Fu Lei’s Family Letters is a book of letters written by Chinese translator and writer Fu Lei to his elder son Fu Cong, who is a famous pianist. Between 1954 and 1966, Fu Cong spent a lot of time away from home training as a piano player. As a result, writing letters became Fu Lei’s usual way of communicating with his elder son. Fu Min, Fu Lei’s younger son edited the letters and the book came out in 1981.
The book shows Fu Lei’s family tradition and value. To Fu Lei, the purpose of education of a person, is to make that person useful to the society. Fu Lei praised his son Fu Cong after winning a piano competition. Fu Lei wrote, “We are happy because you make your country proud. I am so excited when I think about your future. You will make great progress and serve more people, encourage them and heal them.”
In the family letters, Fu Cong was also advised to read famous Chinese texts. When reading these books, Fu Cong was told to connect ideas and feelings together, for that would help him become a better person. To Fu Lei, learning to be a good person comes before any academic training.
Fu Lei’s Family Letters has a great impact on people in China because it helps many young students understand how they should live their lives. The following contents are teenagers’ favorite:
“We won’t get hurt so long as our moods stay stable.”
“The degree of success is not completely under our control. It’s half through personal efforts and half through destiny. But so long as you stay tough, you can weather failures, blunders and heavy blows — whether such blows stem from interpersonal, livelihood-related, technical or academic matters.
“A person needs to have the courage to confront reality and past mistakes. As such, he can come up with sensible analysis and in-depth appreciation. Only then he won’t be weighed down by bad memories.
1. What can we learn from Fu Lei’s Family Letters?| A．Fu Lei’s family tradition and value are shown in the book. |
| B．People in the 1950s communicated with each other by books. |
| C．It’s difficult for parents to make their children well educated. |
| D．Praising children after taking part in a competition is important. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Difficult. | C．Uncertain. | D．Interesting. |
| A．To be a richer man. |
| B．To help more people. |
| C．To become a better person. |
| D．To do more academic training. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A comic book. |
| C．A travel guide. | D．A fashion magazine. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Not long ago, Linda Khan was sitting by a hospital bed in Houston, feeling ill at ease. Beside her lay her father who needed a heart surgery. The two of them had engaged in nothing but depressing small talk. Then, her eye fell on a pile of books. She picked up one, and started to read it out loud. "Right away it changed the mood and atmosphere," she says. Reading gave the daughter a way to connect with her father. Listening allowed the father travel on the sound of his daughter's voice into a place where he felt himself again. “From then on," Khan says, “I always read to him."
In a 2010 survey in the United Kingdom, elderly adults who joined weekly read-aloud groups reported better concentration, less anxiety, and an improved ability to socialize. The survey authors owed these improvements in large part to the “rich, varied diet of serious literature" that group members consumed, with fiction encouraging feelings of relaxation and calm, poetry fostering focused concentration, and narratives giving rise to cognitive (认知的) thoughts, feelings, and memories. In truth, almost any kind of reading to another person can be beneficial.
Readers get rewards too. For Neil Bush, the late-life hospitalizations of his famous parents, George H. W. and Barbara Bush, became opportunities to repay a debt of gratitude. “When I was a kid, they would read to me," he said. With his parents in and out of care, “We've been reading books about Dad's foreign policy and, more recently, Mom's autobiography." Bush went on, his voice thick with emotion, “And to read their amazing life to them has been a remarkable blessing to me, personally, as their son."
To many people, reading to parents may seem so far outside the normal range of regular activities, and it may even feel odd and improper. However, there are still a lot many who brave the momentary strangeness of reading to elderly adults and both reader and listeners are, to borrow a phrase from Wordsworth, surprised by the joy of it.
