1. What do we know about the writer?
| A．He never travels around the world. |
| B．He is a teacher. |
| C．He was born disabled. |
| A．Encouraging. | B．Polite. | C．Strange. |
2 . With the winter holiday on the way and time on your hands, you might be looking for something to read. The following are four great books for you.
The Bright Side
Chad Otis is an author and illustrator. His new book, The Bright Side, is about finding hope in desperate situations. Its hero is a boy who lives with his family in an old school bus because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. This is something Otis experienced when he was a kid. He wants kids who are going through similar struggles to know, “You are not alone. Stay strong. Stay optimistic.”
Bunheads
In Bunheads, Misty Copeland tells the story of how she fell in love with dance. As a girl. Copeland was shy and afraid of talking in front of people. Dance helped her get past her fears. “Ballet gave me a language to communicate in a way that worked for me,” she told TFK. “Ballet allowed me to speak... through my body.”
Little Daymond Learns to Earn
Linle Daymond Learns to Ear n teaches kids about money. It’s by Daymond John, who is one of the stars of Shark Tank. With a little creativity and the help of his friends, little Daymond starts a small business. “Every single business that you create does one thing — it finds solutions to problems in life,” he says.
Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots
What’s the difference between a fact and an opinion? Sometimes, it can be hard to tell them apart. Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots is a new picture book. It teaches kids about facts and opinions. The book uses robots to show the difference between the two. Michael Rex wrote and illustrated the book, in which he asks questions of the reader.
1. What is Chad Otis’s purpose in writing The Bright Side?| A．To teach some life skills. | B．To share his life story. |
| C．To inspire kids in difficulty. | D．To help kids to make money. |
| A．They put profit first. | B．They launch new products. |
| C．They make discoveries. | D．They focus on solving problems. |
| A．Chad Otis. | B．Michael Rex. | C．Daymond John. | D．Misty Copeland. |
3 .
| |
| Q What’s the best way to keep track of your characters in a novel? Amanda Rose, via email A I’m not sure what the best way is, but here are some of the methods I use. Most of my records are on paper. I have a huge folder, and in it are the following:* Character sheets – one A4 sheet for each character with all their details: name; age; address; physical description; personality type… * Dialogue records – an extra page where I note their favorite words and dialogues. * Photographs – I use photos cut from magazines for inspirations as to what they look like. I’m also a big fan of spreadsheets. I create one that has the name, date of birth and age of my characters at any given time in the novel – or novels if it’s a series. This is particularly helpful for controlling timelines, as I only need to change one date and the rest are set up to update automatically. I also use a spreadsheet for keeping track of the plot so I know what happens to each character in each chapter. I create the spreadsheet before I start and fill it in as I go. It’s for tracking not plotting, but it could be used for that if you plotted what happens in each chapter. Hope this helps, Amanda. | Q Should I use single quotes or double quotes for dialogue? Tania Yeatman, Wimborne A It doesn’t matter! Usually it’s a matter of house style, so if you are aiming at a specific publication, check to see what their style is for publication and copy that. If you don’t know the house style then the important thing is to be consistent. The same applies to quotes from interviewees and experts in your articles.“I saw Anne at writing group,” Milly said. “And she came rushing up to me and told me she’d done it at last. She’s got an agent!”
Q ______________________________ Grace Louise |
1. ________ are most useful for controlling timelines of the story.
