I never knew anyone who’d grown up in Jackson without being afraid of Mrs. Calloway our librarian. She ran Jackson’s Carnegie Library absolutely by herself. SILENCE in big black letters was on signs hung everywhere. If she thought you were dressed improperly, she sent you straight back home to change your clothes. I was willing;I would do anything to read.
My mother was not afraid of Mrs. Calloway. She wished me to have my own library card to check out books for myself, She took me in to introduce me. “Eudora is nine years old and has my permission to read any book she wants from the shelves, children or adults,” Mother said.
Mrs. Calloway made her own rules about books. You could not take back a book to the library on the same day you`d taken it out;it made no difference to her that you’d read every word in it and needed another to start. You could take out two books at a time and two only. So two by two, I read library books as fast as I could go, rushing them home in the basket of my bicycle. From the minute I reached our house, I started to read. I knew this was extreme happiness, knew it at the time.
My mother shared this feeling of mine. Now, I think of her as reading so much of the time while doing something else. I remember her reading a magazine while taking the part of the Wolf in a game of “Little Red Riding Hood” with my brother’s two daughters. She’d just look up at the right time, long enough to answer– in character –“The better to eat you with, my dear,” and go back to her place in the magazine article.
Where is the text probably from?| A．guidebook. |
| B．an autobiography. |
| C．a news report. |
| D．book review. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Terri Bolton is a dab hand when it comes to DIY (do-it-yourself). Skilled at putting up shelves and piecing together furniture, she never pays someone else to do a job she can do herself.
She credits these skills to her late grandfather and builder Derek Lloyd. From the age of six, Terri, now 26, accompanied Derek to work during her school holidays. A day’s work was rewarded with £5 in pocket money. She says: “I’m sure I wasn’t much of a help to start with, painting the rooms and putting down the flooring throughout the house. It took weeks and it was backbreaking work, but I know he was proud of my skills.”
Terri, who now rents a house with friends in Wandsworth, South West London, says DIY also saves her from losing any deposit when a tenancy (租期) comes to an end. She adds: “I’ve moved house many times and I always like to personalise my room and put up pictures, so, it’s been useful to know how to cover up holes and repaint a room to avoid any charges when I’ve moved out.”
With millions of people likely to take on DIY projects over that coming weeks, new research shows that more than half of people are planning to make the most of the long, warm summer days to get jobs done. The average spend per project will be around £823. Two thirds of people aim to improve their comfort while at home. Two fifths wish to increase the value of their house. Though DIY has traditionally been seen as male hobby, the research shows it is women now leading the charge.
1. How did Terri avoid losing the deposit on the house she rented?| A．By making it look like before. |
| B．By furnishing it herself. |
| C．By splitting the rent with a roommate. |
| D．By cancelling the rental agreement. |
| A．It is becoming more costly. |
| B．It is getting more time-consuming. |
| C．It is turning into a seasonal industry. |
| D．It is gaining popularity among females. |
【推荐2】Ismael Esteban, in third place, was just ahead of his competitor, Agustin Navarro, with only 300 metres to the finishing line. Esteban had been cycling as hard as he could for hours and with the finishing line in sight all the cyclists began to speed up to cross it. Then, suddenly Esteban got a puncture. What should he do? Give up or continue? Esteban threw his bike over his shoulders and raced towards the finishing line.
Just a few seconds later, fourth-placed Navarro caught up with him. Surely, he could simply overtake Esteban and come third. But Navarro slowed down and let Esteban run ahead of him. The two cyclists reached the finishing line with Esteban ahead on foot, Navarro just behind him. Navarro had let Esteban finish in third place, while he came fourth. The audience was amazed at his show of sportsmanship and cheered and clapped for the cyclists. After the race, Navarro said, “I didn’t want to win that way.” Later, Esteban, who won the bronze medal, tried to give his medal to Navarro. However, Navarro refused and his response was: “Offering me the prize was worth more than what I did for him.”
