1 . What’s the effect of poetry on our brain? Scientists have been investigating the neuronal (神经元的) connections and brain circuits that can work in the reading of poetry for some time. And, even though the research has only just begun, the results are already fascinating.
Poetry has the oldest recorded texts in literature. Although it’s impossible to say exactly when it began to be used in the oral tradition, we dare to say that it’s accompanied humanity forever. This gives us an idea of the impact that poetic language can have on our emotional and cognitive state. The emotional response to literature in general shares areas of activation with music. However, more areas of the right hemisphere (半球) seem to be related to poetry. The researchers measured the goosebumps resulting from the tingling (强烈感受) sensation in reading poetry. This type of sensation has also been proven to result from music. However, the tingling sensations produced by poetry activate different areas of the brain compared to those activated by music.
Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky’s team collected data on behavioral responses in people reading or listening to poetry. They proved that poetry is capable of causing emotional responses and rich emotional experiences. In addition, a poem expresses the poet’s ideas. From a psychological view, poetry is a game of language that manages to group words in a surprising way. We could compare this with how a chef combines ingredients that seem impossible to combine, producing extraordinary results. Poetry is based on rules of construction. It sets up a rhythm, which then breaks, before finally returning to it. The play on the meanings of words, sometimes several meanings in just one word, is extremely intellectually inspiring. We can read a poem a thousand times, and still find its new meanings.
Generally, our passage through the wonderful world of poetry is cut short by a rather reduced exposure during childhood and the overly analytical approach of this literary genre (类型), which is given in most schools. Although, the studies that experts have conducted on poetry get a lot of interesting results, poetry still holds a mystery that science hasn’t yet been able to investigate. For example, why a perfect cadence (抑扬顿挫) and rhythm can lift the spirit of people is the new challenge for the research.
1. What is the main difference between poetry and music?A.Music causes fewer goosebumps. |
B.Poetry creates more tingling sensations. |
C.They work on different parts of the brain. |
D.They are processed in different parts of the brain. |
A.It expresses something about the poet. |
B.It is vague in its meaning but rich in emotional experience. |
C.It combines ingredients and extraordinary results. |
D.It’s a pure game of language that only surprises readers. |
A.We make children more exposed to it. | B.We haven’t read a poem a thousand times. |
C.We rely too much on our teachers. | D.We analyze this literary genre too much. |
A.In a paper on geography. | B.In a newspaper. |
C.In a biography. | D.In a magazine on wildlife. |
附:《静夜思》(Thoughts on a Tranquil Night)
李白(Li Bai)
床前明月光,(Before my bed a pool of light—)
疑是地上霜。(Can it be hoar-frost on the ground?)
举头望明月, (Looking up, I find the moon bright;)
低头思故乡。(Bowing, in homesickness I’m drowned.)
(许渊冲译)
注意:1.写作词数应为 80左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Mason,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
Shijing, also The Book of Songs or Shih Ching, is the
Shijing is rich in content,
Poems included in Shijing fall into three sections-poems that come from villages belong to Feng; those written to persuade or praise the rulers belong to Ya; those used at religious
The opening poem of Shijing, “Cooing and Wooing” (《关雌》), is about love,
By riverside are cooing, a pair of turtledoves;
A good young man is wooing, a fair maiden he loves.
It is vivid that the man is longing
Shijing enables people to have a better understanding of Chinese civilization and is also
4 . One of the most famous literary challenges in history was when Dr. Seuss received a challenge from his publisher that he could only use 50 words to write an entire book. That’s all well and good, but it’s a tough challenge, to be sure. However, Ernest Vincent Wright would no doubt turn up his nose, as he challenged himself to pen an entire 50,000-word novel without once using the letter “e”.
Wright managed to pull it off. The final product was Gadsby, which is about a man named, well, Gadsby, who tries to save his city with the help of a youth group. It took Wright nearly six months to complete the work, and in his introduction pages he mentioned the challenges along the way.
One of the biggest challenges was replacing pronouns, since it’s tough to write a sentence, let alone a novel, without words like “he” or “she” or “her” and so forth. Additionally, he was forced to find ways to work around using past tense words that typically end in “-ed”, which, as you might imagine, is more than a little tricky.
Still, Wright did manage to come up with 50,110 words and a full story without any cheats, making it one of the most successful lipograms (避讳某字之文) in the history of writing. Wright self-published the book in 1939 and it was read primarily by people who tried to find any cheats, so convinced were they that Wright simply must have used the letter.
The entire novel is available online to read for free, as it entered the public domain in 1968. It’s a good thing, too, as the storehouse that contained the majority of the copies burned down, destroying enough of the books that it has since become a rare book collector’s prize, with copies being valued at thousands of dollars.
At the end of the day, of course, it remains a truly great achievement. After all, “e” is the most commonly used letter in English, with more than 11 percent of all words in the Oxford dictionary containing at least one “e”.
