1 . Japanese and American Comic Book Heroes
To some people, the idea of reading comic books seem childish.
Another difference is the appearance of the heroes.
Probably the biggest difference is the readership. Up until the 1950s, American comic books were read by both children and adults, with poplar titles such as Superman selling as many as half a million copies per month. The arrival of TV, however, led to a decline in sales so that now the average reader of an American comic book is a teenage boy with an interest in superheroes.
| A．The two types of comics are created in very different ways. |
| B．But for people who love comic books, they can be a fantastic escape from the tough realities of modern life. |
| C．They find it hard to understand why comic books appeal to so many people. |
| D．Comics have lost its charm in America. |
| E．In Japan, the contrast couldn’t be greater. |
| F．Manga heroes look smaller, younger than all-conquering American heroes who have large muscles and lots of themed clothes. |
2 . Cartoons suit the way we like information to be presented these days: graphically and in small amounts. We are used to cartoons and comic strips that take an ironic look at modern life or provide a bit of escapism. But recently we have seen an increase in the number of graphic novels: booklength comics with a single, continuous narrative. Historically, graphic novels were not popular outside France, Belgium, Japan, and the US. The exception is the worldwide popularity of a young reporter-detective from Belgium, Tintin.
The creation of the Belgian cartoonist Herge, The Adventures of Tintin first appeared in a Belgian newspaper in 1929. Each story appeared as a cartoon strip week by week, but soon after was republished in book form. One of the main attractions for readers was that they were taken to parts of the world they had never seen and probably never would: Russia, the Congo, America. Herge himself only traveled outside Belgium later in life, but his passion was educating his readers about other cultures and places.
Two things set Herge apart as a graphic novelist. The first was his technical drawing skills: with just a few simple lines he could communicate a particular facial expression or movement. The second was the careful research he put into his stories. In The Crab with the Golden Claws, Tintin follows an opium-smuggling ring to North Africa; in King Ottakar’s Scepter, he makes an attempt at a military coup in a central European country. While telling these stories, Herge also steered a fine line between serious topics and humor.
Tintin had more than his fair share of adventures, but perhaps the greatest is his joumey to the Moon, told in Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon. Written in 1953, sixteen years before the first Moon landing, the stories show a remarkable eye for technical detail and feeling for the nature of space travel. In the early 1950s, few could imagine what it was like to be looking down at our planet from outer space. And that is Herge’s true gift: to understand what a place was like without ever having been there.
1. What can be learned about graphic novels from the passage?| A．The Adventures of Tintin is the world’s first graphic novel. |
| B．Most of them were just popular in several countries. |
| C．They present information in small amounts. |
| D．They mostly involve detective stories. |
| A．The stories were created in Belgium, a European country. |
| B．The stories were the first graphic novel published in book form. |
| C．The stories used to be cartoon strips that appeared week by week. |
| D．The stories enable them to learn about places they have never been to. |
| A．Herge liked touching on serious topics |
| B．Herge himself had a good sense of humor |
| C．Herge based his stories on the research results |
| D．Herge was expert at applying technical drawing skills |
| A．He had been longing for a trip to the Moon. |
| B．He never had any chance to leave Belgium for travelling. |
| C．He could describe accurately those experiences he never had. |
| D．He devoted himself to education before creating graphic novels. |
3 . I know people who say they don’t watch television, and I always nod and agree. Reading requires intelligence, and television is merely entertainment, right?
I’m going to Scotland this year, and three different people told me I must watch “Outlander” before I go, which is like “Game of Thrones” for fans of romance novels. I watched the first four hourlong episodes back to back. When I stood up from the couch I felt sick, and it wasn’t just the cookies, popcorn and peanut butter sandwiches I’d had without noticing. It was dark outside, and I felt ashamed. I had spent half a day on the couch. Research for Scotland? Not exactly.
A few days later I had a library book due: The National Book Award winner The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez. I needed to finish it, so I read the last half straight through. I was absorbed in Nunez’s New York City, worrying about the heroin’s career and her future. I finished the book with tears in my eyes and stood up feeling, well, great.
I had wasted another four hours on my couch. I hadn’t eaten as much junk food because I needed my hands free—and not sticky—so I could turn pages and return the book to the library relatively clean, but I hadn’t moved and once again it was dark outside. Why did I feel so much better and guilt-free?
All the research says reading a book is good for you. It reduces stress, promotes comprehension and imagination, relieves depression, helps you sleep and may contribute to preventing Alzheimer’s. The act of physically turning a page creates a momentary pause for understanding to sink in. Our brains have to work to translate the black squiggles (弯弯曲曲的线条) on the page into words and then interpret the meaning and intent of those words. When a character is described as tall with brown hair, a reader creates her own picture. TV takes all that imagination away.
