1. Where does Mark usually read news now?
| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a magazine. | C．On the Internet. |
| A．It has a small glass window. |
| B．It can make a pizza in a short time. |
| C．It offers four types of pizzas at a time. |
| A．It is quite necessary. | B．It might not be popular. | C．It will certainly succeed. |
| A．The 24-hour service. | B．Tasty pizza made by it. | C．The low production cost. |
2 . The printed book is back.
Recent studies have shown students keep more information in memory when they read a hard-copy book compared to reading on a digital device. One school in Australia responded to these findings by abandoning its e-readers. The students noted that “the ease of navigation” was superior when using a traditional book.
I love the way we now judge printed books using the language of the digital world. E-books may come with “a set of navigational tools,” but it turns out that the best navigational devices are your forefinger and thumb. To think, all this time, those devices have just been sitting there, hanging at the ends of your arms.
Can a traditional book offer all the features of an e-book? Alas, no. It lacks a “progress bar” indicating what percentage of the book has been read. Luckily, a “hack (劈具)” is available: Turn your book so that it can be viewed from the side or top. It will naturally form two halves joined in the middle (“the spine”) (书脊). If the left-hand chunk is thicker than the right-hand one, you are more than halfway through.
Fans of the e-book point out that digital text is easy to annotate (作注解). Some devices even feature a little image of a pencil to guide the reader through the process. Traditional-book users have a similar system called a “pencil”. With it, favored passages can be underlined and, if it’s a history book, pretentious comments can be written in the margin. Thus annotated, such books can be left around for others to pursue, convincing family members, or prospective lovers, of your intellectual judgment and insight.
Educational fads come and go, so maybe the shift back to traditional books won’t last. But for the moment, I find myself standing at attention, tightening my textbook-built shoulders and saluting their glorious return.
1. What is the purpose of paragraph 2?| A．To support a point. |
| B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To describe a phenomenon. |
| D．To present the central point. |
| A．Dividing the book into halves |
| B．Turning the book upside down |
| C．Calculating the percentage of the reading |
| D．Comparing the finished part to half the volume |
| A．Sensitive. | B．Showy. | C．Frequent. | D．Imaginative. |
| A．An overall ban should be placed on e-books to improve learning. |
| B．Digital devices do not present an advantage over fingers in reading. |
| C．The language of the digital world is popular with printed book lovers. |
| D．Traditional books have made a comeback and are here to stay for good. |
3 . I am 49 now. Reader’s Digest has been a(n)
In an era with no television or the Internet, the evenings were spent
I read through them all over my school holidays. One thing I learned from Reader’s Digest is how to reverse (倒车) a car, which still benefits me today. I
I’ve
| A．essential | B．awkward | C．challenging | D．legal |
| A．left | B．ran | C．spotted | D．visited |
| A．given away | B．set aside | C．subscribed to | D．stored up |
| A．copying | B．booking | C．reading | D．printing |
| A．collected | B．designed | C．assessed | D．purchased |
| A．publication | B．transformation | C．increase | D．display |
| A．difficult | B．instructive | C．tiresome | D．traditional |
| A．admit | B．postpone | C．propose | D．remember |
| A．backing | B．picking | C．giving | D．counting |
| A．latest | B．slightest | C．biggest | D．craziest |
| A．never | B．indeed | C．occasionally | D．usually |
| A．close | B．false | C．frequent | D．quick |
| A．errors | B．requirements | C．limitation | D．explanation |
| A．merchant | B．loss | C．coach | D．barrier |
| A．fashionable | B．practical | C．previous | D．financial |
4 . Children’s books that teach kids to love animals
“Before You Were Mine”
written by Maribeth Boelts; illustrated by David Walker G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books
“Boelts’s restrained (婉约的) text and Walker’s affecting illustrations combine to touch the hearts of dog-loving children who will almost certainly give their pets an extra hug afterwards. A note on adopting a shelter pet follows this powerful emotional offering.”
-- Kirkus Reviews
“Hachiko”
written by Pamela S. Turner; illustrated by Yan Nascimbene Candlewick Press
“This touching tale of a dog’s devotion to -his master is a well-known story in Japan, told here in the first person through the eyes of a fictional boy named Kentaro. The boy and many others care for the dog, who becomes a celebrity due to his faithful nature, with a statue of the dog put up in the station even before the dog’s death from old age.”
