F. It describes how a butterfly rests on a tree.

Poem A ________
Poem B ________
Poem C ________
Poem D ________
Poem E ________
Poem F ________
3. Why do poets use different forms of poetry?

A．They want to express themselves.

B．They want to attract more people.

C．They want to describe things in more detail.

D．They want people to learn from them.

4. Which of the following about nursery poems is TRUE?

A．Most of these poems make sense.

B．These poems have weak rhythm.

C．They repeat certain words a lot.

D．They must be repeated by children.

5. What is the cinquain according to the text?

A．A kind of poem with both a pattern and a rhythm.

B．A kind of poem which has five lines.

C．A kind of poem kids in the nursery like to recite.

D．A kind of poem with 17 syllables.

6. What do we know about haiku?

A．It is a traditional form of English poetry.

B．It is made up of five lines.

C．It gives a vague picture of things.

D．It is not difficult to write.

7. What does the last part of the text tell students to do?

A．Read more poems.

B．Enjoy English poems.

C．Write their own poems.

D．Translate poems into other languages.

8. Complete the form according to the text.

A FEW SIMPLE FORMS OF ENGLISH POEMS	Nursery	·The language is ________   but has a ________
		·have a strong ________ and often repeat the same words
	List poem	·contain a list of things, people, ________ or descriptions
		·have a flexible line length and ________ phrases
	Cinquain	·made up of ________ lines
		·convey a strong picture or a certain ________ in just a few words
	Haiku	·a ________ form of poetry
		·consist of 17 ________; give a clear picture and create a special feeling
	Tang poem	·the ________ from Chinese to English

9. Analyse and translate the sentences.
(1) Some of the first poems a young child learns in English are nursery rhymes.
________________________________
(2) One of the simplest kinds of poem is the “list poem”, which contains a list of things, people, ideas, or descriptions that develop a particular theme.
________________________________
(3) Another simple form of poem that amateurs can easily write is the cinquain, which is made up of five lines.
________________________________
(4) Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that consists of 17 syllables. It has a format of three lines, containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively.
________________________________

6 . Paraphrase words in bold in the passage and answer the questions based on the text.

Food takeaway rider who finds respite from his daily work stress in writing poetry publishes his second collection in as many years, Chen Nan reports.

In 2019, Wang Jibing, a food delivery rider living and working in Kunshan, East China’s Jiangsu province, had an unpleasant experience due to the wrong address left by a customer. Wang searched three buildings and climbed 18 floors before he finally managed to deliver the food to the customer, who rudely scolded Wang for arriving late.

Wang was sad and frustrated. As a husband and father of three children, who shoulders the majority of the financial responsibility in his family, he had to swallow the insult.

“If I argued with him, he would give me negative feedback and the company would have imposed a fine on me. I had no choice but to apologize repeatedly,” recalls Wang, 54, who makes about 6,000 yuan ($823) a month by delivering food.

On his way home that day, Wang wrote a poem, Man in a Hurry, expressing his feelings.

“Wind is born from air in a hurry. A knife is forged from the wind in hurry… Man in a hurry has no four seasons. He only has one stop after another. His world is about the name of a place,” he wrote.

Since then, Wang has been writing poems inspired by his daily life, including a poem New Temple, which was conceived after he delivered food to construction workers repairing an old temple, and Forgive, based on his observation of a young couple fighting.

1. respite from his daily work stress _______________________________________
2. shoulders the majority of the financial responsibility _______________________
3. swallow the insult ___________________________________________________
4. imposed a fine on ____________________________________________________
5. What does writing poetry mean to Wang Jibing?
_______________________________________________________________________
6. What do you think Wang Jibing is like?
_______________________________________________________________________

7 . Ada Palmer is a professor of European history at the University of Chicago. Her science-fiction series, Terra Ignota, was inspired by 18th-century philosophers such as Voltaire and Diderot. “I wanted to write a story that Voltaire might have written if Voltaire had be enable to read the last 70 years’ worth of science fiction and have all of those tools available (可获得的) for his use,” Palmer says in a radio program called Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Palmer says that Voltaire could actually be considered the first sci-fic writer, thanks to a place he wrote in 1752. “Voltaire has a short story called Micromégas, in which an alien from Saturn and an alien from a star near Sirius come to Earth. They are extremely big in size. They explore Earth and have trouble finding life forms because to them a whale is the size of a flea (跳蚤)”, she says. They eventually realize that the tiny little spot of wood on the ground is a ship, and it’s full of living things, including humans, and they make contact. So it’s a first-contact story.

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein is often considered the first sci-fi novel. Voltaire was writing much earlier than Shelley, so should he have the title instead? It depends on your definition (定义) of science fiction. “Micromégas doesn’t involve technology,” Palmer says, “so if you define science fiction as depending upon technology—and being about, in the Frankenstein sense. Is man’s knowledge giving us access to powers beyond what we’ve had before? What does that mean?’—it isn’t asking that. But ‘aliens and first contact’ is a very significant science fictional element.”

