| A．A book writer. | B．A shop assistant. |
| C．A librarian. | D．A tour guide. |
Read the world in 193 books
I used to think of myself as a person learned in books，but my bookshelves told a different story. Apart from a few Indian novels and an Australian book，my literature collection only consisted of British and American titles. Worse still，I hardly ever read anything in translation. My reading is limited to stories by English-speaking authors.
So，at the start of 2020，I set myself the challenge of trying to read a book from every country of all 193 UN-recognized states in a year. I created a blog called A Year of Reading the World and put out an appeal for suggestions of titles that I could read in English. The response was amazing. Before I knew it，people all over the planet were getting in touch with ideas and offers of help. Some posted me books from their home countries.Others did hours of research on my behalf. In addition，several writers，like Turkmenistan's AkWelsapar and Panama's Juan David Morgan，sent me unpublished translations of their novels，giving me a rare opportunity to read works unavailable in Britain. Even with such an extraordinary team behind me，however，sourcing books was no easy task.
But the effort was worth it. As I made my way through the planet's literary landscapes，extraordinary things started to happen. Far from simply armchair travelling，I found I was inhabiting the mental space of the storytellers. I discovered，book packing offered something that a physical traveler could hope to experience only rarely: it took me inside the thoughts of individuals living far away and showed me the world through their eyes. More powerful than a thousand news reports，these stories not only opened my mind to basic information of life in other places，but opened my heart to the way people there might feel. And that in turn changed my thinking.
One by one, the books from the countries on the list that had begun as an intellectual exercise filled my heart with laughter，love，anger，hope and fear. Lands that had once seemed exotic and remote became close and familiar to me. At its best，I learned, fiction makes the world real.
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| A. stranded B. unsettling C. vast D. alternating E. titled F. breaking G. unparalleled H. unfolding I. sprung J. distress K. solidity |
Finding Comfort in War and Peace
Over the past 15 years, Yiyun Li, a Chinese-American author, has read War and Peace at least a dozen times. Her hardback copy of Leo Tolstoy's 1,200 - page saga bristles with colored notes, like some exotic lizard's spine. The novel is not just a masterclass in fiction, Ms. Li believes, but a cure for
War and Peace - originally
So large is Tolstoy's world, Ms. Li reckoned, that there could be no better companion for people
Other book clubs have
4 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Face It | B．Scatterbrain |
| C．You’re Not Listening | D．The Right-Brain Work Out |
5 . “Deep reading” —as opposed to the often superficial reading we do on the Web —is an endangered practice, one we ought to take steps to preserve as we would a historic building or a significant work of art. Its disappearance would jeopardize(危及) the intellectual and emotional development of generations growing up online, as well as the preservation of a critical part of our culture: the novels, poems and other kinds of literature that can be appreciated only by readers whose brains, quite literally, have been trained to understand them.
Recent research in cognitive science and psychology has demonstrated that deep reading —slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity—is a distinctive experience, different in kind from the mere decoding of words. Although deep reading does not, strictly speaking, require a conventional book, the built-in limits of the printed page are uniquely helpful to the deep reading experience. A book’s lack of hyperlinks(超链接), for example, frees the reader from making decisions —Should I click on this link or not? —allowing her to remain fully immersed in the narrative.
That immersion is supported by the way the brain handles language rich in detail, indirect reference and figures of speech: by creating a mental representation that draws on the same brain regions that would be active if the scene were unfolding in real life. The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of literature are also vigorous exercise for the brain, propelling us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity for empathy (认同).
None of this is likely to happen when we’re browsing through a website. Although we call the activity by the same name, the deep reading of books and the information-driven reading we do on the Web are very different, both in the experience they produce and in the capacities they develop. A growing body of evidence suggests that online reading may be less engaging and less satisfying, even for the “digital natives” to whom it is so familiar. Last month, for example, Britain’s National Literacy Trust released the results of a study of 34,910 young people aged 8 to 16. Researchers reported that 39% of children and teens read daily using electronic devices, but only 28% read printed materials every day. Those who read only onscreen were three times less likely to say they enjoy reading very much and a third less likely to have a favorite book. The study also found that young people who read daily only onscreen were nearly two times less likely to be above-average readers than those who read daily in print or both in print and onscreen.
