1 . Perhaps you have been writing poems for a while now.
●Find the market.
Another way to get your poems into print is by entering contests. Contests can encourage you to write about new subjects and try different poetic forms. This does help a lot for more chances.
●
If you want your poetry to be considered seriously by editors and contest judges, take their rules seriously. Be clear about all the requirements.
●Keep good records.
Start a loose-leaf notebook containing all your poems. Every time. you submit a poem, note down the date, the market and the outcome of the submission. You can also make a document that tracks all the poems you have submitted on a laptop or smartphone.
●Don’t give up!
Every poet must get used to rejection. Your work is probably turned down. But it’s not a shame. Instead, it can be taken as a fun experience. It is a part of the publishing process, especially for beginning writers. Don’t stop writing or submitting!
| A．Play the game. |
| B．Take an active part in the game. |
| C．Keep what you write to the point. |
| D．You may expect your poems to win more readers. |
| E．You may be just one submission away from success. |
| F．The first thing is to find the right market for your poems. |
| G．Maybe your poems are already a hit with your family and friends. |
2 . Born in 1926, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was not originally chosen for the special position. However, that changed in 1936, when her father’s brother Edward Ⅷ gave up being the king and her father, George Ⅵ, took his place as the king. Suddenly, the 10-year-old was the heiress(女继承人).
Elizabeth’s royal(王室的)duties didn’t stop her interest in technology. During World War II, the princess wanted her father to allow her to do something for her country. Her father finally agreed to let her volunteer for the British Army, where she became a driver and trained in auto mechanics.
It was a pioneering move: Not only was she the first member of her family ever to serve in the military, but the sight of a woman taking apart engines and changing tires signalled a sea change in social and gender roles that would continue throughout the future queen’s lifetime.
In 1952, Elizabeth became queen of her country upon her father’s death. Her rule was modern from the very start. The new queen’s birth had roughly happened at the same time as the development of television, and during planning for her coronation(加冕礼)she broke with tradition and allowed the BBC to broadcast the event over live TV. It was the first coronation ever televised, and it literally created must-see TV.
Elizabeth came to power as the atomic age kicked into full swing, and she helped introduce the nation to those nuclear advances. In 1956, she opened the world’s first complete nuclear power station, Calder Hall. But the technology came with risk: The next year, a reactor at a nearby nuclear power plant, Windscale, caught fire, which was Great Britain’s worst nuclear disaster.
The queen also launched live broadcasts of royal addresses and permitted royal use of the Internet. Besides, she was one of the first people to ride through the Channel Tunnel, the undersea railway linking Britain to the rest of Europe.
1. After World War Ⅱ broke out, how did Elizabeth support her country?| A．By encouraging women to volunteer. | B．By using her influence to stop the war. |
| C．By getting away from her royal duties. | D．By joining the army to serve her country. |
| A．Normal. | B．Significant. | C．Unnecessary. | D．Unreasonable. |
| A．She didn’t really want to be queen. |
| B．She loved watching TV very much. |
| C．She liked adopting new technology. |
| D．She didn’t consider her coronation modern. |
| A．She considered nuclear power important for her country. |
| B．She was satisfied with her country’s nuclear advances. |
| C．She didn’t show much interest in nuclear power. |
| D．She considered nuclear power dangerous. |
3 . As William Shakespeare is to literature in English, so is the poet Du Fu to the Chinese literary tradition. “We have Dante, Shakespeare and Du Fu. These poets create the very values by which poetry is judged,” remarked Harvard Professor Stephen Owen in Du Fu: China’s Greatest Poet, a BBC documentary that aired on April 7.
Aimed at introducing the charm and beauty of traditional Chinese literature to viewers around the globe, the documentary invited the famous British actor Ian McKellen, who played the wizard Gandalf in the film series The Lord of the Rings, to read 15 of Du’s poems that have been translated into English.
The one-hour film traces the poet’s life experiences in detail. Born in 712, Du lived in the reign of the Emperor Xuanzong of Tang(712—756), a time marked by extraordinary prosperity, inclusiveness and glorious cultural accomplishments.
