Absolutely Unputdownable Books You Have to Read
Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes
If you’re seeking a fast read, try this short story by Daniel Keyes. He’ll show you how a person who is mentally disabled feels while going from a simple gatekeeper at a bakery, whose IQ is less than 60, to a genius(天才)and the most intelligent person on the planet. In a situation like this, is it possible to overcome your fear and deal with loneliness? Daniel Keyes offers his answer to this question.
A Certain Smile
Francoise Sagan
If you don’t enjoy thrillers or sci-fi and stories about dragon-riding detectives, and if you’re longing for something comforting, slow and gentle, this beautiful little book by Francoise Sagan is just what you need. It’s a pleasant exception among traditional romance novels: you’ll find all of the advantages of high-quality literature here. And yes, it’s a real page-turner.
Orphans of the Sky
Robert A. Heinlein
A giant generation ship is sailing without guidance through the depths of the universe. Its passengers have long forgotten the outside world and believed in a pre-technological culture marked by superstition(迷信). This novel brought Heinlein wide recognition, and will grasp you tight and won’t let you go for months or even years afterward. Are we, the digital generation, different from the passengers of that imaginary spaceship?
95 Pounds of Hope
Anna Gavalda
Referring to a real person’s experiences, this little poetic story is about the main things in life; choices we make, the power of love and devotion. The story of a thirteen-year-old boy who one day has to gather all his strength and courage and take a step towards adulthood proves once again that dreams do come true. After all, no matter how many pounds we have, we’re all trying not to lose hope.
1. Whose book tells the story of a mentally disabled person?| A．Daniel Keyes’s. | B．Anna Gavalda’s. | C．Francoise Sagan’s. | D．Robert A. Heinlein’s. |
| A．A history book. | B．A science fiction. | C．A detective story. | D．A romance novel. |
| A．It brings its author high praise. | B．It is just intended for adult readers. |
| C．It is about how to overcome fear. | D．It is based on true life experiences. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Reading while traveling is more than pleasurable; it’s a necessity. It means resting our heads against the window while traveling on the subway, train, or bus, and immersing ourselves in distant worlds and other people’s lives. These waves of words help us make the journey seem shorter and distance ourselves from the noise. It can make our journey meaningful and help us to start our working days with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
Reading while traveling brings a unique context to one’s reading. Many people take specific books with them to tie into the places they’re traveling to. Few things are as enjoyable and satisfying as lifting your eyes to find yourself in the very same country, setting, or context that the book is set in. Of course, it isn’t necessary to visit the exact places in a novel in order to experience the sensations that the author is trying to transmit to you. Just the simple fact of being outside the four walls of your house brings new ingredients to reading: sounds, lights, faces, and sensations, among other things.
Reading while traveling improves your ability to concentrate. The truth is that not all people are able to concentrate on a book while they’re traveling. Our urban world is noisy. However, it’s interesting to note that those who have become used to reading while traveling have developed unique concentration and focusing skills. The ability to read, understand, and visualize other worlds and plots is a skill that can be applied to many other areas in life.
Reading, which is a ticket that transports you to places far beyond your physical destination, is a portable pastime. You don’t have to be in bed or on the couch in order to be able to enjoy a book. Reading while traveling is a great way to make the most of your time, thereby turning those moments of inactivity into very active ones for your brain. The only danger that we could point out is that you may get so immersed in your book that you might miss your stop!
1. What can be inferred from the first paragraph?| A．Leaning against the window is recommended. |
| B．Words can keep readers distanced from the world. |
| C．Enjoying a book makes sufferings from noise pleasant. |
| D．Reading helps travelers absorbed in another world. |
| A．Lost. | B．Uneasy. |
| C．Sensitive. | D．Overjoyed. |
| A．They can’t bear being in a noisy atmosphere. |
| B．They are unlikely to be distracted at work. |
| C．They can hardly keep focused on anything else. |
| D．They tend to be bookish and unrealistic. |
| A．It partly replaces physical exercise. | B．It can boost travelers’ brain health. |
| C．It keeps you from missing stops. | D．It requires a favorable environment. |
【推荐2】If you look for a book as a present for a child, you will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books, which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children. According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all. In 2003, 35% did. And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computer games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile. Either way, Chancellor Gordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class. In his pre-budget report, he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds, who receive four months of individual daily half- hour classes with a specially trained teacher. An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress, and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well, but read less – often for fun than those elsewhere. Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success. According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage.
1. Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?| A．Many children’s books have been adapted from films. |
| B．Many high-quality children’s books have been published. |
| C．The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films. |
| D．The sales of presents for children have increased. |
| A．the number of top students increased with the use of computers. |
| B．a decreasing number of children showed interest in reading. |
| C．a minority of primary school children read properly. |
| D．a large percentage of children read regularly. |
| A．An education of it will be made sometime this year. |
| B．Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking. |
| C．It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading. |
| D．Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading. |
| A．takes greater advantage of the project. |
| B．shows the potential to enjoy a long life. |
| C．is likely to succeed in their education. |
| D．would make excellent future researchers. |
| A．to overcome primary school pupils’ reading difficulty. |
| B．to encourage the publication of more children’s books. |
| C．to remind children of the importance of reading for fun. |
| D．to introduce a way to improve early childhood reading. |
【推荐3】Historian Tom Holland is the award-winning author of Rubicon, Persian Fire and Millennium. He appears regularly on radio, TV and in print. His latest book Dynasty is published in paperback. He shares the books that changed his life.
Moominsummer Madness
By Tove Jansoon
What I love about this book, as a child and still today, is its mix of the fantastical and normal. On the one hand, it’s about a family and their friends all enjoying themselves, quite happy not doing much. On the other hand, it’s about characters that can change into strange shapes, magicians coming down from the moon and strange creatures coming out from the roof. That mix of the familiar and extraordinary informs all my writing.
The Histories
By Herodotus
By the time I was 12, I was attracted by Ancient Greece and Rome. At first, I found the early section of The Histories really boring because it’s like a long story that never gets to the point. In the second half I was rewarded with the stories I’d been waiting for, like the battles of Marathon, Salamis and Thermopylae. Over the years, I came to value the infectious curiosity of the first half and the description of the world in the fifth century BC seen through the eyes of this extraordinary Greek historian.
A Distant Mirror
By Barbara W. Tuchman
Tuchman’s book The Guns of August won the Pulitzer Prize, but it’s this slightly less wellknown work that provided me with a role model for my own writing. Both scholarly (学术的) and interesting, it’s a description of the 14th century in Western Europe and brings medieval civilization (中世纪文明) to life, transporting the reader back to the horror of the Black Death, the Peasants’ Revolt and the Great Papal Schism. I felt I knew what it was like to die of the plague (瘟疫) or to have a sword put through me — real stories told outstandingly.
1. What do we know about Moominsummer Madness?| A．It’s both typical and imaginary. |
| B．It tells the writer’s life stories. |
| C．It’s undervalued by readers. |
| D．It features family struggles. |
| A．It’s quite stupid. |
| B．It’s entertaining. |
| C．It’s culturecentered. |
| D．It’s hard to understand. |
| A．The Histories. |
| B．A Distant Mirror. |
| C．The Guns of August. |
| D．Moominsummer Madness. |
【推荐1】According to National Renewable Energy Laboratory experts, air cooling is already responsible for 3.94% of yearly carbon emissions (排放) worldwide, which will only worsen as higher global temperatures continue to drive the growing need for air conditioning. Meanwhile, increased energy bills and a Jack of gas supply are other significant concerns. The climate change and energy issues call for serious efforts to carry out more effective projects to answer these challenges.
Heat pumps (泵) seem to be visible, and they are gaining attention — particularly in the US and UK. They function by transferring heat from the outside air to water while generating cold air, thereby keeping homes cool. According to a recent study, using heat pumps can help homeowners reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save money on energy, and improve their health. The findings, published in Environmental Research Letters, indicate that heat pumps will lower emissions for two-thirds of families while benefiting one-third of US homeowners financially.
Dalrada Corporation was established by Brian Bonar in 1982 with a vision to transform meaningful ideas into solutions to serve humanity. Since then, the organization has expanded its operations to serve plentiful business sectors. The company helps industrial, commercial, and consumer industries in various sections, such as science, health care, engineering and technology. Dalrada’s high-temperature CO2-based heat pump offers clean heating and cooling without requiring burning fossil (化石) fuels. The technology is promising, and the US government had selected Dalrada’s heat pump as a green building pioneer to inspire more energy transformation new technologies.
According to multiple studies focusing on the hotel industry, the most expensive bill is for electricity, followed by water and gas. Dalrada’s LikidoTM heat pump is the company’s flagship product. A low-carbon, heating and cooling pump design provides an extraordinary solution for reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Eventually, this creative technology has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption and costs for hotels around the world.
1. What can we learn about air cooling?| A．It takes up about 1/25 of the world’s carbon emissions every year. |
| B．It drives the global temperature to go higher dramatically. |
| C．It is the biggest consumption of many households. |
| D．It is urgent to cut off the use of the air cooling system. |
| A．Heat pumps’ practical effectiveness. | B．Homeowner’s current concerns. |
| C．Families’ possible advantages. | D．Public’s different opinions. |
| A．To prove Dalrada’s heat pump technology has a bright future. |
| B．To show Dalrada Corporation has meaningful ideas. |
| C．To advertise the company’s various high-tech products. |
| D．To suggest the company has good relations with the government. |
| A．Air Cooling Problem to be Solved | B．The Climate Change and Gas Shortage |
| C．Hotels no more Depend on Fossil Fuels | D．Heat Pumps Save Money and Protect the Environment |
【推荐2】Japanese researchers placed electronic devices(装置)on seals(海豹)in Antarctic waters to collect surprising information about the environment there. Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research started the research project in 2017. The team recently reported its results in a study in the publication Limnology and Oceanography.
