If there is one thing we can conclusively say about Isaac Asimov, it’s that he could write. His body of work extends to over 500 books. To add to that, he was never bound to a specific field. Although most famous as a science fiction writer, he also published on many more topics.
Part of this related to his gifted mind, but a bigger part was that he was well-educated. Many tend to think of being educated as the degrees we earn. Asimov did have a good degree, but his real education was broader than that. It was deeper than what he learned from instruction. It was his curiosity and his drive to push himself that took him from a young immigrant to maybe one of the most beloved US authors. As a young kid, he spent his days lost in his mind asking questions and creating imaginary worlds. He read books, and he loved knowledge.
In his autobiography (自传) It’s Been a Good Life, Asimov tells a story about an encounter he had as a child when his father asked him a question: “How did you learn all this, Isaac?” “From you, Pappa,” Asimov said. “From me? I don’t know any of this.” “You didn’t have to, Pappa,” He said. “You valued learning and you taught me to value it. Once I learned to value it, the rest came without trouble.” The mark of educated minds has nothing to do with how much they know. It has everything to do with the way they know and the way they go about knowing.
Also, one thing that many people don’t know about Isaac Asimov is that he actually wasn’t a full-time writer for most of his life. By personal choice, his day-job was as a chemist. One of the things that many polymaths (博学者) naturally do is explore a broad range of non-fiction topics. But something they tend to overlook is the knowledge they can obtain from fiction. Before Asimov fell in love with science, he was already attracted by fiction. It was his love of Greek myth and his reading of 18th and 19th-century classics that led him to become a great writer.
1. According to the passage, Isaac Asimov is a ____________.| A．beloved US chemist | B．full-time fiction author |
| C．productive sci-fi writer | D．knowledgeable educator |
| A．loved teaching Asimov knowledge | B．explored unknown fields with Asimov |
| C．rescued Asimov from trouble | D．taught Asimov to value learning |
| A．A good degree reflects one’s real education level. |
| B．Polymaths tend to look down upon Greek myth. |
| C．The way to learn is more important than knowledge itself. |
| D．Non-fiction is not worth reading if one is to become a writer. |
| A．To analyze the reasons behind Asimov’s success as a writer. |
| B．To introduce Asimov’s childhood and his achievements. |
| C．To emphasize the contributions Asimov has made. |
| D．To call on the readers to buy Asimov’s books. |
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【推荐1】With their main food source dying off, manatees (海牛) in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon have turned to eating large amounts of algae (海藻) as their food. Researchers are concerned about what this change will do to the animals’ health.
About a decade ago, a harmful algal bloom (HAB) significantly reduced the amount of seagrass in the lagoon (泻湖). These blooms happen when algae grows out of control and can have bad effects on living things in the ecosystem or use up all the oxygen in the water. Around that time is when Florida manatees went from eating primarily seagrass to eating primarily algae, a team of researchers found. Several years ago, scientists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) noticed that many manatees were dying in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) for an unknown reason.
Study author Aarin-Conrad Allen, a Ph.D. student at Florida International University, Institute of Environment, had just finished work on manatee diets in Belize and began studying the Florida situation. Manatees primarily eat seagrass, but will sometimes eat other foods like algae.
Researchers had collected more than 100 stomach samples from manatees that had died in the lagoon between 2013 and 2015. They found that their diet consisted of about 50% algae and 34% seagrass.
They compared data that had been archived (存档) from the late 1970s through late 1980s when the lagoon was not so unhealthy. Then, the manatees’ diets were almost 62% seagrass and only 28% algae. The rest of their diets included other plants and small fish.
“The lack of seagrass within the lagoon is a grave concern for the well-being of manatees, so we were eager to present this data documenting the diet of manatees before and after periods of seagrass decline,” Allen says.