But there’s a lot of good TV now. I’d like to say the answer to TV versus books must be, as Aristotle said, “Moderation in all things,” though he never had a television or a computer and had to read his scrolls (长卷纸) by candlelight. I agree that too much television is bad for you. I know I feel better if I read, but it won’t stop me from watching too: My second DVD of “Outlander” has just arrived, and as soon as I get this essay done, the rest of my day is free.
1. By “I always nod and agree” (paragraph 1), the author implies that _______.| A．she should be polite to get the conversation to go on |
| B．she is reluctant to admit that she watches television |
| C．she believes those who say they don’t watch TV |
| D．she doesn’t think highly of TV either |
| A．from morning till night | B．one after another without a break |
| C．leaning against the back of the couch | D．looking at the opposite direction |
| A．she didn’t feel hungry for any snacks |
| B．the TV series got her to cancel her trip to Scotland |
| C．the television series was no more attractive than the book |
| D．she regarded reading as more rewarding than watching TV |
| A．Reading is active while watching TV is passive. |
| B．Reading involves physical exercises while watching TV doesn’t. |
| C．Reading stimulates the brain to concentrate while watching TV doesn’t. |
| D．Reading is good for one’s mental health while watching TV is bad for it. |
| A．A city. | B．A friend. | C．A university. | D．A book. |
5 . Julia Whelan climbed into the recording room in her home office. In preparation, she had avoided alcohol the night before, had avoided milk since waking at 6 a.m. and had run through the warm-up voice exercises.
Whelan, 38, is the calm, confident female voice behind more than 400 other audiobooks, as well as the narrated versions(叙事版本) of many articles. Once she has taken on a project, she reads through the book once or twice, deciding on themes to highlight when she gets into the recording room by using different tones and accents, and emphasizing certain words. “Narrating a book really is a performance,” she said, “and it can be harder to do than acting, because I can’t use my eyes or facial expressions to convey something to the audience.”
As she spent time subsuming herself in the writing of others, she began to think more about her own creative ambitions. Just before the pandemic, she began “Thank You for Listening,” combining her writing with the experiences she has collected as a narrator.
Writers say that Whelan has helped them understand their own work. “When I listen to Julia read my stories, it sounds like she is calling you over to tell you a great story,” said Nuzzi, whose work has been narrated by Whelan. “When I write now, I try to think like that, that I am calling a reader over to tell him a great story. It has completely changed my approach.” Whelan said that she also learns about her writing when she experiences it as a narrator. “There is something about it that changes when you’re performing it,” she said. “I read the book out loud during every stage of its revisions but it’s different when you sit down and have the microphone in front of you, when I finally am in all the characters and the story comes to life.”
1. Before recording a book, Whelan __________.| A．acts out its narrated version |
| B．builds up strength through exercise |
| C．determines the focus of its subject |
| D．varies its emphasized words |
| A．dismissing | B．involving | C．maintaining | D．presenting |
| A．It enables her to think in readers’ view. |
| B．It inspires her to be absorbed in the story. |
| C．It provides her with diverse life experiences. |
| D．It reminds her to pursue her creative ambition. |
| A．Excellent narration is based on convincing stories. |
| B．Narrating is a more rewarding ambition than writing. |
| C．An influential writer is definitely a wonderful narrator. |
| D．Experiences as a narrator can change the writing approach. |
How Reading Saved Me
During my first decade in prison, I busied myself with exercising and hanging out in the big yard. I hardly grew as
Through my journey in college, I became engaged in reading and writing, striving to escape prison life by expanding my mind beyond the environments I
Throughout the country, prison officials have rejected or tried every means
Without college and without access to books and materials
| A. ground B. discourage C. massively D. collapse E. disapprove F. private G. contain H. survive I. escape J. slightly K. former |
Loans at public libraries fell dramatically during the pandemic, while website visits rose. If the service is to
Libraries are romantic yet plain places. The romance is that of reading, and the wealth of human imagination they
The first Covid lockdown caused a new increase of interest in reading, as the idea took hold that people forced to stay at home would spend more time with books — both to find out more about the pandemic and to
Meanwhile,
8 . That everyone’s too busy these days is a cliche. But one specific complaint is made frequently: There’s never any time to read. A professional reader, the novelist and critic Tim Parks, wrote in a New York Review of Books essay: “Every moment of serious reading has to be fought for, planned for.” Parks wrote that in June; last month, I finally found time to read it.
What makes the problem thornier is that the usual time-management techniques don’t seem sufficient. 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”. But in my experience, using such methods to free up the odd 30 minutes doesn’t work. Sit down to read and the flywheel of work-related thoughts keeps spinning — or else you’re so exhausted that a challenging book’s the last thing you need. “The modern mind,” Parks writes, “is overwhelmingly inclined toward communication ... It is not simply that one is interrupted; it is that one is actually inclined to interruption.” Deep reading requires not just time, but a special kind of time which can’t be obtained merely by becoming more efficient.
In fact, “becoming more efficient” is part of the problem. Thinking of time as a resource to be maximized means you approach it instrumentally, judging 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 convey or 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”. No mind-set could be worse for losing yourself in a book.