1. What did reading offer to Linda and her father?| A．A way to establish a bond. | B．A way to travel together in reality. |
| C．A way to treat the disease. | D．A way to engage in learning. |
| A．Improvements in mental health. | B．Benefits of reading to others. |
| C．Changes in cognitive process. | D．Development of social skills. |
| A．Reading benefits more than the listener |
| B．Parents should red more to their kids. |
| C．Children should show their gratitude. |
| D．Reading to parents is children's duty |
| A．Improper and odd. | B．Abnormal but worthy. |
| C．Rewarding and joyful. | D．Interesting but unnecessary. |
【推荐2】Books to bring you closer to your goals
Emotional Intelligence
In this book, the psychologist and writer, Daniel Goleman, explores the nature of emotional intelligence and how it affects every aspect of human life. You'll learn how emotional intelligence gradually develops and how it can be increased.
Flow
What's the key to experiencing more enjoyment in your life? It's flow. When you're involved in an activity or a subject that makes you neither anxious nor bored because it's too easy, you slide into a flow state that keeps you controlled but creative, focused but free.
Csikszentmibalyi is the global leader in research on positive psychology, creativity and motivation.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Refuse the worry in your life so you can do and be better. Carnegie explains clearly why worrying is so awful for you and offers tools that you can use to cut it out. In typical Dale style, there are also plenty of stories to support his recommendations, including those from Carnegie himself. Until he did a little digging for the secrets to living better, he considered himself to be "one of the unhappiest persons in New York" due to too much worry. This book is the show of long, hard efforts to quitting if for good.
Drive
Motivation. As it turns out, most companies are doing it wrong. In Drive, Daniel H. Pink describes the characteristics of extrinsic（外在的）and intrinsic（内在的）motivations. Pink shows how we can best motivate ourselves and others by understanding intrinsic motivation.
1. What does Emotional Intelligence tell reader?| A．How to be famous writers. |
| B．How to know every aspect of life. |
| C．How to raise emotional intelligence. |
| D．How to measure levels of emotional intelligence. |
| A．By doing a research on motivation. |
| B．By understanding intrinsic motivation. |
| C．By understanding extrinsic motivation. |
| D．By making a summary in a short time. |
| A．Emotional Intelligence. | B．Flow. |
| C．How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. | D．Drive. |
【推荐3】The Best Books of 2020
On Monday, the American Library Association announced the top children’s books of 2020. Here are the winners.
Devotion
Author Clare Vanderpool took home the John Newbery Medal for outstanding contribution to children’s literature for Moon over Manifest. The book is about a young girl’s magical adventures in a small Kansas town, in 1936.
Vanderpool said that she was shocked to learn that she had won. “You grow up reading legendary authors like Madeleine L’Engle, but I never expected to be put in a category with her,” Vanderpool told TFK. “It’s fabulous.”
Picture This
The picture book A Sick Day for Amos McGee won the Randolph Caldecott Medal. The book was illustrated by Erin E. Stead and written by her husband, Philip C. Stead. It tells the story of an elderly zookeeper and the animals that visit him when he’s not well enough to go to work.
“I love drawing animals and I love drawing people and I love drawing the emotional connection between animals and people,” said Stead.
More Honored Books
The Coretta Scott King award, given to an African-American author and illustrator of “outstanding books for children and young adults,” went to Rita Williams-Garcia for One Crazy Summer. Set in 1968, the novel follows three sisters from Brooklyn, New York, who visit their mother, a poet who ran away years ago and lives in California.
The king prize for best-illustrated work went to Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. The book, which was written by Laban Carrick Hill and illustrated by Bryan Collier, tells the story of a skilled potter who engraved his poems on the clay pots and jars that he made. The enslaved potter, known only as Dave, lived in South Carolina in the 1800s.
1. When she heard the news that she won the medal Vanderpool felt_________.| A．depressed. | B．annoyed. | C．amused. | D．astonished. |
| A．thriller | B．fiction | C．adventure story | D．comic book |
| A．The book Moon over Manifest tells a story of a zookeeper and his animals. |
| B．The book A Sick Day for Amos McGee is written by Erin, a famous woman writer. |
| C．A Sick Day for Amos McGee shows us that animals can interact with humans. |
| D．One Crazy Summer is about a mother with her three children having a holiday in California. |
【推荐1】Researchers believe they have found an unknown kind of whale in waters off Mexico's western coast. If others verify the finding, the new whale will be an important discovery among giant animals.
