1 . The following are recommended picks from NPR staff and trusted critics.
Good Night, Irene
by Luis Alberto
It’s historical fiction based on Luis Alberto’s mother, who served as a Red Cross volunteer in World War Ⅱ. These so-called Donut Dollies made doughnuts and served coffee in a truck, providing comfort to the soldiers. They also drove to the front lines during the battle. This novel is a comedy featuring characters that present friendship and courage in tough circumstances.
Homestead
by Melinda Moustakis
Homestead is a tale of what it was like to be brave enough to build a life and survive in rough Alaska. Melinda also excellently captures the complexities around a moment in American history that is reduced to a line or two in schoolbooks. The characters in Homestead are escaping troubled pasts tied to forces out of their control.
The Great Escape
by Saket Soni
The Great Escape begins in 2006, when Soni, a labor organizer, receives a midnight phone call from a Mississippi number. The caller is one of 500 foreign workers who paid $20,000 to a firm that promised green cards if they would help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. But the green cards were a lie. There’s a daring midnight escape of the men from camp, then a march to Washington, D.C.
The Porcelain Moon
by Janie Chang
Set against World War I in France, it tells the story of two women, who break general expectations and restrictions to find their love and lives. Camille, raised outside Paris in poverty, and Pauline, who works for her uncle at his Paris shop, are trying to avoid an arranged marriage. It’s a richly researched historical fiction book.
1. What’s the novel by Melinda about?| A．How people managed life in Alaska. | B．What volunteers did for brave soldiers. |
| C．What foreigners did for a green card. | D．How two women broke from tradition. |
| A．Supply food to the soldiers at war. | B．Move to Alaska to start a new life. |
| C．Remove their generational restriction. | D．Help rebuild after a hurricane strike. |
| A．They are about lives in the wild. | B．They are set in the two World Wars. |
| C．They deal with courage in face of lies. | D．They reveal the power of friendship. |
2 . The books written and published in the 1920s remain on the “best ever” lists. Here are 4 books that everyone should read.
The Great Gatsby
The themes in the novel reflect the sudden change in the character of America itself, and in some ways it’s among the first major modern novels produced in this country. The novel also makes a new and powerful concept clear at the time: The American Dream, the idea that self-made men and women could make themselves into anything in this country.
A Farewell to Arms
The story is one of a love affair interrupted and dogged by events beyond the lovers’ control, and a central theme is the pointless struggle of life — that we spend so much energy and time on things that finally don’t matter. Hemingway masterfully combines a realistic description of war with some abstract literary techniques, which is one reason why this book endures as a classic.
Ulysses
When people make lists of the most difficult novels, Ulysses is almost certainly on them. The one thing almost everyone knows about Ulysses is that it employs “stream of consciousness”, a literary technique that seeks to show the inner monologue of a person. James Joyce wasn’t the first writer to use this technique, but he was the first writer to attempt it on the scale as he did.
Mrs. Dalloway
It takes place on a single day in the life of the main character, and it employs a dense and tricky stream-of-consciousness technique, roaming (漫游) around to other characters and point of view. Mrs. Dalloway is concerned with using these techniques to make the characters clear and definite. The use of stream of consciousness is deliberately disorienting in the way it skips through time.
1. Which book shows us the truth of daily life conflicts?| A．Ulysses. | B．Mrs. Dalloway. |
| C．The Great Gatsby. | D．A Farewell to Arms. |
| A．They share the same literary technique. |
| B．They show a new and powerful concept. |
| C．They describe the daily life of the character. |
| D．They are on the list of the most difficult novels. |
| A．In a biography. | B．In a history book. |
| C．In a travel brochure. | D．In a literature magazine. |
3 . The hustle and bustle(喧嚣)of life, walking back and forth from the ideal to reality, and the inner confusion hidden behind a social mask-these daily experiences are recorded by Chinese youths in lines of poetry online. Recently, 124 Bilibili internet users shared their works in a poem collection.
One blogger on Xiaohongshu who goes by the nickname Gehuaren is one such poetry lover. The twenty-something girl not only writes poems as a form of entertainment in her spare time, but also improvises(即兴创作)poems for others at night markets in Yunnan. As a street-stall poet, Gehuaren often writes pieces of poetry quickly based on themes from customers. Once the poem has been completed, she refuses to change her work because she feels her poems reflect her first reaction. For her, everything in the world, no matter trivial or significant, can serve as her poetic inspiration. “A glass, a tree in the dawn or a person who once talked with me…these all could become themes for my poems,” said Gehuaren.
