2 . From the very beginning of school we make books and reading a constant source of possible failure and public humiliation (侮辱). When children are little we make them read aloud before the teacher and other children, so that we can be sure they “know” all the words they are reading. This means that when they don’t know a word, they are going to make a mistake, right in front of everyone. After having taught fifth-grade classes for four years, I decided to try at all costs to rid them of their fear and dislike of books, and to get them to read oftener and more adventurously.

One day soon after school had started, I said to them, “Now I’m going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of books this year, but I want you to read them only for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that’s enough for me. Also I’m not going to ask you what words mean.”

The children sat stunned and silent. Was this teacher talking seriously? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and seriously, “Mr. Holt, do you really mean that?” I said just as seriously, “ I mean every word of it.”

During the spring she really astonished me. One day, she was reading at her desk. From a glimpse of the illustrations (插图) I thought I knew what the book was. I said to myself, “It can’t be,” and went to take a closer look. Sure enough, she was reading Moby Dick. I said, “Don’t you find parts of it rather heavy going?” She answered, “Oh, sure, but I just skip over those parts and go on to the next good part.”

This is exactly what reading, I think, should be: find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, and then go on to something else.

1. According to the passage, children’s fear and dislike of books may result from ________.

A．reading little and thinking little	B．reading often and adventurously
C．being made to read too much	D．being made to read aloud before others

2. The teacher told his students to read ________.

A．for higher scores in exams	B．for knowledge
C．for enjoyment	D．for a larger vocabulary

3. Upon hearing the teacher’s talk, the children probably felt that ________.

A．it sounded stupid	B．it was not surprising at all
C．it sounded too good to be true	D．it was no different from other teachers’ talk

3 . Here are four books recommended by one of the most respected editors from Reader’s Digest. If you have time to dip yourselves into the books, they can surely offer much food for thought.

Face It
Debbie Harry
HARPERCOLLINS

Picture this: it’s the late 1970s and the punk music scene is starting to take hold. The band releases the album ParallelLines, which becomes the greatest hit. Everyone wants to attend her concert and some teenage girls even dream to be her. Now 75, Harry bares all about herself in Face It, starting from her childhood. Part shocking, this book is as humorous, moving and vigorous as its subject.

Scatterbrain
Henning Beck
NEWSOUTHBOOKS

If there is no obvious connection among what we see, the brain will substitute in the rest of the information without you even noticing, Beck says in the chapter Memory. In this “user’s guide for your brain”, he argues that mistakes are the keys to success. He combines science with brain-boosting advice and real-life stories to take the reader on a fascinating adventure through human memory.

You’ re Not Listening
Kate Murphy
PENGUINERANDOM HOUSE

When was the last time you listened to someone? Really listened without thinking about what you wanted to say next? And when was the last time someone really listened to you? Compared with talking, listening isn’t considered so important, argues journalist Kate Murphy, but she insists it is actually the more powerful position in communication. Her insights could transform your conversations, your relationships and your life.

The Right-Brain Work Out
Russel Howcroft with Alex Wadelton
PENGUIN

In 1968,1600 five-year-olds were given a creativity test. They were retested at ages 10 and 15 and their scores were compared against adults. While 98 per cent of five-year-olds were assessed in the “highly creative” range (genius level), only two per cent of adults could be considered “highly creative”. In The Right-Brain Work Out, the authors promise to re-train your brain to be more creative, using 70 questions to challenge you.

1. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Parallel Lines became a great success in the 1970s unexpectedly.

B．Face It mainly reveals things about the band to the general public.

C．Scatterbrain helps stimulate your brain to take more adventures.

D．Beck holds that the importance of mistakes shouldn’t be ignored.

2. In The Right-Brain Work Out, which of the following is true?

A．Two tests were given separately to the subjects.

B．The effect of the brain exercise is clearly proved.

C．Some questions are designed to enhance creativity.

D．Genius kids reserve their creativity into adulthood.

3. You will recommend ________ to a colleague having difficulty in getting along well with others.

A．Face It	B．Scatterbrain
C．You’re Not Listening	D．The Right-Brain Work Out

4 . How to Find Time to Read?

That everyone’s too busy these days is ordinary. But one specific complaint is made especially sadly：    1       

What makes the problem worse is that the usual time-management techniques don’t seem efficient. The web’s full of articles offering tips on making time to read: “Give up TV” or “Carry a book with you at all times”    2    Sit down to read and the work-related thoughts keeps going on and on or else you’re so exhausted that a challenging book’s the last thing you need. The modern mind, Tim Parks, a novelist and critic, writes, “Most people tend to communicate…It is not simply that one is interrupted; it is that one actually tends to interrupt”. Deep reading requires not just time, but a special kind of time which can’t be obtained merely by becoming more efficient.

    3    Thinking of time as a resource to be maximized means you approach it on purpose, making any given moment as well spent only in so far as it advances progress toward some goal immersive reading, by contrast, depends on being willing to risk inefficiency, goallessness, even time-wasting. Try to slot it as a to-do list item and you’ll manage only goal-focused reading-useful, sometimes, but not the most fulfilling kind. “The future comes at us like empty bottles along an unstoppable and nearly infinite conveyor belt,” writes Gary Eberle in his book Sacred Time, and “we feel a pressure to fill these different-sized bottles(days, hours, minutes)as they pass, for if they get by without being filled, we will have wasted them”.    4    

So what does work？Perhaps surprisingly, scheduling regular times for reading. You’d think this might fuel the efficiency mind-set, but in fact, Eberle notes, such usual behaviour helps us “step outside time’s flow” into “soul time”.    5                     

“Carry a book with you at all times” can actually work, too-providing you dip in often enough, so that reading becomes the default state from which you temporarily surface to take care of business, before dropping back down. On a really good day, it no longer feels as if you’re “making time to read,” but just reading, and making time for everything else.

A．How do we make reading easy?

B．There’s never any time to read.

C．In fact, “becoming more efficient” is part of the problem.

D．No mind-set could be worse for losing yourself in a book.

E．Most people don't pay more attention to physical book reading.

F．You could limit distractions by reading only physical books, or on single-purpose e-readers.

G．But in my experience, using such methods to free up the odd 30 minutes doesn’t work.