However, as An Lushan’s rebel army floored the empire, the 43-year-old Du, the former civil servant at the Tang court, had to take his family out of his hometown, and faced starvation and sufferings. Through ups and downs, the poet never stopped writing and about 1,500 poems have been kept over the ages.
Even though he never held a high position in the government, Du still cared about common people. For example, in the poem My Cottage Unroofed by Autumn Gales, he wrote that “Could I get mansions covering ten thousand miles, I’d house all poor scholars and make them beam with pleasure”.
“That is why he is honored as the Poet Sage by later generations. A difficult life and his spirit of concern about the world helped him create so many masterpieces,” Shi Wenxue, a cultural critic based in Beijing, told the Global Times.
Without doubt Du is a cultural symbol of ancient China, but his brilliant works and core spirits have also inspired people outside China. As the documentary notes, his work represents a precious cultural heritage for the entire world, not just China.
1. What can we know about the documentary?| A．It introduces Shakespeare. |
| B．Du Fu is acted by Ian McKellen in it. |
| C．Its target audience is Chinese. |
| D．It shows 15 of Du Fu’s poems to the audience. |
| A．The concern about common people. |
| B．My Cottage Unroofed by Autumn Gales. |
| C．The low position in the government. |
| D．The sentence of the poem. |
| A．His work experience. |
| B．Hard life and his caring spirit. |
| C．An Lushan’s rebel army. |
| D．The Tang Dynasty’s cultural background. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Health. |
| C．Literature. | D．Science. |
4 . Late one night this spring, Justin Snider was riding the No. 2 in Manhattan when the train stopped. After about 15 minutes — with little information about the delay and no cell service — everyone in the car was getting restless. Suddenly, an inspiration struck. “I asked neighboring passengers if they wanted to hear some Shakespeare, and no one objected,” Mr. Snider said.
He had memorized Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech more than 15 years earlier to pass the time on a cross-country bike trip.
“I was definitely nervous because I’d never performed publicly before,” he said. Although his tired audience neglected to clap when he finished — they did applaud when the train started to move again — Mr. Snider was pleased that he didn’t forget a line.
Since ancient times, humans have memorized and recited poetry. Before the invention of writing, the only way to process a poem was to memorize it. Yet poetry memorization has become an outdated practice that many teachers and parents — not to mention students — consider too boring, mindless and just simply difficult for the modern classroom. Besides, who needs to memorize poetry when our smartphones can instantly call up nearly any published poem in the universe?
In fact, the value of learning literature by heart — particularly poetry — has only grown. All of us struggle with reducing attention spans and a public sphere (领域) that is becoming a literary wasteland, without complex language or expressions of empathy beyond one’s own online chat bubble (聊天气泡).
Rimbaud once wrote :“The lindens smell good in the good June evenings! At times the air is so scented that we close our eyes.” “He wrote that poem when he was young, and he was talking about love. I related to him,” said Ms. Huggins, the winner of the national Poetry Out Loud contest, who recited Rimbaud’s Novel. “Reciting a poem will greatly help you express what you’re trying to say.”
It’s time for us to show we care about words again to rebuild our connection to human civilization so much broader than social media feeds.
1. Why did Justin Snider offer to recite Shakespeare?| A．To show off his good memory. |
| B．To kill time on a delayed train. |
| C．To inspire passengers to learn poems. |
| D．To practice making a speech in public. |
| A．Reciting poems isn’t a trend any more. |
| B．Modern students need poetry memorization. |
| C．Owning a poem is to store it in our smart phones. |
| D．The appearance of writing promotes poetry reciting. |
| A．It can be a highly expressive act. |
| B．It is a matter of hard working practice. |
| C．It is a way to show empathy for others. |
| D．It can connect you with human civilization. |
| A．Objective. | B．Unclear. |
| C．Casual. | D．Supportive. |
5 . Food poems, like love poems, have the potential to be vague and sad. The New York Times’ description of a book of food poetry refers to Winston Churchill’s supposed declaration, “Take away this pudding. It has no theme.” This, of course, is a sad comment on food. Yes, eating can be mere gluttony at times — we’ve all had late-night chocolate or thoroughly enjoyed McDonald’s breakfast hash browns. In fact, writers like Daniel Orozco paint poetic pictures of sorts of foods, the thrill and shame of junk food.