1. What can show the cyclists’ sportsmanship?| A．Esteban offered Navarro his medal. | B．Navarro refused to overtake Esteban. |
| C．Esteban refused to accept the medal. | D．Navarro sped up to catch up with Esteban. |
| A．Support the teammates. | B．Respect the rules of the game. |
| C．Practice leads to perfect performance. | D．Don’t take advantage of others’ troubles. |
Millions of dollars have been used in developing special chemicals to help dismiss the spills and to clean up the animals, beaches, and land spoiled by the oil. Unfortunately, when many of these chemicals are used, more damage is caused to the environment, especially to lives in the sea.
Of all of today’s environmental disasters, an oil spill may actually be one of the least serious. Although oil is poisonous, it is a natural material. In the end, it breaks down naturally. There are, of course, long-term effects, but it is usually more serious in the short term.
Nature by itself works better than chemical materials, but when there is a spill we demand that governments act immediately with as much hi-tech knowledge as possible. In 1967 the tanker Torrey Canyon sank off the Scilly Isles near the coast of England and spilled 120,000 tones of oil into the ocean. If you go there today, you will find it hard to see any sign that it ever happened.
Governments seem to accept the risk of transporting millions of tons of oil by ship every day so that we can fill up our cars and drive around and cause even more environmental damage. Interestingly, the biggest companies in the world produce cars, and the next biggest supply the gasoline to make them run!
We should be thinking more about reducing our dependency on oil. Governments should be encouraging research into new technologies, such as cars run by solar power(太阳能), electricity, hydrogen, and so on. Much of this research has, in the past, been held back by the oil, gas, and coal.
If the world’s millions of cars were 10% more efficient(高效的) — and the industry could easily produce cars at least twice as efficient — we would need many fewer tankers crossing the oceans each year. If this happened, the risks of oil spills would be reduced, and the air we breathe would be cleaner and fresher, too.
1. What is the passage mainly talking about?
| A．Oil spills pollution. | B．What oil pollution is. |
| C．Oil tanker accidents. | D．How to reduce oil pollution. |
| A．By giving a description. | B．By making an argument. |
| C．By giving an example. | D．By drawing a diagram. |
| A．Transportation depending more on oil. | B．Poisonous oil breaking down naturally. |
| C．Millions of tons of oil spilling into the sea. | D．More environmental damage being caused. |
| A．We should build safer oil tankers in the near future. |
| B．We should develop new technologies to cut oil use. |
| C．Tankers should not be allowed to sail near the coastlines. |
| D．Countries should build more oil pipelines under the sea. |
【推荐1】In 1916, two girls of wealthy families, best friends from Auburn, N. Y. — Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood — traveled to a settlement in the Rocky Mountains to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. The girls had gone to Smith College. They wore expensive clothes. So for them to move to Elkhead, Colo. to instruct the children whose shoes were held together with string was a surprise. Their stay in Elkhead is the subject of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden, who is a magazine editor and Dorothy Woodruff’s granddaughter.
Why did they go then? Well, they wanted to do something useful. Soon, however, they realized what they had undertaken.
They moved in with a local family, the Harrisons, and, like them, had little privacy, rare baths, and a blanket of snow on their quilt when they woke up in the morning. Some mornings, Rosamond and Dorothy would arrive at the schoolhouse to find the children weeping from the cold. In spring, the snow was replaced by mud over ice.
In Wickenden’s book, she expanded on the history of the West and also on feminism, which of course influenced the girls’ decision to go to Elkhead. A hair-raising section concerns the building of the railroads, which entailed (牵涉) drilling through the Rockies, often in blinding snowstorms. The book ends with Rosamond and Dorothy’s return to Auburn.
Wickenden is a very good storyteller. The sweep of the land and the stoicism (坚忍) of the people move her to some beautiful writing. Here is a picture of Dorothy Woodruff, on her horse, looking down from a hill top: “When the sun slipped behind the mountains, it shed a rosy glow all around them. Then a full moon rose. The snow was marked only by small animals: foxes, coyotes, mice, and varying hares, which turned white in the winter.”
