1 . Three Books for A More Honest View of Parent
Nowadays, it seems there are two ways to write about parenthood. I am heartily sick of both. This year I’ve decided to hug books that are inspiring and honest, yet do not avoid the pleasures of parenthood.
Life Among the Savages Shirley Jackson price: $15
Shirley Jackson, author of one of the most amazingly sinister novels of all time and of the short story The Lottery, also wrote two charming novels about raising her four children in an old farmhouse in rural Vermont. In Life Among the Savages, Jackson’s humor is as thrilling as her horror, and her children seem never to inspire in her anything worse than a fond exasperation (恼怒) .
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You Amy Bloom price: $13. 95
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You contains one of the most absolute expressions of a mother’s love in fiction. Much of it takes place in the waiting room of a gender-reassignment surgeon. It’s about a woman who is determined to be the mother that her child needs her to be. In this collection ordinary women rise to the occasion demanded by motherhood. They make mistakes but they generall succeed in making up for them.
Family Man Calvin Trillin price: $ 18
In his memoir (回忆录) Family Man, Calvin Trillin writes with humor about his wife and daughters. He gives what I think is the single most useful piece of parenting advice “Getting advice on the best way to bring up children is like getting advice on the best way to breathe sooner or later you’re probably going to forget it and go back to your regular old in-and-out.” Trillin gives the impression of being the best kind of husband.
1. Which book tells a story of raising children in the countryside?| A．The Lottery. | B．Family Man. |
| C．Life Among the Savages. | D．A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You. |
| A．A humorous mother. | B．An operation. |
| C．Offering advice. | D．Being a kind husband. |
| A．They share a theme. | B．They target the same audience. |
| C．They were written by the same author. | D．They were published in the same year. |
2 . A few years ago, we celebrated Frankenstein’s 200th birthday. This famous book, written by British novelist Mary Shelley (1797—1851), is rightly known as the first work of science fiction. Frankenstein is the name of a doctor who creates a creature from human body parts. The doctor’s ambitions for his work are noble, but his experiment has disastrous results.
Shelley was writing in an age when science was beginning to have a great impact on the world. People had different attitudes toward science back then. Some found it inspiring- they thought of the progress medicine was making in curing common illnesses. But others found it a little frightening—it was changing the, making it a lot less familiar.
Science plays a bigger part in our lives than it did two centuries ago. Today, science has brought us great things like the internet, but also nuclear weapons, which, if used in large numbers, could kill off our species. Science still therefore creates the mixed feelings it did in Shelley’s day. It’s because Shelley saw both the promise and the danger of science that she’s still an influence today.
In fact, the subtitle of the book, The Modern Prometheus (普罗米修斯), shows how important myth (神话) was to the writer. Prometheus, a figure from classical Greek mythology, written by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, steals fire from the gods and gives it to people, an act for which he is terribly punished. Shelley’s husband, the famous poet Percy Shelley, wrote about him in Prometheus Unbound. In the poem, he is a revolutionary hero, who triumphs over the gods. In Mary Shelley’s book, however, her modern Prometheus. Dr Frankenstein, is a highly controversial figure, who sacrifices his home and life for his crazy addiction to his creation.
In short, Mary Shelley’s book is not just a scary and moving story, but a philosophical tale that, even after 200 years, still speaks to modern readers.
1. What can we know about Dr Frankenstein and the creature he made?| A．He created it with animal parts. |
| B．He managed to kill it in the end. |
| C．He created it with good intentions. |
| D．He was aware of its dangers before its creation. |
| A．Her work discusses what it means to be human. |
| B．Her work warns people of the two sides of science. |
| C．Her work explains that any life deserves our respect. |
| D．Her work proves the important role of science in life. |
| A．is a revolutionary hero | B．has inspired many poets |
| C．causes some disagreement | D．suffers little for what he does |
| A．A book review. | B．A news report. |
| C．A short story. | D．A biography. |
3 . Science fiction, or sci-fi, with more themes related to environmental issues, overpopulation, and technological growth, has explosively (爆发地) grown in popularity since the beginning of the 21st century.
Some Chinese Sci-Fi History
The history of Chinese sci-fi is extensive, but the modern genre first took root during the 1900s. Authors such as Lu Xun promoted sci-fi’s early development in China and translated multiple Western stories like Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. Following the 1970s, China began its own golden age of science fiction. Movies, clubs, magazines, societies and communities formed around this genre and became increasingly popular among Chinese readers.
Its Entry into the West
Chinese sci-fi has become internationally recognized, mainly because of Ken Liu, who translated The Three-Body Problem, the first contemporary Chinese sci-fi novel to be translated into English.