Food poetry can be unbelievably described, inspiring feelings of pleasure and homesickness in the same way as eating does. It can also be straightforward or playful — just like food itself. Shell Silverstein’s Italian Food starts off with “Oh, how I love Italian food/I eat it all the time/Not just cause how good it tastes/But cause how good it rhymes,” and continues in rhyming couplets for the remainder of the poem.
Other food poems — certainly the best ones — have layers of complexity that are slowly revealed like eating a perfectly assembled sandwich or drinking skillfully mixed drink. Henrick Ibsen’s Tea — A Comparison From Love’s Comedy begins with a pleasant garden gathering but quickly delves into the scenery and politics of Eastern nations, from which the tea was imported. Still other food poems are simple collections of the poet’s most beloved meal, like Carlos Williams’ loyalty to caviar, For Viola: De Gustibus. He writes, “Beloved you are/Caviar of Caviar/Of all I love you best/O my Japanese bird nest/” Similarly, Jonathan Swift declares his love for mutton in the emotional cooking poem: How I Shall Dine.
Kevin Young, the editor of The Hungry Ear, a collection of food poetry published last year, explains poets’ love for food, “One of the things I think poets enjoy about a great meal is that it goes away... that you make a terrific meal for friends and family, and if you succeed, it’s gone.”
1. What can be inferred from the first paragraph?| A．Winston Churchill doesn’t like puddings. | B．Food poems and love poems are the same. |
| C．Eating is a bad subject in terms of poetry. | D．Many people like junk food despite its harm. |
| A．To suggest that Shell Silverstein is the best poet. |
| B．To prove that food poems have some complexity. |
| C．To show that food poetry can be straightforward or playful. |
| D．To show how Shell Silverstein likes Italian food. |
| A．slowly reveals some complexity | B．introduces where tea was imported |
| C．was referred to as the best food poem | D．talks about a pleasant garden gathering |
| A．Henrick Ibsen. | B．Carlos Williams. |
| C．Kevin Young. | D．Shell Silverstein. |
6 . Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, while her wealthy English parents were travelling in Europe. As a child, she travelled to many places with her family and learned how to speak several languages.
When Nightingale was 17, she told her family that she was going to help sick people. Her parents did not approve, but Nightingale was determined.
She travelled to hospitals all over Europe. She saw doctors working too hard. She saw patients die because they did not get enough care. Nightingale felt that women could be doing more to help doctors take care of sick people.
Nightingale knew that in order for nurses to do more, they needed special training in how to take care of sick people. Nightingale went to a hospital in Germany to study nursing. Then she returned to London and became the head of a group of women called Gentlewomen During Illness. These women cared for sick people in their homes.
In 1854, England was fighting a war with Russia.War reporters wrote about the terrible conditions in the hospitals that cared for the wounded. People demanded that something should be done about it. A leader of the government asked Florence Nightingale to take some nurses into the war hospitals. So, in November 1854, Nightingale finally got to work in a hospital. She took along 38 nurses whom she had trained herself.
At first, the doctors on the battlefields did not want Nightingale and her nurses in their hospitals. They did not believe that women could help. But in fact, the nurses did make a difference. They worked around the clock, tending the sick. Thanks to their hard work, many wounded soldiers survived.
After the war, Nightingale and her nurses were treated like heroes. Finally, in 1860, she started the Nightingale School for nurses. In time, thanks to Florence Nightingale, nursing became an important part of medicine.