-- School Library Journal
“A Boy and a Jaguar”
written by Alan Rabinowitz, illustrated by Citia Chien Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
“It’s a picture book about Alan Rabinowitz’ s own childhood. Rabinowitz grew up with a severe stutter (口吃的), something he had to overcome before he could pursue career that has made him a voice for the endangered animals.”
-- NPR
“Talking Tails”
written by Ann Love & Jane Drake; illustrated by Bill Slavin Penguin Random House
“Amusing ink-and-watercolor illustrations from Slavin are integrated into the text of this entertaining look at the history of pet keeping. With information about keeping fish, birds, horses and ferrets (雪貂), most of the space is devoted to cats and dogs.”
-- Publishers Weekly
1. What do the first two books have in common?| A．Both tell a well-known true story. | B．Both tell a touching story about dogs. |
| C．Both are published by the same press. | D．Both are written by the same person. |
| A．“Hachiko”. | B．“Talking Tails”. |
| C．“A Boy and a Jaguar”. | D．“Before You Were Mine”. |
| A．Bill Slavin. | B．Catia Chien. | C．David Walker. | D．Yan Nascimbene. |
5 . Jose Alberto Gutierrez’s life would never be the same again after finding a copy of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy in the garbage 20 years ago. It happened while he was driving his garbage truck through wealthier neighborhoods at night and seeing deserted books. It sparked his desire to start rescuing books from the garbage. He took home between 50 and 60 books every morning after his nine-hour shift. Eventually, he turned his book collection into a community library.
Colombia’s capital city of Bogota has 13 million residents and 19 public libraries. However, these libraries tend to be far away from where rural and poorer communities live. The option of buying new books is non-existent for families struggling to make ends meet. Having access to a library of books and being taken away to another world while immersed in a book is a luxury for the kids who visit Gutierrez’s library.
Gutierrez grew up poor, and his family could not afford to educate him beyond primary school. Nevertheless, his mother was a keen reader and read stories to him every night. Her love for books left a deep impression on Gutierrez, who never let a lack of formal education stop him from reading classics by the likes of Victor Hugo, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Today, his community library, called “The Strength of Words”, occupies most of his home and is piled from floor to ceiling with fiction and non-fiction titles. Everything from school textbooks to story books can be found in his collection of more than 20,000 books!
The Strength of Words library opens every weekend. It is not just school-going children who are enjoying the benefits of The Strength of Words library. Adults are also welcome to expand their horizons and develop new skills to build a better life for themselves.
Despite having done so much for his community, Gutierrez is not yet content to call it a day. He continues to search through bins for reading material and has even travelled to book fairs in Mexico and Chile to sell his idea of building library from unwanted books.
1. What inspired Gutierrez to build the community library?| A．Famous novelists he liked very much. |
| B．The dilemma he faced on the night shift. |
| C．Abandoned books he came across at work. |
| D．The hobby he has taken up since childhood. |
| A．Gutierrez’s mother was a good reader. |
| B．Gutierrez was greatly influenced by his mother. |
| C．Gutierrez led a difficult life during his childhood. |
| D．Gutierrez had a disadvantage of poor education. |
| A．Responsible and ambitious. | B．Humble and thoughtful. |
| C．Committed and sensitive. | D．Creative and courageous. |
| A．A book holds a house of gold. |
| B．Constant dropping wears the stone. |
| C．Good things come to those who wait. |
| D．One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. |
6 . About a decade ago, Lawson was at a beach in Virginia watching his kids build castles right next to the waves.
“I kept trying to get them to come back because I thought it was a terrible idea,” he remarked. He wanted them to build their sandcastles closer to the dunes. But they found it more exciting to build right where the waves hit, seeing their sandcastles get destroyed, and then rebuilding them with whatever debris (残骸) washed up from the ocean. “It seemed so symbolic, somehow, of how life works more than just building your perfect sandcastles,” said Lawson. When he decided to turn that sunny day into a children’s book, the idea came to just use pictures. “It seemed like it would work beautifully without words,” he said.
