1 . The other morning on the subway I sat next to an attractive young blonde woman who was reading something on her iPad. She was very well-dressed, carrying a Prada bag with tastefully applied make-up indeed, she had an unmistakable air of wealth, material success and even authority. I suspected she worked as a highly-paid Wall Street lawyer or stockbroker or something of that sort. So, I was curious to see what she was so focused on. The Wall Street Journal perhaps? The Economist?
Quite the contrary; rather, she was concentrating on a romance novel. Then I realized that I have known many women who love romance novels—smart, attractive, successful, “liberated,” modern females who nonetheless find some kind of deep satisfaction and thrill from those hyper-romantic, artificial and extremely unrealistic tales of handsome, manly heroes falling in love with virginal women, enduring a series of adventures, then no doubt having a happy ending.
These romance stories are to literature what hot dogs are to fine food. Yet, the genre(体裁) remains enormously popular. Consider some of these surprising statistics from the good folks at the Romance Writers of America (RWA):
*More than 9,000 romance titles were released last year, with sales of about $1.44 billion (more than triple the taxes produced by classic literary fiction).
*More than 90 percent of the market are women (okay, that’s not at all surprising).
* Readers are typically women between the ages 30 and 54 who are themselves involved in a romantic relationship (betraying the stereotype that only lonely women long for these tales of love and adventure).
*Almost 40 percent of romance book consumers have an annual income of between $50,000 and $99,900 (placing them firmly in the middle class).
I had thought that romance novels accounted for a very small share of the literary market, so I was quite surprised that this part has such enormous popularity. But I must wonder why so many women—forty years after the women’s liberation movement—continue to enjoy themselves in the fanciful tales?
I’m not sure if it represents a kind of “rejection” of the women’s liberation movement, but clearly something is missing in the lives of contemporary ladies. A romance author named Donna Hatch who focuses on the Regency period (early 19th century Britain) explained the appeal of such books this way: “Regency men were civilized and treated women with courtesy. When a lady entered the room, gentlemen stood, doffed their hats, offered an arm, bowed, and a hundred other little things I wish men still did today. But they were also very athletic; they hunted, raced, boxed, rode horses. They were manly. Strong. Noble. Honorable. And that is why I love them!”
Mrs. Hatch may have expressed the secret desires and attitudes of untold millions of her peers—that is, in the early 21st century, have women grown tired of the burdens and expectations that the “freedoms” they have gained give them? Is this a rejection of modern feminism? Do women long for days of old when men were masculine gentlemen and women were feminine and protected as precious treasures and regarded as possessions?
Perhaps most women (even the ones who get lost in romance novels) do not want to go all the way back but it is obvious,
| A．To summarize the whole passage. | B．To prove the author’s argument. |
| C．To lead in the main topic of the passage. | D．To raise problems that will be solved later. |
| A．Romance novels are satisfying and thrilling. |
| B．Romance novels are not of much “nutrition”. |
| C．Romance novels are as popular as hot dogs. |
| D．Romance novels are an essential part of contemporary life. |
| A．Authority. | B．Dignity. | C．Liberty. | D．Care. |
| A．they prefer tales of innocent romance to classics |
| B．they are unhappy with how the world has turned out |
| C．true love described in romance novels does exist in reality |
| D．romance novels provide them with an access to society |
大家以前阅读和欣赏诗过很多诗歌、书评、杂志专栏、新闻、 寓言、科普故事等不同的材料。著名作家Francis Bacon也曾说过：“ Reading makes a full man.”可见，阅读对于每个人的成长都有着举足轻重的作用。请你根据以下信息提示，结合自己的观点，以“Reading Makes a Full Man” 为题，写一篇100词左右的短文，表达你对阅读的看法和计划。
内容要点：1. 阅读的好处. 2. 该阅读的材料. 3. 阅读计划.
要求: 句子结构准确，要点齐全，内容合理，篇章结构连贯。
Reading Makes a Full Man
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3 . One day when I was 12, my mother gave me an order: I was to walk to the public library, and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to defeat my strange problem — inability to read.
In the library, I found my way into the “Children’s Room.” I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the shelf at random. The cover of a book caught my eye. It presented a picture of a beagle. I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone, given away to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle.
There on the book’s cover was a beagle which looked identical to my dog. I ran my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. Unknowingly, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library for the summer.