1. Florence Nightingale was born into a rich________.| A．Italian family |
| B．Russian family |
| C．English family |
| D．German family |
| A．to work as a doctor |
| B．to care for sick people |
| C．to fight in the war with Russia |
| D．to travel to hospitals all over Europe |
| A．began to study nursing |
| B．got to work in a hospital |
| C．started to care for sick people in their homes |
| D．became the head of Gentlewomen During Illness |
| A．very helpful |
| B．quite generous |
| C．less than useful |
| D．as bad as the doctors had expected |
7 . From a young age, Barbara Binns’s passions were reading and doing research. With her latest book, Unlawful Orders, a biography, she captures American history.
Unlawful Orders tells the story of James Williams (1919-2016), a doctor who served with the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black military pilots, during World War II. While at the Freeman Airfield base in Iowa, he stood up to racial unfair practices through peaceful protest, which pushed the government to make some changes in the US army.
Binns lives in Chicago, Illinois, where she grew up and where most of her stories took place. In 2008, she wrote several books for young readers. She found her current book’s subject while researching James’s mother, Clara Williams, for another project. James had also lived in Chicago, in a neighborhood not far from where Binns grew up, but she hadn’t heard about him. “I found myself wondering if I ever walked past him on the street and didn’t realize I was in the presence of greatness,” Binns told The Week Junior. She said she would have loved to have him as a role model during her childhood.
That’s one reason why she wrote Unlawful Orders, she said — for children who need a hero, someone who looks ordinary but did extraordinary things through quiet but persistent actions.
1. What can be known about James Williams?| A．He once served as an American pilot. |
| B．He fought for equal rights for the black people. |
| C．He lived in the same neighborhood with Binns. |
| D．He got the support from American government. |
| A．Put aside. | B．Settled for. |
| C．Objected to. | D．Referred to. |
| A．How Binns chose the subject for Unlawful Orders. |
| B．How Binos got to know James Williams. |
| C．Why Binns gave up researching Clara Williams. |
| D．Why Binns chose Chicago to be the setting for her books. |
| A．To motivate herself to become a hero. | B．To be in memory of James Williams. |
| C．To inspire the children. | D．To record American history. |
8 . Zhang Daqian was born in 1899 in Sichuan province. Brought up in an artistic family, Zhang was first taught to paint by his mother and older siblings. He went on to copy as many masterpieces as he could set his eyes on, and was especially influenced by the individualistic masters Shitao (石涛) and Bada Shanren (八大山人). In the early 1940s, Zhang spent two years studying the Buddhist mural paintings at Dunhuang, which proved to be a crucial experience in his artistic development.
In particular, Zhang’s works are noteworthy for the many painting styles that he mastered, from highly meticulous (注意细节的) and detailed portraits to bold and expressive splashed-ink landscapes (泼墨风景画). While he was highly innovative as he developed his own unique style, he always ensured that his art was firmly rooted in Chinese tradition. As is usually the case with ink artists, his later works, especially his vibrant splashed-ink landscapes, are the most sought after.
Zhang mastered the art of painting “from heart to hand” late in his life. In 1971, he selected this particular phrase to carve into a seal (印章). The phrase probably conveyed a twofold message. First, it was Zhang’s proud claim that he had developed a stylistic versatility (多才多艺) for depicting the endless variations of the natural world. He acquired this ability by imitating the works of previous masters, which led to a grand combination of historical styles in his art. He also enriched his personal experience with his extensive travel and enhanced his artistic vocabulary in order to capture the beauty of the world. Second, the phrase communicates Zhang’s belief that an artist should follow his heart to convey their “spirit resonance (气韵生动),” a historical principle in judging the beauty of Chinese painting. Before applying his brush to paper, Zhang had already conceived (构思) the forms he wanted to depict and the inspiration he wished to convey through the painting. He would be fully aware of the most effective means by which to inspire awe and wonder in his audience.
Blessed with a long life—he was 83 when he died in 1983—and filled with an enormous amount of passion and energy for life, the artist produced a huge number of paintings over his lifetime. He is estimated to have completed an average of about 500 per year.
