Born in 1874 in Ireland, Shackleton left school at 16 and then joined the NW Shipping Company,
2 . In 1943, a jury (评审委员会) of top scholars and scientists elected James Yen one of “the ten greatest revolutionaries of our time”, listing him along with Albert Einstein and Orville Wright. Yet all he did was teaching Chinese farmers to read.
Born in Sichuan in 1890, James Yen graduated from the Yale University in 1918. After this, he went to France to support Chinese workers who had been sent to help the Allies in World War I. Working to help and teach them to read and write letters, Yen realized how much they needed education. Therefore, he wrote a simple literacy (读写能力) book which used only 1000 basic characters. In the 1920s, inspired by his experiences, Yen organized the National Association of Mass Education Movements. Its purpose was to bring literacy to the Chinese masses.
For 4000 years, reading and writing in China was only done by scholars. Everybody knew, including the farmers themselves, that farmers were incapable of learning. That thoroughly deep-seated point of view was James Yen’s first “impossible” challenge to overcome. The second challenge was the Chinese language itself, consisting of many characters, each character having rich meanings. The third challenge was the poor technology and inconvenient transportation. How could James Yen reach the 350 million farmers back then? These were impossible odds, an impossibly huge goal.
Yet he made it and then expanded his goal: teach the rest of the Third World to read. Practical reading programs started pumping out literate people like a gushing oil well in the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, Indonesia, Bangladesh and India. People became literate. For the first time in their entire history, they could access the accumulated knowledge of the human race.
What’s the secret of James Yen’s success? He tried to do something that seemed impossible. He worked long hours. And he started with what he had in front of him and gradually took on more and more, little by little.
1. Why did James Yen establish the National Association of Mass Education Movements?A.To promote his book about Chinese characters. |
B.To support Chinese workers in World War I. |
C.To teach Chinese people to read and write. |
D.To follow the example of Einstein. |
A.Scholars’ protest against it. | B.The difficulty of the Chinese language. |
C.Farmers’ inability to learn. | D.The shortage of teaching methods. |
A.He spread the agricultural knowledge around. |
B.He led less developed countries to literacy. |
C.He helped some countries build oil wells. |
D.He changed the course of history. |
A.His lifelong ambition. | B.His educational background. |
C.His down-to-earth practice. | D.His teaching experience. |
“Chinese opera art is like a huge sponge,
Li Zhuoqun’s first directorial work “Death Do Us Part” is a story
Li defines her team
To Li, traditional opera is “the art of regret” due to the unique charm of live performances. She aims to allow the audience
1. Where did Meg Medina spend her childhood?
A.In the US. | B.In Cuba. | C.In Spain. |
A.In 2016. | B.In 2011. | C.In 2008. |
A.Milagros: Girl from Away. |
B.Merci Suárez Changes Gears. |
C.Mango, Abuela, and Me. |
5 . The Japanese animation (动漫) director Hayao Miyazaki, a workaholic auteur generally considered to be one of the art form’s most accomplished masters, has been trying to retire since 1997. “I know I’ve mentioned I’m retiring many times in the past,” he told a press conference, “So I know that many of you might think, ‘oh again’. This time is for real.” Cut to 2023: The release of Hayao Miyazaki’s final “final” film, The Boy and the Heron.
With The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki wanted to go back even further to his childhood. Indeed, the film’s opening scene is inspired by Miyazaki’s experience of growing up during World War Two. Much like an infant Miyazaki, Mahito is evacuated from Tokyo to live in the relative safety of the countryside. It is here, tormented (折磨) by grief, living miserably with his father and his father’s new wife, that he meets the nominal Heron: a half-man, half-bird creature who mockingly tells Mahito that his mother is still alive. It is around this point, as the fish chant for Mahito to “join us”, as the frogs climb over his face, that The Boy and the Heron takes a turn for the strange. Having followed the Heron, Mahito finds himself stranded somewhere between life and death.