| A．Character sheets | B．Dialogue records |
| C．Photographs | D．Spreadsheets |
| A．‘I saw Anne at writing group,’ Milly said. ‘And she came rushing up to me and cried, “I’ve done it at last. I’ve got an agent!”’ |
| B．“I saw Anne at writing group,” Milly said. “And she came rushing up to me and cried, ‘I’ve done it at last. I’ve got an agent!” |
| C．‘I saw Anne at writing group,’ Milly said. “And she came rushing up to me and cried, ‘I’ve done it at last. I’ve got an agent!’” |
| D．“I saw Anne at writing group,” Milly said. ‘And she came rushing up to me and cried, ‘I’ve done it at last. I’ve got an agent!’ |
| A．When and where will your next novel be published? |
| B．What should I write about to win the writing competition? |
| C．Do you have any tips for overcoming the writer’s block? |
| D．Can you give us a lecture on choosing the right topics? |
4 . One of the most famous literary challenges in history was when Dr. Seuss received a challenge from his publisher that he could only use 50 words to write an entire book. That’s all well and good, but it’s a tough challenge, to be sure. However, Ernest Vincent Wright would no doubt turn up his nose, as he challenged himself to pen an entire 50,000-word novel without once using the letter “e”.
Wright managed to pull it off. The final product was Gadsby, which is about a man named, well, Gadsby, who tries to save his city with the help of a youth group. It took Wright nearly six months to complete the work, and in his introduction pages he mentioned the challenges along the way.
One of the biggest challenges was replacing pronouns, since it’s tough to write a sentence, let alone a novel, without words like “he” or “she” or “her” and so forth. Additionally, he was forced to find ways to work around using past tense words that typically end in “-ed”, which, as you might imagine, is more than a little tricky.
Still, Wright did manage to come up with 50,110 words and a full story without any cheats, making it one of the most successful lipograms (避讳某字之文) in the history of writing. Wright self-published the book in 1939 and it was read primarily by people who tried to find any cheats, so convinced were they that Wright simply must have used the letter.
The entire novel is available online to read for free, as it entered the public domain in 1968. It’s a good thing, too, as the storehouse that contained the majority of the copies burned down, destroying enough of the books that it has since become a rare book collector’s prize, with copies being valued at thousands of dollars.
At the end of the day, of course, it remains a truly great achievement. After all, “e” is the most commonly used letter in English, with more than 11 percent of all words in the Oxford dictionary containing at least one “e”.
1. What did Wright challenge himself to write?| A．An entire book with 50 words. |
| B．A 50,000-word book in six months. |
| C．A 50,000-word book without the letter “e”. |
| D．An entire book including “e” 50,000 times. |
| A．The difficulties Wright faced. |
| B．The plot of Wright’s final product. |
| C．The popularity of Wright’s final product. |
| D．The smart ways Wright used to replace pronouns. |
| A．They considered the book a great success. |
| B．They expected the book to be available online. |
| C．They wondered what lipograms mean. |
| D．They doubted if Wright really made it. |
| A．Due to their rarity. |
| B．Because Wright won a big prize. |
| C．Because they had a really long history. |
| D．Due to book collectors’ recommendation. |
5 . Science fiction pioneer and writer Wu Yan won the National Outstanding Children’s literature Award for his latest work China Orbit. The book focuses on the development of the Chinese aerospace industry, and it was inspired by the planning and preparation for China’s first but canceled manned spacecraft, “Shuguang 1”, also known as Project 714, during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“I collected many historical documents and stories and started writing decades ago, Wu remembered. Partly based on Wu’s own experiences in the 1970s, the book is a combination of reality and fiction, and in some ways his own memoir (传记) was added into the science fiction. This innovative and unique writing method makes the book stand out and has even stirred up a debate on how to categorize it. Is it science fiction, popular science, children’s literature, or aerospace literature?
His fellow science fiction writer Liu Cixin, author of The Three-Body Problem, sees it more deeply, and believes China Orbit is not really children’s science fiction or popular science. He thinks it is too complicated to be classed under a single category. He speaks highly of China Orbit as a unique science fiction novel that vividly shows a child’s real-life experience in a military of a specific era.
In Wu’s opinion, China is a big market for children’s science fiction, but it still lacks extraordinary works. He warned people not to try to earn quick money from it after The Three-BodyProblem frenzy (狂热) and movie blockbuster (轰动) The Wondering Earth because Chinese science fiction still has a long way to go. We need to build Chinese science fiction step by step, with an accumulation of really great works. We need to innovate, and treat it as part of building China’s new culture.