Eight Weddell seals were fitted with the devices,which have antennas(天线)to send electronic signals.The 580-gram monitoring devices were attached(缚上;系上)to the animals’heads. They were designed to measure data such as water temperatures and sea salt levels.
Investigative teams on ships have difficulty reaching important research areas in Antarctica. These include areas along continental shelf formations where ice is attached to the shore, the National Institute of Polar Research said in a statement. Nobuo Kokubun led the project. Since the seals are active year-round, Kokubun added, “I thought we should have them collect the data.”
He told Reuters that the research also helps scientists follow the seals’ behaviors and learn about their relationship to the environment. “During the summer, we can go to Antarctica on icebreakers to conduct actual research activities, so that we can collect data there.” Kokubun said. ”But during the winter. such things cannot be done in so many places.“
Information gathered from the seals showed that one of the animals traveled as far as 633kilometers from Japan’s Showa Station in Antarctica. Another dove to a depth of 700 meters.Kokubun said the scientists learned from the data that warm seawater from the upper levels of the open sea reached Antarctica from March through the winter of 2017. The water flowed below the ice, bringing in sea creatures like Antarctic krill, an important food for seals.
Kokubun and his team plan to keep finding new ways to further examine the effects of climate change on Antarctic coastal areas. Next, he hopes to make the device small enough to fit on other animals at the South Pole, such as penguins,“The advantage with penguins is that they come back to the same place and we can collect data from them immediately,”Kokubun said.
1. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?| A．The reasons why seals are a good pick. |
| B．The difficulties the researchers met with. |
| C．The disadvantages of the research. |
| D．The formation of Antarctic waters. |
| A．It challenges some traditional views. |
| B．It is an eye-opener for the researchers. |
| C．It is in urgent need of improvement. |
| D．It simply focuses on the seals’ behavior. |
| A．They will further study the penguins. |
| B．They will make use of the same device. |
| C．They intend to expand the research further. |
| D．They plan to help the endangered penguins. |
| A．Increasing Temperature of Antarctic Waters |
| B．Seals Help Researchers Study Antarctic Environment |
| C．Seals Are in Danger of Dying out Due to Global Warming |
| D．Climate Change and Its Far-reaching Consequences |
【推荐3】Wu Wuliu, a visual designer based in Shanghai, recently caused significant controversy online when he used AI to “bring his late grandmother back to life” and engaged in a conversation with her in the video he posted
After mimicking his late grandmother’s appearance, voice, personality, and memories through AI applications, Wu input her photos into the programs to create a lifelike image and uploaded her verbal messages to simulate her voice and accent. Finally, he turned the AI-generated language into conversations between him and his “grandmother”, who can blink, nod, and even laugh heartily. When Wu asked her if she had prepared holiday goods for the Spring Festival, she responded in dialect, “I bought two bottles of cooking oil and they smell good.”
Upon the release of the video, it gained popularity on Bilibili, accumulating over 670,000 views and receiving thousands of likes from netizens. Nevertheless, the comments section was filled with heated debates. Some netizens said they were deeply moved by the video as it reminded them of their own deceased loved ones, believing that such actions help convey their grief and are meaningful. On the other hand, many netizens could not accept Wu’s approach, claiming it to be “disrespectful of life” Some argued that technology like this should be banned, as it may lead to an “existential crisis”. There were also concerns that scammers might take advantage of Al technology for fraudulent (诈骗的) purposes.
Wu said in an interview that he posted the video to honor his grandmother, who brought him up as a child and died in January. They were only able to exchange a few simple words during her last days leaving him not coping with the loss. By “talking” with her, Wu said he could ease the pain of his loss.
“From a psychological perspective, compared to traditional items such as photographs and personal belongings. AI technology can better preserve the image and personality of deceased loved ones, providing comfort to those who are grieving,” said Chen Zhilin, a psychological counselor. “However, over-reliance on it should be avoided. More importantly, we must learn to cherish the present.”