1. What did Wright challenge himself to write?A.An entire book with 50 words. |
B.A 50,000-word book in six months. |
C.A 50,000-word book without the letter “e”. |
D.An entire book including “e” 50,000 times. |
A.The difficulties Wright faced. |
B.The plot of Wright’s final product. |
C.The popularity of Wright’s final product. |
D.The smart ways Wright used to replace pronouns. |
A.They considered the book a great success. |
B.They expected the book to be available online. |
C.They wondered what lipograms mean. |
D.They doubted if Wright really made it. |
A.Due to their rarity. |
B.Because Wright won a big prize. |
C.Because they had a really long history. |
D.Due to book collectors’ recommendation. |
5 . Science fiction pioneer and writer Wu Yan won the National Outstanding Children’s literature Award for his latest work China Orbit. The book focuses on the development of the Chinese aerospace industry, and it was inspired by the planning and preparation for China’s first but canceled manned spacecraft, “Shuguang 1”, also known as Project 714, during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“I collected many historical documents and stories and started writing decades ago, Wu remembered. Partly based on Wu’s own experiences in the 1970s, the book is a combination of reality and fiction, and in some ways his own memoir (传记) was added into the science fiction. This innovative and unique writing method makes the book stand out and has even stirred up a debate on how to categorize it. Is it science fiction, popular science, children’s literature, or aerospace literature?
His fellow science fiction writer Liu Cixin, author of The Three-Body Problem, sees it more deeply, and believes China Orbit is not really children’s science fiction or popular science. He thinks it is too complicated to be classed under a single category. He speaks highly of China Orbit as a unique science fiction novel that vividly shows a child’s real-life experience in a military of a specific era.
In Wu’s opinion, China is a big market for children’s science fiction, but it still lacks extraordinary works. He warned people not to try to earn quick money from it after The Three-BodyProblem frenzy (狂热) and movie blockbuster (轰动) The Wondering Earth because Chinese science fiction still has a long way to go. We need to build Chinese science fiction step by step, with an accumulation of really great works. We need to innovate, and treat it as part of building China’s new culture.
1. What is the book China Orbit mainly about?A.The space industry in China. |
B.The introduction to Project 714. |
C.Stories about Chinese outstanding astronauts. |
D.Preparations for China’s first manned spacecraft. |
A.He organizes the writing by time. |
B.He tells the story in the form of debate. |
C.He focuses on creating the role of children. |
D.He combines his personal experiences with fiction. |
A.China Obit has great commercial value. |
B.Chinese science movies are of poor quality. |
C.Innovation is crucial to Chinese science fiction. |
D.Wu Yan is disappointed at the Chinese film market. |
1. What percentage poems will go to the semi-final round?
A.20%. | B.30%. | C.65%. |
A.They read every poem twice. |
B.They have a heavy workload. |
C.They post their own poems online. |
A.To provide proof of identity. |
B.To give their mail address. |
C.To discuss the posting of their poem. |
The well-known novel Little Prince
Born in the French city of Lyon in 1900, Saint-Exupéry was a writer, pilot and journalist
Saint-Exupéry wrote and drew on
1. 小说简介;2. 喜欢的原因。
注意:1. 词数80左右;
2. 可适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
My Favourite Novel
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . For several days I saw little of Mr. Rochester. In the morning he seemed much occupied with business, and in the afternoon gentlemen from the neigh our hood called and sometimes stayed to dine with him. When his foot was well enough, he rode out a great deal.
During this time, all my knowledge of him was limited to occasional meetings about the house, when he would sometimes pass me coldly, and sometimes bow and smile. His changes of manner did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with the cause of them.
One evening, several days later, I was invited to talk to Mr. Rochester after dinner. He was sitting in his armchair, and looked not quite so severe, and much less gloomy. There was a smile on his lips, and his eyes were bright, probably with wine. As I was looking at him, he suddenly turned, and asked me, “do you think I’m handsome, Miss Eyre?”
The answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I realized it: “No, sir.”
“Ah, you really are unusual! You are a quiet, serious little person, but you can be almost rude.”
“Sir, I’m sorry. I should have said that beauty doesn’t matter, or something like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t! I see, you criticize my appearance, and then you stab me in the back! You have honesty and feeling. There are not many girls like you. But perhaps I go too fast. Perhaps you have awful faults to counterbalance your few good points.”
I thought to myself that he might have too. He seemed to read my mind, and said quickly, “Yes, you’re right. I have plenty of faults. I went the wrong way when I was twenty-one, and have never found the right path again. I might have been very different. I might have been as good as you, and perhaps wiser. I am not a bad man, take my word for it, but I have done wrong. It wasn’t my character, but circumstances which were to blame. Why do I tell you all this? Because you’re the sort of person people tell their problems and secrets to, because you’re sympathetic and give them hope.” It seemed he had quite a lot to talk to me. He didn’t seem to like to finish the talk quickly, as was the case for the first time.
“Don’t be afraid of me, Miss Eyre.” He continued. “You don’t relax or laugh very much, perhaps because of the effect Lowood school has had on you. But in time you will be more natural with me, and laugh, and speak freely. You’re like a bird in a cage. When you get out of the cage, you’ll fly very high. Good night.”
1. At the beginning Miss Eyre’s impressions of Mr. Rochester were all except .A.busy | B.sociable | C.friendly | D.changeable |
A.around | B.on | C.outside | D.concerning. |
A.tell her all his troubles | B.tell her his life experience |
C.change her opinion of him | D.change his circumstances |
A.rude | B.cool | C.light-hearted | D.encouraging |
10 . 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 |
A.metaphor | B.overstatement |
C.personification (拟人) | D.rhetoric rhyme |
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 |
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. |