2 . For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines; a never-ending flood of words. In getting a job advancing, the ability to read and comprehend ____ can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are ____ readers. Most of us develop poor reading habits at an early age, and never ____ them. The main shortage lies in the actual stuff of language itself – words. Taken individually, words have little____ until they are combined together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs. Unfortunately, ____, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He read one word at a time with difficulty, often regressing to ____ words or passages. Regression, namely, the tendency to look back over what you have just read, is a common ____ habit in reading. Another bad habit which ____ the speed of reading is vocalization –sounding each word either ____ or mentally as one reads.

To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an accelerator, which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined speed. The bar is set a slightly ____ rate than the reader finds comfortable, in order to “____” him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast, making word-by-word reading, regression and sub-vocalization, practically ____. At first comprehension is ____ speed. But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster, but your comprehension will improve. Many people have found their reading skill ____ improved after some training. Take Charles Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute before the training, now it is an excellent 1,378 words a minute. He is delighted that now he can go through a lot more reading material in a(n) ____ period of time.

1.

A．quickly

B．silently

C．thoroughly

D．vaguely

2.

A．casual

B．curious

C．efficient

D．poor

3.

A．acquire

B．cultivate

C．kick

D．practice

4.

A．formation

B．meaning

C．pronunciation

D．transformation

5.

A．however

B．moreover

C．somehow

D．therefore

6.

A．recite

B．reread

C．reuse

D．rewrite

7.

A．horrible

B．incurable

C．social

D．viewing

8.

A．achieves

B．gains

C．measures

D．reduces

9.

A．orally

B．physically

C．quietly

D．repeatedly

10.

A．better

B．faster

C．lower

D．steadier

11.

A．distract

B．embarrass

C．interest

D．stretch

12.

A．demanding

B．impossible

C．reasonable

D．useful

13.

A．applied to

B．matched with

C．sacrificed for

D．substituted for

14.

A．dramatically

B．hardly

C．slightly

D．subconsciously

15.

A．indefinite

B．lengthy

C．limited

D．set

4 . Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

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 struggled with one response after the other to this challenge. Then one day I read an article by a botanist who had ________ 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 ________ 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 adventure in reading, enter into a ________ with the published scholars featured in Short Stories for Students. Through this dialogue 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．extended

B．explored

C．expressed

D．exploited

6.

A．external

B．artificial

C．classical

D．traditional

7.

A．ensured

B．analyzed

C．revealed

D．delivered

8.

A．organization

B．pattern

C．beauty

D．structure

9.

A．however

B．furthermore

C．therefore

D．besides

10.

A．interpret

B．expect

C．predict

D．tell

11.

A．conclusion

B．evaluation

C．summary

D．appreciation

12.

A．craftsmanship

B．intentions

C．depth

D．character

13.

A．by itself

B．per se

C．in question

D．as a whole

14.

A．journey

B．process

C．dialogue

D．contact

15.

A．recall

B．confirm

C．identify

D．cancel

6 . For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines: a never-ending flood of words. In ________ a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend ________can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are ________ readers. Most of us develop poor reading habits at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency ________ in the actual stuff of language itself—words. Taken individually, words have ________ meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs. ________, however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing (退回) to reread words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over ________ you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading. Another habit which ________down the speed of reading is vocalization—sounding each word either orally or mentally as ________ reads.

To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an accelerator, which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined （预先确定的）speed. The bar is set at a slightly faster ________than the reader finds comfortable, in order to “stretch” him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast, ________ word-by-word reading, regression and subvocalization (默读) practically impossible. At first ________ is sacrificed for speed. But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster, ________your comprehension will improve. Many people have found their reading skill drastically improved after some training. ________ Charle Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute ________ the training, now it is an excellent 282 words a minute. He is delighted that how he can get through a lot more reading material in a short period of time.

1.

A．applying

B．doing

C．offering

D．getting

2.

A．quickly

B．easily

C．roughly

D．decidedly

3.

A．good

B．curious

C．poor

D．urgent

4.

A．lies

B．combines

C．touches

D．involves

5.

A．some

B．a lot

C．little

D．dull

6.

A．Fortunately

B．In fact

C．Logically

D．Unfortunately

7.