With free writing with a regular rhythm and broad themes, her poems strike a chord with many young people online, helping her gain over 190, 000 followers. Many have made comments “I feel healed by your poems because I can find beauty from unnoticeable things and in turn, slow down to reflect on my life.”
Apart from poetry, various means such as vlogging and photosharing can be used to record moments of daily life. But young people consider poetry to be the best way to express them. “Taking photos or vlogging can just show the object or emotions in real life. Yet poetry, which can be used to excite the imagination, shows the beauty of daily life, ”an 18-year-old said. So when he is inspired by the beauty of daily life, the boy writes it down into lines of poetry and then shares them with his friends on his WeChat Moments.
No matter why young people write their unique brand of poems, they are attempting to take every moment in lives seriously, face their lives bravely and actively express themselves.
1. How does Gehuaren find inspiration for her poems?| A．By referring to traditional Chinese poems. |
| B．By attending various online poetry lectures. |
| C．By exploring great moments in life. |
| D．By observing everyday life. |
| A．They are original and full of imagination. |
| B．They have a strong sense of rhythm. |
| C．They record the beauty of small and ordinary things. |
| D．They reflect the differences between the ideal and reality. |
| A．Positive. | B．Neutral. | C．Cautious. | D．Objective. |
| A．They hope to avoid challenges. |
| B．They intend to impress their peers. |
| C．They try to escape from the busy life. |
| D．They make their thoughts known bravely. |
4 . San Francisco Park ranger Amanda Barrows, who registered in City College of San Francisco (CCSF)’s Poetry for the People class, began to place a nightstand (床头柜) in Golden Gate Park with a note “take a poem, leave a poem” in December 2022. Since then, over 100 handwritten poems have been placed in the nightstand. “It’s completely unexpected,” said Barrows. “I’m really taken aback by the outpouring of support.”
Park ranger by day and poet by night, Barrows said she began writing and attending poetry workshops in 2020. The poetry course she attended was founded by Leslie Simon in 1975. The class advocates for a focus on the neighborhood, and the cultivation (培养) and public presentation of new poems. For Barrows, the idea that she could combine her job and her hobby by bringing poetry into parks was an inspiration. Barrows asked her friends to contribute their favorite poems to the nightstand as poems that could be taken.
Armed with an old nightstand, Barrows filled the stand with pens and paper. An added drawer at the bottom holds the poems that people “donate”. The concept reminded her of Little Free Libraries, which are fixtures across the city. “I was having anxiety. I had no idea what I was going to do; then it sort of just came to me,” said Barrows. “I was inspired by the little free libraries you see in SF, where you ‘take a book, leave a book’, and thought, ‘Maybe I could do this with poetry.’”
One of the teachers at the CCSF poetry course, Lauren Muller, told The Washington Post that “people need poetry now”, which she suggested as the reason for the success of Barrows’s project.
Past student projects included writing poetry on sidewalks in chalk and placing poems on the windshields (挡风玻璃) of cars. “It’s exciting to see the work that students are doing,” Muller continued. “My hope is that this will happen across city parks… elsewhere.”
1. What did Amanda Barrows do for her project?| A．She invited her friends to donate poems. |
| B．She gave a special poetry course by herself. |
| C．She read a lot of poems for people. |
| D．She equipped parks with many nightstands. |
| A．They made her interested in poetry. |
| B．They let her quit her job for her interest. |
| C．They gave her inspiration for her project. |
| D．They encouraged her to write more poems. |
| A．The benefits of writing poetry. |
| B．The public demand for poetry. |
| C．The help from her neighbors. |
| D．The large number of parks in SF. |
| A．The Impacts of a Park Ranger’s Poem-writing |
| B．San Francisco’s Unique Poems on a Nightstand |
| C．The Spread of Poetry Throughout the Libraries |
| D．A Park Ranger’s Powerful Poetry Project |
5 . Poetry Writing Contest
Contest information
Deadline: November 30th
Results: Announced on December 31st
Prizes: Win $ 1,600 in prize money
Guest judges: Ken Liu, Brian Evenson, and Faylita Hicks
Entry requirements
Your poetry can be laid out as you wish, as we understand that form often relates to the effect of a poem. However, please be sure to stick to a maximum of 3 pages per poem.
Submission guidelines
We accept works, written in English, from anywhere in the world. But we don’t accept works previously published elsewhere.
Writers over the age of thirteen are welcome to participate. Please note that if you’re aged 13-16 and your work is selected for publication, we’ll require a signature from a parent or a guardian.
Please include your name and contact information in your cover letter only and remove any identifying information from both the submitted work and the file name.
