Books have great power. Between their pages, readers can be transported to anywhere imaginable and become just about anyone … or anything. Unfortunately, many children all over the world don’t have access to books! For several years now, Maria Keller, a 16-year-old girl from Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been changing that fact.
When she was 8 years old, Maria already loved reading. She also noticed that some of her classmates didn’t read as much as she did. When she asked her mother why that could be, her mother said that they might not be able to afford books. Maria had never thought of this. She could not believe that some children might not have bedtime stories read to them. She became determined to change this. With her mother’s help, Maria created Read Indeed, a non-profit organization committed to collecting and distributing books to children in need.
During the early stages of Read Indeed, Maria set the goal to collect and distribute 1 million books by the time she was 18. It didn’t take long to reach that goal! She reached her goal at age 13! Today, at age 16, she has collected over 2.8 million books and has shipped them to many states and countries around the world.
She says, “I cannot live without books. As I continue my mission, I have learned that the number of kids who have no books is in the hundreds of millions, so I just can’t leave off, even after reaching my original goal of 1 million books distributed.”
She recently set a new goal: to distribute donations to kids in need in every state in the United States, and every country in the world. She keeps track of her progress on a large map at the warehouse where they store and sort books. And now, as Maria prepares to attend college, her younger brother Ryan Keller is taking over Read Indeed.
1. What had young Maria never thought of? (no more than 10 words)2. What is the main idea of Para.2? (no more than 10 words)
3. What does the underlined phrase in Para.4 probably mean? (1 word)
4. Why will Ryan Keller be in charge of Reed Indeed? (no more than 5 words)
5. What can you learn from Maria’s story? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
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【推荐1】As a children's author and former English teacher, Abi Elphinstone has spent almost all of her life surrounded by the written word. Now an ambassador for the charity Coram Beanstalk, Ms Elphinstone plays a key role in championing the importance of literacy (读写能力）and the role played by its volunteers.
The charity has teamed up with the i (a British newspaper) to increase the number of its helpers, which it sends into schools to give children aged 3 to 13 who have fallen behind with their reading or are at risk of doing so support with their reading.
“I think there is an absolute need to reach kids who don't have access to books,” she said. “Just reading for 10 minutes a day improves a child’s achievement at school. Books show children the world is big and varied and full of wonder.”
And Ms Elphinstone knows first-hand how tricky reading is from her own experience. “In class when the teacher said 'could you read aloud', the words would jump all over the page and I’d stumble （结巴）and lose so much confidence,” she said. “That was difficult. Until way after leaving school, I just assumed I needed to put in a lot more work than other people to finish an essay or process information.”
Nowadays she thinks one of the biggest challenges is the competition books face from screens, which are being used by children for everything from videos and games to social media.
“There's so much demand on their time and it’s such an easy, quick-fix demand,” she said. “It's immediate satisfaction. Screens are loud and books whisper with quieter magic, but I think the effects are transformative and they are longer lasting than a Screen.”
This is where she thinks Coram Beanstalk can help, both with reading and also making children Feel valued.
1. Why did Coram Beanstalk work with the i ?| A．To advertise its ambassador. |
| B．To find more book donators. |
| C．To attract more people to volunteer. |
| D．To help increase the newspaper's subscription. |
| A．To teach children English. |
| B．To encourage reading in children. |
| C．To inspire children to write books. |
| D．To improve children's social skills. |
| A．She had limited access to books. |
| B．She could hardly finish reading a book. |
| C．She was afraid of reading loudly in public. |
| D．She seldom handed in her class essay on time. |
| A．They affect children in a quict way. |
| B．They have a short-term effect on children. |
| C．They offer children easy access to books. |
| D．They bring children transformative change. |
【推荐2】A simple, yet powerful UK program has been fighting elderly loneliness by recruiting young adults as volunteers to read to seniors with vision problems and mental diseases.
Lily has benefited from the program having her vision “restored” by 15-year-old Amy, a school girl who was paired with Lily through the Reading Friends project. Lily was a librarian and enthusiastic reader who would read “two to three books every week”. After developing a terrible disease, however, Lily found herself unable to read or watch television for any length of time without her eyes hurting.
Not only have Lily’s regular reading sessions with Amy helped to reconnect her with her passion for literature, they have also built a strong intergenerational friendship between the two ladies. “I chose a book and she would come along and read it to me,” Lily said. “But we have only got through two books so far because we end up chatting too much. We have read two historical novels and get on very well.”
Research shows that reading together can help older people to build social networks and connect with others. Evidence also shows that reading has a positive impact on the elderly’s wellbeing and can reduce the risk of developing mental diseases.
Rose, a teacher, is responsible for connecting schoolchildren like Amy with the program and she says that it has had an amazing impact on the youngsters. “We have wonderful young people at our school and we wanted to get them into the community,” Rose said. “It has been fantastic to see them blossom as well as improving their literacy and social skills. They are meeting community members like Lily that they are making friendships with, and library staff can help them, not only with education but outside as well.”
1. What is the main responsibility of volunteers according to the passage?| A．Read books to seniors. | B．Have a chat with seniors. |
| C．Fight diseases for seniors. | D．Make friends with seniors. |
| A．They benefit Lily a lot by restoring her vision. |
| B．They help Amy pick up her love for literature. |
| C．They help Lily volunteer in the reading project. |
| D．They build up the friendship between two ladies. |
| A．By reducing elderly loneliness. |
| B．By curing the elders of vision problems. |
| C．By improving their literacy and social skills. |
| D．By enabling them to read books for a long time. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. |
| C．A magazine. | D．A novel. |
【推荐3】Do you want to get home from work knowing you have made a real difference in someone’s life?