1. What does the underlined word “controversy” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Debate | B．Quarrel | C．Interest | D．Praise |
| A．She gained popularity on Bilibili upon the release of the video. |
| B．She provided verbal messages to simulate her voice and accent. |
| C．She had conversations with her grandson after coming back to life. |
| D．She was created as a lifelike image with personality and simple movements. |
| A．Some were worried as they had been cheated by AI. |
| B．Some were angry as the approach was not respected. |
| C．Some were anxious as the technology would lead to death. |
| D．Some were touched as it reminded them of their late loved ones. |
| A．Time heals all wounds. | B．The present is a present. |
| C．Make hay while the sun shines. | D．Those who play with fire will burn themselves. |
【推荐1】From political problems to environmental protection, the following books cover all kinds of topics. There is no doubt that they have become a must for young adults who show great interest in these matters.
An Inconvenient Truth by AI Gore
AI Gore caught the attention of the world with his book An Inconvenient Truth, which later was adapted (改编) for a movie. Based on his lecture tour on global warming, the work explains climate change in a user-friendly way and opens the public’s eyes to our planet.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
When John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he was praised for his great writings, including The Grapes of Wrath. It focuses on a family of farmers who are forced off their land during the Great Depression. While it touches on the important problems such as agricultural industry changes, it also explores universal themes of power, family and self-interest.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Focusing on the meat-packing industry in Chicago, Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle explores the life of immigrant workers in the early 20th century. The best-selling work forced President Theodore Roosevelt to pass a law about food safety.
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Rrugman
Economist Paul Krugman tells 80 years of American history in The Conscience of a Liberal, which examines the fall and rise of economic and political situations. Many believe the2007 book was a clear call to take control of the country’s economic future.
1. Which book tells something about climate change?| A．The Jungle. | B．An Inconvenient Truth. |
| C．The Grapes of Wrath. | D．The Conscience of a Liberal. |
| A．It was adapted for a movie. |
| B．Its author won the Nobel Prize. |
| C．It is about the economic development. |
| D．It explores the value of a happy family. |
| A．It helped bring a new law into effect. |
| B．It changed the life of immigrant workers. |
| C．It forced people to care about meat-packing. |
| D．It helped develop the meat-packing industry. |
【推荐2】As the world sees more and more extreme weather patterns, it's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the effects of climate change.
The term "cli-fi" was first used in 2007 by US climate activist and writer Dan Bloom.
The genre is also gaining popularity with high school and college students because it looks at topics that are relevant to what's really happening today.
Cli-fi has also helped to inspire students to pursue science majors, with some universities even offering courses specifically focusing on climate fiction.
“These books aren't going to save the world in any straight form or way: Johns-Putra commented.” “
As Atwood wrote in her dystopian cli-fi novel MaddAddam, “People need such stories, because however dark, a darkness with voices in it is better than a silent void (空间)”.
| A．He considered cli-fi would be popular with young readers. |
| B．He wanted to make "climate fiction" more appealing. |
| C．But they're certainly going to help us think about how the world gets saved. |
| D．It is now a common topic of discussion and has even found its way into the books we read. |
| E．It's a feedback, as these books feed into our awareness and that feeds into our demand to read these books. |
| F．As the name suggests, climate fiction refers to stories with the central theme of climate change or global warming. |
| G．Also, many cli-fi novels tend to have dystopian (反乌托邦的) themes, which are very popular in young adult novels. |
Text 1: In the churchyard
Well, get me a fle(锉刀) and some wittles(食物).And bring them to me tomorrow momning early. And don't tell anyone that you have seen me. if you don't do exactly what I've told you, I'll cut out your heart, roast it and cat it!
Text 2: At the moment when he was arrested
I took some wittles, from a house in the village over there. The one near the church. From the blacksmith's. I was hungry so I took a pork and some bread. I'm sorry. It was a good pic.
Text 3: At Pip s house
When I was sent to the other side of the worid. I thought about you all the time. I was working for you. It made me happy to think that you were spending my money. Yes, Pip, it was me. I made you a gentleman.
1. What can we learn from Text 1?| A．Magwitch was a cruel killer. |
| B．Magwitch was a penniless beggar. |
| C．Magwitch was a dangerous convict. |
| D．Magwitch was a church care-taker. |
| A．He preferred a pie rather than a pork |
| B．He did steal food from the blacksmith's. |
| C．He was arrested by the police for his theft. |
| D．He told a lie of his theft to protect his helper. |
| A．He had been helped by Pip to make a big fortune. |
| B．He had been helped by Pip with some bread and a pork. |
| C．He had been helped by Pip to cover the truth of his theft. |
| D．He had been helped by Pip to the other side of the world. |
| A．Grateful and generous. | B．Fierce and cruel. |
| C．Honest and hard-working. | D．Unkind and insensitive. |
| A．A man who works very hard to earn a living. |
| B．A man who leads a rich and respectable life. |
| C．A man who lives happily with family and friends. |
| D．A man who gets wealth and happiness from others. |