Under the shade of a bush, I started to read about Amos. I read very, very slowly with difficulty. Though pages were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been separated from his family and who finally found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued the final scene of reunion, on and on, until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together.
My mother’s call returned me to the real world. I suddenly realized something: I had read a book, and I had loved reading that book. Everyone knew I could not read. But I had read it. Books could be incredibly wonderful and I was going to read them.
I never told my mother about my “miraculous” (奇迹般地) experience that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable improvement in my classroom performance during the next year. And years later, she was proud that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature, and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. The power of the words has held.
1. The author’s mother told him to borrow a book in order to_____.| A．encourage him to do more walking | B．let him spend a meaningful summer |
| C．help cure him of his reading problem | D．make him learn more about weapons |
| A．it contained pretty pictures of animals |
| B．it reminded him of his own dog |
| C．he found its title easy to understand |
| D．he liked children’s stories very much |
| A．He was forced by his mother to read it. |
| B．He identified with the story in the book. |
| C．The book told the story of his pet dog. |
| D．The happy ending of the story attracted him. |
| A．The author has become a successful writer. |
| B．The author’s mother read the same book. |
| C．The author’s mother rewarded him with books. |
| D．The author has had happy summers ever since. |
| A．The Charm of a Book | B．Mum’s Strict Order |
| C．Reunion with My Beagle | D．My Passion for Reading |
From my point of view, literature is very important in our lives from several points of view. For example, reading is a means of gaining culture and enriching our knowledge in different areas of activities. It can help us have a great imagination and it makes things easier when it comes to making compositions on different themes. It gives you the possibility to speak about science, even if you don’t work in this field, or you can express your opinion about a political aspect, just because you have read something connected to that.
Secondly, literature offers us the possibility to enter the world of imagination, and to leave apart the real one for a couple of hours. We come to meet kings and queens many years ago, dream in the world of the rich or imagine how life will be in the future. Sometimes, we identify ourselves with the characters in the stories we read and they can give us some clues to solve our problems and how to react in certain circumstances.
To conclude, I would like to say that literature is the perfect means to enrich our culture, to express correctly and have a rich vocabulary, to be able to interfere（干涉） in conversations in different fields of interest and to really be considered an erudite person.
1. The people who are fond of literature are those that _________.
| A．go to libraries on weekends |
| B．buy expensive books in the bookstore |
| C．keep many books in their studies |
| D．have much interest in reading |
| A．we can bring kings and queens back to life |
| B．what we read can be useful in our daily life |
| C．it is very good for us to stay alone for some hours |
| D．we can make friends with the people in the stories |
| A．hard-working | B．enthusiastic |
| C．learned | D．creative |
| A．To advise readers to like reading. |
| B．To explain the true meaning of reading. |
| C．To tell readers how to read a book. |
| D．To tell readers who has the real passion for literature. |
5 . Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table, reading his book. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to copy him in every way he could.
One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa, I try to read the book just like you, but I don’t understand it, and I forget what I understand as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the book do?”
The grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandpa laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned. Out of breath, he told his grandpa that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, so he went to get a bucket instead. The grandpa said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough.” The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandpa the basket was empty again. Out of breath, he said, “Grandpa, it’s useless!”
“So, you think it is useless?” the grandpa said, “Look at the basket.”
The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean.
“Grandson, that’s what happens when you read the book. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you’ll be changed, inside and out.”
1. What puzzled the grandson most was _________.| A．why he forgot what he read soon | B．whether it was useful to read books |
| C．what kind of book he could understand | D．how he could read books like his grandpa |
| A．To get him to realize the use of reading books. | B．To punish him for not reading carefully. |
| C．To clean the dirty basket in the river. | D．To train him to run faster. |
| A．The old are always wiser than the young. | B．It is foolish to carry water with a basket. |
| C．You can’t expect to remember all you read. | D．Reading books can change a person gradually. |
| A．Grandpa and Grandson | B．Carrying Water in a Basket |
| C．Baskets and Books | D．Reading for Total Changing |
6 . Reading is the ability to process text, understand its meaning and to integrate it with what the reader already knows. Of all the reading skills speed-reading is a necessary skill in the Internet age. We skim over articles, e-mails and WeChat to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of a certain text. Surrounded with information from our electronic devices, it would be impossible to cope if we read word by word, line by line. But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, listing benefits beyond the intelligent stimulation.
