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 .
No, it’s not their shoe size.
They read. At least two books a month. They’re also among the top 10 richest people in the world. And they’re not alone in their love for books, with 1, 200 other millionaires, who quote reading as a core part of their self-education.
You knew that reading books makes your life better. It’s not even all about money, fame and success. It’s about becoming a more knowledgeable and valuable person. Additionally, reading helps you prevent stress and keep depression at bay, while enhancing your confidence, improving your decision-making, increasing your empathy and overall satisfaction with life.
You know all the benefits of reading, so what’s stopping you from reading more books?
Time!
“I don’t have time to read.”
Have you said those words before?
You say it because...
you have an incredibly demanding college degree to study for…
your loved ones are sitting at home, counting on you to put food on the table…
you are too occupied with work to open a book…
But let’s imagine another reality for a second. What would your life look like if you read just two books every month?
Would you finally…
have what it takes to start that business?
be a better parent?
feel more fulfilled?
Hold on to that vision for a second. If you want to make it a reality, this email course, Time 2 Read, will be your guide for the next 10 days. It’s free of charge and specifically designed to help you take time back, start building a daily reading habit and turn wanting to read into actual reading.
Enter your email below to make time to read, start learning daily and become more valuable to the world.
You’ll be sent 7 lessons via email over the next 10 days, starting right after you sign up here. Each email contains a story, a principle, and an experiment. Get started, and your reading life will never be the same!
1. Where does this passage probably come from?A.A leaflet publicizing a reading activity. |
B.A website promoting a reading course. |
C.A TV program advertising reading skills. |
D.A handbook providing reading materials. |
A.To express his admiration for them. |
B.To indicate the importance of reading. |
C.To highlight their time management skills. |
D.To illustrate the success of the course. |
A.Those who are willing to read more but struggle with time. |
B.Those who are sick of making excuses to delay their life plans. |
C.Those who are eager to become a millionaire like the four guys. |
D.Those who are determined to be more and more self-disciplined. |
3 . While more and more scientists are working on nonfiction science books for the general reader, I think we also need a change.
The typical expert-voiced monologues (独白) that scientists write are a wonderful component of the engagement effort, but the form is limited. Such books are largely ready people already willing to pick up a science book, or who are open to the authoritative academic’s voice telling them how to think. There are plenty of people who can engage with science but who find those kinds of books a sometimes unwelcome reminder of the classroom.
Following from my belief that science is for everyone, I suggest that publishers need to work with scientists to expand the kinds of books on offer, assured that there is an audience for them. Progress is possible. Many years ago, I realized it is hard to find books on the nonfiction science shelf that let readers see themselves as part of the conversation about science. So I thought about an entire book of conversations about science taking place between ordinary people. While “overhearing” those conversations, readers learn some science ideas. It’s a resurrection of the dialogue form, known to the ancient Greeks, and to Galileo, as a device for exchanging ideas, but with contemporary settings: cafes, restaurants, trains and so on.
I decided it would be engaging for the reader to actually see who’s having those conversations, and where, instead of describing them in words. This led me to realize that I was thinking about a powerful form of visual storytelling: Graphic novels for adults have matured and exploded in popularity in recent years. Spiegelman’s “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” and Bechdel’s “Fun Home” are just two well-known examples.
But the storytelling tools of the graphic book have been little used to convey nonfiction science ideas to a general adult audience. The vast majority of contemporary graphic books with a science focus are presented instead as “explainer/adventure comics” for younger audiences. This is an important genre, but graphic books about science should not be limited to that.
And while there are several excellent graphic books for adults that include science, they typically focus instead on the lives of famous scientists, with discussion of the science itself as a secondary goal. Some excellent recent examples that balance the two aspects well include Ottaviani arid Myrick’s “Feyrunan” and Doxiadis and Papadimitriou’s “Logicomix”. The scarcity of science-focused non-biographical (非自传体的) graphic books for adults is especially true in my field of physics. So I decided that here was an opportunity to broaden the kinds of nonfiction science book available to engage the public.
