My love for libraries blossomed when I joined the public library. From the age of 8, I was allowed to walk from my home to the downtown library, housed above the police station. Once the librarian gave me my first membership card, I could enjoy a range of books, which started with Little House in the Big Woods. I was addicted instantly, and this love of libraries and reading would change my life, allowing me to one day create a safe space for high-school kids, too.
By the time I was in high school, I could read the authors that we were studying in class, including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Emily Bronte. During the summer months, I got caught up in Gone with the Wind.
When I studied English literature at university, I thought it was time to build my own library. For the next 40 years, I continued to collect books. Until one day, I realized that all my books had become a part of the house, like wallpaper.
Toward the end of my teaching career, I became a teacher-librarian at my old high school, where I had first learned English literature. This position restored my love and appreciation for libraries. I never forgot how wonderful it was to be surrounded by books. I had a generous budget for my classes, so I searched for novels that would interest my teenage audience and hopefully spark a love for books. Fantasy, science-fiction, graphic novels — I bought almost any type of book that my students wanted to read. I bought sofas and comfortable chairs, turning the library into an inclusive (包容的) public space, safe for everyone.
In doing so, I realized that the library isn’t just a place to do research. They are, in fact, places that offer an opportunity to engage with the past, present and future. All that is required is a tiny bit of curiosity. Libraries are places that should be full of life. They help us fit into the world, and their doors must be kept open to everyone — for free!
1. What inspired the author to set up a library for students?| A．Some well-known classics. |
| B．The suggestion of a librarian. |
| C．His affection for libraries and reading. |
| D．The book: Little House in the Big Woods. |
| A．In primary school. | B．In high school. |
| C．During university years. | D．After becoming a librarian. |
| A．What his career was like. | B．Where he stored his books. |
| C．Why school kids loved reading. | D．How he improved the school library. |
| A．More than just Books | B．Read with Curiosity |
| C．A Librarian’s Life | D．Build a Private Library |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Everyone has at least one bad habit. Whether it’s being frequently late, tapping your feet, or eating junk food, a bad habit can have a negative influence on your happiness, health and social relationships.
You can only change what you decide you want to change. Take some time to reflect on the trouble your bad habit may lead to.
Set reasonable goals at first, since your bad habits have taken years to establish themselves.
| A．Look into what’s causing the habit. |
| B．You’re not going to get rid of them in an instant. |
| C．Here are some tips to help you remove your bad habits. |
| D．To change some bad habits may require professional help. |
| E．To help motivate yourself, you may consider others’ advice. |
| F．If you don’t see a problem, you won’t work on changing your behavior. |
| G．Once you’ve decided to change, convince yourself you can achieve your goals. |
【推荐2】Although people value intelligence—understanding, reasoning, the ability to learn—they also respect wisdom, or the knowledge and experience that we gain over a lifetime. In some ways, wisdom is like beauty: we value it, we desire it, and we know it when we see it. However, it is nearly impossible to define such a quality.
1. Work at being social.
Studies show that people who stay connected to others show higher levels of wisdom than those who remain alone.
2. Practice being open-minded.
Wisdom involves understanding an issue without letting emotions get in the way.
3. Learn how to say “I could be wrong”.
A wise person understands that it is impossible to know everything and that life is capable of taking unexpected turns.
4. Read the news.
Almost everyone has the potential to become wiser, particularly if you strengthen these habits.
| A．Recognizing your errors can lead only to greater wisdom. |
| B．But researchers have tried and here’s what they’ve found. |
| C．Sharing interesting news can always be a good start of a friendship. |
| D．Make an effort to join a new club, or invite an old friend for coffee. |
| E．You do not have to admit your mistakes if you are really unwilling to. |
| F．You cannot make balanced choices unless you understand world circumstances. |
| G．Opening your mind means realizing that there is a life story behind everyone’s actions. |
【推荐3】When I was six, Dad brought home a dog one day, who was called “Brownie” My brothers and I all loved Brownie and did different things with her. One of us would walk her, another would feed her, then there were baths, playing catch and many other games, Brownie in return, loved each and every one of us. One thing that most touched my heart was that she would go to whoever was sick and just be with them and we always felt better when she was around.