What Makes Chinese Sci-Fi Distinctive (独特的)
The subgenre is unique for using a number of cultural and traditional objects, words, places and beliefs.
| A．Published in 2014, it proved to be a huge success. |
| B．He is a writer, translator and computer scientist. |
| C．Before the 2000s, Chinese sci-fi was lesser-known. |
| D．Chinese sci-fi also made its way to take the West by storm. |
| E．Similar to Western sci-fi, it has experienced the ups and downs. |
| F．This laid the foundation for its eventual introduction to Western readers. |
| G．This makes Chinese sci-fi a cultural and historical analysis of China. |
4 . Four novels listed for readers
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
Eliza Naumann, a nine-year-old, expects never to fit into her gifted family: her wise father, Saul, absorbed in his study of science; her brother, Aaron, the hope of his father; and her mom, Miriam, a bright lawyer. But when Eliza takes the lead in school and district spelling bee competitions, Saul takes it as a sign that she is sure to be of greatness.
The Worlds We Think We Know by Dalia Rosenfeld
Extremely funny, this collection of stories takes readers from the United States to Israel and back again to examine the mystifying (令人迷惑的) reaches of our own minds and hearts. The characters of The Worlds We Think We Know are inspired by the power of passion and confusion. After being attacked in the streets of New York, a professor must repeat the terrible experience to recover his memory—and his lost love.
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran
With only a yellowing photo in hand, a young man named Jonathan Safran Foer sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Teamed up with an old man with memories of the war, a dog named Sammy and the unforgettable Alex, a young translator who speaks poor English, Jonathan is led on a wild journey over a deserted landscape and into an unexpected past.
At the End of the World, Turn Left by Zhanna Slor
This is an attractive novel from an unforgettable new voice that is literary, an interesting story about identity and how you define “home”. Masha remembers her childhood in the former USSR, but finds her life and heart in Israel. She was just a baby when her family moved, but eager to find her roots (根).
1. Why does Saul start thinking Eliza will be great?| A．She becomes his only hope in the future. |
| B．She stands out in the competitions. |
| C．She takes him as a role model. |
| D．She has decided to be a lawyer in the future. |
| A．An old man and his old dog. |
| B．A place in a photo. |
| C．A young man looking for a person. |
| D．A young translator’s experience. |
| A．Bee Season. |
| B．Everything is Illuminated. |
| C．At the End of the World, Turn Left. |
| D．The Worlds We Think We Know. |
5 . In the winter of 1664-65, a bitter cold fell on London in the days before Christmas. Above the city, an unusually bright comet (彗星) shot across the sky, exciting much prediction of a snow storm, Outside the city wall, a woman was announced dead of a disease that was spreading in that area. Her house was locked up and the phrase “Lord Have Mercy On Us” was painted on the door in red.
By the following Christmas, the virus that had killed the woman would go on to kill nearly 100,000 people living in and around London—almost a third of those who did not flee.
In The Great Plague (瘟疫), historian A.Lloyd Moote and microbiologist Dorothy C.Moote provide a deeply informed account of this plague year. Reading the book, readers are taken from the palaces of the city’s wealthiest citizens to the poor areas where the vast majority of Londoners were living, and to the surrounding countryside with those who fled. The Mootes point out that, even at the height of the plague, the city did not fall into chaos. Doctors, nurses and the church staff remained in the city to care for the sick; city officials tried their best to fight the crisis with all the legal tools; commerce continued even as businesses shut down.
To describe life and death in and around London, the authors focus on the experiences of nine individuals. Through their letters and diaries, the Mootes offer fresh descriptions of key issues in the history of the Great Plague: how different communities understood and experienced the disease; how medical, religious, and government bodies reacted; how well the social order held together; the economic and moral dilemmas people faced when debating whether to flee the city; and the nature of the material, social, and spiritual resources supporting those who remained. Based on humanity, the authors offer a masterful portrait of a city and its residents attacked by—and daringly resisting -unimaginable horror.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．A comet always follows a storm. | B．London was prepared for the disease. |
| C．London was under an approaching threat. | D．The woman was the beginning of the disease. |
| A．The cit remained organized. | B．The people tried a lo in vain. |
| C．The plague spared the rich areas. | D．The majority fled and thus survived. |
| A．They were famous people in history. | B．They all managed to survive the plague. |
| C．They united by thinking and acting as one. | D．They provided vivid stories of humanity in the disaster. |
| A．To record an epidemic. | B．To introduce a book. |
| C．To report a new survey. | D．To correct a misunderstanding. |
6 .
