1 . Below are four books of the 10 Best Books of 2019. Which one will you add to your booklist?
Exhalation （呼吸）
By Ted Chiang
■ Many of the nine deeply beautiful stories in this collection explore the material consequences of time travel. Reading them feels, like sitting at dinner with a friend who explains scientific theory to you without an ounce of condescension （傲慢）.Each thoughtful, elegantly crafted story poses a philosophical question; Chiang organizes all nine into a conversation that comes full circle, after having travelled remarkab1e val1eys ，，, deserts and plains.
Lost Children Archivef(档案）)）
By Valeria Luiselli
■ The Mexican author’s third novel — her first to be written in English — unfolds against a backdrop of crisis: of children crossing borders, facing death, being confined, being deported unaccompanied by their guardians.
The novel centers on a couple and their two children, who are taking a road trip from New York City to the Mexican border; the couple's marriage is on the edge of collapse and the woman tries to help a Mexican immigrant find her daughters, who've gone missing in their attempt to cross the border behind her. The brilliance of Luiselli's writing stirs anger and pity. Acutely sensitive, Luiselli has delivered an experimental book, one that is as much about storytellers and storytelling as it is about lost children.
The Yellow House
By Sarah Broom
■ In her first extraordinary, fascinating appearance, Broom pushes past the baseline expectations of memoir to create an entertaining and inventive combination of literary forms. Part oral history, part urban history, part celebration of a bygone way of life, "The Yellow House" is a full accusation of the greed, discrimination, indifference and poor city planning that led her family's home to be wiped off the map. Tracing the history of a single home in New Orleans East, from the ' 60s to Hurricane Katrina, this is an instantly essential text, examining the past, present and possible future of the city of New Orleans, and a true reflection of America.
No Visible Bruises
By Rachel Louise Snyder
■ Snyder's thoroughly reported book covers what the World Health Organization has called "a global health problem of epidemic proportions." In America alone, more
than half of all murdered women are killed by a current or former partner; domestic violence cuts across lines of class, religion and race. Snyder exposes myths (restraining orders are the answer,: abusers never change) and writes movingly about the lives of people on both sides of the equation. She doesn't give easy answers but presents a wealth of information that is its own form of hope.
1. If you are a fan of science fiction, which book will you choose?
| A．Exhalation Lost | B．Children Archive |
| C．The Yellow House | D．No Visible Bruises |
| A．In the book Exhalation, Ted Chiang describes a story told by his friend. |
| B．Lost Children Archive is Valeria Luiselli's first novel in English. |
| C．Several stories of literary forms make up the book, The Yellow House. |
| D．No Visible Bruises shows nothing but restraining orders are answers to family violence. |
2 . You know you have to read "between the lines" to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to “write between the lines." Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.
I insist, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of damage but of love.
There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the first step to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. I am arguing that books must be absorbed in your bloodstream to do you any good.
Why is marking up a book necessary to reading? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don't mean only conscious; I mean wide awake.) In the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
But, you may ask, why is writing necessary? Well, the physical act of writing, with your own hand, brings words and sentences more sharply before your mind and preserves them better in your memory. To set down your reaction to important words and sentences you have read, and the questions they have raised in your mind, is to preserve those reactions and sharpen those questions.
If reading is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be active. You can't let your eyes glide across the lines in a book and come up with an understanding of what you have read. The books you read for pleasure can be read in a state of relaxation, and nothing is lost. An ordinary piece of light fiction, like "Gone with the Wind," doesn't require the most active kind of reading, and you don't absorb the ideas of John Dewey the way you absorb the story of David Copperfield.
You may also say that this business of marking books is going to slow up your reading. It probably will. That's one of the reasons for doing it. Most of us have been taken in by the notion that speed of reading is a measure of our intelligence. There is no such things as the right speed for intelligent reading. Some things should be read quickly and effortlessly, and some should be read slowly and even laboriously. The sign of intelligence in reading is the ability to read different things differently according to their worth. In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through you — how many you can make your own. A few friends are better than a thousand acquaintances. If this be your aim, as it should be, you will not be impatient if it takes more time and effort to read a great book than it does a newspaper.
