2 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Mash Assadollah was the grocer at our corner store. Standing behind his glass display case, he tore out a page from a book. He twisted the page into a cone-shaped envelope and then filled it with tobacco. He then weighed the tobacco. He folded the envelope of tobacco closed and handed it to me. I was also buying sugar cubes and tea. Mash Assadollah calculated the amounts on an abacus (算盘). I paid him and left.

When I got home, Grandmother took the goods I had purchased, emptied the envelopes of their ingredients, handed me the wrappers, and asked me to throw them away.

It was summer vacation, and I didn’t have much to do. To keep myself busy, I sat down in a corner of the room and started to read the wrappers, which had once been eight consecutive (连续的) pages of a book. How well written and attractive the words were! It was a good story. I sat there until I had read all eight pages. Honestly, I had never read a book before, except for my textbooks. But when I read those eight pages, I realized that I now loved reading! The only problem was that the story stopped right at the best part, right at the end of Page 22, which was the most important and exciting point in the story.

It was about a boy who wanted to run away from home and escape his father who was always spanking (打屁股) him, but the boy was afraid. He finally left home but didn’t know where to go. I was excited to find out where he would go and what would happen to him.

注意：
1.续写词数应为 150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

I decided to go back and get the rest of the book from Mash Assadollah.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mash Assadollah didn’t know what I was talking about.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . Background noise—like the chatter in a coffee shop or the drone of passing traffic—might slow our reading speed, but according to a study of Russian readers, it doesn’t _________ how our brain understands written text.

_________, if you’re wondering whether you should be listening to podcasts or music while working, the study has some interesting points to make. In particular, it examined how we might change our reading style to compensate for auditory noise and visual distractions such as typos or poor formatting.

“Overall, previous studies reported a harmful effect of both auditory and visual noise on reading fluency and _________, though their results varied,” write linguistics researcher Nina Zdorova and colleagues. “So far, none of the studies exploring the influence of noise _________ it in the framework of the language processing theories.”

One of the language processing theories examined was the noisy channel model, which proposes that our brain deals with noise by looking at the meaning of _________ words more and at entire sentences less. We then use a bit of smart guesswork to _________ the overall meaning and relationships between words.

The second theory is the good enough model; that’s when our brains aren’t analyzing every single detail of a text but instead only grabbing enough words for a ‘good enough’ understanding. By focusing less on the precise words, our brains can _________ some cognitive resources to deal with noise.

To see how reading was affected by noise _________ these models, the researchers ran two experiments: one on auditory noise (71 participants) and one on visual noise (70 participants). When it came to the auditory noise test, background chatter from overlapping podcasts caused people to spend longer looking at the key section of sentences before completing their reading. This extra time could _________ the noise, meaning sentence comprehension isn’t affected by it. In the visual noise test, comprehension remained the same while reading speed __________. That’s a bit __________ considering previous studies, but the researchers think people just wanted to finish the task, with the visual noise an uncomfortable distraction.

“In both experiments, we observed that longer total reading time was __________ with an accuracy increase for incorrect sentences,” write the researchers.

There’s a lot going on in this study, but overall it’s a bigger win for the good-enough language processing theory and an indication that auditory and visual noise doesn’t make us __________ any more or less on any particular comprehension method while we’re reading.

With so many variables to measure in terms of what’s being read and what the __________ noise is, further study is required to learn more. __________ potential distractions may not interrupt your reading as much as you think.

1.

A．reinforce

B．estimate

C．affect

D．interpret

2.

A．First of all

B．For example

C．Above all

D．To start with

3.

A．context

B．efficiency

C．comprehension

D．device

4.

A．evaluated

B．identified

C．established

D．employed

5.

A．individual

B．different

C．new

D．unfamiliar

6.

A．confirm

B．imply

C．refer

D．infer

7.

A．exploit

B．spare

C．commit

D．consume

8.

A．on account of

B．regardless of

C．in regard to

D．in contrast to

9.

A．make up for

B．live up to

C．catch up with

D．put up with

10.

A．declined

B．shrank

C．expanded

D．increased

11.

A．embarrassing

B．depressing

C．puzzling

D．annoying

12.

A．associated

B．compared

C．replaced

D．mixed

13.

A．take

B．set

C．rely

D．base

14.

A．accompanying

B．strange

C．deafening

D．distant

15.

