【推荐1】Characters in novels don't always do what the writer wants them to do. Sometimes they cause trouble，take on lives of their own, or even work against the writer. It's not just a problem for inexperienced authors: famed children's novelist Roald Dahl said he got the main character in his book Matilda so “wrong” that when he'd finished his first version, he threw it away and started again.

Of course it's not the characters' fault. The problem lies with the author. Take Stephen King, who admitted that writing working-class characters is more difficult nowadays because his own circumstances have changed. “It is definitely harder,” King said. “When I wrote Carrie many years ago, I was one step away from physical labour.”

This is also true for characters' ages, added King. “When you have small children, it is easy to write young characters because you observe them and you have them in your life all the time. But your kids grow up. It's been harder for me to write about this little 12-year-old girl in my new book because my models are gone.”

For other authors, such as Karen Fowler, there's one quality that can stop a character in its tracks: “boredom”. “I had particular problems with the main character in my historical novel Sister Noon." she says.” She had attitudes about race and religion that seemed appropriate to me for her time and class, but they were not attitudes I liked. Eventually I grew quite bored with her. You can write a book about a character you dislike or a character you disagree with, but I don't think you can write a book about a character who bores you.”

According to Neel Mukherjee, it was Adinath, a character in The Lives of Others, who made him work the hardest. “I think I struggled because it's difficult to write a character whose most prominent personal feature is weakness, as Adinath's is, without making that feature define him,” Mukherjee says. But a troublesome character is far from an unwelcome guest, he continues, arguing that “when characters work against the author they come alive and become unpredictable.”

“That is a fantastic thing to happen, ”Mukherjee says, “I celebrate it. It is one of the great, lucky gifts given to a writer.”

1. What can we infer about Steven King's book Carrie?

A．It was his most difficult book to write.	B．It was the first successful novel King wrote.
C．There were few children featured in the story.	D．Some of its main characters were working class.

2. Why did Karen Fowler have trouble writing the main character in her novel Sister Noon?

A．She disagreed with the character's attitudes.	B．The age difference between the two was too large.
C．She found the character very uninteresting.	D．The historical setting made accuracy difficult.

3. Neel Mukherjee believes that his difficult-to-write characters ________.

A．are a sign that the story is not realistic	B．are often the most interesting
C．should be praised by all authors	D．need to be researched more thoroughly

4. The authors who were interviewed for the passage are probably ________.

A．famous and successful	B．unknown to the readers
C．all from the same country	D．just starting their writing careers

5. Which of the following statements is right?

A．Karen Fowler becomes bored with her characters because she disagrees with their class and time.

B．Mukherjee considers a troublesome character as an unwelcomed guest because their weakness.

C．Working class characters are more difficult to write than figures from other background.

D．Characters are easier to depict if you have models in your real life.

【推荐3】What can bring people from around the world together? Skin colour? Language? A favourite football team? According to a recent study conducted by OnePoll, a London-based marketing research company, food is the answer.

OnePoll surveyed 2,000 people around the world. 84% of participants said that food had the power to connect people of different cultures and backgrounds.

“Food has to do with how we live—it’s not just something that we ingest. Food is a part of our lives, and it helps bring people closer together,” one participant in the survey said.

People can get a better understanding of another culture through trying its cuisine. For example, Chinese culture is based on the idea of harmony (和谐), which can be seen in almost every aspect of life in China, most noticeably its cuisine. In Chinese cuisine, every ingredient is used in a balanced way to create delicious dishes that go well together. Another example is the rich diversity of American cuisine, which directly reflects the rich diversity of its multicultural influence.

Food can help strengthen cultural ties. Every country has its own way of doing things, which means that sometimes there can be very little common ground between countries. However, every country has food in common—after all, we all need to eat. So something as simple as a dinner gathering has the power to bring together people from different countries or cultures. In fact, food is often the catalyst (催化剂) in forming many important decisions and friendships.

“We believe food has a transcending (超越的) ability to connect us, and that delicious things can happen when we share heritage, culture, and uniqueness through food,” said Jason Levine, one of the survey’ s conductors.

1. How many people in the survey said food brings people together?

A．2,000

B．1,680

C．320

D．84

2. What does the underlined word ingest most probably mean?

A．eat

B．appreciate

C．digest

D．prefer

3. According to the passage, which best describes Chinese culture and cuisine?

A．Deep and vital.	B．Diverse and balanced.
C．Balanced and harmonious.	D．Harmonious and delicious.

4. How can food help strengthen cultural ties?

A．By experiencing different cultures.

B．By accepting foreign ideas.

C．By bringing people together.

D．By sharing heritage with others.

【推荐2】It has been said by some experts that to understand Poland you must understand the composer Frederic Chopin.

The creative genius, one of the most original of the 19th Century, was born outside Warsaw in 1810 to a French father and Polish mother and in a proud nation suffering under partition (seperation) and divided among occupying Russians, Prussians and Austrians.

Frederic Chopin moved with his family to Warsaw as a newborn and lived there until he was 20 when he left his homeland for good. Although he spent almost half of his life in Paris, traditional Polish music permeates (渗入) his compositions and he always considered Warsaw his hometown.

And the city never ceased (stopped) being proud of him either. The $28 million interactive Fryderyk Chopin Museum opened last March to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Visitors are given a plastic ticket which, once swiped past the blue light readers at the entrance, can be used to access information on touch screens in eight languages.

The museum covers the history and works of Chopin. Among the 7,000 items in the museum's collection are a lock of Chopin's hair and a gold pocket watch the Italian soprano Angelica Catalani gave the nine- year- old prodigy after one of his concerts.

Just up the road from the museum on the Royal Way is an apartment where Chopin, together with his family, lived for the last three years of his life in Warsaw.

From Warsaw's historic Old Town down Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street, along the Royal Way to Lazienki Park, you can walk down the same streets young Chopin strolled, past palaces and churches in which he gave performances. If you visit the Lazienki Park during summer, you can attend the free open air concerts on Sundays given by pianists from all over the world. It is the perfect place to hear Chopin’s music, the power and beauty of which was once described by his contemporary composer, Robert Schumann, as ''cannon buried in flowers''.

1. Which of the following statements about Frederic Chopin is NOT true?

A．He was of French-Polish parentage.

B．He was greatly influenced by traditional Polish music.

C．He spent most of his life in his hometown -Warsaw.

D．He was born in Poland, which was partitioned at that time.

2. The Fryderyk Chopin Museum ________.

A．was built in memory of Chopin and his contemporaries.

B．was located in Paris, where he received his musical education.

C．was accessible to the public for free.

D．was devoted to the history and works of Chopin.

3. The underlined word ''prodigy'' probably means ________.

A．genius.

B．actor.

C．inventor.

D．critic.

4. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．some of Chopin's contemporaries envied his talent.

B．Warsaw is rich in places closely connected with Chopin's life and music.

C．Chopin made a living by giving performances in palaces and churches.

D．concerts are given in the Lazienki Park throughout the year.