1 . When the Zimbabwean editor Irene Staunton and her husband Murray McCartney set up their publishing business in 1998, it seemed natural to call it Weaver Press. Their modest headquarters in the back garden of their home looked out on the landscape that was peppered with many complex nests of the weaver birds (织布鸟).

For more than 25 years, the company’s location has not changed and the number of the team member has rarely been more than two. But in the words of one distinguished Zimbabwean scholar, Weaver Press has “quietly shaped post-independence Zimbabwean literature”. “Publishing in Zimbabwe has always mainly focused on textbooks, with very few exceptions,” McCartney says. “Weaver was one of those exceptions. We focused on literary fiction and academic nonfiction and in doing so, we tried to put Zimbabwe on the map — not because we’ve published hundreds of books, but because we presented a complex and sweeping picture of Zimbabwe that may otherwise not have existed to the outside world.”

One of the first books Weaver published was The Stone Virgins, a novel by Yvonne Vera that won the Macmillan Prize for African Adult Fiction in 2002. “Fiction is an important form of truth-telling, because a good writer will look at a situation from many different points of view — you don’t want the social history of a country to come out of a single description,” Staunton says.

Among the most successful writers Weaver has worked with is No Violet Bulawayo, author of Glory, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022. Bulawayo stresses Staunton’s editing skill. “Her sharp eye, intelligence and honesty helped me define my own ethics (道德标准) around reading and editing mine and the work of others, which I especially needed when I was a young writer,”she says. Despite the praise, Staunton says she doesn’t want to be center stage. “Editors are backroom people, like stagehands, doing everything they can to push the author to be front and center.”

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。

9 . More than 80 colleges are creating a website where students will be able to apply to dozens of them. Some of the top names in higher education are joining the effort under a group called the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, whose goal is to simplify the application process, especially for low-income students.

The website not only gives students one place to send their applications, but also gives them tools to get started years in advance. On the site, students will be able to request advice from college admissions offices and they can create digital portfolios(文件夹) with the help of their teachers and instructors.

Members of the coalition(联盟) include private universities such as Harvard and Stanford and public counterparts such as the University of Virginia, University of Florida and Ohio State University. The colleges came together to fix a problem: Complex admissions processes deter students from applying and those who come from low-income families can’t afford the instructors and classes within reach of their wealthier peers. High schools, for example, can already buy software to help instructors track their students through the application process, but many can’t afford it.

More than 600 colleges now accept the standardized Common Application. Unlike the Common Application, which aims to create a uniform application process among schools, the new website aims to help students dive deeper into many distinct applications. It will give them a place to store their checklists and essays and invite anyone to provide feedback and edit.

Each college will have its own portal(入口) where students can submit applications, but they’ll all be accessible through the same site. The portfolio tool will let students add any extra information they want. Artists can include samples of their work and musicians can link to performance videos.