A．Therefore

B．However

C．Instead

D．Otherwise

6 . Now that we have briefly explored the history of the short story and heard from a few of its creators, let us consider the role of the reader. Readers are not empty vessels that wait, _______ raised, to receive a teacher’s or a critic’s interpretation. They bring their unique life experiences to the story. With these_______ , the best readers also bring their attention, their reading skills, and most importantly, their_______ to a reading of a story.

My students always_______ me to discuss, analyze, interpret, and evaluate the stories we read without destroying the excitement of being beamed up into another world. For years I _______with one response after the other to this challenge. Then one day I read an article by a botanist who had explored the beauty of flowers by x-raying them. His illustrations showed the rose and the lily in their_______ beauty, and his x-rays_______the wonders of their construction. I brought the article to class, where we discussed the benefits of examining the internal structure of flowers, relationships, current events, and short stories.

A short story, _______ , is not a fossil to admire. Readers must ask questions, guess at the answers,_______what will happen next, then read to discover. They and the author form a partnership that brings the story to life. Awareness of this partnership keeps the original excitement alive through discussion, analysis, interpretation, and ________. Literary explorations allow the reader to admire the authors’________ as well as their artistry. In fact, original appreciation may be enhanced by this x-ray vision. The final step is to appreciate once again the story________— to put the pieces back together.

Now it is your turn. Form a partnership with your author. During your________in reading, enter into a dialogue with the published scholars featured in Short Stories for Students. Through this________with experts you will revise, enrich, or________your original observations and interpretations.

During this adventure, I hope you will feel the same as the listeners that surround the neck of my Pueblo storyteller.

1.

A．hands

B．sails

C．flags

D．lids

2.

A．considerations

B．explorations

C．associations

D．interpretations

3.

A．imagination

B．eagerness

C．determination

D．affection

4.

A．begged

B．supported

C．encouraged

D．challenged

5.

A．dealt

B．struggled

C．fought

D．engaged

6.

A．external

B．artificial

C．classical

D．traditional

7.

A．ensured

B．analyzed

C．revealed

D．delivered

8.

A．however

B．furthermore

C．therefore

D．besides

9.

A．interpret

B．anticipate

C．predict

D．tell

10.

A．conclusion

B．evaluation

C．summary

D．appreciation

11.

A．craftsmanship

B．intentions

C．depth

D．character

12.

A．by itself

B．in vain

C．in question

D．as a whole

13.

A．observation

B．involvement

C．experiment

D．adventure

14.

A．journey

B．process

C．dialogue

D．contact

15.

A．recall

B．confirm

C．identify

D．cancel

8 . The Hardest Novel I’ve Ever Read

For the last three months, I have glared at its fat heavy form on my floor with a vague sense of personal failure. I have opened Ulysses twice, determined to finish it, and managed to get all the way to page 46. I have read so little both times that I have never bothered using a bookmark.

    1     I like the community this book has created, its inherent sense of freedom and celebration of all things rude and true. I like that the style and language allow for readers to choose how they read it — some recommend skipping chapter three, others suggest reading it only after reading ABOUT it but I still get stuck.

Why do I get stuck?     2     On the “Most Difficult Novels” list on the Goodreads website, Joyce takes the top two spots, with Ulysses ranking first and Finnegans Wake following it. I think what is restricting me to page 46 is the language: the big fat burst of Chaucerian English with slang and jaunty dialogue that, while entertaining me, is also leaving me a little lost.

There are a few other “worthy” works of literature I have yet to read, including Infinite Jest and War and Peace.     3     I really want to love Ulysses. I feel deeply frustrated that I can’t finish it, all the while appreciating its uniqueness, weightiness and special “Joyceness.”

The English writer Virginia Woolf thought Ulysses was nonsense as she complained in her diaries about the pressure to finish reading it. By contrast, Vladimir Nabokov, the author who wrote Lolita expressed deep love for it.     4     I have read it similar to a long marriage(something unpleasant, big reward at the end), modern Jazz-fusion (an innovative genre) and boxing match with oneself (wanting to punch yourself in the face), which is how I felt by page 46.

Some people love Ulysses, so where am I getting wrong? My ultimate hope is that the struggle will be worth the effort and I can proceed victorious onto page 800 or so, on my third fourth, eighteenth try. Something tells me I will get there in the end.

A．I’m not entirely sure myself

B．A lot of them are weighty tomes (巨著), but I like big books

C．It seems that reading Ulysses is a big different experience for everyone.

D．Even when staring at pages without absorbing a word, I thought nice thoughts about it

E．They, however, only cause me a slight sense of shame that I have not read or enjoyed them

F．I have been amused and charmed by the first two or three chapters, and then puzzled and bored.