How do we live? It is a question that has haunted Miyazaki, a director always torn between optimism and despair, for most of his career: How do you live—as one character in The Boy and the Heron describes it—in “a foolish world filled with murder and thievery”? Perhaps, without getting into specifics, the film’s ending suggests another interpretation: Legacies, successors, even art itself, none of it actually matters. All that matters is that people—Miyazaki’s family, his friends, even the audience—continue to live on, to engage with the real world rather than retreat into fantasy.
1. What do the words “oh again” indicate in paragraph 1?A.People’s doubt about Miyazaki’s retirement. |
B.People’s concern about Miyazaki’s health. |
C.People’s eagerness for Miyazaki’s animations. |
D.People’s admiration for Miyazaki’s artistic achievements. |
A.Add some background information. |
B.Share Miyazaki’s growing-up experiences. |
C.Introduce the film. |
D.Display the latest film-shooting techniques. |
A.Inspired. | B.Bothered. | C.Scared. | D.Relieved. |
A.A diary. | B.A travel guide. | C.A novel. | D.A magazine. |
1. What TV channel is Jimmy Kimmel Live on?
A.NBC. | B.TBS. | C.ABC. |
A.After he hosted the Oscars. |
B.After Donald Trump became president. |
C.When he cried at his show for the first time. |
A.An interview. | B.A musical performance. | C.A comedy performance. |
A.He taught in a drama school. |
B.He worked at a radio station. |
C.He went to school in Los Angeles. |
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Those are the words of Thomas Alva Edison, one of the greatest
Edison, who grew up in the Midwest, was
Edison was born on February 11, 1847, a day that
“Menlo Park is the birthplace of
A phonograph was the first device that was used
8 . Travis Gienger set a record for growing the world’s heaviest pumpkin, which weighed about 1,247 kilograms, in 2023. The middle-aged man was named the winner on Monday of the 50th Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California. He won the same con test in 2022, whose pumpkin weighed 1,161 kilograms. The past world record for the heaviest pumpkin was set by a grower in Italy who produced a 1,226-kilogram pumpkin in 2021. “I was not expecting that,” Gienger said. He added that it felt good to win the world record.
Gienger is a teacher at Anoka Technical College in Anoka, Minnesota. He teaches agriculture and growing methods. And he has been producing pumpkins for nearly 30 years like his elders, especially his father, who used to raise pumpkins in the home property, which got him interested in planting. Gienger later devoted himself to working the land to plant.
Gienger first competed in Half Moon Bay’s yearly con test in 2020. He won three of the city’s last four pumpkin contests. “I put in the work so that I can put a smile on people’s faces, and it’s just so nice coming out here to see everyone in this town,” Gienger said.
Gienger, who grew the pumpkins on the farm, had given his plants more care. This included watering them up to 12 times a day and feeding or fertilizing them, a little more than usual. Those contributed to his greater success in 2023.
The pumpkin champion won a $30,000 prize for growing the biggest pumpkin and setting a world record. Gienger’s pumpkin would be shown along with the second-place winners at the city’s upcoming Pumpkin Festival. At the event, visitors would be able to look at the pumpkin prize and take pictures with the growers.
In the United States, pumpkins are popular throughout the autumn. During the US holiday Halloween, on October 31, many people turn them into “jack-o’-lanterns”. A jack-o’-lantern is a pumpkin that has been carved, usually to show a frightening or funny face.
1. How did Gienger feel about his winning the world record?A.Surprised. | B.Suspicious. | C.Expected. | D.Embarrassed. |
A.His family tradition. | B.His love for his farm. |
C.His promise to his father. | D.His desire for winning a prize. |
A.How many awards Gienger got in 2023. |
B.How long Gienger worked a day in 2023. |
C.Why Gienger grew pumpkins on the farm. |
D.Why Gienger’s pumpkin was heavier than before. |
A.It would be given to a visitor. |
B.It would be made into a lantern. |
C.It would be on show at a festival. |
D.It would be used to decorate pictures. |
A 13-year project has finally come to a close. British artist Kirstie Macleod came up with The Red Dress idea
After passing through the hands of 343 artists across 46
The artists were encouraged to create
“Initially the project
Yang Jiang was a well-known Chinese playwright, translator, and author. She belonged to
Yang was born into a rich family in 1911,
Other than translations, Yang