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. |
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
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.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2：
That video was posted the day before Halloween.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________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. |
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. |