A Day for Sandcastles is illustrated by Qin Leng. It’s the second wordless picture book for Lawson and Leng since 2021’s Over the Shop. Leng’s illustrations stay pretty true to real life. Three siblings spend the day building sandcastles and watching them get destroyed by a flying hat. “To me it’s a celebration of childhood and the simple joys of life. These are the things I like to capture,” said Leng.
Leng spent part of her childhood in France, and she was inspired by European comic books “What I love to do when I illustrate a picture book is add side stories to the main storyline. I always think about the readers and the longevity of the book, and I want them to be able to discover something new every time they revisit the book,” Leng explained.
At the end of the day, the sleepy-eyed kids pile into the bus that will take them home. “Those last pages are some of my favorite. They capture that feeling like at the end of the day on the beach, when it’s getting dark and you feel completely exhausted,” Lawson said. It must be a universal childhood feeling: happy with sand, sticky from the salt, hot from the sun, and ready to fall asleep the moment you get into the car.
1. Why does Lawson mention the scene where the kids built sandcastles?| A．To suggest a way to enjoy leisure. | B．To tell us the inspiration for his book. |
| C．To convince us of how life works. | D．To remind readers of the childhood. |
| A．The stories are literally works of fantasy. |
| B．They are purchased by kids universally. |
| C．They carry no elements of comic books. |
| D．Readers can only find pictures in them. |
| A．Pleased. | B．Indifferent. | C．Disturbed. | D．Exhausted. |
| A．Childhood in sandcastles | B．Beautiful childhood memories |
| C．Popular illustrated books | D．Explore the mystery of nature |
7 . Books are excellent gifts. Here are four of the year’s most talked-about titles.
Ordinary Monsters | By J. M. Miro
Miro has temporarily abandoned literary fiction in favour of a new series of historical fantasy novels. Ordinary Monsters is about a group of children with magical gifts who come together and pool their powers to escape the bad shape-shifting man that’s going after them.
Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces | By Elamin Abdelmahmoud
The soundtrack to The O. C., a drama series, and the strange beauty of Highway 401 were important factors in developing selfhood of Abdelmahmoud. This book describes his own experience of moving from Khartoum, Sudan, to Kingston, Canada, in the early 2000s at age 12.
A Magic Steeped in Poison | By Judy I. Lin
Harry Potter has his magic stick. And Ning, the heroine of Lin’s first novel, has tea, which in her world carries magical properties. Lin has created a pleasing Young Adult fantasy rich in Chinese mythology (神话). In this book, Ning enters a competition to find the most gifted tea master, Shennong.
A Ballet of Lepers | By Leonard Cohen
Unlike many other posthumous (死后出版的) works, you can count on Cohen’s to be worth your wait. Before his death, he said that the novel contained in the book, which was never published, was likely better than The Favourite Game, a novel he published during his lifetime. This book also includes a radio play script (剧本) and a handful of short stories.
1. Which book is a mirror of the author’s life story?| A．Ordinary Monsters. | B．Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces. |
| C．A Magic Steeped in Poison. | D．A Ballet of Lepers. |
| A．They are about teamwork. |
| B．They are based on an imaginary world. |
| C．They both involve Chinese characters. |
| D．They draw inspiration from other novels. |
| A．It is a collection. | B．It is Cohen’s best novel. |
| C．It is a fantasy novel. | D．It is adapted from a play. |
8 . ·Tuesday’s Story
A Book of Rhyme for Children and Pet Lovers
Becky Hohnstein
www.xlibris.com
Hardback| Paperback| E-book
$22.99 |$14.99 | $3.99
This children’s and pet lovers’ book uses photographs to tell the story of a remarkable, well loved bichon dog, through babyhood, then as a fun energetic dog and then an aging dog. Rhyme makes the story fun to be read and read to.
·Emma Embury: Poet of the Heart
Charles Russel
www.xlibris.com
Hardback| Paperback| E-book
$31.99 |$17.99 | $3.99
Emma Embury was a brilliant early 19th Century American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her life story, along with her poems, and selections from her essays and novels, makes delightful reading.
·Family Guide to Celebration of the Jewish Holidays
Leonard Chesler
www.juniverse.com
Paperback| E-book
$14.95| $3.99
Written as a family guide, emphasis is placed on purpose, meaning, value, joy, and inspiration for each holiday and our daily lives.