1. It can be inferred from Para.2 that the expert-voiced monologues don’t appeal to _________.A.those who are interested in scientific ideas |
B.those who have no talents for scientific research |
C.those who would like to know how scientists think |
D.those who think science classes in school are uninteresting |
A.announcement | B.comeback | C.explanation | D.representation |
A.A collection of scientists’ life stories. | B.A book written by a Nobel Prize winner. |
C.An adventure novel focusing on science. | D.A comic book conveying scientific ideas. |
A.A well-known writer who writes to promote science among the public. |
B.A possible way to get nonfiction science books to appeal to the public. |
C.A new approach to have the public get interested in new scientific ideas. |
D.An easy access for the public to have a general idea of what science is. |
4 . Reading allows you to de-stress by unplugging and escaping. In one study, reading was found to be as effective as yoga and humor in reducing subjective feelings of stress over a 30-minute period, as well as objective measurements of blood pressure and heart rate.
In a longitudinal (纵向的) study of individuals aged 64 and over, those who read at least once a week were less likely to experience cognitive decline than those who did not. At the 14-year mark of the study, and regardless of educational level, those who read more enjoyed greater protection. This effect is maintained into readers’ 80’s.
Bibliotherapy, or the use of various reading materials for the promotion of psychological health, is a well-known aid to mental health treatment.
Reading can be an important bedtime ritual for anyone-not just kids.
A.It may include self-help books, focused readings, first-hand accounts of other’s experiences, and even relevant fiction. |
B.Additionally, readers are expected of a longer life span than non-readers. |
C.Another study found that cognition in those over 80 was protected by activities such as reading. |
D.This means that reading benefits your physical as well as your psychological health. |
E.However studies have shown that electronic devices are by no means helpful in reading. |
F.For adults, reading a book before bed can reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and increase sleep duration. |
5 . Textbooks represent an $11 billion dollar industry, up from $8 billion in 2014. Textbook publisher Pearson is the largest publisher — of any kind — in the world.
It costs about $1 million to create a new textbook. A freshman textbook will have dozens of contributors, from subject-matter experts through graphic and layout artists to expert reviewers and classroom testers. Textbook publishers connect professors, instructors and students in ways that alternatives, such as open e-textbooks and open educational resources, simply do not. This connection happens not only by means of collaborative development, review and testing, but also at conferences where faculty regularly decide on their textbooks and curricula for the coming year.
It is true that textbook publishers have recently reported losses, largely due to students renting or buying used print textbooks. But this can be chalked up to the excessively high cost of their books — which has increased over 1,000 percent since 1977. A restructuring of the textbook industry may well be in order. But this does not mean the end of the textbook itself.
While they may not be as dynamic as an iPad, textbooks are not passive or lifeless. For example, over the centuries, they have simulated (模拟) dialogues in a number of ways. From 1800 to the recent day, textbooks have done this by posing questions for students to answer inductively (归纳性地). That means students are asked to use their individual experience to come up with answers to general questions. Today’s psychology texts, for example, ask: “How much of your personality do you think you inherited?” while ones in physics say: “How can you predict where the ball you tossed will land?”
Experts observe that “textbooks come in layers, something like an onion.” For an active learner, engaging with a textbook can be an interactive experience: Readers proceed at their own pace. They “customize” their books by engaging with different layers and linkages. Highlighting, Post-It notes, dog-ears and other techniques allow for further customization that students value in print books over digital forms of books.
1. What does the passage say about open educational resources?A.They contribute to teaching as much as to learning. |
B.They don’t profit as much as traditional textbooks do. |
C.They can’t connect professors and students as textbooks do. |
D.They compete fiercely for customers with textbook producers. |
A.Failure to meet student need. | B.Industry restructuring. |
C.Emergence of e-books. | D.Falling sales. |
A.Think carefully before answering each question. |
B.Ask questions based on their own understanding. |
C.Answer questions using their personal experience. |
D.Give answers showing their respective personality. |
A.They can digitalize the prints easily. |
B.They can learn in an interactive way. |
C.They can purchase customized versions. |
D.They can adapt the material themselves. |
6 . I was about 13 when an uncle gave me a copy of Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World. It was full of ideas that were new to me, so I spent the summer with my head in and out of that book. It spoke to me and brought me into a world of philosophy (哲学).