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 ritualistic behaviour helps us “step outside time’s flow” into “soul time”. You could limit distractions by reading only physical books, or on single-purpose e-readers. “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.
1. The usual time-management techniques don’t work because _________.| A．what they can offer does not ease the modern mind |
| B．what challenging books demand it repetitive reading |
| C．what people often forget is carrying a book with them |
| D．what deep reading requires cannot be guaranteed |
| A．update their to-do lists | B．make passing time fulfilling |
| C．carry their plans through | D．pursue carefree reading |
| A．encourage the efficiency mind-set | B．develop online reading habits |
| C．promote ritualistic reading | D．achieve immersive reading |
| A．reading becomes your primary business of the day |
| B．all the daily business has been promptly dealt with |
| C．you are able to drop back to business after reading |
| D．time can be evenly split for reading and business |
9 . The Best Way to Enjoy a Book
I am no slow eater. I can’t remember the number of times I was told as a child not to gobble my food. Nor have I been a slow reader. I went through books like combine harvesters through crops in the English village of my childhood.
Perhaps I will continue to gobble my food until my last meal on this planet. But books! They are an entirely different matter. Having been prevented from visiting bookstores and libraries during these days of isolation. I have decided to make changes. After all, didn’t someone once say, “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.”
I imagine slow reading to be like slow cooking: a variety of ingredients mixed into something one can truly enjoy. Slow reading means enjoying each sentence, absorbing all of those paragraphs of description that had probably been sweated over by the author and, more often than not, skipped over by readers like me.
This isn’t to say I pay only random attention to a book. Before deciding on one to buy or borrow, I always read the synopsis and the “About the Author” section. I would also read the dedication, the foreword and the author’s acknowledgments. Only then do I move on to the book’s opening sentence. This is essentially how I had selected the two books that I most recently finished.
In order to truly enjoy these two novels, I rationed my reading to two hours a day-no more and no less. A funny thing happens when you take two hours out of the day - every day – for something you really, really enjoy. I experienced a quiet sense of accomplishment that I had missed for years.
English writer Kate Atkinson’s Transcription has been advertised as “a novel of rare depth from one of the best writers of our time.” Award-winning Newfoundler Michael Crummey’s The Innocents, meanwhile, is said to be “a richly imagined and fascinating story of hardship and survival.” I am glad I didn’t read Transcription at my usual pace. I suspect I would have missed much of the brilliance of the writing. Instead, I made myself completely involved in the life of 18-year-old Julie. I often paused at the end of a chapter to reread it for the joy of laughing aloud at the heroine’ observations.
The Innocents is about the life of two orphans in an isolated bay in Newfoundland. It was hard not to run through this powerful narrative—but I resisted the temptation. My patience was rewarded with a deeper understanding of the character and rich description of northern Newfoundland— so real that I could almost feel the lichen (地衣) between my toes.
So here I am, two books finished that took me a month to read. I have been entertained, enriched and transported in time and place like I never have before. Having discovered the joys of taking my time over a book now, I doubt I will ever again announce proudly, “It only took me a day or a couple of hours to finish!”
1. According to the article, the author used to ______.| A．read novels while gobbling her food. |
| B．spend no more than two hours reading every day. |
| C．consider it a waste of time to read fictional stories. |
| D．finish reading a book in a day or even a couple of hours. |
| A．even the craziest ideas can become popular. |
| B．even the most popular ideas can go out of fashion. |
| C．even the most positive situations can harm someone. |
| D．even the most negative situations can benefit someone. |
| A．it is fun to read book related to food. |
| B．it is rewarding to pick up various types of books. |
| C．it is worthwhile to appreciate the brilliance of every sentence. |
| D．It is important to read the synopsis before deciding on a book to read. |
| A．imagined herself to be an orphan. |
| B．ended up with a deep appreciation of the story. |
| C．read through the descriptive part of the book quickly. |
| D．thought about the relationship between hardship and survival. |
Universities should not be “airbrushing” history by removing books from reading lists to protect students from challenging content, the education secretary has said.
James Cleverly told of his concern after The Times found that academics have started dropping books from reading lists
Ten universities, including three from the Russell Group, were discovered
“University is about challenging ideas, it is about learning about circumstances beyond your own experience and that includes
“I am really concerned about difficult bits of global history
The Times sent freedom of information requests about reading lists to all 140 UK universities. The University of Essex said that the 2017 Pulitzer prize winning novel The Underground Railroad,
Robert Halfon, the Tory MP for Harlow and chairman of the Commons education committee, said: “We should be encouraging people to read books, even if the subject matter is difficult because that is
Sir Anthony Seldon. the former vice chancellor of the University of Buckingham, told LBC Radio: “We should be very concerned because universities are all about the discovery of truth. We discover truth by not shutting texts down
Essex said The Underground Railroad remained available in the university library and is
