1 . There was once a man who penned comics(漫画) under the name Stan Lee. This man originally wished to leave comics behind and write serious literature. But he never made that career change.
Born Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922 in New York City, he has contributed more to the world than just a few fun stories. At 17, Lee began working as an assistant for the Timely comics group (today’s well-known Marvel Comics). Two years later he was given a chance to write for his first comic, “Captain America”. His skills in the business led him to become the comic-book division’s editor-in-chief until 1972.
After working with comics for many years, Lee became tired of the material he was told to write. For a long time, comic books were considered silly stories. The characters weren’t complex, and the dialogue was short and simple. Lee wanted more from his work.
The Fantastic Four was born after his wife asked, “Why don’t you write one book the way you would like to do it?” With that comic, Lee helped change comics from simple action stories to the complex narratives (叙述文) they are today. However, he still hasn’t done changing the industry.
In the early 1960s, Stan Lee and another writer created the Spider-Man character. In one edition of Spider-Man, Lee wrote a story in which the superhero’s friend almost dies from drug abuse. From the 1950s until 2011, comic publishers followed the rules given by the Comics Code Authority (CCA), who disapproved of drug use in comics.
But Lee published the comic without CCA’s agreement. The story sold, and there was a positive response to the story’s focus on a serious problem in society. The CCA ended up changing its rules to allow more inspirational stories like this.
From this victory, Lee went on to create more interesting and realistic characters that dealt with both super and real life problems.
1. The underlined part “that career” in Paragraph 1 refers to the job as _____.| A．a superhero | B．a comic actor |
| C．a comic book creator | D．a serious literature writer |
| A．In 1939. | B．In 1941. | C．In 1960. | D．In 1972. |
| A．Spider-Man was published. |
| B．Stan Lee left the comic industry. |
| C．Stan Lee’s wife began to work on comics. |
| D．The comics began to tell complex stories. |
| A．Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee himself. |
| B．Stan Lee likes to discuss social issues in his comics. |
| C．The story of Spider-Man came from Stan Lee’s friend. |
| D．The CCA has been carrying out rules without changing them. |
2 . Listening to guitarist Milos Karadaglic’s album, you will find yourself wandering in a world where you are surrounded by amazing classical guitar music. “I want to wake classical guitar music up from its hibernation and show what I can do and what my instrument can do,” said Milos.
Born 37 years ago in a small town in Yugoslavia, he was inspired from an early age to be a performer. Since his country had a small population and no formal music school, making a career on the instrument was extremely hard for him. It all began when Milos discovered an ancient, dusty guitar with broken strings in his basement. Strangely, this broken instrument convinced him that he must become a guitarist. By the age of 9, he was giving public performances, and at 11 he won his first national competition. He was also a talented singer and became star of TV and radio.
Unfortunately, Yugoslavia was torn apart in 1992, and because of the war, Milos’ family suffered food shortages. Fast forward to 1996, when Milos became a teenager, he had his first opportunity to travel outside of his hometown to play a concert. It was in Paris where he was amazed by its western European prosperity and air of Christmas happiness.
During the trip, he made up his mind to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He sent a home-made tape of his performance to the academy, where a professor found something special in his playing, so Milos was admitted to the academy. Afterwards, Milos earned first-class honors and a master’s degree, and his albums are highly praised by other world-famous guitarists.
However, this is just the beginning for Milos, and his horizons seem limitless. He has been making a variety of plans for broadening the classical music’s reach.
1. What can we learn about Milos from this story?| A．He studied music in a college in his own country. |
| B．It was his master’s degree that made him famous. |
| C．Travelling to Paris enabled him to get further education. |
| D．Poverty was the main reason for him to play the guitar. |
| A．By being introduced to a professor by his teacher. |
| B．By sending a tape of his performance. |
| C．By taking part in a music competition. |
| D．By having a college entrance exam. |
a. He discovered an old, broken guitar.
b. He won the national competition for the first time.
c. He made his mind to study at the Royal Academy.
d. He travelled to Paris to play a concert for the first time.
| A．a, c, d, b | B．b, a, d, c | C．c, b, a, d | D．a, b, d, c |
| A．Talented guitarist pursues the highest level. |
| B．The limitless horizons of guitar music. |
| C．A guitar hero’s success in war. |
| D．Guitar music from Yugoslavia. |
