Finally, the holidays are upon us! What better way to spend the hot days ahead than curled up on the sofa with a cold drink?
Atomic Habits by James Clear
If you’re looking for some self-reflection time these holidays, then you absolutely need to read Atonic Habits. This book is one of the world’s best-selling works in self-help and is sure to awaken some new thoughts within you.
Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
This novel consists of three stories about a massive snowstorm in a small North Carolina town, and all feature some aspect of romance. Reviewers have praised the novel’s strong characters and humorous hidden meanings. The stories are appealing and optimistic, and would make for a wonderful holiday read! You can also watch its movie edition to find out more!
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Shiver revolves around the main character, Grace, who becomes convinced that a wolf is watching over her and protecting her each winter. She loves to watch the wolves, but she especially loves to watch a wolf with beautiful, yellow eyes, who watches back. When her wolf becomes a human named Sam, they instantly fall in love with each other. Are you hooked yet? The novel has been adapted for the screen.
A Year of Sundays by Belinda Jeffery
If you’re looking for a soft reminder to enjoy your slow days, this book, A Year of Sundays, is the perfect holiday pick-me-up. Join Belinda Jeffery as she shares the recipes and memories that made up her memorable year of Sundays. This is however more than just a cookbook! It is reflective, inspiring and a beautiful reminder to slow down.
1. What is the book Atomic Habits probably about?| A．The rules of physics. | B．The harms of bad habits. |
| C．The methods of self-study. | D．The ways to reshape ourselves. |
| A．It has co-authors. | B．It was made into a film. |
| C．It teaches survival skills. | D．It creates humorous characters. |
| A．Atomic Habits. | B．Let it Snow. | C．Shiver. | D．A Year of Sundays. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Two decades ago, Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston. More than 70,000 houses were flooded, including the home of Sarah Feldman and her family.
At the time, they were in Connecticut on vacation, so they didn’t know what kind of damage they were going to face when they got home to Texas. But then Feldman’s grandparents called with bad news: all of her books had been destroyed in the flooding. Feldman was 14 at the time and loved reading.
To cheer her up, Feldman’s father took her to the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. When they arrived, she started a conversation with Bill Carver, a man who worked at the library.
“I asked him a bunch of questions like, ‘How do you keep all these rare books? What’s the oldest book you have?’” Feldman remembered. Carver answered all of Feldman’s questions. When she told him about her books being destroyed, he told her that he would send her a book in the mail, so she could restart her collection.
After returning to Houston, she received his gift, titled The Medieval Book by Barbara Shailor. Carver included a note that read:
Dear Sarah,
I have often thought of you and your family, and that terrible flood… As promised, with the letter is a rather scholarly book, which may be slightly mature(成熟) for your age, but I thought it might help you shape your new library collection. And as the years progress, this book may grow in value to you. Have a happy holiday season. Wish you and your loved ones all the best.
Yours,
Bill Carver
A lot has changed since Feldman received that book. Feldman is in her 30s now. She’s married and has a dog. But Carver’s gift has made a lifelong impact. “I’m interested in medieval art,” Feldman said. Feldman has tried to find Carver, but with no success. If she could speak to him today, she would like to tell him how much that small gesture meant to her.
1. What happened to Feldman?| A．She was stuck in a flood. |
| B．She lost her books in a flood. |
| C．She suffered the pain of losing her family. |
| D．She had to cancel her vacation because of a flood. |
| A．He ignored her need. |
| B．He mailed her a book. |
| C．He lent her a collection of books. |
| D．He asked her about her flood experience. |
| A．It is a cartoon book. |
| B．It was suitable for Feldman. |
| C．It has had a long-lasting effect on Feldman. |
| D．It was gifted by Barbara Shailor to Feldman. |
| A．Elderly and intelligent. | B．Creative and easy-going. |
| C．Kind-hearted and helpful. | D．Humorous and hard-working. |
Across America, libraries used to reach out to readers by sending bookmobiles into school parking lots, street corners and rural byways (侧道). Now, those rolling reading rooms are becoming fewer.
One town in northern New England just lost its bookmobile. The Cobleigh Public Library in Lyndonville, Vt., had managed to keep its van (有蓬货车) rolling until about a month ago, when it died.
If you want to hear first-hand what it’s like to go through a whole month without a single visit from the bookmobile, just ask the preschoolers at a daycare centre.
“We miss the bookmobile,” one child says. “Yeah, we miss the bookmobile until it comes here,” says another.
Now that the bookmobile has broken down, librarians have to bring books in their own cars for story hour. Daycare provider Anneka Bickford says it’s not as exciting as having a big, brightly painted van roll into the driveway and open its doors so the kids can choose their own books.
