1 . Looking at the photos of public celebrations for International Pillow Fight Day in the news and social media from the 50 cities around the world, one question occurred to me: What are pillows really stuffed with? Not physically, but symbolically? Armed with nothing more than bring-our-own sacrificial cushions, strangers struck heavily each other in playful feather from Amsterdam to Atlanta, Warsaw to Washington DC. But why? Is there anything more to this delightful celebration?
As a cultural sign, the pillow is falsely soft. Since at least the 16th century, the humble pillow has been given unexpected meanings. The Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu tells a famous story about a wise man who meets a depressed young scholar at an inn and offers him a magic pillow filled with the most vivid dreams of a seemingly more fulfilling life. When the young man awakens to discover that his happy 50-year dream has in fact come and gone in the short space of an after-noon’s nap, our impression of the pillow’s power shifts from wonder to terror.
Succeeding writers have likewise seized upon the pillow. When the 19th-century English novelist Charlotte Bronte poetically observed “a ruffled (不平的,起皱的) mind makes a restless pillow”, she didn’t just change the expected order of the adjectives and nouns, but instead she made unclear the boundaries between mind and matter — the thing resting and the thing rested upon.
That can be considered as a trick which perhaps Bronte learned from the Renaissance philosopher Montaigne, who once insisted that “ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head”. On Montaigne’s thinking, intelligence and happiness confront each other forever in a pillow fight that only one can win.
Based on the words of Tang, Bronte, and Montaigne, we can perhaps more easily measure the attraction of the global pillow fight. Like a ritual of release, the annual international pillow fight amounts to a kind of cleansing, a brushing off of daily worries, an emptying of the world’s collective mind. Rather than a launch-pad for weightless rest, the pillow is a symbol of heavy thought: an anchor that drags the world’s soul down- one that must be lightened.
1. The writer uses the example of Tang Xianzu, wanting to illustrate that ________.A.dreams are always wonderful while the real world is cruel |
B.pillows sometimes bless people with satisfactory dreams |
C.people’s impression of pillows changes from wonder to terror |
D.pillows symbolically convey the meaning in contrast to their soft appearance |
A.learned a trick from the Renaissance philosopher Montaigne |
B.was likely to have been influenced by the thoughts of the Renaissance |
C.regarded pillows as reflections of our minds |
D.wrote poems about pillows |
A.pillows give us comfort |
B.pillows make people more intelligent |
C.people with plenty of thoughts have no inner peace |
D.people can easily fall asleep when they know little |
A.Because it is a ritual of release. | B.Because it makes life delightful. |
C.Because it comforts restless minds. | D.Because it contains a profound meaning of life. |
Pumpkin(南瓜)carving at Halloween is a family tradition. We visit a local farm every October. In the pumpkin field, I compete with my three brothers and sister to seek out the biggest pumpkin. My dad has a rule that we have to carry our pumpkins back home, and as the eldest child I have an advantage — I carried an 85-pounder back last year.
This year, it was hard to tell whether my prize or the one chosen by my 14-year-old brother, Jason, was the winner. Unfortunately we forgot to weigh them before taking out their insides, but I was determined to prove my point. All of us were hard at work at the kitchen table, with my mom filming the annual event. I’m unsure now why I thought forcing my head inside the pumpkin would settle the matter, but it seemed to make perfect sense at the time.
With the pumpkin resting on the table, hole uppermost, I bent over and pressed my head against the opening. At first I got jammed just above my eyes and then, as I went on with my task, unwilling to quit, my nose briefly prevented entry. Finally I managed to put my whole head into it, like a cork(软木塞)forced into a bottle. I was able to straighten up with the huge pumpkin resting on my shoulders.
My excitement was short-lived. The pumpkin was heavy. “I’m going to set it down, now,” I said, and with Jason helping to support its weight, I bent back over the table to give it somewhere to rest. It was only when I tried to remove my head that I realized getting out was going to be less straightforward than getting in. When I pulled hard, my nose got in the way. I got into a panic as I pressed firmly against the table and moved my head around trying to find the right angle, but it was no use. “I can’t get it out!” I shouted, my voice sounding unnaturally loud in the enclosed space.
注意:1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右;
2. 续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好;
Paragraph 1:
I was stuck for five to six minutes though it felt much longer.
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That video was posted the day before Halloween.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the
The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations date back to more than 2, 000 years ago. In the Tang Dynasty, people began to enjoy
1. What is the relationship between the speakers?
A.Driver and passenger. |
B.Club owner and customer. |
C.Interviewer and interviewee. |
A.Drive the bus. | B.Have cold drinks. | C.Cook food. |
A.Get dressed smartly. |
B.Bring their VIP cards. |
C.Book clubs in advance. |
A.Control the number of people. |
B.Inform him of the booking time. |
C.Avoid wearing jeans and sports shoes. |
1. How did the first man feel when he was invited to the party?
A.Excited. | B.Confident. | C.Worried. |
A.Don’t drink too much. |
B.Just follow his example. |
C.Don’t ask silly questions. |
A.He had drunk too much. |
B.He was too pleased with himself. |
C.He felt uncomfortable. |
A.He knew more about Shakespeare than the first man did. |
B.He knows nothing about Shakespeare like the first man. |
C.He likes cheese more than Coca-cola. |
1. What’s the relationship between the two speakers?
A.Husband and wife. | B.Father and daughter. | C.Brother and sister. |
A.Because it’ll make her mother look younger. |
B.Because it’s the most expensive present. |
C.Because it’s easy to buy a skirt there. |
A.In a restaurant. | B.At home. | C.In a supermarket. |
A.Do shopping. | B.Learn to cook. | C.Invite friends. |