1. Full ownership of a book does not occur until ________.| A．it is purchased | B．it is read between the lines |
| C．it is written between the lines | D．it is worn, shaken and loosened |
| A．to keep you from feeling sleepy |
| B．to show that you are absorbed in reading |
| C．to make yourself conscious that you are reading actively |
| D．to make yourself a part of it, making further understanding possible |
| A．Gone with the Wind and David Copperfield are not thought-through books |
| B．Marking a book can help preserve your questions about what is read |
| C．Reading will benefit us more if it is done actively |
| D．Intelligent people usually read quickly and differently |
| A．to tell the readers how to read different books |
| B．to encourage the readers to read slowly but actively |
| C．to argue that the readers should read between lines |
| D．to introduce ways to mark up a book while reading |
3 . If you're a book lover, you have a pile of books on your bedside, or a bookshelf in your library with a “to read” sign on it. Yet you can't stop yourself from adding to the pile. This can lead to feelings of guilt over your new purchases. But I'm here to tell you to stop worrying.
What you have is an antilibrary, and it's a very good thing. The term comes from writer Umberto Eco. He is the owner of a large personal library. He separates visitors into two groups: those who react with “Wow! What a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others who get the point that a private library is not something to show off but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection an antilibrary.
If you think you already know everything about a subject, you're cutting yourself off from a stream of information at an artificial point. So a growing library of books you haven't read means you're consistently curious about the unknown. And that attitude is a great foundation for a lifelong love of learning.
So don't feel guilt over your unread books. Those books will be there for you when you do want them, and as you build your library of read and unread books, you can start using it as you would use a bigger library. Certain books may become references more than read-throughs. Or you may find that a book you bought five years ago has special relevance today. Letting the role of books evolve in your life is a healthy sign of curiosity. That's good for you and good tor the world around you.
1. What does the underlined word "antilibrary in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Feelings of guilt over new books. | B．A pile of books on the bookshelf. |
| C．The collection of unread books. | D．A large personal library. |
| A．The unread books you bought years ago are of no use. |
| B．You don't have to read every book from cover to cover. |
| C．Read books are of more use than unread books. |
| D．You shouldn’t purchase new books until the unread ones are covered. |
| A．Approving. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Critical. | D．Indifferent. |
4 . By the end of the year, editors of New York Times have picked the 4 best books of 2019, including fiction and non-fiction. Let’s see which one will take your fancy.
Disappearing Earth
By Julia Phillips
In the first chapter of this novel, two young girls vanish, sending shock waves through a town on the edge of the remote and mysterious Kamchatka Peninsula. What follows is a novel of overlapping short stories about the different women who have been affected by their disappearance. Each tale pushes the narrative forward another month and exposes the ways in which the women of Kamchatka have been destroyed — personally, culturally and emotionally — by the crime.
No Visible Bruises
By Rachel Louise Snyder
Snyder’s thoroughly reported book covers what the World Health Organization has called “a global health problem”. In America alone, more than half of all murdered women are killed by a current or former life partner; domestic violence cuts across lines of class, religion and race. Snyder reveals pervasive myths (restraining orders are the answer, abusers never change) and writes movingly about the lives (and deaths) of people on both sides of the equation. She doesn’t give easy answers but presents a wealth of information that is its own form of hope.
Midnight in Chernobyl
By Adam Higginbotham
Higginbotham’s superb account of the April 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is one of those rare books about science and technology that read like a tension-filled thriller. Filled with vivid detail and sharply etched personalities, this narrative of astonishing incompetence moves from mistake to mistake, miscalculation to miscalculation, as it builds to the inevitable, history-changing disaster.
Exhalation
By Ted Chiang
Many of the nine deeply beautiful stories in this collection explore the material consequences of time travel. Reading them feels like sitting at dinner with a friend who explains scientific theory to you with no airs and graces. Each thoughtful, elegantly crafted story poses a philosophical question; Chiang arranges all nine into a conversation that comes full circle, after having travelled through remarkable areas.
1. Which of the following tells about the violence from a husband to a wife in a family?| A．Disappearing Earth | B．No Visible Bruises |
| C．Midnight in Chernobyl | D．Exhalation |
| A．Delighted. | B．Awkward. |
| C．Tense. | D．Calm. |
| A．A folk tale. | B．A biography. |
| C．A love story. | D．A sci-fi story. |
5 . 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. |
6 . Break Through the Noise
By Tim Staples & Josh Young
The chance of getting a video onto YouTube's front page is 1-in-20, 000, 000, but Tim Stales, founder and CEO of Shareability, knows how to make the algorithms (算法) of Google, and Facebook work for you — and he has the results to prove it, with a business that has gotten their videos onto You videos onto YouTube's front page an amazing 25. Here he shows marketers, businessmen, and those who want to be famous can develop clever videos that collect millions of views.