“It’s getting the children involved with what a library is, how to check out books and how to return books,” Bickford says. “They would do programs with the children; singing, dancing, themes—so it’s the excitement of the library that we can’t give to the children.”
It’s not the first bookmobile to bite the dust. Over the years, Vermont’s large number has reduced to three or four. Lyndonville’s head librarian, Cindy Karasinski, says replacement costs have risen quickly.
“New bookmobiles are expensive; just one of them costs $90,000,” she says, “so that seems not the way we are going to go.” Sadly, Karasinksi says, money that used to support bookmobiles has nearly dried up.
However, not everyone hopes the Cobleigh bookmobile gets a second chance. Some in town feel the bookmobile has served its purpose and become a financial burden (财政负担).
1. What’re bookmobiles? (no more than 5 words)2. What can kids do with the help of bookmobiles in the opinion of Anneka Bickford? (no more than 15 words) .
3. What does the underlined phrase “bite the dust” in Paragraph 7 most probably mean? (no more than 5 words)
4. What leads to the disappearance of bookmobiles? (no more than 10 words)
5. What’s your own opinion on bookmobiles according to the passage? (no more than 25 words)
Kimberley Starr
Astronomer Lucy Rutherford lies trapped beneath stars. Her 11-year-old daughter, Gabby, says to her power-hungry father, Justin, that her mother is not away on a work trip but is missing. However, Justin, who is running for political office, ignores Gabby’s concerns. Desperate to hear from her mother, Gabby takes matters into her own hands.
The Scrap Iron Flotilla
Mike Carlton
When World War Ⅱ broke out, the Australian government sent five ageing WWI navy destroyers to the Mediterranean. Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels teased that they were a load of “scrap iron”. The crews, a mixture of inexperienced sailors and old officers, proudly named their fleet the “Scrapiron Flotilla” while displaying great bravery and determination under fire.
I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki
Baek Se-Hee
Tteokbokki is simply a Korean comfort food. Baek, a successful social media director, suffers from light depression. This part memoir, part self-help book is a record of the therapy she received in an attempt to find the fundamental causes of her low feelings so she can move in a healthier direction — and reassure others who have similar anxieties that they are not alone.
Stone Town
Margaret Hickey
Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti returns to his home town. The detective’s hopes for a quiet life are quickly interrupted by the murder of a property developer and the disappearance of a female police officer. As Ariti struggles to make sense of the cases, his investigation is threatened by small-town secrets. Like Hickey’s first novel, Cutters End, this equally satisfying thriller has interesting twists.
1. Who is the author of The Map Of Night?| A．Rutherford. | B．Gabby. | C．Justin. | D．Starr. |
| A．The Map Of Night | B．The Scrap Iron Flotilla |
| C．I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki | D．Stone Town |
| A．It is a folk tale. | B．It is about crime. |
| C．It’s the author’s first work. | D．It is the best seller. |
Gwyneth Paltrow and Victoria Beckham are fans of the Tracy Anderson Method, which involves dance-based classes using body resistance and very light hand weights. Her online programme includes a new weekly workout, as well as access to existing classes, her digital magazine and meal planning guides. It’s at ￡69 per month, but you get a discount for annual membership.tracyanderson.com
RoarThe singer Ellie Goulding and the fashion designer Henry Holland are said to be fans of Roar’s daily live classes, which include the Overdrive—a high energy weights-based workout focusing on upper-body strengthening and cardiovascular fitness. Their founder, the three times Olympian speed skater Sarah Lindsay, has also trained the broadcaster Piers Morgan and the DJ Nick Grimshaw. There’s a 14-day free trial, then membership starts at โ12.50per month with live daily workouts and unlimited access to the library. roar-fitness.com
CentrThe Thor actor Chris Hemsworth and his personal trainer Luke Zocchi launched the Centr app in 2019. It features 20 and 40-minute session s of HIIT, Pilates, yoga, boxing and guided meditation, plus recipe ideas, a meal planner and stress and well being support. It’s offering a free seven-day trial, and starts from £7.83permonth. centr.com
Get It DoneThe former professional footballer and celebrity trainer Bradley Simmonds launched his platform, Get It Done, in 2020. The app includes daily live streamed and on-demand classes featuring yoga, core fitness and strength. From ￡22 per month. Getitdone. fitness
1. What do Tracy Anderson and Centr have in common?| A．Dance-based classes. | B．Special magazines. |
| C．Meal planning guides. | D．A free trial period. |
| A．Tracy Anderson. | B．Roar. | C．Centr. | D．Get It Done. |
| A．Professional athletes. | B．Fitness enthusiasts. |
| C．Famous celebrities. | D．Personal trainers. |
【推荐2】What Is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a large language model chatbot developed by OpenAI based on GPT=3. 5 (Click to learn more). It has a remarkable ability to interact in a conversational dialogue form and provide responses that can appear surprisingly human. Large language models perform the task of predicting the next word in a series of words.
