2 . 《鲁宾逊漂流记》是英国作家丹尼尔·笛福(Daniel Defoe)写的一部著名小说。请根据下列要点写一篇简短的书评。

1. 该书出版于1719年，它是一本最流行的历险小说之一；

2. 简述小说的主要故事情节；

3. 该书一部分是根据18世纪苏格兰水手Alexander Selkirk的事迹写的；

4. 小说描写细致，引人入胜。

注意：

1. 词数80左右；2. 标题和开头已给出，不计入总词数。          

参考词汇：自给自足的self-sufficient；食人肉的野人cannibal

A Book Review of Robinson Crusoe

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3 . Do you want to be a billionaire? Most of us can’t live like billionaire Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, but we can read like him. Gates recommended four books.

Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson

The best­selling biographer of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein researched deeply into Da Vinci’s contributions beyond art, highlighting the breadth of his scientific, technological, and creative output.

The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir, by Thi Bui

Gates called this graphic novel “really impressive”. Bui is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who came to America after the fall of Saigon and becoming a parent inspired her to look into her own parents’ miserable history.

Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders

Saunders, a long­time short story writer, won high praise for this novel. The book imagines the ghosts that haunt (出没于) the basement of Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son, who died at 11 in real life. “Willie’s death after the Civil War made the president have a new understanding of the grief he’s creating in other families by sending their sons off to die in battle,” said Gates.

Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, by David Christian

This new book is by the creator of Big History, a free, online social studies’ course. It traces history in wide, sweeping movements, starting with the Big Bang, and it provides, in effect, a short course in modern science. This is a brief history of the universe.

4 . The books we read when we’re young have a special sort of power, they can inspire us to be brave and resilient! (Marilda by Roald Dahi), take us on thrilling adventures (Divergent by Veronica Roth) and even introduce us to tragedy (悲剧) (The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson). They’re as formative as anything else in our young lives, and sometimes they’re the first place we encounter larger-than-life ideas, thinking of the lasting cultural import of To Kill a Mockingbird. In The Magic Words, Cheryl B. Klein, sets out to inform would-be writers on how great novels for young readers work.

The market for YA (young-adult) novels is booming: sales in the children’s and YA sector have been neck and neck with those of adult books in recent years, and adult authors including Meg Wolitzer and Carl Hiaasen are getting in on the phenomenon. The Magic Words aims to be a master class. And in the era of promoted self-help sensations like Marie Kondo and Brenie Brown, The Magic Words is of a piece.

Klein deconstructs the seemingly obvious (clear plot-lines, sympathetic characters) to reveal the technical significance of some beloved classics. L. M. Montgomery surely didn’t regard Anne of Green Gables as a cash-in endeavor. But for those who want to best-seller writers, Anne is instructive: what’s timeless and broadly appealing about Anne—her teenage heart and impulses (冲动) is what to examine. Once you understand that, Klein encourages you to get personal: What makes you ideal to write your story? And what does it mean to the reader?

On the latter question, The Magic Words is more than a handbook. It is also a timely social commentary on the responsibility YA writers have to young adults. They must start with an awareness of their readers—not only their age but also how they might connect with the issues, like bullies or tolerance that the characters face. The narratives we tell young readers can influence how they understand and value the world around them. The magic isn’t in the words: it’s in how the words come together to reflect and confirm the realities of a diverse young-adult experience.

5 . 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.