If yes, don’t care about sex or age! Come and join us, then you’ll make it!
Position: Volunteer Social Care Assistant
(No Pay with Free Meals)
Place: Manchester
Hours: Part Time
We are now looking for volunteers to support people with learning disabilities to live active lives! Only 4 days left. Don’t miss the chance of lending your warm hands to help others!
Role:
You will provide people with learning disabilities with all aspects of their daily lives. You will help them to develop new skills. You will help them to protect their rights and their safety. But your primary concern is to let them know they are valued.
Skills and Experience Required:
You will have the right values and great listening skills. You will be honest and patient. You will have the ability to drive a car and to communicate in fluent written and spoken English since you’ll have to help those people with different learning disabilities. Previous care-related experience will be a great advantage for you.
1. What does the underlined part mean?| A．You’ll make others’ lives more meaningful with this job. |
| B．You’ll arrive home just in time from this job. |
| C．You’ll earn a good salary from this job. |
| D．You’ll succeed in getting this job. |
| A．to get some financial support |
| B．to properly protect themselves |
| C．to learn some new living skills |
| D．to realize their own importance |
| A．The one who can drive a car. |
| B．The one who has done similar work before. |
| C．The one who has patience to listen to others. |
| D．The one who can use English to communicate. |
【推荐1】Whether we are young or old, we all have a dream we would love to come true. The issue is that most of us have no idea where to begin to turn a great idea into fact, or that we choose to abandon our dreams when the going gets tough. If this is you, then self-help guide Dream and Achieve: Discover and Express Your
Passion in Your Lifetime by Kola Olutimehin should be at the top of your reading list. Kola, who fittingly describes himself as a “Dream Driver”, has helped thousands of people achieve through his coaching and public speaking, and he has distilled (浓缩) all his wisdom and tried-and-tested methods into this book.
At the beginning of the book, Kola defines what we mean by a “dream”, stating that a dream is a long-cherished vision of what you want to make your inheritance(遗产)and your contribution to the world. That doesn’t mean that this dream, whatever it may be, is already fully formed in your mind. It may be fuzzy (模糊的); it may just be a feeling that you were born to attain something you don’t currently possess.
What I love in this section of the book is how Kola, who has built his own business empire (帝国) with blood, sweat and tears, debunks (驳斥) the common myths people associate with becoming a success, such as the need to make decisions with fully detailed plans.
He therefore urges readers, when faced with a decision, to consider the four “Ds”. These are Desire—questioning what you truly want and why you want it; acting on your Decision, which is an active step; Determination, chiefly having the staying power not to backtrack; and Discipline, which means you must continue to act upon your decision to help make your dreams a reality.
In conclusion, author Kola Olutimehin has captured the essence (本质) of success and set it down in print, and Dream and Achieve is the one book you need to find your life’s purpose, and achieve it.
1. What can you get from the book by Kola?| A．A guide to realize your dream. | B．Some skills about pubic speaking. |
| C．A way to become a rich businessman. | D．Some advice about wise reading choices. |
| A．The definition of a dream. | B．The importance of a dream |
| C．The power of a dream. | D．The form of a dream |
| A．Make fully detailed plans. | B．Get rid of your desires. |
| C．Stay optimistic and positive. | D．Think about things you really want. |
| A．A blog | B．A news report | C．A book review | D．A short story |
【推荐2】Congratulations! You’ve gotten to college, and now you never have to read another book in your life!
Take a lecture course.
Take a literature class with a book on the syllabus that you’ve read before but hated. You know you should like The Sound and the Fury, which you read in junior year of high school. But somehow, you just couldn’t get into it then. Or you knew that Walt Whitman is supposed to be great, but you’ve never clicked with “I Hear America Singing.” This is your opportunity to re-discover the books and authors that you’ve completely written off.
In short, don’t be afraid to take a college literature class.
| A．All the excuses are just getting in the way. |
| B．But don’t be afraid to take a specialized lecture. |
| C．You might find something in them that you love after all. |
| D．But that’s exactly the opposite of what books can do for you in college. |
| E．Don’t be frightened by the fact that you have nowhere to hide — embrace it! |
| F．Take a small seminar, even if you’ve never taken a college literature course before. |
| G．Ask people who are majors in humanities departments to recommend professors to you. |
Welcome to our newly-opened Richards Cinema Bookstore!
Now let me introduce to you some of the new film books in our store.
Are you Chinese film fans? OK, here comes the latest 25 New Takes about Chinese films. It is a collection of 25 fresh readings of different Chinese films from the 1930s to the present. In recent years, Chinese films are very popular in the States, such as Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Flowers of Shanghai.
Do you like French films? Well, here is The French Cinema Book. It covers French films from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. It is written for all lovers of French cinema: students and teachers, specialists and fans, and so on.
Maybe you are Indian film fans and star-chasers. Then here is Encyclopedia(百科全书) of Indian Cinema. The book is complete introduction to all the best Indian films. It also offers a full list of names of the famous and successful film stars in the past ten years. You know, the Indian film industry is the largest in the world after our Hollywood.
If you like British films, we have The British Cinema Book. It is a good review of British cinema. This book contains a good many nice pictures.
In our bookstore, you can also find books about Mexican, Japanese, Australian, German and Italian films.
Well, please help yourselves to some coffee or tea, and have a good time here!
1. The speaker of the passage is most probably ______.
| A．the author of 25 New Takes |
| B．a tourist in the cinema bookstore |
| C．the manager of the cinema bookstore |
| D．a reader of Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema |
| A．to satisfy the customers’ various tastes |
| B．to keep the authors in the cinema bookstore |
| C．to offer the tourists chances to meet the film stars |
| D．to turn the readers into film producers |