That love for philosophy lasted until I got to college. Nothing kills the love for philosophy faster than people who think they understand Foucault, Baudrillard, or Confucius better than you — and then try to explain them.
Eric Weiner’s The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers reawakened my love for philosophy. It is not an explanation, but an invitation to think and experience philosophy.
Weiner starts each chapter with a scene on a train ride between cities and then frames each philosopher’s work in the context (背景) of one thing they can help us do better. The end result is a read in which we learn to wonder like Socrates, see like Thoreau, listen like Schopenhauer, and have no regrets like Nietzsche. This, more than a book about understanding philosophy, is a book about learning to use philosophy to improve a life.
He makes philosophical thought an appealing exercise that improves the quality of our experiences, and he does so with plenty of humor. Weiner enters into conversation with some of the most important philosophers in history, and he becomes part of that crowd in the process by decoding (解读) their messages and adding his own interpretation.
The Socrates Express is a fun, sharp book that draws readers in with its apparent simplicity and gradually pulls them in deeper thoughts on desire, loneliness, and aging. The invitation is clear: Weiner wants you to pick up a coffee or tea and sit down with this book. I encourage you to take his offer. It’s worth your time, even if time is something we don’t have a lot of.
1. Who opened the door to philosophy for the author?A.Foucault. | B.Eric Weiner. |
C.Jostein Gaarder. | D.A college teacher. |
A.To compare Weiner with them. |
B.To give examples of great works. |
C.To praise their writing skills. |
D.To help readers understand Weiner’s book. |
A.Its views on history are well-presented. |
B.Its ideas can be applied to daily life. |
C.It includes comments from readers. |
D.It leaves an open ending. |
A.Objective and plain. |
B.Daring and ambitious. |
C.Serious and hard to follow. |
D.Humorous and straightforward. |
7 .
Travel Back in Time | |
TOMORROW THEY WON’T DARE TO MURDER US By Joseph Andras In 1956, National Liberation Front Member Fernand Iveton planted a bomb near Algiers. The hoped-for explosion was intended only to be a piece of symbolism, so he put it in an unused shed. He was arrested before it could go off and then mercilessly tortured and hanged. Andras’s fictionalized retelling of Iveton’s story was published in French in2016 to immediate acclaim, winning the prestigious Prix Goncourt. It’s now been translated into English. The book is just 137 pages long, but every one of them is tense, a nightmare of noble intentions gone horribly wrong. | INSIDE MONEY By Zarchary Karabell Given complete access to the 200-year accomplishment of the U.S.’s oldest private bank, Karabell weaves a fascinating tale of the East Coast WASP establishment includes characters such as Alan Greenspan and Averell Harriman, one-time governor of New York. The firm has remained privately held, so its inner workings have been a mystery until now. |
Or See the Future | |
THE FLIP SIDE OF FREE By Michael Kende It’s not a new insight that we pay for “free” apps and sites with our personal data, but Kende has a more detailed take than most. The digital development specialist at the World Bank Group looks at how the web came to be free via unified standards and the coming social considerations that will need to be faced once the public understands how much “free” actually costs. | THE CODE BREAKER By Walter Isaacson Isaacson’s previous biographies have focused on such men as Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci. Here he tells the story of Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist who won a Noble Prize for the gene-editing technology known as Crispr. The book is an excellent reader on the complex subject, its benefits (fighting disease) and its ethical hurdles (designer babies). |
Anything Other Than Covid | |
LETTERS TO CAMONDO By Edmund de Waal There are very few ceramic artists working today and even fewer ceramic artists with a part time as an author. Best known for his exquisitely crafted porcelain and his bestseller The Hare with Amber Eyes, de Waal’s latest piece of fiction combines the two sides of his professional life. This book consists of imaginary letters to the real-life Moise de Camondo, a rich Jewish banker who ran one of the most successful institutions in the Ottoman Empire and was also an art sponsor. | ANTIQUITIES By Cynthia Ozick Most people experienced some form of Covid isolation. Ozick, 92, who’s been shortlisted for the Pulitzer and Man Booker International prizes, has created a character who's similarly tortured, though it’s old age, rather than a pandemic, that finds him holed up indoors. As he recalls his life, he is drawn to memories of his cousin, a famous archaeologist and to a mysterious schoolmate. |