A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smartphones. They sink into cozy chairs and read in silence for an hour. Unlike tradition book club, the point of the slow reading club isn’t exchanging ideas about a certain book, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the old-fashioned way of reading before the Internet and smartphones.
Slow readers, such as The Atlantic’s Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to sympathize. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand others’ mental states and beliefs, a fundamental skill in building relationships.
Yet technology has made us less attentive readers. Screens have changed our reading patterns from the top-to-right, left-to-right sequence to a wild skimming and skipping pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text punctuated with links leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says Patrick Kingsley from The Guardian. Because of the Internet, he says, we have become very good at collecting a wide range of interesting news, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, reflect, and relate all these facts to each other.
Slow reading means a return to an uninterrupted, straight pattern, in a quiet environment free of distractions. “Aim for 30 minutes a day,” advises Kelly from The Atlantic. “You can squeeze in that half hour pretty easily if only during your free moments, you pick up a meaningful work of literature,” Kelly said. “Reach for your e-reader, if you like. Kindles make books like War and Peace less heavy, not less substantive, and also ensure you’ll never lose your place.”
1. The book club in Wellington mentioned in Paragraph 2 shows____________.| A．the new trend of slow reading | B．the decline of electronic devices |
| C．the importance of exchanging ideas | D．the increasing number of club readers |
| A．a non-stop reading pattern | B．the straight, left-to-right screen |
| C．a wide range of interesting news | D．the lack of reflection |
| A．contributes to understanding among people |
| B．promotes the current technology advances |
| C．provides people with a quiet environment |
| D．cures the memory loss of elderly people |
| A．Benefit of Reading Clubs | B．Return of Slow Reading |
| C．Reading of the Internet Age | D．Influence of Speed Reading |
In considering the reading process, it is important to distinguish between two quite separate activities: reading for meaning (or “silent reading”) and reading aloud. Reading for meaning is the activity we normally engage in when we read books, newspapers, road signs, etc.; it is what you are doing as you read this text. It involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey, in other words “making sense” of a written text. It doesn’t normally involve saying the words we read, not even silently inside our heads.
Reading aloud is a completely different activity; its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the information to someone else. It is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom; common examples are reading out parts of a newspaper article to a friend, or reading a notice to other people who can’t see it. Obviously, reading aloud involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it. Because our attention is divided between reading and speaking, it is a much more difficult activity than reading silently; we often stumble and make mistakes when reading aloud in our own language, and reading aloud in a foreign language is even more difficult.
When we read for meaning, we do not need to read every letter or every word, nor even every word in each sentence. This is because, if the text makes sense, we can guess much of what it says as we read it.
1. The passage is mainly about ____________.
| A．reading skills | B．silent reading |
| C．reading processes | D．reading aloud |
| A．step over something and fall |
| B．repeat something or pause for too long |
| C．walk with heavy movements |
| D．speak in a fluent and confident way |
| A．discuss in detail how to read aloud |
| B．introduce some more reading activities |
| C．tell how good readers read in their own language |
| D．explain why we needn’t say the words when reading for meaning |
| A．reading silently is easier than reading aloud |
| B．to understand a sentence, you have to read all the words in it |
| C．silent reading involves looking at a text and saying the words silently to yourself |
| D．there’s no difference between reading in one’s own language and in a foreign one |
8 . It happened to me recently. I was telling someone how much I had enjoyed reading Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and how it had changed my views of our President. A friend I was talking to agreed with me that it was, in his words, “a brilliantly written book”. However, he then went on to talk about Mr. Obama in a way which suggested he had no idea of his background at ail. I sensed that I was talking to a book liar.
And it seems that my friend is not the only one. Approximately two thirds of people have lied about reading a book which they haven’t. In the World Book Day’s “Report on Guilty Secrets”, Dreams From My Father is at number 9. The report lists ten books, and various authors, which people have lied about reading, and as I’m not one to lie too often (I’d hate to be caught out), I will admit here and now that I haven’t read the entire top ten. But I’m pleased to say that, unlike 42 percent of people, I have read the book at number one, Gorge Orwell’s 1984. I think it’s really brilliant.