We edit every piece accepted for publication whether your work is selected for publication through our online blog or in our print magazine. For this cooperative process we’ll pair you with one of our senior editors. All our editors have been trained to help guide the development of each piece to reach its fullest potential in keeping with the author’s vision. This doesn’t mean we’ll take on a wild jumble of words and half-formed thoughts.
Notes
The contest reserves the right to NOT award a winner if the submissions don’t reach a publishable standard. In this case, the winner won’t be announced. Although this has rarely come to pass in our six-year publishing history, our top priority must remain with the quality of the work we publish.
1. What do you have to avoid in order to participate in the contest?| A．Writing a 3-page-long poem. |
| B．Writing your work in English. |
| C．Providing your contact information. |
| D．Submitting your entry after November 30th. |
| A．It is held on an annual basis. |
| B．It is intended for teenagers only. |
| C．It is open to global poetry lovers. |
| D．It is aimed at making poetry more popular. |
| A．Make sure that it is original. |
| B．Polish it as you’re required to. |
| C．Go to receive the prize on time. |
| D．Give your permission to publish it. |
Today, I would like to recommend a book to you, which taught me an important lesson about prejudice and racism.
The main character in this novel is a lawyer named Atticus Finch from the American South. The American South in the 1960s was known to be a place where many white people looked down upon black people, except for Finch. When the local judge asked him to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who was wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Finch agreed.
The author Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926. In her childhood, she, like Scout and Jem, learned about racial prejudice and the damage it could do. To Kill a Mockingbird was her first and only novel published.
For me, the most memorable quotes in the book are “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but… sing their hearts out for us.
| A．It took her seven years to complete. |
| B．Racism exists at all levels of society. |
| C．People worked for the rights of black people. |
| D．But many people tried to stop Finch from doing his job. |
| E．That’s why it is morally and totally wrong to kill a mockingbird. |
| F．To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel published in1960 by American author Harper Lee. |
| G．And they finally understood the importance of looking at the world with an unprejudiced mind. |
7 . These 4 novels will get your summer off to a terrific start
This Time Tomorrow
by Emma Straub
Straub’s new novel is a time-travel fantasy filled with her signature awareness of the infinite ways we humans make life harder for ourselves. The heroine here is a single woman named Alice who works at her old high school. Her father, a bestselling novelist who raised Alice on his own, is dying in a New York hospital. On the night of Alice’s 40th birthday, Alice returns from a drunken party and stumbles into the gift of time travel, which allows her to explore the big question, “What if”?
Search
by Michelle Huneven
Huneven’s comic novel is a delicious must-read for anyone who’s ever served on a committee. The narrator, Dana Potowski, is a food writer living in California who’s roped into joining the search committee for the new minister of the church. Huneven dramatizes how one strong personality—in this case a young woman swollen with insolence—can control a committee.
One-Shot Harry
by Gary Phillips
Group decisions are not something Harry Ingram worries about. He’s the star of this new hard-boiled mystery by veteran crime writer Gary Phillips. One-Shot Harry is set in L.A. in 1963, as racial tensions are worsening in advance of Martin Luther King’s upcoming Freedom Rally at Wrigley Field. Harry, a Black free news photographer who roams all over L.A. with his Speed Graphic camera, is the best of all possible guides to this moment. His job gives him entrée into neighborhoods and events that might otherwise be off-limits to him because of his race.
Knock Off the Hat
by Richard Stevenson
Richard Lipez, who wrote under the penname Richard Stevenson, was a groundbreaking author of gay detective novels featuring private eye Donald Strachey. Knock Off The Hat may be the best novel Dick ever wrote. Its main character, Clifford Waterman, is a former police detective dishonorably discharged from the Army during World War II for an “indecent act.”
1. What can we infer from the passage?| A．Straub is a bestselling novelist. |
| B．Huneven is a young woman swollen with insolence. |
| C．Black people were unable to enter into many places in 1963. |
| D．Clifford is a respectable former police detective. |
| A．One-Shot Harry | B．Search |
| C．Knock Off the Hat | D．This Time Tomorrow |
| A．He had a special penname. | B．He wrote gay detective novels. |
| C．He once served the army during WWⅡ. | D．He had a sharp vision. |
8 . The Red Bicycle is a storybook about a bicycle’s journey from North America to the countryside in West Africa. The full name of the book is The Red Bicycle: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle, and was written by Jude Isabella from Canada.
Leo wants a bike, not just any bike but a red one. He makes money by doing part-time jobs until he has enough money to buy it. He loves his new bike and names it Big Red. He rides Big Red everywhere for many years until he is finally too big for it. Because he has taken such good care of the bike, it looks almost new. He wants to give the bike to someone who really needs it, and will love it the way he does. Leo learns about a charity that sends donated (捐赠的) bikes to people in Africa.