A．what

B．which

C．that

D．if

8.

A．scales

B．cuts

C．slows

D．measures

9.

A．some one

B．one

C．he

D．reader

10.

A．conclusion

B．reason

C．proportion

D．rate

11.

A．enabling

B．leading

C．making

D．indicating

12.

A．meaning

B．comprehension

C．motto

D．category

13.

A．when

B．in case

C．but

D．such

14.

A．Look at

B．Take

C．Make

D．Consider

15.

A．for

B．in

C．after

D．before

7 . It did take me quite a while to start noticing Dr. Yuval Noah Harari’s well-received book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (人类简史). I bought the book after I heard Dou Wentao (a renowned TV host) mention it on his podcast, and to be frank, I read the first chapter with little _________. But it turned out to be the best book I read in 2017.

While I was immediately ___________ the book kept evolving as I read it. The book began with a brief introduction of the lives and activities of the earliest proto-humans (原始人)---Neanderthals (尼安德特人), Homoerectus (直立人) and early Homo Sapiens (智人)---and then _________ an examination of why it was the Homo sapiens, after hundreds of thousands of years of surviving but pretty much existing in the middle of the food chain, _________ rocketed to the top of it without any significant genetic changes, conquered multiple climates, and eventually domesticated the world around them from farm animals to crops. And Harari includes an interesting but fairly _________ argument about the true nature of our relationship to our most necessary crop---wheat.

Think for a moment about the _________ Revolution from the viewpoint of wheat. Ten thousand years ago wheat was just a wild grass, one of many, confined to a small range in the Middle East. All of a sudden, within just a few short millennia, it was growing everywhere.

So how did this grass turn from insignificant to ubiquitous (到处存在的)? Wheat did it by manipulating (操纵) Homo sapiens to its advantage. This ape had been living a fairly comfortable life _________ and gathering until about 10,000 years ago, but then began to _________ more and more effort in cultivating wheat. Then, humans in many parts of the world were doing little from dawn to dusk _________ taking care of wheat plants.

However, the body of Homo sapiens had not evolved for cultivating wheat. Therefore human spines, knees, necks and arches paid the price. Moreover, the new agricultural tasks demanded so much time that people were forced to settle __________ next to their wheat fields. This completely changed their way of life. We did not __________ wheat. It’s the other way around. One of the most important and sustained ideas running through the book is that what ultimately __________ Homo sapiens from all other creatures---other mammals, other apes, and even other “humans” like Neanderthals---was not our opposable thumbs or some other __________ standards, but instead it was our ability to generate (生成), believe in and act upon what Yuval Noah Narari calls “myths” or “__________” (essentially ideas and cultural institutions), particularly on a large scale and collective basis, which eventually transformed us from creatures that lived in small, loosely-organized groups (the typical feature of most apes) to our modern status.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a fascinating ambitious and difficult-to-summarize book that is also just highly __________. So as senior high school students, you won’t experience too much difficulty following the author’s train of thoughts. And I strongly recommend you to indulge (纵情于) yourself in this well-written book.

Inspired by Yuval Noah Harari’s mind-blowing book:

Sapiens: A brief history of Humankind

1.

A．attention

B．evaluation

C．illustration

D．expectation

2.

A．fascinated

B．confused

C．distracted

D．uninterested

3.

A．turned to

B．gave away

C．prepared for

D．went after

4.

A．naturally

B．randomly

C．suddenly

D．hardly

5.

A．annoying

B．touching

C．embarrassing

D．depressing

6.

A．Industrial

B．Agricultural

C．Cultural

D．Political

7.

A．planting

B．hunting

C．trading

D．wondering

8.

A．spare

B．resist

C．invest

D．demand

9.

A．regardless of

B．contrary to

C．together with

D．other than

10.

A．permanently

B．delightfully

C．temporarily

D．instantly

11.

A．consume

B．grow

C．domesticate

D．harvest

12.

A．distinguished

B．disqualified

C．discouraged

D．dissatisfied

13.

A．intellectual

B．physical

C．psychological

D．moral

14.

A．poems

B．reports

C．documents

D．fictions

15.

A．complex

B．overrated

C．readable

D．appreciated