Is ChatGPT Free To Use?
The use of ChatGPT is currently free during the “research preview” time. The chatbot is currently open for users to try out and provide feedback on the responses so that the AI can become better at answering questions and to learn from its mistakes. However, ChatGPT is envisioned as a tool that the public will eventually have to pay to use.
How Can ChatGPT Be Used?
ChatGPT can write code, poems, songs, and even short stories in the style of a specific author. The expertise in following directions elevates ChatGPT from an information source to a tool that can be asked to accomplish a task. This makes it useful for writing an essay on virtually any topic. ChatGPT can function as a tool for generating outlines for articles or even entire novels. It will provide a response for virtually any task that can be answered with written text.
Limitations
●ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. Fixing this issue is challenging, as: (1) during RL training, there’s currently no source of truth; (2) training the model to be more cautious causes it to decline questions that it can answer correctly; and (3) supervised training misleads the model because the ideal answer depends on what the model knows, rather than what the human demonstrator knows.
●ChatGPT is sensitive to tweaks (微调) to the input phrasing or attempting the same prompt multiple times. For example, given one phrasing of a question, the model can claim to not know the answer, but given a slight rephrase (重新措辞), it can answer correctly.
●While we’ve made efforts to make the model refuse inappropriate requests, it will sometimes respond to harmful instructions or exhibit biased behavior. We’re using the Moderation API to warn or block certain types of unsafe content, but we expect it to have some false negatives and positives for now. We’re eager to collect user feedback to aid our ongoing work to improve this system.
1. Which of the following tasks can NOT be performed by ChatGPT?| A．Writing a poem. | B．Drawing a painting. |
| C．Writing a song. | D．Creating a short story in O. Henry’s style. |
| A．It only gives true answers. |
| B．It is free of charge at the moment. |
| C．Its limitations are easy to overcome. |
| D．It can respond to harmful questions sometimes. |
| A．A website. | B．A brochure. | C．A leaflet. | D．A novel. |
【推荐3】We are currently looking for responsible teenagers and young adults to assist with Summer Camp. Youth Teaching Assistants (YTA) are aged 15 and older and offer support to the instructors. YTA options will be available from June 22 to August 21 on a weekly basis. Summer Camp meets for a five-day week, Monday through Friday. Summer Camp is held on the National Mall in the S. Dillon Ripley Center, unless otherwise stated.
Serving as a YTA provides an outstanding way for teens to be involved with a national organization, the Smithsonian Institution. Assisting a professional Instructor, YTAs are introduced to the world of teaching. The wide range of programs offers YTAs the opportunity to experience and learn about subjects such as art, science, or theater. YTAs earn community service credits and also have an interesting experience to add to an application for college or a future job.
Some of YTA responsibilities are as follows:
You will be given a monitor packet for your class. This packet contains a list of participant names and other important information. It must be given to the YTA supervisor(管理者) at the end of the day and should not be taken home.
Arrive at 8:15 a. m. on Mondays and 8:30 a. m. the rest of the week. During this time, you will help the instructor prepare for class.
Wear your name tag(标签) at all times. You need it to assure access to the Ripley Center every morning.
Make sure you have a name tag for each camper as well.
Hand out and collect student evaluations at the end of class on the last day. Don’t forget to give the instructors their evaluations to fill out.
Mobile phone use must be limited to break times or emergencies. Please do not use it during the times when you are attending to campers, especially drop-off and pick-up times.
1. What can we learn about Summer Camp?| A．It will last for more than two months. |
| B．It is targeted at teenagers aged 15 and above. |
| C．It offers campers a two-day break every week. |
| D．Its teachers are from the S. Dillon Ripley Center. |
| A．The benefits of being a YTA. |
| B．The responsibilities of being a YTA. |
| C．The subjects that Summer Camp covers. |
| D．The introduction to the Smithsonian Institution. |
| A．can’t go home at night. |
| B．can’t use mobile phones. |
| C．should prepare for the next day’s classes. |
| D．should arrive 15 minutes earlier on Mondays. |
| A．A daily schedule. | B．An advertisement. |
| C．An announcement. | D．A plan for a camp. |