One day, as I was getting her food, she chewed up (咬破) one of Dad’s shoes, which had to be thrown away in the end. I knew Dad would be mad and I had to let her know what she did was wrong. When I looked at her and said, “Bad girl,” she looked down at the ground and then went and hid. I saw a tear in her eyes.
Brownie turned out to be more than just our family pet, she went everywhere with us. People would stop and ask if they could pet her. Of course she’d let anyone pet her. She was just the most lovable dog. There were many times when we’d be out walking and a small child would come over and pull up her hair, she never barked (吠) or tried to get away. Funny thing is she would smile. This frightened people because they thought she was showing her teeth. Far from the truth, she loved everyone.
Now many years have passed since Brownie died of old age. I still miss days when she was with us.
1. What would Brownie do when someone was ill in the family?| A．Keep them company | B．Touch them gently. |
| C．Play games with them. | D．Look at them sadly. |
| A．world eat anything when hungry | B．loved playing hide-and-seek |
| C．felt sorry for her mistake | D．disliked the author’s dad |
| A．She was treated as a member of the family. |
| B．She played games with anyone she liked. |
| C．She went everywhere with the family. |
| D．She was loved by everybody she met. |
| A．barked | B．smiled |
| C．rushed to them | D．tried to be funny |
| A．Caring | B．Polite |
| C．Brave | D．Shy |
【推荐1】When Warren Buffett, the most successful investor, was asked about the secret to his wealth and success, he revealed that he read every day, 500 pages, to be precise. Unfortunately, if you're already working 9‒5, you might not have the time to read at all, let alone an entire book a day. But what if you could get the benefits of reading without sacrificing all of your free time? You can! With the Blinkist app, you get the key learning in minutes, not hours or days. Our experts transform these books into quick, easy-to-understand insights. Start with the 5 most-read books.
1. Thirteen Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do
by Amy Morin 12 min reading time 147k reads
Do you struggle to get over your failures? Getting over these can have a profound influence on your everyday life. Morin shares how her most successful patients overcame these difficulties.
2. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
by Dale Carnegie 19 min reading time 238k reads
Ever wondered why you can't stop worrying about something? By defining the source of your stress, you can get over it once and for all. Carnegie came up with a formula that helps you handle any overthinking situation.
3. How Will You Measure Your Life?
by Clayton M. Christensen 13 min reading time 137k reads
Are you making the right trade-offs (权衡) in life? While career achievements can be satisfying, neglecting your family and friends can be bad in the long-run — in ways you can't even imagine.
4. Finding Your Element
by Ken Robinson 13 min reading time 62.4k reads
Everyone has a passion. If you don't know what yours is, it just means you haven't discovered it yet. Find out how you can break free of society's strict rules and find your calling in life.
5. Emotional Intelligence
by Daniel Goleman 16 min reading time 318k reads
Did you know if your pulse rate rises above 100 bpm, you're deemed too emotional to think rationally? You probably let feelings cloud your judgment more often than you know. Goleman explains how you can avoid letting your emotions rule you and make better decisions in life.
1. What kind of people does the Blinkist app best suit?| A．Successful investors. | B．Rich businessmen. |
| C．People who have little time for reading. | D．Students who love books. |
| A．How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. |
| B．How Will You Measure Your Life? |
| C．Finding Your Element. |
| D．Emotional Intelligence. |
| A．Thirteen Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do. |
| B．How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. |
| C．How Will You Measure Your Life? |
| D．Finding Your Element. |
【推荐2】Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose
Who says teenagers can’t change the world？This book tells the true story of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin and how her fight for justice (正义) led to the end of separation between races in buses in Alabama in 1956.
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
In the final novel of Cornelia Funke’s popular Inkheart trilogy (三部曲)，Meggie and her father，Mo，travel through Inkworld，a dark and dangerous place full of villains (歹徒)．At the heart of this unusual tale is a question：Can you change your own life?
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This Pulitzer Prize winner is the only book author Harper Lee ever wrote. Set in the South in the 1930s，the story is told by a young girl named Scout. Her dad is a lawyer who takes a difficult case (案子) that shakes up their town and changes their lives.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’ Engle
Meg’s father is a scientist who has gone missing—and he happens to be lost in a whole other universe！As Meg and her little brother，Charles Wallace，get on a plane for a special task to save their father through space and time，Meg must discover her own strength and courage.