1. What possibly leads to the manatees’ death?| A．The change of their main food. | B．The loss of their living space. |
| C．The polluted water in the lagoon. | D．The disappearance of seagrass. |
| A．By experimenting with some manatees. |
| B．By comparing the data kept for ten years. |
| C．By interviewing fishermen near the lagoon. |
| D．By analyzing the water’s change in the lagoon. |
| A．Positive. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Objective. | D．Worried. |
| A．Sports. | B．Health. | C．Nature. | D．Education. |
【推荐2】I'm at Sony's New York headquarters, where the Japanese electronics company is showing the new version of its robot dog, Aibo. When I was a kid, I received a furry robot dog for Christmas one year, but quickly lost interest because it was way more fun to play with my real dog. Who would buy a $2900 fake dog when they could have a living one for far less?
“Aibo, sit,” I said. The robot's ears perked up, with its eyes fixed on me. But it did not sit. “Sit!” I tried again. Aibo just raised its head, with a look—that was not unlike the response you'd get from an untrained puppy. I made one last attempt to get the dog to sit before giving up. In response, it barked at me and wagged its tail. That simple gesture melted my doubt. I patted its head, and the robot responded slightly to my touch. As I played with it for the next half hour, I became more and more charmed by is playful personality. I even started to imagine what it would be like to take it home.
Aibo was first introduced in 1999, with new versions released every year or so. The older versions have a limited range of movement and little artificial intelligence. Some don't even have eyes. The sixth generation of Aibo, which Sony is launching in the United States after introducing it in Japan late last year, is the most lifelike one yet. It can walk, sit, lie down, and even play dead. There's a camera equipped with facial recognition on the dog's nose and a camera that maps the space around it at the base of its tail. In Japan, the new Aibo sold out right away, and Sony has sold 20,000 of the robots as of July.
Aibo isn't meant to be an assistant that performs tasks like calling your family and friends on your behalf and it's not tracking your behavior for the express purpose of monitoring your health. It's meant to copy the kind of companionship a real-life dog offers.
1. What was the author's attitude to Aibo at first?| A．Positive. | B．Neutral. | C．Negative. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．It has a camera on its ear. | B．It is popular with customers in Japan. |
| C．It was first produced in the United States. | D．It needs improvements in artificial intelligence. |
| A．To keep people company. | B．To monitor people's health. |
| C．To do some simple work. | D．To make life more intelligent. |
| A．An assistant robot dog | B．A most lifelike robot dog |
| C．A real-life dog | D．A playful dog |
【推荐3】Ready to give up long showers, water parks, and unlimited water gushing out of your taps? A new study says more than three-hundred-thirty-five-million people are faced with water shortage now. The oceans are full, of course. But the liquid—fresh, clean water for drinking and watering crops is in short supply in many parts of the world. Rivers are running low, lakes are shrinking, streams have stopped flowing, and groundwater is being pumped dry. However, the demand for water keeps increasing. So there comes unavoidably the water crisis!
What is causing the crisis? Experts say it is a complex combination of climate change and rapid population growth. On the one hand, global climate change threatens to reduce water supplies due to decreased rainfall. On the other hand, population growth is driving explosive demand for water, prompting rivers in thirsty countries to be tapped for nearly every drop and driving governments to pump out so-called fossil water.
Lack of water may result in several problems. It may increase health problems. Lack of water often means drinking waters are not safe. Lack of water may also result in more international conflict. Countries may have to compete for water in the future. Some countries now get sixty percent of their fresh water from other countries. And lack of water would affect the ability of developing to improve their economies. This is because new industries often need a large amount of water when they are beginning.
One partial answer to the world water shortage, at least for countries near the sea, is to build more desalination plants that change seawater into fresh water. Another suggested solution is for water-rich countries, such as Canada, to sell water to countries which are poor in water.
1. Why does the author say the water crisis is unavoidable?| A．Because the oceans are full | B．Because the rivers are running low |
| C．Because demand for water keeps decreasing | D．Because many countries are competing |
| A．long showers and water parks | B．climate change and population growth |
| C．health problems and international conflict | D．economy development and population growth |
| A．health problems | B．international conflict |
| C．the inability to improve economies | D．the illegal selling of water |
| A．Change seawater into fresh water | B．Buy water from rich countries |
| C．Develop new industries | D．Plant more trees |
【推荐1】WHEN JANE AUSTEN’S first novel Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, the title page simply read. ‘A Novel. In Three Volumes. By a Lady’. What could be greater justice than the fact that on her 200th death anniversary, that same anonymous lady gets her very own bank note? Austen is only the third writer to grace an English note (following William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens) and the first woman writer to do so. And really, no one can be unhappy with the honour.