·Just Arrived- A Different World
Bona Udeze
www.iuniverse.com
Paperback| E-book
$20.99| $3.99
Emeka has just arrived in America and must now face culture shock while many other Africans tolerate the same fate, fighting for survival in a strange new world.
·Trials of a Dead Lawyer’s wife
Maggie Redmon
www.xlibris.com
Hardback| Paperback| E-book
$31.99| $17.99| $3.99
It is based on a true story. After her husband Scott changed his will just hours before he died and half a million dollars would be given away to his girlfriend, Maggie started to search for truth and justice.
1. Which author’s book would you choose for a person adopting a dog?| A．Charles Russell. | B．Becky Hohnstein, |
| C．Maggie Redmon. | D．Leonard Chesler. |
| A．Tuesday’s Story. |
| B．Emma Embury: Poet of the Heart. |
| C．Family Guide to Celebration of the Jewish Holidays. |
| D．Just Arrived-A Different World. |
| A．Tuesday’s Story is about the story of a dog owner. |
| B．Emma Embury’s works include different types. |
| C．Leonard Chesler’s book emphasizes some scenic spots. |
| D．Scott changed his will to punish Maggie’s dishonesty. |
9 . New Stories Await Just for You
The Origin of Disease
Carolyn Merchant, JD & Christopher Merchant, MD
Containing exciting information and thought, this book could help people find ways to improve or avoid diseases that can dramatically change lives. Pulling medical knowledge together in an original way, it provides a new vision for understanding chronic(慢性的) disease, and challenges readers to think of chronic disease based on the root causes. For many people, medical books can be a hard barrier to jump. but this book is written in an accessible style and format, and contains information useful to the lay person, not just medical professionals.
From Healing to Hell
W. H. Wall, Jr
From Healing to Hell is about the fall of a good and decent man and goes further to reveal the shocking details of how he was done a cruel injustice at the hands of a CIA government experiment with the drug LSD. The book tells the story of illegal activity by officials in power who operated in the name of protecting the country.
The Stuff of Monuments
Richard A. Crousey
Little things occur regularly, forbidding us to recognize their significance. What finally causes them to blossom into sweetness is their fading away. Through the stories in the book, it is shown that the seasons of our lives are made up of the stuff that went before. Nothing is truly lost. As one picture begins to fade, another begins to dawn.
There Are No Monsters Here
Buffy Brinkley
A little boy is afraid to go to bed when his mother announces his bedtime. He believes there may be monsters hiding in his room. However, his fear doesn’t stop him from trying to find them. What his decision creates is a doorway to acceptance and friendship. Out of fear comes delight, and the idea that what we see and how we initially judge a situation can be wrong——that what it takes to overcome our fears can sometimes be the best way to make a friend.
1. Who are the targeted readers of the book The Origin of Disease?| A．Students preferring challenges. |
| B．People caring about their health. |
| C．Researchers in the chemistry lab. |
| D．Doctors in the emergency room. |
| A．The Origin of Disease. |
| B．From Healing to Hell. |
| C．The Stuff of Monuments. |
| D．There Are No Monsters Here. |
| A．His innocence. |
| B．His fear. |
| C．His courage. |
| D．His creativity. |
10 . I have to admit I’m an old-school reader. Put simply, I
Alone in a new city to
Francis Bacon’s essays are always a ready antidote (解药). “Prosperity (繁荣) is not without many
Reading deeply from the past can be at least as
| A．buy | B．love | C．recommend | D．hate |
| A．stop | B．lose | C．keep | D．take |
| A．relieve | B．change | C．train | D．feed |
| A．disappointed | B．surprised | C．calmed | D．stressed |
| A．freedom | B．profession | C．company | D．action |
| A．books | B．words | C．lines | D．pages |
| A．need | B．wonder | C．doubt | D．question |
| A．amazing | B．interesting | C．new | D．dull |
| A．inspirations | B．fears | C．amusements | D．strengths |
| A．ownership | B．relationship | C．friendship | D．hardship |
| A．book | B．computer | C．chair | D．shop |
| A．mind-blowing | B．doubtful | C．instructive | D．breathtaking |
| A．reflect on | B．worry about | C．take up | D．dream of |
| A．silly | B．common | C．best | D．latest |
| A．know | B．hear | C．research | D．confirm |
