1 . Now let us look at how we read. When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, jerky movement. We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate (固定). Each time we fixate, we see a group of words, this is known as the recognition span or the visual span. The length of time for which the eyes stop — the duration of the fixation — varies considerably from person to person. It also varies within one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text. Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness.
Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page. As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation. For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second. One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side. Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at a successive fixation. All these exercises are very clever, but it is one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently. Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words. Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text.
1. The time of recognition span can be affected by the following facts except .| A．lighting and tiredness | B．one’s purpose in reading |
| C．the length of a group of words | D．one’s familiarity with the text |
| A．demands more mind than eyes |
| B．demands a deeply-participating mind |
| C．requires a reader to see words more quickly |
| D．requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation |
| A．The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted. |
| B．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve one’s ability of efficient reading. |
| C．The reading exercises mentioned have done a great job to improve a person’s ability to see words. |
| D．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both ability to see and to comprehend words. |
| A．The emphasis on the purely visual aspects is misleading. |
| B．Many experts begun to question the efficiency of eye training. |
| C．The visual span is a word or a group of words we see each time. |
| D．The eye training will help readers in reading a continuous text. |
2 . We all wish we had our very own libraries at home. They’re a great way to keep what you love reading best organized in one place. Technology has taken over our lives and everything seems to be accessible
Unlike the Internet, printed books are much more
Unlike electronic devices that can have problems such as the loss of
Libraries are a great place that dates back to a time when
| A．finally | B．digitally | C．carefully | D．equally |
| A．harmful | B．unnecessary | C．impossible | D．convenient |
| A．reliable | B．expensive | C．natural | D．important |
| A．printed | B．checked | C．kept | D．decorated |
| A．data | B．story | C．picture | D．cover |
| A．spread | B．published | C．read | D．stored |
| A．colorful | B．physical | C．unreal | D．imaginary |
| A．applies | B．reminds | C．lacks | D．ensures |
| A．Above all | B．In addition | C．In a word | D．On the contrary |
| A．helpful | B．recommended | C．attractive | D．printed |
| A．electronic | B．expensive | C．harmful | D．valuable |
| A．sell | B．read | C．design | D．recall |
| A．knowledge | B．technology | C．information | D．printing |
| A．function | B．appearance | C．location | D．building |
| A．getting rid of | B．turning down | C．accounting for | D．getting involved in |
| A．The theme is too hard to understand. | B．The sound is too frightening. |
| C．The opening images are too violent. | D．The language is unacceptable. |
| A．The dialect. | B．The conversation. |
| C．The background. | D．The plot. |
| A．It makes the book unusual. | B．It makes the characters vivid. |
| C．It makes the dialogues humorous. | D．It makes the book easy to read. |
| A．The film is officially prohibited to children because of violence in it. |
| B．The woman finds that the film is more interesting than the book. |
| C．The man believes the film is fairly priced and recommends seeing it. |
| D．The man has negative comments both on the book and the film. |
4 . As an active theater-goer and play-reader, I edit this book to share my passion for the theater with others. To do this I have searched through many plays to find the ones that I think best show the power and purpose of the short play.
Each play has a theme or central idea the playwright (剧作家) hopes to get across through dialogue and action. A few characters are used to create a single impression growing out of the theme. It is not my intention to point out the central theme of each of the plays in this collection, for that would, indeed, ruin the pleasure of reading, discussing, and thinking about the plays and the effectiveness of the playwright. However, a variety of types are presented here. These include comedy, satire (讽刺剧), historical and regional drama. To show the diverse nature of the short play, I have included a guidance play, a radio play and a television play.
Among the writers of the plays in this collection, Paul Green, William Saroyan, and Maxwell Anderson have all received Pulitzer Prizes for their contributions to the theater. More information about the playwrights will be found at the end of this book.
To get the most out of reading these plays, try to picture the play on stage, with you, the reader, in the audience. The house lights become less bright. The curtains (幕布) are about to open, and in a few minutes, the action and dialogue will tell you the story.