So there’s no obvious answer to the question of who should be considered the first sci-fi writer. Palmer says it’s more important to ask the question than to arrive at any particular answer. “I don’t want to argue, ‘Yes, definitely, everybody’s histories of science fiction should start with Voltaire,” she says. “But I do want to argue that everybody’s histories of science fiction will be richer by discussing whether Voltaire is the beginning of science fiction, or whether it’s earlier or whether it’s later. Because that gets at the question of what science fiction is.”

1. What do we know about Micromégas according to the text?

A．It is widely accepted as a science-fiction story.

B．It has a big influence on today’s science fiction.

C．Its main characters have trouble finding humans.

D．Its content is about humans’ exploration of space.

2. Why does Ada Palmer regard Voltaire as a sci-fi writer?

A．One of his stories focuses on technology.	B．His story involves aliens from other planets.
C．He described human-alien contact in a story.	D．Her science fiction was inspired by his writing.

3. What does Ada Palmer really want to discuss when it comes to science fiction?

A．Its true origin.	B．What it can cover.
C．Its colourful expressions.	D．Why it is interesting.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Ada Palmer and science fiction.	B．Was Voltaire the first sci-fi author?
C．Technology’s role in science fiction.	D．What is science fiction really about?

8 . Uncertainty pops up frequently in conversations. The pandemic, and the growing climate disasters heighten our awareness of our inability to control many current challenges. No wonder we’re invaded by anxiety and isolation. We know there are stress-reduction techniques like yoga and exercise. Another much-overlooked one that restores sense of well-being is poetry.

Poetry reconnects us with the beauty of the world, while also naming its difficulties. Rather than dismissing hardships, poetry reminds us that others have also lost a loved one, experienced disappointments—have suffered as we now suffer. Poetry allows us to identify our personal confusions, breaks our feeling of isolation, and confirms our sense of belonging. Poetry leads us toward wisdom and acceptance.

Science agrees. The Arts & Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University offers convincing evidence that poetry is good for our health. A study from 2013 in Philippines showed that guided poetry writing sessions significantly lessened depression in a group of abused adolescents. Written eight hundred years ago, the poem “The Guest House” invites us to view life’s experiences and the feelings that arise from them as temporary visitors in the “guest house” of self. With patience and compassion, the author Jalal al-Din Rumi advises us to recognize that even negative moods are precious teachers for our growth.

Think of poetry as an entrance to a timeless place where we find comfort, companionship, connection, wisdom, and healing. Poetry names the disconnects as well, where we have gone blind to threats and personal sorrows that threaten to overwhelm us. With its precision of language, and its naming of experience, poetry, in a small space, usually one page, packs a wallop. Entering a poem, readers can sense painful experiences are re-framed and can be given a new understanding by a poem. That’s because poetry reflects a rich mix of the sweetness and bitterness in life. It refreshes our minds and offers invented landscapes of imagery. For your own peace of mind, I encourage you to take up a friendship with poetry.

1. What does the first paragraph mainly focus on?

A．The much-ignored healing power of poetry.	B．The inability to overcome difficulties in life.
C．The pressure reduced by yoga and exercise.	D．The urgent situation of people’s mental state.

2. What is the function of poetry according to paragraph 2?

A．Poetry dismisses hardships.

B．Poetry promotes peopled intelligence.

C．Poetry overlooks sufferings of the world.

D．Poetry enables us to connect emotionally with others.

3. What does Rumi suggest readers do in The Guest House?

A．Embrace downsides with optimistic attitudes.	B．Take the initiative to experience hardships.
C．Take youth into consideration seriously.	D．View ourselves as temporary guests.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Poems force readers to feel sweet or bitter.

B．Poems turn a blind eye to threats and sorrows.

C．Poems possess overwhelming power despite limited lines.

D．Poems reshape painful experiences and restrict our minds.

10 . 请阅读下面的篇章, 用以下三种形式中的一种填空: ①根据上下文填空; ②用所给单词的正确形式填空; ③根据单词所给的字母填空, 每空一词。

Science fiction doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. My friend Ryan calls    1     “brain candy”. My sister says science fiction novels are fairy tales for teenagers. I    2     you ask me, I think people should take science fiction     3     (serious) though it’s so much fun to read.

Yes, science fiction is fun, but it’s also “real” literature. After all, some of     4     great masters of literature—Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Ursula Le Guin—have written science fiction.

Not only     5     science fiction books often examples of great literature, but the predictions made by science fiction writers help spark people’s imagination and lay the groundwork for       6     (invent) of the future.

One accurate example by a science fiction writer is the invention of the automatic sliding door,       7     H.G. Wells wrote about in When the Sleeper Wakes in 1899. The f    8     automatic doors were invented in 1954. I wonder if the inventors got the idea from H.G. Wells?

Okay, so maybe we could survive without automatic doors, but in the short story From the London Times of 1904 (published in 1898), Mark Twain described a m    9     significant invention — the Internet (specifically, video blogging) ! Imagine what the world       10     (will) be like without the Internet. Thank you, Mr. Twain. Thank you, science fiction!