The team of researchers came upon three unusual whales while following a rare group of beaked whales(喙鲸). The whales were near Mexico's distant San Benito Islands, about 500 km south of the U. S. border. Beaked whales usually avoid meeting humans.
Jay Barlow studies sea animals. He noted that it was a very unusual meeting. "It's very rare to even see a beaked whale, and to find a group of beaked whales, it's even rarer, " he said.
Barlow said he and other researchers did not realize that they were seeing a possible new kind of whale until later. The group saw something different about the whales' teeth when they studied the photos they took of the animals. The underwater recordings of the whales' calls also suggested they were different from all others.
The researchers are now waiting for test results on water they collected near the whales. There could be skin cells in the water from the whales. If so, they will examine the DNA to make sure whether the whales are a new species.
Though up to 5 meters long, the whales can be hard for scientists to see. That is because they usually swim and eat at depths of around 914 meters. They only come up at times for air. In the deep water, the animals can stay away from their main enemy—killer whales.
Barlow said that finding a new species is a rare event. His team has evidence about the whales that look like a new species. He said the DNA testing would help determine it and he hoped the whales could be determined as a new species. That would bring the number of known beaked whale species to 24.
1. What does the underlined word “verify” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Value. | B．Refuse. | C．Prove. | D．Research. |
| A．The whales’ huge size. | B．The shape of the whales’ mouth. |
| C．The whales’ sounds. | D．The whales’ friendly behavior. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Doubtful. | C．Worried. | D．Supportive. |
【推荐2】The periodic table of elements is a common sight in classrooms, campus hallways and libraries. The mode periodic table arranges the elements by their atomic numbers and periodic properties (周期性). Several scientists worked over a century to assemble the elements into this format.
In 1789, French chemist Antoine Lavoisiertried grouping the elements as metals and nonmetals. Forty years later, German physicist Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner observed similarities in physical and chemical properties of certain elements. He arranged them in groups of three in increasing order of atomic weight and called them triads, observing that some properties of the middle element, such as atomic weight and density, approximated the average value of these properties in the other two in each triad.
A breakthrough came with the publication of a revised list of elements and their atomic masses at the first international conference of chemistry in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1860. They concluded hydrogen would be assigned the atomic weight of 1 and that the atomic weight of other elements would be decided by comparison with hydrogen. For example, carbon, being 12 times heavier than hydrogen, would have an atomic weight of 12.
In 1869, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev created the framework that became the moder periodic table, leaving gaps for elements that were yet to be discovered. Mendeleev predicted the properties of some undiscovered elements and gave them names such as “eka-aluminum” for an element with properties similar to aluminum. Later “eka-aluminum” was discovered as gallium.
German chemist Lothar Meyer produced a version of the periodic table similar to Mendeleev’s in 1870. He left gaps for undiscovered elements but never predicted their properties. The Royal Society of London awarded the Davy Medal in 1882 to both Mendeleev and Meyer. The later discovery of elements predicted by Mendeleev verified (证实) his predictions and his periodic table won universal recognition. In 1955 the 101st element was named mendelevium in his honor.
On UNESCO website, it wrote, “The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is more than just a guide or catalogue of the entire known atoms in the universe; it is essentially a window on the universe, helping to expand our understanding of the world around us.”
1. What is the breakthrough at the conference in Germany?| A．The atomic weight of carbon was calculated by scientists. |
| B．A brand-new periodic table was published at the meeting. |
| C．The elements in the table were rearranged by the properties. |
| D．The atomic weight of elements was quantified based on hydrogen. |
| A．He made it more complete. |
| B．He made it easier to understand. |
| C．He was the first to arrange the elements by atomic masses. |
| D．He discovered many new properties of some known elements. |
| A．It is a window into chemistry. |
| B．It is a helper to learn about history. |
| C．It is a guide to exploring the microworld. |
| D．It is a description of school curricula’s history. |
| A．In order of the elements’ importance. | B．By following the time order. |
| C．In order of scientists’ achievements. | D．By making comparisons. |
【推荐3】Researchers have tapped the brainwaves of a paralyzed (瘫痪的) man unable to speak and turned what he intended to say into sentences.