1. What is the book China Orbit mainly about?| A．The space industry in China. |
| B．The introduction to Project 714. |
| C．Stories about Chinese outstanding astronauts. |
| D．Preparations for China’s first manned spacecraft. |
| A．He organizes the writing by time. |
| B．He tells the story in the form of debate. |
| C．He focuses on creating the role of children. |
| D．He combines his personal experiences with fiction. |
| A．China Obit has great commercial value. |
| B．Chinese science movies are of poor quality. |
| C．Innovation is crucial to Chinese science fiction. |
| D．Wu Yan is disappointed at the Chinese film market. |
The well-known novel Little Prince
Born in the French city of Lyon in 1900, Saint-Exupéry was a writer, pilot and journalist
Saint-Exupéry wrote and drew on
| A．Harry Potter is not as good as people think. |
| B．There are many good books for children. |
| C．The stories in Harry Potter attract people a lot. |
1. 小说简介；2. 喜欢的原因。
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
My Favourite Novel
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. Which animal was always sitting on the mat in Alex’s story?
| A．A rat. | B．A cat. | C．A dog. |
| A．Terrible. | B．Serious. | C．Impressive. |
| A．Alex. | B．Bob. | C．The woman. |
| A．Use rhymes as many as possible. |
| B．Rewrite his former stories. |
| C．Have a talk with Alex. |
10 . For several days I saw little of Mr. Rochester. In the morning he seemed much occupied with business, and in the afternoon gentlemen from the neigh our hood called and sometimes stayed to dine with him. When his foot was well enough, he rode out a great deal.
During this time, all my knowledge of him was limited to occasional meetings about the house, when he would sometimes pass me coldly, and sometimes bow and smile. His changes of manner did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with the cause of them.
One evening, several days later, I was invited to talk to Mr. Rochester after dinner. He was sitting in his armchair, and looked not quite so severe, and much less gloomy. There was a smile on his lips, and his eyes were bright, probably with wine. As I was looking at him, he suddenly turned, and asked me, “do you think I’m handsome, Miss Eyre?”
The answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I realized it: “No, sir.”
“Ah, you really are unusual! You are a quiet, serious little person, but you can be almost rude.”
“Sir, I’m sorry. I should have said that beauty doesn’t matter, or something like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t! I see, you criticize my appearance, and then you stab me in the back! You have honesty and feeling. There are not many girls like you. But perhaps I go too fast. Perhaps you have awful faults to counterbalance your few good points.”
I thought to myself that he might have too. He seemed to read my mind, and said quickly, “Yes, you’re right. I have plenty of faults. I went the wrong way when I was twenty-one, and have never found the right path again. I might have been very different. I might have been as good as you, and perhaps wiser. I am not a bad man, take my word for it, but I have done wrong. It wasn’t my character, but circumstances which were to blame. Why do I tell you all this? Because you’re the sort of person people tell their problems and secrets to, because you’re sympathetic and give them hope.” It seemed he had quite a lot to talk to me. He didn’t seem to like to finish the talk quickly, as was the case for the first time.
“Don’t be afraid of me, Miss Eyre.” He continued. “You don’t relax or laugh very much, perhaps because of the effect Lowood school has had on you. But in time you will be more natural with me, and laugh, and speak freely. You’re like a bird in a cage. When you get out of the cage, you’ll fly very high. Good night.”
1. At the beginning Miss Eyre’s impressions of Mr. Rochester were all except .| A．busy | B．sociable | C．friendly | D．changeable |
| A．around | B．on | C．outside | D．concerning. |
| A．tell her all his troubles | B．tell her his life experience |
| C．change her opinion of him | D．change his circumstances |
| A．rude | B．cool | C．light-hearted | D．encouraging |