Margaret Bourke White by Christopher C．L.Anderson
Margaret Bourke White was one of the first women photojournalists. She helped pioneer the whole field！This book explains how she caught some of the most important historic moments of the 20th century.
1. Who helps to set up a fair system?| A．Scout. | B．Meggie. |
| C．Claudette Colvin. | D．Margaret Bourke White. |
| A．Inkdeath. |
| B．A Wrinkle in Time. |
| C．To Kill a Mockingbird. |
| D．Margaret Bourke White. |
| A．what Meg and his brother meet in the universe |
| B．how two children save their father |
| C．the scientific knowledge of the universe |
| D．a funny trip through space and time |
| A．History. | B．Science. |
| C．Politics. | D．Literature. |
【推荐3】If you’re a book lover，you have a pile of books on your bedside，or a bookshelf in your library with a“to read”sign on it．Yet you can’t stop yourself from adding to the pile．This can lead to feelings of guilt over your new purchases．But I’m here to tell you to stop worrying．
What you have is an antilibrary，and it’s a very good thing．The term comes from writer Umberto Eco．He is the owner of a large personal library．He separates visitors into two groups：those who react with“Wow! What a library you have! How many of these books have you read?”and the others who get the point that a private library is not something to show off but a research too1．Read books are far less valuable than unread ones．Indeed，the more you know，the larger the rows of unread books．Let us call this collection an antilibrary．
If you think you already know everything about a subject，you’re cutting yourself off from a stream of information at an artificial point．So a growing library of books you haven’t read means you’re consistently curious about the unknown．And that attitude is a great foundation for a lifelong love of 1earning．
So don’t feel guilt over your unread books．Those books will be there for you when you do want them，and as you build your library of read and unread books，you can start using it as you would use a bigger library．Certain books may become references more than read-throughs．Or you may find that a book you bought five years ago has special relevance today．Letting the role of books evolve in your life is a healthy sign of curiosity．That’s good for you and good for the world around you．
1. What does the underlined word“antilibrary”in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Feelings of guilt over new books． |
| B．A pile of books on the bookshelf． |
| C．The collection of unread books． |
| D．A large personal library． |
| A．your wrong lifelong learning attitude |
| B．you limit yourself from the unknown |
| C．your have no interest in the new world |
| D．your strong desire about new information |
| A．Favorable． | B．Doubtful． |
| C．Ambiguous． | D．Contradictory． |
| A．Curiosity is a sign of high IQ． |
| B．Books are the ladder in our life． |
| C．Unread books are surely relevant to the present． |
| D．We should read through every book． |
【推荐1】Culture shock is a broad term for the series of personal difficulties that people go through in new places.It's usually most extreme for those who can't speak the language of the place they have moved to,or for those who aren't familiar with the social rules.Both of these things applied to me in China when I moved there in 2011.
So,naturally,I went through the four well-known stages of culture shock:honeymoon,distress（痛苦），re-integration(重新融入）and autonomy(独立自主）。
When I arrived,I was excited and optimistic,but I quickly became irritated(恼火的）by cultural differences,missing how things worked back home.
By the end of my first year,I had totally lost my self-confidence;I was a bitter,clumsy and sensitive person,and I blamed China for making me that way.
Then,in my second year,I started to pick up some language skills,and I found fun activities to do in my spare time.I made great foreign and Chinese friends,and I developed an interest in Chinese history and culture.
I learned to consider myself a confident and happy laowai.
Today I'm back in the US,where I'm pursuing a PhD at a university in my hometown.It's been a little tough to readjust to life in my home country.I suffered at first from"reverse"culture shock, experiencing the four stages in the opposite order.
I started out feeling independent and self-confident,before slowly realizing that I knew my country much less well than I used to.I'd complain loudly about little things,like how I could no longer shout"fuwuyuan!"to get a waiter's attention in a restaurant.
But eventually,I came to realize that what I had thought was my"home"had become an entirely new place while I'd been away.That,by itself,was exciting.