When Austen died at 41, on June 18th, 1817, her profession as a writer did not make it to her epitaph. Her brother Henry chose instead to focus on her ‘charity, devotion, faith and purity’. While she never got to embrace the title of an author when she was alive, death has ensured her legacy. Her books have been translated into 40 languages and Pride and Prejudice itself has sold over 20 million copies. If her epitaph were to be written today, we could, perhaps, borrow from Virginia Woolf who wrote in The TLS of 1913, “More than any other novelist she fills every inch of her canvas with observation, fills every sentence with meaning, stuffs up every chink of the fabric until each novel is a little living world, from which you cannot break off a scene or even a sentence without bleeding it of some of its life. Her characters are so lively and vivid that they have the power to move out of the scenes in which she placed them into other moods and circumstances.”
The greatness of Austen is not only that she created the standard example of the modern novel, but that she continues to be relevant. Her novels have been endlessly adapted and modified because they still make sense today, because they can explain current sensibilities. Her characters can easily move out of London or Pemberley or Mansfield Park and be placed in Delhi or Shanghai or Beijing. Indianise the names, and we can all create our own comedy of manners. Mrs Bennet, the mimsy busybody, could easily be Mrs Batra, your Punjabi neighbour with an axe to grind and daughters to wed. Emma Woodhouse, the self-absorbed, privileged young lady could be Aisha of south Bombay, whose artifice overwhelms her potential. Mr Darcy could be your Mr Dasgupta, the dignified Bengali bachelor whose silence will be misunderstood as snobbery.
A fascinating study of Austen’s novels in facts, figures and charts published in The Guardian brings to light the world she knew and the only world she wrote about. All her characters(in her six novels) are independently wealthy who have no professions. Balls and picnics feature in all of her books. Evenings and afternoons are spent playing cards. And if romance is the base of her novels, then elopement is also a must. The servants speak no lines. The only historic event of the time that gets a mention is the Napoleonic War(1803-1815). The Industrial Revolution and French Revolution are not mentioned at all. The lovers will marry by the end.
Even if the plots of her six novels are simple enough, the success of Austen is her singular wit. It is a cleverness born from immediate observation but one which is universal in nature. She says it well in Northanger Abbey. ‘The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be extremely stupid.’
Two hundred years after her death, you have to be a fool to not enjoy her novels.
1. What can we learn from the fact that Jane Austen’s photo on the English bank note?| A．To honor her publishing the first novel Sense and Sensibility. |
| B．To honor the most well-known writer in English literature. |
| C．To honor her outstanding contributions to English literature. |
| D．To show no one can envy her for her success. |
| A．Jane Austen was also fond of painting on the canvas. |
| B．Jane Austen lived in her own little world. |
| C．Jane Austen’s works possess superb writing techniques. |
| D．Jane Austen’s characters can move out of scenes magically. |
| A．Her major characters have no professions, so life is hard for them. |
| B．Jane Austen’s works are mainly based on her own living experiences. |
| C．Life is casual and colorful for characters in her works. |
| D．Few historic events are mentioned in her works. |
| A．To laugh at those who don’t enjoy Jane Austin’s works. |
| B．To introduce Jane Austin’s main works. |
| C．To analyse Jane Austin’s writing technique. |
| D．To honor Jane Austin as an evergreen storyteller. |
【推荐2】Almost no one can resist a good mystery novel or detective novel, so these novels sell thousands of copies each year. And many readers regard famous mystery author Agatha Christie as Queen of Crime, whose stories are known for their tense atmosphere and strong psychological suspense and have a great effect on the English mystery novels.
Christie was born in September 1890 in England. When she was growing up, her mother often told her stories. Christie loved these stories, which took her into a world of fantasy. Christie’s mother also encouraged her to write from a young age and also took her to travel a lot.