The World Book Day report also has some other interesting information in it. It says that many people lie about having read Jane Austin Austen, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky (I haven't read him, but haven’t lied about it either) and Herman Melville.
Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to “impress” someone they are speaking to. This could be tricky if the conversation became more in-depth!
But when asked which authors they actually enjoy, people named J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, Sophie Kinsella (ah, the big sellers, in other words). Forty-two percent of people asked admitted they turned to the back of the book to read the end before finishing this story (I will come clean: I do this and am astonished that 58 percent said they had never done so.).
1. How did the author find his friend a book liar?| A．By judging his manner of speaking. |
| B．By looking into his background. |
| C．By mentioning a famous name. |
| D．By discussing the book itself. |
| A．Charles Dickens is very low on the top-ten list. |
| B．42% of people pretended to have read 1984. |
| C．The author admitted having read 9 books. |
| D．Dreams From My Father is hardly read. |
| A．control the conversation |
| B．appear knowledgeable |
| C．learn about the book |
| D．make more friends |
| A．Favorable. | B．Uncaring. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Friendly. |
Biography（自传）
When Salinger learned that a car park was to be built on the land，the middleaged writer was shocked and quickly bought the neighboring area to protect it ... The towns people never forgot the rescue and came to help their most famous neighbor.
J. D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski (Random House，$27)
Mystery (疑案小说)
“You're a smart boy. Benny's death was no accident, and you're the only one who saw it happen. Do you think the murderer should get away with it? ”The boy was staring stubbornly at his lap again.
A thought suddenly occurred to Annika，“Did you ...You recognized the man in the car, didn't you？”
The boy hesitated, twisting his fingers，“Maybe,”he said quietly.
Red Wolf by Liza Marklund (Atria Books, $25.99)
Short Stories
She wants to say to him what she has learned，none of it in class: Some women are born stupid, and some women are too smart for their own good. Some women are born to give, and some women only know how to take. Some women learn who they want to be from their mothers, some who they don't want to be. Some mothers suffer so their daughters won't. Some mothers love so their daughters won't.
You Are Free by Danzy Senna (Riverhead Books，$15)
Humor
Do your kids like to have fun? Come to Fun Times! Do you like to watch your kids having fun? Bring them to Fun Times! Fun Times's “amusement cycling” is the most fun you can have, legally, in the United States right now. Why spend thousands of dollars flying to Disney World when you can spend less than half of that within a day's drive of most cities?
Happy And Other Bad Thoughts by Larry Doyle (Ecco，$14.99)
1. If the readers want to know about the life of Salinger, they should buy the book published by ________.
| A．Ecco | B．Random House |
| C．Riverhead Books | D．Atria Books |
| A．young children | B．Disney World workers |
| C．middle school teachers | D．parents with young children |
| A．You Are Free | B．J. D. Salinger: A Life |
| C．Happy And Other Bad Thoughts | D．Red Wolf |
Get a FREE YEAR! Order NOW and get a FREE YEAR of Parents® magazine! That’s 2 full years (24 issues) for the regular 1-year rate － just $12. But HURRY, this offer won't last! (U.S. orders only, please.)
Every issue of PARENTS is filled with practical advice from leading doctors and child experts ... toys and games that develop reader-tested products and more!
100% Money-Back Guarantee: You must be pleased, or you may cancel any time during the life of your subscription (订阅) and get all your money back ─ no questions asked. Parents® Magazine is published 12 times per year. Savings are based on $12.00 annual subscription rate. State taxes may apply to your order.
E-mail address required to access your account and member benefits online. We will not share your e-mail address with anyone. Click here: www. parents com/privacy to view our privacy policy.
1. The purpose of the advertisement is _______.
| A．to help parents with their daily life |
| B．to attract more subscribers |
| C．to collect more money for charity |
| D．to introduce a new product |
| A．Only $12 is to be paid for 24 issues of the magazine. |
| B．Readers can get a free offer of the magazine any time of the year. |
| C．Readers from all over the world can enjoy the free offer. |
| D．Readers can communicate face to face with child experts on the Internet. |
| A．He can cancel without getting his money back. |
| B．He can cancel after answering a series of questions. |
| C．He can email them to access his bank account to get all his money back. |
| D．He can cancel and get all his money back without answering any questions. |