Red Sorghum | Mo Yan (Author), George Backman (Narrator), Howard Goldblatt (translator) The acclaimed novel of love and resistance during late 1930s China by Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature. Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that describe events of shocking horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent (动荡的) 1930s. |
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--------------------------------------------------------------Product details-------------------------------------------------------------- | |
Audible.com Release Date December 09, 2013
Publisher Audible Studios
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
Top reviews from the United States
jklm
It was interesting and vivid, but not…This is a ‘history’ of a family recalling various exploits of family members. I liked the realism but the jumping about backwards and forwards from decade to decade makes me confused.
There is a distinct lack of ideals or kindness, but it did lead me to reflect on the charm that gang leaders can have. So it was interesting and vivid, but not a page turner or a pleasant read.
K.N.R.
A New ClassicWar cannot destroy all. This family stretches three generations and the bonds are as strong as the sorghum, though perhaps suffering from storms. His style of writing is very pretty, sometimes too much and sometimes just perfect. The novel switches lawlessly back and forth. The use of third-person always enables the writing to adjust to different scenes with ease. The only bad part is the end. Mo Yan tries too hard to force a feeling of filial (孝顺的) devotion and ancestral respect on the reader. Otherwise it is an exciting, intense book with violence, horror, and shooting. An extraordinary achievement.
1. What do we know about Red Sorghum?| A．It is a non-fiction for those who lived in late 1930s China. |
| B．George Backman is one of the authors. |
| C．The novel gives us the story in order of time. |
| D．It tells the history of three generations struggling during the war-torn time. |
| A．He/She can’t understand where the novel was heading. |
| B．The book can only be listened. |
| C．The author tried hard to show blind respect to parents and ancestors. |
| D．The war that Chinese people were faces with was too harsh. |
| A．travel website | B．short video website | C．shopping website | D．news website |
7 . Here are four famous books, which are listed in order of publication, beginning in 1865.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
This book by Lewis Carroll is one of the most celebrated works in the history of literature. The book is about a curious girl who falls down a rabbit hole into a world of talking animals When it was published, it changed children's literature. It influencer writers for years to come. The book has inspired everything from operas to amusement park rides to video games.
Five Children and It
Five brothers and sisters move into a summer home in the English countryside. They go digging in the nearby gravel pits and make a curious discovery. At the bottom of a hole, they find a strange furry creature. They learn it's a Psammead, or Sand-fairy. The Psammead has magical powers. This book by E. Nesbit was published in 1902. It has never been out of print.
Mary Poppins
P.L. Travers's classic story contains one of the most fascinating main characters in the history of children's literature: the strange nanny Mary Poppins. The book follows Poppins after the east wind blows her to the home of the Banks family, on Cherry Tree Lane. The story has inspired movies and music for generations.
The Phantom Tollbooth
It is about a bored boy named Milo. One day, he drives his toy car through a tollbooth（收费亭) that mysteriously appears in his bedroom. He's transported to the Kingdom of Wisdom. Milo makes two friends there. They journey to the Castle in the Air. Along the way, Milo discovers the true joy of learning. Author Norton Juster called the book an “accidental masterpiece”. It was inspired by his own childhood boredom.
1. Which of the following has the longest publishing history?| A．Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | B．Five Children and It |
| C．Mary Poppins | D．The Phantom Tollbooth |
| A．Lewis Carroll. | B．E. Nesbit. |
| C．P.L. Travers. | D．Norton Juster. |
| A．They are fantasy books. | B．They've been out of print. |
| C．Their characters are all girls. | D．They are based on true events. |
8 . Sherlock Holmes is considered by many people as the greatest detective in fictional literature. He is, in fact, more famous than his own creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the popular series of stories, Holmes is described as “tall and lean, pope-smoking, always in his cape and speaks in a splendid manner”. Doyle gave Holmes’ address as 221-B Baker Street, London, and to this day some visitors to London still go to Baker Street to search for 221-B. Of course, there never was really any such address. Holmes’ flat was supposed to be shared by the lovable, but sometimes clumsy (笨手笨脚的) Doctor Watson who went around with Holmes trying to solve crimes before Holmes did. Poor Dr Watson lost out to Holmes every time.
Doyle gave Holmes a masterly (高超的) skill of deduction—the ability to come up with interesting conclusion from the simplest clues found at the scene of a crime. Doyle said that the description of Holmes was modeled on one of his lecturers at Edinburgh University where he studied medicine. That man was Dr Joseph Bell. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet published in 1887. Holmes was so loved by all that when his author killed him off in one of his stories, readers wrote in anger to complain. They refused to allow Holmes to die! Holmes was brought back to “life” and appeared in further stories.
The stories of Sherlock Holmes have been reprinted many times ever since then. Today we can watch Holmes at work on cinema and television screens as well as on stage.