She married Archie Christie in 1914 at the beginning of World WarⅠ. During the war, Christie wrote her first detective story: The Mysterious Affair at Styles. She chose the crime, and then invented a detective named Hercule Poirot, ranking second to Sherlock Holmes, to solve it. She sent the book to a publisher, but it was rejected.
After the war ended, Christie sent her book to more publishers, and finally, in 1920, one published it. She earned just $25 for it. Over the next few years, Christie wrote more books and short stories, gaining experience as a writer. In spite of her literary success, life was not going well at home. In 1928, Archie and Agatha got a divorce (离婚). A short time later, she met a young archaeologist, Max Mallowan. After getting married in 1930, they began to spend some time each year in the Middle East, which provided settings for some of Christie’s novels, such as Murder at the Vicarage(1930), Murder on the Orient Express (1934) and Death on the Nile(1939).
Christie continued writing for the rest of her life. When she died in January 1976, readers around the world mourned (哀悼) her death. But her tales of mystery continue to be loved by new generations of readers. They’ve been translated into hundreds of languages and are selling well today and outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare in Britain.
1. As a whole, this text .| A．is a biography of Agatha Christie |
| B．promotes Agatha Christie’s novels |
| C．explains how Agatha Christie became a writer |
| D．is a review of Agatha Christie’s novels |
| A．He was better known than Sherlock Holmes. |
| B．He made Christie become famous. |
| C．He was good at catching criminals. |
| D．He was the only main character in the novel. |
| A．the Bible helps her works to sell in Britain |
| B．the sales of her works rank third in Britain |
| C．the works of Shakespeare don’t sell better than hers in Britain |
| D．they sell well equally in Britain |
①She had her first detective novel published.
②She finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
③Her mother encouraged her to write.
④Her marriage to Archie ended in divorce.
⑤She wrote Murder on the Orient Express.
| A．③②④①⑤ | B．③①②⑤④ |
| C．②①③⑤④ | D．③②①④⑤ |
【推荐3】Li Bai is regarded as the greatest romantic poet of the Tang Dynasty and a representative of the High Tang culture, combination of realistic Northern culture represented by Confucian (儒家的) philosophy and romantic Southern culture represented by Taoist philosophy. But he could neither realize his Confucian ideal to serve the country nor find spiritual freedom in Taoism (道教), so he could only chant poetry and drink wine to drown his sorrow as described by Du Fu in Eight Immortal Drinkers.
Here we see the tragedy (悲剧) of a genuine staying lonely on earth like an angel fallen from Heaven. His poetry is marked by male greatness in the Waterfall in Mount Lu Viewed from Afar, in which we see the mountain cloud from down below and the Silver River, Chinese name for the Milky Way, fall from on high, and heaven and earth seem to merge into one, that is the Chinese way of communion with nature. In his poetry, we can find his love of nature, of freedom, of the people, of his friends, in short, of truth, good and beauty.
Li Bai is best known for the extraordinary imagination and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for liquor. Like Du Fu, he spent much of his life travelling, although in his case it was because his wealth allowed him to, rather than because his poverty forced him. He is said to have drowned in the Yangtze River, having fallen from his boat while drunkenly trying to embrace (拥抱) the reflection of the moon.
1. According to the passage the statements are about Li Bai EXCEPT ____.| A．he made the poems in which complaints and dissatisfaction could be shown |
| B．he could not put his ability to good use in serving his country at that time |
| C．he had a depressed mental state and only drunk wine and chanted poetry |
| D．he is a representative of the combination of realistic and romantic culture |
| A．the Silver River ran down from the high mountain |
| B．the cloud was like waterfall from high heaven |
| C．Li Bai’s poems were written down by a man |
| D．Li Bai loved the beauty of nature badly |
| A．criticism of social realism |
| B．beautiful nature and feelings |
| C．relationship between different classes |
| D．cruelty of the officialdom |
| A．The travelling experiences while Li Bai made poems. |
| B．The differences between romantic and realistic culture. |
| C．The extraordinary characteristics of Li Bai’s poems. |
| D．The introduction to a famous poet in Tang Dynasty — Li Bai. |