1. What does the author say about “deep reading”?| A．It serves as a complement to online reading. |
| B．It should be preserved before it is too late. |
| C．It is mainly suitable for reading literature. |
| D．It is an indispensable part of education. |
| A．It helps promote readers’ intellectual and emotional growth. |
| B．It enables readers to appreciate the complexity of language. |
| C．It helps readers build up immersive reading habits. |
| D．It is quickly becoming an endangered practice. |
| A．It ensures the reader’s cognitive growth. |
| B．It enables the reader to be fully engaged. |
| C．It activates a different region of the brain. |
| D．It helps the reader learn rhetorical devices. |
| A．Onscreen readers may be less competent readers. |
| B．Those who do reading in print are less informed. |
| C．Young people find reading onscreen more enjoyable. |
| D．It is now easier to find a favorite book online to read. |
1. 描述你的书或电影的主要内容；
2. 其令你感到或难忘的原因；
3. 谈谈它对你产生的影响或带来的思考。
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7 . Amazon Charts
The Top Five Most Sold & Most Read Books of the Week
No. 1 It — Now a major film BY STEPHEN KING
Stephen King’s terrifying, classic # 1 New York Times bestseller, “a landmark in American literature (Chicago Sun-Times)”— about seven adults who return to their hometown to fight a nightmare they had first been troubled with as teenagers…an evil without a-name: it.
Readers of Stephen King know that Derry, Maine, is a place with a deep, dark hold on the author. It reappears in many of his books, including Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis and 11/22/63. But it all starts with It.
No. 2 A Column of Fire — # 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER BY KENFOLLETT
In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral looked down on a city split by religious conflict. As power in England shifted dangerously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clashed, testing friendship, loyalty and love…
No. 3 A Game of Thrones — NOW THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES BY GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
From a master of contemporary fantasy comes the first novel of a landmark series unlike any you’ve ever read before. With A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin has launched a genuine masterpiece, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Mystery, intrigue, romance and adventure fill the pages of this magnificent saga, the first volume in an epic series sure to delight fantasy fans everywhere.
No. 4 The Cuban Affair — INSTANT # 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER BY NELSON DEMILLE
Brilliantly written with his signature humor and real experience from his research trip to Cuba… Nelson DeMille is a true master of genre.
No. 5 Sleeping Beauties BY OWEN KING, STEPHEN KING
In this spectacular father/son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the “highest of high-stakes stories: What might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?”
In a future so real and near that it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep. And while they sleep, they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare…
1. According to the article, which book is co-authored?| A．It | B．A Game of Thrones |
| C．The Cuban Affair | D．Sleeping Beauties |
| A．It and A Game of Thrones | B．Origin and The Cuban Affair |
| C．A Game of Thrones and Origin | D．Sleeping Beauties and A Column of Fire |
| A．The Cuban Affairs is a novel written with a serious tone. |
| B．The story in A Column of Fire is set in a modern European country. |
| C．It describes a frightening story set in Derry, a location familiar to readers of Stephen King. |
| D．The author of A Game of Thrones has also written other books, including Bags of Bones. |
8 . Film has properties that set it apart from painting, sculpture, novels, and plays. It is also, in its most popular and powerful form, a story telling medium that shares many elements with the short story and the novel. And since film presents its stories in dramatic form, it has even more in common with the stage play: Both plays and movies act out or dramatize, show rather than tell, what happens.
Unlike the novel, short story, or play, however, film is not handy to study; it cannot be effectively frozen on the printed page. The novel and short story are relatively easy to study because they are written to be read. The stage play is slightly more difficult to study because it is written to be performed. But plays are printed, and because they rely heavily on the spoken word, imaginative readers can conjure up at least a pale imitation of the experience they might have been watching a performance on stage. This cannot be said of the screenplay, for a film depends greatly on visual and other nonvisual elements that are not easily expressed in writing. The screenplay requires so much “filling in” by our imagination that we cannot really approximate the experience of a film by reading a screenplay, and reading a screenplay is worthwhile only if we have already seen the film. Thus, most screenplays are published not to read but rather to be remembered.