1. What do we know about the author from paragraph 1?| A．He has written dozens of plays. | B．He is a professional stage director. |
| C．He has a deep love for the theater. | D．He likes reading short plays to others. |
| A．State the plays’ central ideas. | B．Select works by famous playwrights. |
| C．Include various types of plays. | D．Offer information on the playwrights. |
| A．Control their feelings. | B．Use their imagination. |
| C．Apply their acting skills. | D．Bear their audience in mind. |
| A．A short story. | B．An introduction to a book. |
| C．A play comment. | D．An advertisement for a theater. |
Book 1
In Factfulness, Professor Hans Roslingasks simple questions like ‘How many girls finish school?’ and ‘What percentage of the world’s population is poor?’ It turns out that the majority of us get the answers to these questions completely wrong. Why does this happen? Factfulness sets out to explain why, showing that there are several instincts humans have that distort (扭曲) our perspective. Yes, there are real concerns. But we should adopt a mindset of factfulness – only carrying opinions that are supported by strong facts. This book focuses on our instinctive biases (偏见), offering practical advice to help us see the good as well as the bad in the world.
Book 2
Are things getting worse every day? Is progress an impossible goal? In Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker looks at the big picture of human progress and finds good news. We are living longer, healthier, freer and happier lives. Pinker asks us to stop paying so much attention to negative headlines and news that declares the end of the world. Instead, he shows us some carefully selected data. In 75 surprising graphs, we see that safety, peace, knowledge and health are getting better all over the world. Economic inequality, he claims, is not really a problem, because it is not actually that important for human well-being.
Book 3
For more than two hundred years those who hold negative thoughts have been winning the public debate. They tell us that things are getting worse. But as a matter of fact, life is getting better. Income, food availability and lifespan are rising; disease, violence and child mortality are falling. Best-selling author Matt Ridley doesn’t only explain how things are getting better; he gives us reasons why as well. He shows us how human culture evolves in a positive direction thanks to the exchange of ideas and specialization. This bold book looks at the entirety of human history – from the Stone Age to the 21st century – and changes the concept that it’s all going downhill.
Book 4
The majority of people believe that developing countries are in a terrible situation: suffering from incredible poverty and wars. The reality is that a great transformation is occurring. Over the past 20 years, more than 700 million people have increased their income and come out of poverty. This is happening across developing countries around the world. The end of the Cold War, the development of new technologies and brave new leadership have helped to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people in poor countries. In his book The Great Surge, Stevens Radelet describes how all of this is happening and, more importantly, it shows us how we can speed up the process.
1. What is the common feature of the four books?| A．They focus on the present situations concerning developing countries. |
| B．They emphasize the importance of dealing with problems in poor countries. |
| C．They try to direct readers to a positive path in terms of human development. |
| D．They appeal to show more sympathy and understanding for poor countries. |
| A．Hans Roslingasks | B．Steven Pinker |
| C．Matt Ridley | D．Stevens Radelet |
| A．The Rational Optimist | B．Human History: Where Are We |
| C．A Public Debate | D．Out of Poverty: What and How |
| A．She thinks it wrong to choose either of the books. |
| B．She finds it difficult to choose one from the two books. |
| C．She thinks either of the books will be Ok. |
| D．She doesn’t like either of the two books. |
| A．She only read the contents of the book. | B．She didn’t omit a single detail. |
| C．She scanned the whole book. | D．She read only some chapters of the book. |
This is a story about a book that just kept selling, catching publishers, booksellers and even its author off guard. The book is Sapiens, by the Israeli academic Yuval Noah Harari, published in the UK in September 2014.It is a recondite(深奥的) work of evolutionary history charting the development of humankind through a scholarly examination of our ability to cooperate as a species.
Sapiens sold well on publication, particularly when it came out in paperback in the summer of 2015.What is remarkable about it, though, is that it's still selling in vast numbers. Sapiens has sold a further half million copies, establishing itself firmly at the top of the bestseller lists. The book's wild success is symptomatic of a broader trend in our book-buying habits: a surge in the popularity of intelligent, challenging nonfiction, often books that are several years old.
It was trade publication, the Booksellers, that first noted the rise of what is called the “brainy backlist”, it also highlighted a concomitant fall in the sales of the books that had been such a staple of publishers' catalogues-celebrity biographies. We are turning away from exciting but disposable stories of fame towards more serious, thoughtful, quiet books that help us understand our place in the world. Mark Richards, publisher at John Murray Prese, see the return to serious works of nonfiction as a response to the spirit of the age, “People have a hunger both for information and facts, and for nuanced(有细微差别的) exploration of issues, of a sort that books are in a prime position to provide.” he says.
In the end, the story of Sapiens is about a book becoming part of a national conversation. At a time when politics is more furious and fragmented than ever, when technology is colonizing our everyday existence.
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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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