1. What can we learn about the girls from paragraph 3?| A．They enjoyed much respect. | B．They had a room with a bathtub. |
| C．They lived with the local kids. | D．They suffered severe hardships. |
| A．A news report. | B．A book review. | C．A children’s story. | D．A diary entry. |
【推荐2】Grading Policies for Introduction to Literature
Grading Scale
90-100, A; 80-89, B; 70-79, C; 60-69, D; Below 60, E.
Essays (60%)
Your four major essays will combine to form the main part of the grade for this course: Essay 1 = 10%; Essay 2 = 15%; Essay 3 = 15%; Essay 4 = 20%.
Where is this text probably taken from?
| A．A textbook. | B．An exam paper. | C．A course plan. | D．An |
【推荐3】
Lakelander·2 hours ago
Today, a man talked very loud on his phone on a train between Malvern and Reading, making many passengers upset. I wonder how he would react if I were to read my newspaper out loud on the train. I have never had the courage to do it, though.
Pak50·57 minutes ago
Why not give it a try? Perhaps you should take lessons on a musical instrument. The late musician Dennis Brain is said to have asked a fellow train passenger to turn off his radio. When his request was refused, he took out his French horn (号) and started to practise.
Angie O’Edema·42 minutes ago
I don’t see how musical instruments can help improve manners in public. Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t like to be done to yourself. Once, a passenger next to me talked out loud on his mobile phone. I left my seat quietly, giving him some privacy to finish his conversation. He realized this and apologised to me. When his phone rang again later, he left his seat to answer it. You see, a bit of respect and cooperation can do the job better.
Taodas·29 minutes ago
I did read my newspaper out loud on a train, and it turned out well. The guy took it in good part, and we chatted happily all the way to Edinburgh.
Sophie76·13 minutes ago
I have not tried reading my newspaper out loud on a train, but, several years ago, I read some chapters from Harry Potter to my bored and noisy children. Several passengers seemed to appreciate what I did.
Where is the passage most probably taken from?
| A．A webpage. | B．A newspaper. | C．A novel. | D．A report. |
【推荐1】In two-and-a-half years, the pair still have to replenish their incomes with some writing and editing, but the business is growing and within five years they hope to be helping fund half a dozen research projects. It is a big task. “Some days we think it would be great to turn it off,” MacCallum says, “but when we see the wonder on the face of a person who is experiencing somewhere like the Galapagos for the first time, we know we are living a wonderful life.”
The underlined word “replenish" in Paragraph 4 means _________.
| A．consume | B．supply | C．reduce | D．control |
A. Unfortunately, during one of her challenging workouts, Emily suffered an injury. She had to shift her focus from intense physical activities to leisurely exercises that allowed her body to recover.
B. Emily was a senior high school student with a passion for sports. She had always been participating in various sports in secondary school. With a busy schedule, she would wake up early in the morning and hit the gym before her classes started. This routine not only helped her stay fit but also improved her confidence and competence.
C. As she gradually regained her strength, Emily revised her workout schedule and aimed for a balanced lifestyle. She started doing yoga for stress reduction. She attended regular class and set achievable goals, making sure to listen to her body.
D. During her recovery period, Emily turned to the Internet for guidance. As a digital native, she knew how to surf the Internet to find expert advice on staying fit during downtime. Meanwhile, she joined a voluntary organization that offered fitness programs for people with injuries. She connected with other injured athletes and found support in their shared experiences.
E. Emily’s journey showed the importance of adaptability in sports and fitness. Setbacks were not the end but rather an opportunity to grow and strengthen oneself both physically and mentally.
1. I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
2. Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently, I asked a friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied.
3. How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. If I can get so much pleasure from touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight? And I have imagined what I should most like to see if I were given the use of my eyes, say for just three days.
4. On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness and companionship have made my life worth living. I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “window of the soul”, the eye. I can only “see” through my fingertips the outline of a face. I should like to see the books which have been read to me, and which have revealed to me the deepest channels of human life and the human spirit. In the afternoon I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of nature. That night, I should not be able to sleep.
5. On my second day, I should like to see the pageant of man’s progress, and I should go to the museums. I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The things I knew through touch I should now see. The evening of my second day I should spend at a theater or at the movies.