The device, created by a team at the University of California, San Francisco, analyses brainwaves to decode (解读) what a person is trying to say and then displays the text on a computer screen. The additional research will take years but the results of the current studies mark an important step toward one day bringing back more natural communication for people who can’t speak because of injuries or illnesses.
The person volunteering to test the device was a man in his late 30s who 15 years ago suffered a brainstem stroke that caused widespread paralysis and robbed him of speech. The researchers placed electrodes (电极) on the surface of the man’s brain, over the area that controls speech. A computer analysed the patterns when he attempted to say common words such as “water” or “good”, eventually becoming able to discern 50 words that could produce more than 1,000 sentences.
Started with such questions as “How are you today?” or “Are you thirsty?”, the device eventually enabled the man to answer “I am very good” or “No, I am not thirsty” - not voicing the words but translating them into text. It takes about three to four seconds for the word to appear on the screen. That’s not nearly as fast as speaking but quicker than tapping out a response.
Harvard neurologists called the work a “pioneering demonstration”. They suggested improvements but said if the technology works out, it eventually could help people with injuries, strokes or illnesses like Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Next steps include ways to improve the device’s speed, accuracy and vocabulary size, and maybe one day it will allow a computer-produced voice rather than display text on a screen while testing a small group of volunteer patients.
1. What is the function of the device?| A．To read one’s mind. |
| B．To treat brain diseases. |
| C．To prevent injuries or illnesses. |
| D．To turn spoken words into text. |
| A．Create. | B．Recognize. | C．Polish. | D．Choose. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Indifferent. | C．Unclear. | D．Positive. |
| A．It might have new functions. |
| B．It might suit more patient groups. |
| C．It might be promoted and on sale. |
| D．It might show text in more languages. |
【推荐1】To really know a country, you need to understand its culture and history.
That was why journalist and media expert Zhang Ciyun began his work on a six-volume(册)exploration of ancient Chinese wisdom as reflected in myths, classics works, idioms, paintings, historical figures and architecture.
The English-language edition of the book series was unveiled at last week’s Shanghai Book Fair. The series caters for an increasing number of foreign readers who are deeply interested in traditional Chinese culture.
“The idea of the book series came to me nearly three decades ago, when I discovered how little foreigners knew about Chinese culture”, Zhang said. “Oh, they knew about kung fu movies, the Great Wall and the terracotta warriors, and had vague impressions of Chinese emperors. But they wanted to know more about Chinese culture.”
Zhang, a founder and former editor-in-chief of the English-language Shanghai Daily, is fluent in English. He draws on that skill to tell the stories of ancient China in the everyday language and experiences of native English speakers.
Zhang said ancient culture has had a far-reaching impact on the behavior and thinking of contemporary Chinese, and gives foreign readers insight into modern-day China.
He recalled a Shanghai Daily survey of readers that showed foreigners had great curiosity about Chinese culture. But at that time, books that might help them explore deeper into that culture were pieces scattered(散布)over different publications. There were no books in English providing easy access to Chinese history and culture.
“As a journalist working for an English-language newspaper, I really wanted to do something to meet that need,” he said. “I decided to use my writing skills to tell ancient stories about Chinese culture, especially its traditional aspects.”
He began his project in about 1993, beginning with a series of articles explaining the stories behind Chinese idioms. His first works were compiled into one book, which received positive feedback and was later translated into German and other foreign languages.