1. Which of the following least helped the author ease his culture shock in China?| A．By learning the Chinese language. |
| B．By making local friends. |
| C．By joining in fun activities. |
| D．By attending history courses. |
| A．Distress. |
| B．Honeymoon. |
| C．Re-integration. |
| D．Autonomy. |
| A．Exchange the position. |
| B．Stop having a particular position. |
| C．Change the order of something around. |
| D．Change the previous decision. |
| A．He moved to a new place with his family. |
| B．He felt relaxed in a more familiar culture. |
| C．He missed his life in China very much. |
| D．He found it difficult to adapt to life there. |
They didn’t busy themselves buying a bigger house, because that would mean working harder to pay the monthly mortgage(按揭贷款), working overtime or taking a second job. Who would go running with me then? Who would read stories to me?
They didn’t burden themselves with buying an expensive car because that would mean worrying about installment(分期付款) bills. Besides, walking to the shopping centre every Saturday afternoon with me gave my dad his needed exercise, and made me feel so special.
One of my heart’s delights was seeing Dad and Mom in their bedroom at night, after our nightly family prayer. The lights were turned off, and I’d see the figure of my father seated on his old chair and Mom standing behind him, gently massaging his shoulders. I’d hear them talk about what happened during their day. Even as a child, I sensed their quiet pleasure in being together.
My question today: Could they have done this rich practice each night and nourished(滋润) their marriage if they had been busy paying for expensive clothes for themselves or their kids, or if they had been worrying about monthly bills for new hi-tech equipment? I don’t think so. And I’ve made a choice: I don’t want that of life either.
1. Which of the following is TRUE about the author’s family?
| A．There were six people in the family. |
| B．They decided to buy a bigger house. |
| C．They lived an easy and happy life. |
| D．They had a second-hand car. |
| A．They wrote stories together. |
| B．They read newspapers together. |
| C．They went shopping together each day. |
| D．They regularly took exercise together. |
| A．their attitude towards life |
| B．their love for each other |
| C．Their common interests |
| D．their ability to communicate with each other |
| A．got bored with his/her parents’ way of educating kids |
| B．was influenced by his/her parents’ lifestyle |
| C．didn’t want to follow his/her parents’ advice |
| D．didn’t want to live the same life as his/her parents |
【推荐3】I was invited to give a speech at an educators, conference. I happened to sit next to Clay Parker, the CEO of a technology company that makes micro electronics devices.
For the last few years, I’d been reading about the rapidly changing world of work and was increasingly concerned that students are not prepared for today’s workplace. Buried in book knowledge, university students talk like a book and always pass exams with flying colours. However, when facing HR staff instead of their teachers, what they have learned seems useless. So I asked Parker what qualities he most wanted in a potential new employee. I expected a list of technical skills - especially since Parker is an engineer himself- but I was way off the mark.
“First, I look for someone who asks good questions,” Parker responded. “Our business is changing, and so are the skills of our engineers. We can teach them the technical stuff. But for employees willing to solve problems or to learn new things, they have to know what questions to ask. And we can’t teach them how to ask good questions - how to think. The ability to ask the right questions reflects good thinking ability, the most important quality.”
Indeed, the ability to ask good questions has been a repeated theme in almost all of my conversations about core competences and skills for success in today’s workplace. It turns out that asking good questions goes hand in hand with problem solving ability in the minds of most employers.
The students have always been brought up to live up to a certain standard and so much emphasis has been put on fixed rules and giving the expected answer of their teachers instead of raising a question. We teachers are always blaming the students for giving wrong answers. Perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we are always asking the right questions.
1. Why did the author ask Parker the question?| A．To bring the CEO’s attention to education. |
| B．To collect information about his company. |
| C．To ask for his opinion about the conference. |
| D．To know his requirements for new employees. |
| A．Mistaken. | B．Not qualified. |
| C．Confused. | D．Not professional. |
| A．Teamwork. | B．Thinking ability. |
| C．Technical skills. | D．Professional knowledge. |
| A．How to Hunt for a Job |
| B．Asking Questions Matters |
| C．An Encounter with a CEO |
| D．Problem-solving Makes a Difference |