Girl, stop Apologizing.
By Rachel Hollis
Rachel Hollis has seen it too often: women not living into their full potential. In Girl, Stop Apologizing, Rachel Hollis sounds a wake-up call. She knows that many women have been taught to define themselves in light of other people — whether as wife, mother, daughter, or employee — instead of learning how to know who they are and what they want.
The Ride of a Lifetime
By Robert Iger
Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense than ever and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company's history. In The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert Iger shares the lessons he's learned while running Disney and leading its 200, 000 employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership.
Stillness Is the Key
By Ryan Holiday
In Stillness is the Key, Holiday shows why slowing down is the secret weapon for those charging ahead. All great leaders, thinkers, artists, and athletes share one quality. It enables them to concentrate, to achieve happiness and to do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness to be steady while the world spins (旋转) around you.
1. What does Break Through the Noise intend to teach us?| A．How to avoid noises. | B．How to share videos. |
| C．How to attract attention. | D．How to become wealthy. |
| A．Some life lessons. | B．Some personal stories. |
| C．Ways to live a happy life. | D．Ways to manage a business. |
| A．Break Through the Noise. | B．Girl, Stop Apologizing. |
| C．The Ride of a Lifetime. | D．Stillness Is the Key. |
1. What is the woman doing?
| A．Reading a story. |
| B．Writing the ending of the story. |
| C．Finishing her homework |
| A．Tell the man the storyline. |
| B．Invite the man to dinner. |
| C．Publish the book. |
8 . Having your nose in a book might seem a little anti-social at times — but reading could actually make you a kinder, more considerate person, a study has found. Readers were more likely to act in a socially acceptable manner, while those who preferred watching television came across as less friendly and less understanding of
others' views, researchers said.
123 participants in the study were quizzed on their preferences for books, TV and plays at Kingston University, London. They were then tested on how much they considered people's feelings and whether they acted to help others. Researchers told the British Psychological Society conference in Brighton yesterday that fiction fans showed more positive social behavior.
Readers of drama and romance novels were also empathic, while lovers of experimental books showed the ability to see things from different directions. Comedy fans scored the highest for relating to others. The study suggested reading allows people to see different points of view, enabling them to understand others better.
The researchers added, “Exposure to fiction relates to a range of empathetic abilities. Engaging with fictional prose and comedy in particular could be key to improving people's empathetic abilities.”
However, the authors warned the study did not prove cause-and-effect. So it could be that reading causes positive behavior, or it could be that thoughtful, well-mannered people are more likely to prefer reading. So it is a good idea to pick up a book to begin your travel with the author. Each author will show how they would react to certain situations or confrontations through their characters. Everyone can view the same situation differently, and from 1001 different angles. The more you read, the much better you can understand other peoples' opinions.
1. What do we know about reading according to Paragraph 1?| A．It contributes more to one's anti-social role. |
| B．It is of rare benefit to readers. |
| C．It is related to one's social position. |
| D．It can add to one's social adaptability. |
| A．the way to improve reading skills |
| B．the influence of their preferences |
| C．the places to get new books |
| D．the time of reading books |
| A．Understanding. | B．Mad. |
| C．Sorrowful. | D．Delighted. |
| A．To react to certain situations. |
| B．To understand peoples' opinions. |
| C．To persuade people to read. |
| D．To show how to begin travels. |
1. How long did Marco Polo travel?
| A．For 13 years. | B．For 17 years. | C．For 24 years. |
| A．Read a storybook about Xuanzang. | B．Write an essay about Marco Polo. |
| C．Imagine the life in ancient times. | |
10 . The American book “Who Moved My Cheese?”has been a bestseller all over the world. It tells a story which happened between mice and people.
The book tells us that when facing changes in our lives, like a new school or new friends, don’t be afraid.
The four are in a maze (迷宫) looking for the cheese. Here, cheese means something important in life, like moving to a new class or getting into college.
After Chris finishes the story, his friends understand one thing:
| A．I bought one last week and found it very interesting. |
| B．Instead, use these changes to make a better life. |
| C．However, some strange things happened in a school. |
| D．Its author Spencer Johnson has written the book just for teenagers. |
| E．to get more cheese, move in a new direction quickly. |
| F．But they find the cheese is gone. |
| G．They are afraid of the change so they find no cheese. |
