【推荐1】I start every summer with the best of intentions: to attack one big book from the past, a classic that I was supposed to have read when young and ambitious. Often the pairings of books and settings have been purely accidental: Moby Dick on a three-day cross-country train trip; The Magic Mountain in a New England beachside cottage with no locks on the doors, no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and little to do beyond row on the salt pond. Attempting The Man Without Qualities on a return to Hawaii, my native state, however, was less fruitful: I made it through one and a quarter volumes, then decided that I’d got the point and went swimming instead.

But this summer I find myself at a loss. I’m not quite interested in Balzac, say, or Tristram Shandy. There’s always War and Peace, which I’ve covered some distance several times, only to get bogged down in the “War” part, set it aside for a while, and realize that I have to start over from the beginning again, having forgotten everyone’s name and social rank. How appealing to simply fall back on a favorite — once more into The Waves or Justine, which feels almost like cheating, too exciting and too much fun to properly belong in serious literature.

And then there’s Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, which happens to be the name of my favorite cocktail of the summer, created by Micheal Cecconi at Savoy and Back Forty. It is easy to drink and knocking back three or four seems like such a delightful idea. Cecconi’s theory: “I take whatever’s fresh at the green market and turn it into liquid.” The result is a pure shot of afternoon in the park, making one feel cheerful and peaceful all at once, lying on uncut grass with eyes shut, sun beating through the lids…

1. What can we infer about the author from the first paragraph?

A．He enjoys reading when travelling.	B．He shows talents for literature.
C．He has a cottage in New England.	D．He admires a lot of great writers.

2. What do the underlined words “get bogged down” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Get confused.

B．Make no progress.

C．Be interrupted.

D．Be carried away.

3. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．To Read or Not to Read	B．My Summer Holidays
C．The Book of Summer	D．It’s Never Too Late to Read5

【推荐3】A librarian in Indonesia’s Java island is lending books to children in exchange for trash they collect in a creative way to clean up the environment and get the kids to read more.

Each weekday Raden Roro Hendarti rides her three-wheeler with books piled up at the back for children in Muntang village to exchange for plastic cups, bags and other waste that she carries back.

She told Reuters she is helping to get the kids reading as well as make them aware of the environment. As soon as she shows up, little children, many accompanied by their mothers, surround her “Trash Library” and request for the books. They are all carrying waste bags and Raden’s three-wheeler quickly fills up with them as the books fly out. She’s happy that with her mobile service, the kids are going to spend less time on online games as a result.

“Let us build a culture of literacy from young age to lessen the harm of the online world,” Raden said. “We should also take care of our waste in order to fight climate change and to save the earth from trash,” Raden said.

She collects about 100kg of waste each week, which is then sorted out by her colleagues and sent for recycling or sold. She has around 6,000 books to lend and wants to take it to neighbouring areas as well.

Kevin Alamsyah, an 11-year-old reader, searches for waste lying in the village. “When there   is too much trash, our environment will become dirty and it’s not healthy. That’s why I look for trash to borrow a book,” he says.

The literacy rate for above 15-year-olds in Indonesia is around 96 percent, but a September report by the World Bank warned that the outbreak of COVID-19 will leave more than 80% of 15-year-olds below the minimum reading proficiency level identified by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

1. Which of the following is not likely to be exchanged for a book from the “Trash Library”?

A．A plastic cup.

B．A new three-wheeler.

C．A waste bag.

D．A broken basin.

2. How does Kevin Alamsyah probably find the “Trash Library”?

A．Meaningful.

B．Costly.

C．Interesting.

D．Unhelpful.

3. What message does the author convey about 15-year-olds in Indonesia?

A．They are financially poor.	B．They read widely.
C．They would lose their identities.	D．They should do more reading.

4. Which of the following proverbs best describes Raden’s work as a librarian?

A．Knowledge is power.	B．It is never too old to learn.
C．Kill two birds with one stone.	D．There is no royal road to learning.

【推荐1】In 1975, a San Diego homemaker named Marjorie Rice came across a column in Scientific American about tiling (瓷砖). There is a problem which has interested mathematicians since ancient Greek times. After Rice’s chance encounter with tiling, family members often saw her in the kitchen constantly drawing shapes. “I thought she was just drawing casually,” her daughter Kathy said. But Rice who took only one year of math in high school, was actually discovering never-before-seen patterns.

Born in Florida, she loved learning and particularly her brief exposure to math, but tight budget and social culture prevented her family from even considering that she might attend college. “For Rice, math was a pleasure,” her son David once said.

Rice gave one of her sons a subscription to Scientific American partly because she could read it carefully while the children were at school. When she read Gardner’s column about tiling as she later recalled in an interview: “I thought it must be wonderful that someone could discover these beautiful patterns which no one had seen before.” She also wrote in an essay, “My interest was engaged by the subject and I wanted to understand every detail of it. Lacking a mathematical background, I developed my own symbol system and in a few months discovered a new type.”

Astonished and delighted, she sent her work to Gardner, who sent it to Doris, a tiling expert at Moravian College. Doris confirmed that Rice’s finding was correct.