In 2011, Zhang became not only the most popular Chinese artist at auction but the best-selling artist in the world as well, surpassing Pablo Picasso. And demand for his works has remained high since then.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The characteristics of Zhang Daqian’s art. |
| B．The most sought-after works by Zhang Daqian. |
| C．Where Zhang Daqian got inspiration for his paintings. |
| D．The reason why Zhang Daqian’s artworks are so popular. |
①How Zhang Daqian became aware of the most effective means to inspire his audience.
②How Zhang Daqian was able to put what he wanted on the canvas without thinking about it.
③How Zhang Daqian learned to freely convey the principle of “spirit resonance” through his approach to painting.
④How Zhang Daqian was able to depict the endless variations of the natural world using a combination of different styles.
| A．①② | B．①③ | C．②③ | D．③④ |
①the beauty of the natural world
②the Buddhist mural paintings at Dunhuang
③masters in the likes of Shitao and Bada Shanren
④the rich nature of his travels and personal experiences
| A．①②③ | B．①②④ | C．②③④ | D．①②③④ |
9 . Poetry is one of the important art forms of literature, and is an easy way to express your feelings. Moreover, everyone understands it in their own way. Some find relief in poems; some read them simply for peace; some read poems for simple artistic pleasure.
There are some special features of poetry, which make it quite different from other forms of literature. First of all, poems have rhythmic patterns. Generally, most parts of a poem follow the same form of rhythm. Poems may have rhyme, but they don’t have to. The lines are neatly arranged together so that they express a particular feeling or emotion.
There can be various types of poems but according to the pattern or the form, there are mainly three types:
Lyrics: The lyric mainly concentrates on human thoughts and emotions rather than a story. Lyrics always bear song-like appeal. These are mainly short poems. Popular lyric poem forms are the elegy, the ode and the sonnet. William Shakespeare, Edmund Waller and John Keats are some of the greatest lyric writers of all times.
Narrative poems: This type of poetry tells a story. Narrative poems are usually long poems. Epics and ballads fall under this type. Some of the greatest epic poets are John Milton, Dante, Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander Pope, William Shakespeare, etc.
Dramatic poems: Any drama that is written in verse is a dramatic poem. These poems generally tell a story. Black verse, dramatic monologues and closet drama belong to this type. William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson are some of the great dramatic poets.
Whatever the form is, one thing, which, cannot be denied, is that poetry is one of the most powerful tools to express our feelings.
1. What do we know about lyrics?①They are similar to songs
②They usually tell stories.
③They are not very long.
④The sonnet is a type of lyric.
| A．①②③ | B．②③④ |
| C．①②④ | D．①③④ |
| A．The elegy. | B．The dramatic monologue. |
| C．The epic. | D．The ode. |
| A．poems are weak in showing feelings |
| B．narrative poems are shorter than lyric poems |
| C．some poets write more than one type of poem |
| D．the sonnet and the ballad belong to the same type |
| A．tell us some simple facts about poetry | B．teach us how to write poems |
| C．give some advice on reading poems | D．make us interested in poems |
10 . Romanticism in Poetry
Romanticism was a literary and artistic movement of the late 18th and mid-19th centuries. Romantic emotions were expressed in poems, stories, art and music.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
William Wordsworth was a famous Romantic poet in England. In fact, his name is synonymous (与……密切相关的) with the English Romantic movement. Wordsworth grew up in one of the most beautiful areas of England. This area is called the Lake District.
As an adult, Wordsworth worked together with the fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1798, they published a book of poetry called “Lyrical Ballads”. This book announced the beginning of the English Romantic movement.
Li Bai (701-762)
Li Bai was born in Suiye, an area of China. As a boy, he lived in Sichuan with his family. At the age of 25, he began travelling around the country.
| A．He wrote and recorded his miserable experience. |
| B．He made friends with scholars and kept journals. |
| C．The countryside there is wild, natural and beautiful. |
| D．These emotional works celebrated the beauty of nature, and the mysterious. |
| E．Romanticism is marked by human’s strong love for nature and harmony. |
| F．Romanticism has been a part of human creative expression all over the world. |
| G．Its poems used language and situations from real life and celebrated nature in a new way. |