When Big Red arrives in Africa, the bike finds a new owner, a young girl named Alisetta. She learns to ride Big Red and uses it to help her family on their farm. She also rides Big Red to the market to sell goods that her grandmother made. She earns money so her sister can go to school. Alisetta earns enough money to buy another bike. But while she is gone, Big Red is destroyed by a pig. A worker from a hospital then takes Big Red, repairs it, and turns it into an ambulance (救护车). Then, a young woman, named Haridata, uses the bike to bring sick people to the hospital.
What a wonderful journey the bicycle takes and what a useful life it has. The Red Bicycle is a great story. It will inspire children from around the world to help others and do something as simple as donating their bikes to charity.
1. What is The Red Bicycle about?| A．Leo’s journey from North America to West Africa. |
| B．A bicycle making a difference to many people’s lives. |
| C．Jude Isabella’s travel experience in Canada. |
| D．A global journey on a red bicycle. |
| A．He gets it from a charity. | B．He borrows it from others. |
| C．He receives it through a donation. | D．He buys it by saving money. |
| A．It is brought to patients who need it. | B．It is damaged by her sister. |
| C．It is turned into an ambulance. | D．It is fixed by Haridata. |
| A．It’s better to give than to take. |
| B．Everything is good for something. |
| C．We should make the most of what we have. |
| D．Donating things to charity is hard. |
9 . On a rainy afternoon, maybe one of the following books will keep you company leisurely, allowing you to spend your time alone as well as stepping into a different world.
Don’t Shed Your Tears for Anyone Who Lives on These Streets, by Patricio Pron
In April 1945, Italy, a writer disappeared at a conference and was found dead at another place. Thirty years later, a young man interviewed survivors from the conference, trying to uncover the truth about what happened and its consequences. This novel, by a well-known Argentine writer, explores art, crime and politics.
When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
At thirty-six, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed (诊断) with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient. This autobiography finds hope and beauty in the face of death as Kalanithi attempts to answer the question “What makes a life worth living?”.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Set in a small Alabama town in the 1930s, the story focuses on honest, highly respected lawyer Atticus Finch who puts his career on the line when he agrees to represent Tom Robinson, a black man accused of committing a crime.
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story by Bess Kalb
Bess Kalb saved every voicemail from her grandmother Bobby Bell who died at ninety. In this book, Bobby is speaking to Bess once more, in a voice as loving as it ever was in life and brings us several generations of brave women. They include Bobby’s mother, who traveled alone from Belarus to America to survive, and Bess’s mother, who always fought against convention.
1. What type of book is the first novel?| A．Sci-fi. | B．Biography. | C．Detective books. | D．History books. |
| A．To Kill a Mockingbird. |
| B．When Breath Becomes Air. |
| C．Don’t Shed Your Tears for Anyone Who Lives on These Streets. |
| D．Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story. |
| A．Bobby Bell. | B．Bess Kalb. | C．Bess’s mother. | D．Bobby’s mother. |
10 . The Hitchhiker’ s Guide to the Galaxy (HG2G) by Douglas Adams
This is a comedy science-fiction series about a man’s adventures in space. It was initially a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It is extremely funny and inventive, and has a very British sense of humor, whose true meanings foreign readers can hardly make out though it has been translated into French and Italian and so on. But when I read it I feel a strong connection to my home. It was published in paperback by Pan Books, after BBC Publishing had turned down the offer of publishing a novelization, an action they later regretted.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Have you ever read a description of a landscape or countryside that made you feel like you were actually there? For me, this book does exactly that. It is about a young girl who is taken to live in a big house in my hometown and discovers a secret garden.
Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
This book takes the form of a series of letters, and follows the story of a young orphan(孤儿), Judy, as she goes to university and discovers a whole world of new experiences. This book always reminds me of my family, especially my mother, because she used to read it to me when I was ill in bed.
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
This was one of my favorite books when I was younger, and for this reason it still strongly reminds me of England and my childhood. It is also set in Yorkshire where I was born and spent my childhood, and follows three children living next to a railway and their adventures.
1. What do we know about HG2G?| A．It was based on true adventures. |
| B．Its language is abstract and inventive. |
| C．Its humor is hard for foreigners to understand. |
| D．It was adapted for radio after being published. |
| A．Daddy-Long-Legs & HG2G. |
| B．The Secret Garden & The Railway Children. |
| C．The Secret Garden & HG2G. |
| D．Daddy Long Legs & The Railway Children. |
| A．They follow children’s adventures. |
| B．They are British countryside series. |
| C．They refer to the author’s childhood. |
| D．They bring memories of home to the author. |