Later, Rice declined to lecture on her discoveries, citing shyness, but at Doris’s invitation, she attended a university mathematics meeting, where she was introduced to the audience. Rice still said nothing of her achievements to her children, but they eventually found out as the awards mounted.

1. Why did Rice often draw shapes in the kitchen?

A．To become a mathematician.	B．To fill her leisure time.
C．To explore the secret of tiling.	D．To show her passion for drawing.

2. What can we learn about Rice from Paragraphs 2 and 3?

A．She longed to start a column.	B．She succeeded in developing a system.
C．She was good at designing patterns.	D．She was rejected from a college.

3. What is the text mainly about?

A．The magic of math.	B．The patterns of tiling.
C．The modesty of Rice.	D．The efforts of Rice.

4. What can we learn from the Rice’s experience?

A．Every cloud has a silver lining.	B．Actions speak louder than words.
C．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.	D．Great minds think alike.

【推荐2】It was at ten o’clock today that the first of all Time Machines began its career.I gave it a last check,and sat myself in the leather seat.I pushed the starting lever on the main panel forwards an inch then immediately backwards again. Looking around,I saw my laboratory exactly as before. Had anything happened? I thought my mind had tricked me. Then I saw the clock. A moment before,it was a minute or so past ten;now it was nearly half past three!

I drew a breath,gripped the lever and pushed it forwards. The laboratory went hazy around me. My niece came in to fetch something,maybe her handkerchief, apparently without seeing me.It probably took her a minute, but to me she moved like a rocket!

It is hard to explain the strange and unpleasant feeling of time travelling.It felt like I was being driven fast on a winding road.As my pace grew faster,the walls of the laboratory fell away,and I was left in the open air. Around me I saw trees growing like puffs of smoke; they grew,spread, and died in moments. I saw huge buildings rise up, then disappear like in a dream. I calculated that I was being pushed through time at hundreds of years a minute.

I had a strong urge to look at the random things that were being flashed before my eyes! I had thought about the risk of stopping the Time Machine many times.So long as I travelled at maximum speed, it didn’t matter.But if I stopped and the same space was being occupied by something else, we would be forced together and explode like a bomb! Like an impatient fool, I pulled the lever backwards hard. With a sudden jolt, the Time Machine was flipped on its side, and I was thrown through the air.

I was stunned for a moment,and then heard the sound of thunder. I was sitting in the rain in some mud next to the machine.“A fine welcome.”I said,“for a man who has travelled thousands of years to be here!“

1. How does the Time Traveller first know he has travelled through time?

A．He saw his niece came in.	B．He saw the clock move forwards.
C．He checked the main panel.	D．He found the laboratory changed.

2. How does the Time Traveller feel when traveling through time?

A．Excited.

B．Curious.

C．Frightened.

D．Uncomfortable.

3. Why is the Time Traveller worried about stopping the machine?

A．The Time Traveller would return to the past.

B．The Time Traveller would end up in the rain.

C．It would cause great danger to the Time Traveller.

D．The Time Traveller would become impatient and foolish.

4. Where is the text probably taken from?

A．A news report.

B．A short novel.

C．A science fiction.

D．A biography.

【推荐1】Ian McKenna was in third grade when he learned that many kids at his school weren’t getting enough to eat at home. He wanted to help, but local volunteer organizations turned him away, saying he was too young. So he decided to find his own solution. For years, he had been gardening with his mother, and they often sent their vegetables to the neighbors. “I’m good at gardening,” said McKenna. “Why not plant a garden at school so that kids in need can take food home?”

McKenna persuaded his school to set aside space for a garden; then he asked the community for donations of seeds and equipment. Other students donated their time. Within months, McKenna’s garden was producing lettuces, tomatoes and cucumbers for students and their families. Now, several years later, McKenna’s Giving Garden project has expanded to five area schools in addition to his own backyard garden. For most of his gardening activities, McKenna wears the same T-shirt in different colors, with his personal motto on it: BE A GOOD HUMAN. To him, that means helping in any way you can, no matter what your age.

“Even a smile might change someone’s life,” he said. “It lets them know that they are important. It can make their day.”

When COVID-19 hit the U. S., McKenna redoubled his efforts, cooking up to 100 meals to distribute (分发) them to the hungry on the weekends. When social distancing meant that volunteers couldn’t work on their community garden, he started offering online classes and a gardening hotline so families could grow at home. While gardening is his core focus, McKenna says he is always looking for new ways to help the hungry.

1. What led to McKenna’s decision to help the kids in his own way?

A．His school’s support.

B．His mother’s suggestion.

C．Being good at gardening.

D．Being refused by volunteer groups.

2. What do we know about the Giving Garden project?

A．It helps students only.

B．It is funded by schools.

C．It earns great profits every year.

D．It started with the support from many sides.

3. Which of the following can best describe Mckenna?

A．Caring.	B．Outgoing.
C．Honest.	D．Interesting.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Ian McKenna, Growing a Food Project

B．Ian McKenna, an Experienced Gardener

C．The Giving Garden Project, a Challenging Task

D．The Giving Garden Project, a Universal Solution