1. What can we learn about Zhang Ciyun’s books?| A．They involve various Chinese culture forms. |
| B．They have been translated into German. |
| C．They were not well received at first. |
| D．They were accomplished in 1993. |
| A．To record ancient Chinese wisdom. | B．To spread Chinese culture. |
| C．To pursue fame and interests. | D．To promote Shanghai Daily. |
| A．No English books about Chinese ancient culture were available. |
| B．Foreigners showed little interest in learning about Chinese culture. |
| C．It was not convenient for foreigners to learn about Chinese culture. |
| D．English books on Chinese culture were published in large numbers. |
| A．Famous and humorous. | B．Creative and responsible. |
| C．Ambitious but unlucky. | D．Wise but conservative. |
【推荐2】Ottens was busy with a reel-to-reel tape recorder(盘式磁带录音机) one night in the early 1960s, trying to listen to a work of classical music. He still remembered the hours he eventually spent on the machine because the loose tape would endlessly unravel(散开) from its reel. At the time, Ottens was head of product development at Philips's electronics factory in Belgium. The next morning, he gathered his team and insisted that they create something foolproof: The tape had to be enclosed, and the player had to fit in his jacket pocket.
Trying to imagine something that did not yet exist, Ottens used a small wooden block as the target for what the future of tape recording and playback should be. The “compact cassette” was made public to the world in 1963, and he advocated for Philips to license(批准) this new design to other producers for free, paving the way for cassettes to become a worldwide standard. Billions of cassettes were sold before his team jointly introduced the compact disc (CD) with Sony in 1982.
Ottens was an extraordinary man. As a child, he managed to build a radio that enabled his family to tune in to a London broadcaster that delivered speeches from exiled(流亡的) political leaders during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940s.
Despite the remaking of the music industry in the digital and streaming age, the public's interest in cassettes has quickly grown in recent years. The return and growth of its popularity is believed to be driven by a mix of nostalgia(怀旧) and an appreciation for tapes' unique status as a format, which is flexible yet is also easily seen and touched.
In the 2017 film Cassette: a Documentary Mixtape, Ottens still seems surprised by the impact of the little device. “We knew it would be a success,” he says, “but not a revolution.”
1. What does the word “foolproof” in paragraph l refer to?| A．User-friendly. | B．Foolish. | C．Typical. | D．All-round. |
| A．They were warm-hearted to help others. |
| B．They could sell more cassettes worldwide. |
| C．They could get international help for CDs. |
| D．They would spare time for other advances. |
| A．The digital music players have completely taken the place of cassettes. |
| B．The invention of cassette once had great effects on the music industry. |
| C．People now enjoy mixing digital music with nostalgic music. |
| D．Ottens knew the 2017 film about cassette would be successful. |
| A．He is extraordinary and sceptical. |
| B．He is self-confident and withdrawn. |
| C．He is proud and has a strong hands-on ability. |
| D．He is creative and gifted for electronics. |
【推荐3】Michael J. Fox was at the height of his career when he developed Parkinson’ s disease(帕金森病) in 1991. Since then, he has been fighting the disease and has not lost his love for life.
After his diagnosis(诊断), Michael concealed his illness for several years in order not to risk his career as an actor. His diagnosis didn’t become public until 1999. To this day, he has done his best not to be influenced by his illness as much as possible and has worked both in front of the camera and as a voice actor. He has found the right way to deal with Parkinson’s disease for him: Humor.
In an interview in March 2017, he joked about moments in his everyday life where he is controlled by his illness. “The thing that makes it funny to me is when I think about someone else watching all this and thinking, ‘Poor Michael can’t even get the coffee — it’s so sad!’”, explains the 59-year-old.
Since his diagnosis became public, he has founded the Michael Organization for Parkinson’s Research. By the end of 2018, 800 million US dollars had already been collected.
1. What does the underlined word “concealed” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Hid. | B．Feared. | C．Refused to treat. | D．Paid no attention to. |
| A．His diagnosis become public in 1991. |
| B．He doesn’t like joking about moments in his everyday life. |
| C．He has done his best not to be influenced by his illness as much as possible. |
| D．Michael fell into a depression forever after the illness. |
| A．Tough and optimistic. | B．Patient and honest. |
| C．Confident and easy-going. | D．Dependent and open-minded. |
| A．He provided money for those with it. | B．He called on people to face it bravely. |
| C．He established a center to treat people with it. | D．He tried to raise money to support research on it. |
