I was 16 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for shopping?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book — it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises—and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role — as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student — in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed in something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imagination. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
What can we infer from the last paragraph?| A．I was aware of the subtle things back then. |
| B．I simply learnt how to write on the internet. |
| C．Hemingway’s style influenced me a lot. |
| D．Becoming a writer was my childhood dream. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to resist the temptation.
......
On the whole, Brooks’s story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discover how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks’s attempt to translate his tale into science.
What is the author likely to write about after the last paragraph?| A．Problems with the book. |
| B．Brooks’s life experience. |
| C．Death of the characters. |
| D．Brooks’s translation skills. |
【推荐2】At first, she drove through Montana and then she made her first cross-country trip in 2016. After she retired in 2017, it became a full-time job all year round. Collins and her mobile bookstore have visited 30 states, stopping at festivals and events along the way. While the locations change, some things always stay the same. Collins loves meeting people and making connections. While she loves what she does, Collins doesn’t think she can keep doing it. In several years, she hopes to pass her traveling bookstore onto another bibliophile who shares the same interest and will keep it on the road.
What does the underlined word “bibliophile” in the last paragraph mean?| A．A book lover. | B．A publisher. |
| C．A famous writer. | D．An editor. |
A. We can easily download new e-books from the Internet.
B. But e-book readers are still more expensive than paper books, so not all people can afford them.
C. Just as email has changed the way we write to each other, e-books are changing the way we read.
D. Besides, it is much easier and quicker to search for passages now, and we can also write notes in an e-book.
E. However, with the rapid development of electronic technology, reading e-books will become cheaper and cheaper.
【推荐1】On the first day of my senior high, the campus was still quiet
| A．when | B．since | C．before |
| A．looked | B．am looking | C．was looking |
| A．which | B．what | C．if |
| A．will find | B．found | C．find |
【推荐2】To me, inspirations mean to put my thoughts, heart, and creations into my jewelry. Sometimes I become so inspired with what I’m working on that I can finish one or more sets in less than an hour. Because of that feeling, I have named my jewelry collection “Inspirations”.
I am a 17-year-old senior with sickle-cell anemia. With this, I am in and out of the hospital a lot. So I started making jewelry a year ago when I was in the hospital. I really needed something to do, so I was introduced to jewelry making by a child life expert.
One day while lying in my hospital bed, I decided to get up and go to the patient’s playroom, and look through the craft designs. That was when I became inspired to design my jewelry collection, and named it “Inspirations”.
When I’m not sick, I try to keep a positive attitude through reading, schoolwork, and craft activities. Even though it’s a lot of work, I try to stay focus at all times. When I need a break or just to be free I turn to my craft activities. This is a way to ease my mind and it always helps me to especially get through those stressful times.
I am getting very excited about graduating next year and preparing myself for college. Who knows my collection of Inspirations, would take me to the places I always dreamed of? I may see celebrities I admire and even sell them some of my beautiful “Inspirations”. If they wear my “Inspirations,” it will become well known and more demanding. What a great way to make some extra money for college! I never thought being sick would bring me “Inspirations”. I want people to look beyond my illness and see the creations I’ve made in my collection called “Inspirations”.
What is the best title of the passage?| A．My Jewelry Collection |
| B．My Illness |
| C．Creating Inspirations |
| D．How to Get Through Bad Times |
【推荐3】In early 2021, I hit a rut in my studies. As a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago in Illinois, I worked to design safer, more effective materials for vaccine delivery. Although I had been productive early in my graduate career, my long hours and hard work were no longer translating into success in the laboratory, and I felt hopeless about achieving my goals. Something had to change.
......
What does the underlined part “hit a rut” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Stopped progressing smoothly. | B．Had very slow reactions. |
| C．Accepted hard work’s value. | D．Overcame a big problem. |
【推荐1】Tune in to a college football match in America, and you might think that you are watching a professional rather than an amateur sport. The biggest stadiums routinely fill over 100,000 seats. Corporate sponsorships are common. Television broadcasts are filled with ads for expensive pick-up trucks and beers. In all, America’s college athletic departments brought in a combined $18.1bn of revenue (收益) in 2017, up from $9.8bn in 2007.
Despite the popularity of their output, college athletes receive no salary. The National College Athletic Association (NCAA), which governs college sports, has long forbidden its players to receive any reward. The ordinance has caused public discussion and disagreement. After years of legal challenges and intense public scrutiny(监督), the NCAA’s restriction on paying student athletes is at last starting to crack.
On September 10th, California passed a bill which would allow athletes at colleges in the state with profitable sports programs to hire agents and earn money on the side through sponsorship deals or autograph(签名) sales. The bill still needs to be signed by the governor, and would not come into effect until 2023.
Some lawmakers would like to go one step further. Senator Bernie Sanders put it plainly on Twitter: “College athletes are workers. Pay them.” Yet treating athletes as employees could make things more complicated. Would this mean that colleges would pay their female players as much as males, for example, even if the men bring in more revenue?
Richard Borghesi, an economist at the University of South Florida-Sarasota, has written a pair of papers looking at how much top athletes would make if they were paid according to their ability to generate revenue for their colleges. Mr Borghesi estimates that the top 10% of football and 16% of basketball players would be paid around $400,000 and $250,000 a year respectively.
The NCAA opposes California’s efforts. The association notes that college athletes are already rewarded in the form of scholarships, and argues that they shouldn’t get any further reward as amateur players. The NCAA has also threatened to ban Californian colleges from competing in national championships.
Although the NCAA’s objections may have been reasonable at some point, they make little sense today. The two most profitable college sports, American football and basketball, are highly competitive. Many universities are willing to make every effort to admit talented players.
What does the author think of the NCAA’s disapproval?
| A．It seemed harmful. | B．It will end in vain. |
| C．It sounds ridiculous. | D．It will lead to confusion. |
【推荐2】Returning to a book you’ve read many times can feel like drinks with an old friend. There’s a welcome familiarity — but also sometimes a slight suspicion that time has changed you both, and thus the relationship. But books don’t change, people do. And that’s what makes the act of rereading so rich and transformative.
The beauty of rereading lies in the idea that our bond with the work is based on our present mental register. It’s true, the older I get, the more I feel time has wings. But with reading, it’s all about the present. It’s about the now and what one contributes to the now, because reading is a give and take between author and reader. Each has to pull their own weight.
Why does the author like rereading?
| A．It evaluates the writer-reader relationship. |
| B．It’s a window to a whole new world. |
| C．It’s a substitute for drinking with a friend. |
| D．It extends the understanding of oneself. |
【推荐3】Rome can be pricey for travelers, which is why many choose to stay in a hostel (旅社). The hostels in Rome offer a bed in a dorm room for around $25 a night, and for that, you’ll often get to stay in a central location (位置) with security and comfort.
What is probably the major concern of travelers who choose to stay in a hostel?
| A．Comfort. | B．Security. |
| C．Price. | D．Location. |
