【推荐1】Several years ago, a cousin I had lost touch with since I was a teenager dropped by my house. At the living room entrance, he stopped in dead silence, his eyes fixed on the bookshelves covering the entire back wall. “Have you read them all?” he asked me, almost frightened. “Yes,” I said, “just about.” He shook his head in silence, as if this was a feat (技艺) that had demanded some effort. As for him, he had had to leave school at fourteen, working wherever he could. His family did not have books. I only ever recalled seeing the comic book Tarzan lying around on the table.

I often recall this scene with my cousin with unease. It hides another violent one. I was between fifteen and eighteen years old. I must have blamed my father for “not being interested in anything”, for reading only Paris-Normandie, the local newspaper. Usually so calm and tolerant regarding the rudeness of his only daughter, he replied seriously, “Books are good for you. But as for me, I don’t need them to live.”

These words stretch across time, fixed inside me, like a pain and an unbearable reality. I understood very well what my father meant. Reading Alexander Dumas, Flaubert, Camus would not have served any practical purpose in his work as a cafe owner. On the other hand, in the future he hoped for me, he vaguely knew that books held weight, and that they formed part of a defining package — “cultural baggage” — that included the theatre, the opera and winter sports — a superior social world. I understood all that and it was unacceptable. I refused to think that the world of books would stay forever closed to the human being who was dearest to me.

As I think about reasons for reading, my father’s words come back to me insistently, like a personal and unsolvable contradiction. No, to read is not to live but I have always lived with books.

1. What does Paragraph 1 tell us about the writer?

A．Her having read many books amazed her cousin.

B．Her cousin quit school early and had no books at all.

C．She completely finished reading the books on the shelves.

D．Her cousin was frightened to death upon seeing the books.

2. What does “one” refer to in Paragraph 2?

A．An idea.	B．An emotion.
C．A scene.	D．A relative.

3. What can’t the writer accept?

A．The bitter memory of a violent childhood.

B．The strict tone in which her father spoke.

C．The fear of falling short of her father’s expectations.

D．Her father’s ignorance of the importance of reading.

4. What is the passage going to talk about next?

A．Why the writer enjoys reading books.

B．What separates the writer from others.

C．What the writer’s father really meant.

D．How other conflicts erupted.

【推荐2】How long will it take you to read this article? On average, adults read about 240 words a minute, but I always take longer. I should probably feel embarrassed-but instead, I take joy in it.

I got the habit of reading for pleasure from my mum. Reading is what I do first thing in the morning and last thing at night. But it’s always taken me a long time. When I started reviewing books, I was averaging 20 pages an hour. I have improved to about 30 pages, but that’s still slow, according to some literary critics.

Book reviewers aren’t the only ones under pressure to read quickly. Pictures of “all the books I read this month” are all over social media. And reading has become a way of keeping up with the world. It is understandable that we try to make sense of events, but it can also fuel the idea that reading is a chore (苦差事), which it absolutely is not.

Why would pleasure be equal to pace? My slow reading seems to be down to a combination of slower processing speeds, and “subvocalising” — sounding out words as I read them. But especially when it comes to the latter, I wouldn’t want to train myself to go faster. It was news to me that not everyone subvocalises, because one of my favourite things about reading is hearing the language in my mind. Without subvocalising, I wouldn’t have caught the music of those words.

Recently, I finished a book of poetry. For two years, I read the poems each morning in the four minutes it took my coffee to be ready. It was a wonderful reminder that reading is never about quantity and always about the quality of time you spend with a text.

So when you read, don’t stick a number on it ---- resolve to read for pleasure, not as a chore.

1. Why does the author like slow reading?

A．It wins her fame online.	B．It is a delightful practice.
C．It comes from her mom.	D．It helps her reach goals.

2. What do fast readers focus on?

A．Quantity.

B．Quality.

C．Content.

D．Sound.

3. What do the underlined words “the latter” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Slower processing speeds.

B．Learning language.

C．Combining speeds and sounds.

D．Reading words out.

4. What would the author agree with?

A．Reading is a demanding task.

B．Pace equals reading pleasure.

C．Beauty of words needs tasting.

D．Poetry takes no effort to digest.

【推荐3】I have spent the past two decades in the classroom teaching literature, and what I deeply believe is that literature makes us more empathetic (同感的). The empathy we feel for characters can help us better connect with others.

While reading books，we compare the main characters’ actions to what we would do in a similar situation. The mind-reading we do when thinking through a character gives us practice taking on another person’s point of view. How do books manage to transport us into another person’s body? Taking a look at the brain— many regions that are actively involved with and work well together when we read— gives us a clue.

One of my favorite authors is Jane Austen. In one of my favorite studies» my literature students were given a Jane Austen novel to read inside a FMRI Machine (核磁共振机), which shows brain activities by testing changes in blood flow. Natalie Phillips, the literary scholar who worked on the study, supposed that the students, while reading, would experience a great increase in blood to the areas of the brain responsible for processing language. To her surprise, the students experienced a dramatic blood flowing increase to the areas that are responsible for their communication skills as well.

My students are those most in need of the increased brain connectivity that literature can lead to. When you read a passage about running through a forest, you would expect the area responsible for language processing to light up. It does— but the area, which is in charge of the body’s movements, lights up in the same way it would if you were actually running.

The students in my class are struggling over whether or not to choose to be an English major to be successful. If by “success” they mean the highest average starting salary perhaps I should lead them somewhere else from the English building. But if “success” means helping to create a more harmonious world, pull up a chair.

1. What does the author mainly talk about in paragraph 2?

A．How reading books influences us.	B．Who benefits from mind-reading.
C．When we should read books.	D．Why the characters’ opinions count.

2. How did Natalie Phillips draw her conclusion?

A．By giving some examples.	B．By making a comparison.
C．By carrying out experiments.	D．By listing some figures.

3. What does the author expect a successful English major to do?

A．To spread what is really successful.

B．To read more wonderful English books.

C．To help people live in a harmonious way.

D．To earn a lot money after graduation.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．More regions are involved with when we read

B．Literature helps us better connect with others

C．Most students try to be excellent English majors

D．Language processing affects blood flow in the brain