Still, film should not be ignored because studying it requires extra effort. And the fact that we do not generally “read” films does not mean we should ignore the principles of literary or dramatic analysis when we see a film. Literature and films do share many elements and communicate many things in similar ways. Perceptive film analysis rests on the principles used in literary analysis, and if we apply what we have learned in the study of literature to our analysis of films, we will be far ahead of those who do not. Therefore, before we turn to the unique elements of film, we need to look into the elements that film shares with any good story.
Dividing film into its various elements for analysis is a somewhat artificial process, for the elements of any art form, never exist in isolation. It is impossible, for example, to isolate plot from character: Events influence people, and people influence events; the two are always closely interwoven in any fictional, dramatic, or cinematic work. Nevertheless, the analytical method uses such a fragmenting technique for ease and convenience. But it does so with the assumption that we can study these elements in isolation without losing sight of their interdependence or their relationship to the whole.
1. What is mainly discussed in the text？| A．The uniqueness of film. |
| B．The importance of film analysis. |
| C．How to identify the techniques a film uses. |
| D．The relationship between film analysis and literary analysis. |
| A．Because screenplay is not as well written as literary works. |
| B．Because a film cannot be effectively represented by a printed screenplay. |
| C．Because a film is too complicated. |
| D．Because publishers prefer to publish literary works. |
| A．the means by which we analyze a literary work cannot be applied to the analysis of the film |
| B．a good film and a good story have many elements in common |
| C．we should not pay extra effort to study films |
| D．using the principles of literary analysis makes no difference in film analysis |
| A．Because these elements are interwoven with each other and cannot be separated. |
| B．Because films cannot be written down and it is inconvenient to analyze them. |
| C．Because films elements are too complicated. |
| D．Because films need not to be analyzed in detail. |
9 . Elixir
written by Eric Walters
Twelve-year-old Roth becomes a friend of Dr. Banting and his assistant, Mr. Best,who are in search of a cure for diabetes (糖尿病). She finds herself torn between her sympathy for the animals being experimented on and her friendship with Banting and Best.
George Washington Carver
written by Elizabeth Macleod
Meet the "Peanut specialist", George Washington Carver, the inventor and professor who made over 325 products out of peanuts. Through his agricultural research, he also greatly improved the lives of countless black farmers in the southern Unite States. See also MacLeod's Albert Einstein: A life of Genius.
The Inuit Thought of it: Amazing Arctic Innovation
written by Alootook Ipellie and David MacDonald.
Explore more than 40 ideas necessary to Inuit survival. From ideas familiar to us today to inventive concepts that shaped their lives, celebrate the creativity of a remarkably intelligent people. Also see other books: the Chinese thought of it by Tingxing Ye and A Native American Thought of it by Rocky Landon and David MacDonald.
Made in Canada:101 Amazing Achievements
written by Bev Spencer
What things do we use daily that have a Canadian connection? Here Are 101 common things that were invented in Canada or by a Canadian, including the Blackberry, alkaline (碱) batteries the Blue Box recycling program.
Newton and the Time Machine
written by Michael McGowan
Ten-year-old boy Newton has invented a time machine to see Dinosaurs up close.
But it disappears on a test run with his two huge friends, King Herbert and Queen Gertrude, in it! Can he save them before time runs out?
1. Which of the following best describes Roth's feeling in Book 1?| A．Frightened. | B．Curious. |
| C．Painful. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．Book 3 introduces 40 inventive concepts. |
| B．Animals are mentioned in Book 1 and Book 5. |
| C．Alkaline batteries were invented by Dr. Banting. |
| D．George Washington Carver was a black farmer in the US. |
| A．Newton's human friends | B．the names of the time machine |
| C．the inventions of the time machine | D．two dinosaurs |
| A．Elizabeth Macleod | B．Eric Walters |
| C．Rocky London & David MacDonald | D．Bev Spencer |