1. What was Sherlock Holmes?| A．A detective story writer. | B．A lovable but clumsy doctor. |
| C．A character made up by Doyle. | D．The greatest detective in the real world. |
| A．Doyle. | B．Dr Watson. | C．His lecturers. | D．Dr Joseph Bell. |
| A．The imagination of his own. |
| B．A famous London doctor. |
| C．Dr Joseph Bell at Edinburgh University. |
| D．A model of Sherlock Holmes. |
| A．They could not see any more stories of Doyle. |
| B．They couldn’t stand Dr Watson’s appearance. |
| C．They refused to allow Holmes to be more famous than Doyle. |
| D．They protested Holmes’ death written by Doyle. |
9 . Every year, the Young Adult Library Services Association chooses the best fictions for young adults. Recently, it listed this year's popular books for young adults. Let's look at three of them.
The Downstairs Girl
Seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan leads a double life. By day, she works as a maid for one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta, a city in the US state of Georgia. By night, she writes as “Dear Miss Sweetie”, a newspaper advice columnist. She addresses ideas about race and gender, and as her column grows more popular, so too does the anger of her critics.
The Bone House
This fascinating, historical horror novel by Emily Lloyd-Jones will “dig its way into the heart”, according to a review on Booklist. Seventeen-year-old Ryn only cares about two things: her family and their graveyard(墓地), both of which are in a very bad situation. After the death of her parents, Ryn and her siblings(兄弟姐妹)work as gravediggers in the village of Colbren—where the dead don't always stay dead. The rising dead are known as “bone houses”, but no one knows how to stop them and the curse that causes them to rise. When Ellis, a mysterious mapmaker, arrives in Colbren, he and Ryn go on a journey to not only face the curse but themselves as well.
The In finite Noise
Caleb Michaels lives a fairly regular life as a 16-year-old champion running back in this novel by Lauren Shippen. However, once Caleb starts experiencing wild mood swings, his life becomes much stranger. Caleb finds out he is an “Atypical”, a person with enhanced abilities. He can feel the emotions of everyone around him. Caleb's life becomes even more complex when he meets Adam. As Caleb regularly sees his therapist(治疗专家), Dr Bright, he learns more about himself, his feelings for Adam and his abilities in this science fiction novel.
1. What is the best title for the text?| A．Books to lift us up | B．Share popular books |
| C．Inspirational teens | D．Teen fiction favorites |
| A．The Downstairs Girl | B．Dear Miss Sweeties |
| C．The Bone Houses | D．The Infinite Noise |
| A．Being based on teenager's regular life. |
| B．Featuring the interaction between life and death. |
| C．Showing readers a world of adventure and magic. |
| D．Having supermen or superwomen characters. |
10 . Kwame Alexander is a best-selling author of 24 books. His novel in verse (诗体) The Crossover won the Newbery Medal in 2015, and was followed by another verse novel in 2016, Booked. In the just-released The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life, Alexander aims to inspire readers to dream big and reach for their goals.
Time For Kids:
What can you tell us about The Playbook?
Kwame Alexander:
I wanted to write a book about how important it is to persevere (坚持) and accept the challenges that come, because they only make you stronger. And I wanted to do it in a really cool and fun way, using sports as a metaphor (隐喻), so students would be interested in reading a book that is telling them how to make their lives better.
TFK:
Where did you get the idea for the book?
Alexander:
In The Crossover, the father of the main characters, Josh and Jordan, gives them these rules for life, called Basketball Rules. Well, I was having breakfast with a friend of mine in New York City. He said, “Kwame, I love those Basketball Rules you have in The Crossover. You should think about writing a whole book on those.” That’s where it all began.
TFK:
Is it hard to mix sports and poetry (诗歌)?
Alexander:
I love sports, and I’ve been writing poetry since I was a kid. So those two things are as natural to me as breathing, laughing and walking.
TFK:
You’ve said teachers need to make learning poetry fun. Did you have a teacher like this as a kid?
Alexander:
My mom. She read poetry to my sisters and me when I was a kid, and she would make the words jump off the page!
TFK:
What advice would you give to young writers?
Alexander:
Read everything you can get your hands on. The best way to become a good writer is to read what other people have written.
1. What can we learn about The Playbook?| A．It is a historical novel. |
| B．It won the Newbery Medal. |
| C．It is actually about rules for life. |
| D．It is based on Alexander’s true life. |
| A．His mom who read poetry to him. |
| B．The teacher who taught him poetry. |
| C．His friend who read The Crossover. |
| D．The two characters in The Crossover. |
| A．It was rather boring. | B．It was quite difficult. |
| C．It was pretty mysterious. | D．It was very interesting. |
| A．Always dream big. |
| B．Gladly accept challenges. |
| C．Read as much as possible. |
| D．Have a wide knowledge of poetry. |