Or More About Plagues | |
LET THE RECORD SHOW: A POLITICAL HISTORY OF ACT UP NEW YORK, 1987-1993 By Sarah Schulman Michael Lewis is something of a master at the onset of the AIDS crisis that no one, other than the tortured, seemed to care. ACT UP, a political and activist effort, was born from that apathy. Schulman's comprehensive, timely Book records the group’s hundreds of demonstrations, and almost as many political groups. | THE PREMONITION: A PANDEMIC STORY By Michael Lewis Thirty years ago, fear and death played out at capturing complex events in the very recent past. Here he turns the pandemic into a tale of good and evil: Evil, in this case, is the administration; good is a crew of scientists, doctors and public health experts. The narrative follows three central characters-a biochemist, a public health worker, and a U.S. federal employee. |
A.drew inspiration from something real. |
B.reveal something ugly about their society |
C.are works written against a background of war. |
D.provide thrilling plots even though they are short in length. |
①cybersecurity
②artificial robot
③disease-curing
④economic development
A.①② | B.①③ | C.②③ | D.③④ |
A.Both are fictionalized works. |
B.Both are about artistic creations |
C.Both deal with the theme of isolation |
D.Both are written against the background of Covid-19. |
①One is a true story and the other is fictional.
②One is about history and the other focuses on the present.
③One is about the causes of the plague and the other focuses on the results.
A.①② | B.①③ | C.②③ | D.①②③ |
Face It
Debbie Harry
HARPER COLLINS
Picture this: it’s the late 1970s and the punk music scene is starting to take hold. Blondie releases the album Parallel Lines, which soars straight into the charts. Every teenage girl wants to be lead singer Debbie Harry, while every teenage boy wants to be her boyfriend. Now 75, Harry bares all in her memoir Face It, from her childhood to the hedonistic (享乐的) years of Blondie an then solo artist. Part entertaining, part shocking, this biography is as humorous, moving and as dynamic as its subject.
Scatterbrain
Henning Beck
NEWSOUTH BOOKS
The brain really dislikes being in a condition of uncertainty, says award-winning neuroscientist Henning Beck. If what we remember is fragmented, the brain will substitute in the rest of the information without you even noticing, he says in the chapter “Memory”. In this “user’s guide for your brain”, Beck argues that mistakes and faults are the keys to success. He combines science with brain-boosting advice and real-life stories to take the reader on a fascinating adventure through human memory.
The Right-Brain Work Out
Russel Howeroft with Alex Wadelton
PENGUIN
In 1968, 1600 five-year-olds were given a creativity test. They were retested at ages 10 and 15 and their scores were compared against adults. While 98 percent of five-year-olds were assessed in the “highly creative” range (genius level), only two per cent of adults could be considered “highly creative”. In The Right-brain Work Out, the authors promise to retrain your brain to be more creative, using 70 questions to probe and challenge you.
1. What can we learn from the introduction of Debbie Harry’s biography?A.She was the lead singer in the Blondie during her whole art lift. |
B.It was not true that The Parallel Lines was a hit in the 1970s. |
C.Only teenager boys were greatly fascinated by her. |
D.She reveals something seldom known to the public in her biography. |
A.It mainly deals with memory science. |
B.Readers will get enlightened on the power of mistakes. |
C.Our brain can’t automatically make up for what’s missing. |
D.Our brain likes the condition of finding fault. |
A.two tests were given to the subjects in 1968 |
B.genius kids maintained their creativity into adulthood |
C.a set of questions were designed to train creativity |
D.the effect of the brain exercise remained to be proved |
The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks
Reviewed by Helena
No lyrical, romantic account, but a hard-bitten, dull and down-to-earth story of a family, a community and an environment. A story of cycles — of seasons, years, people, generations, stretches back centuries. A story of farming which only exists now in the remoter, wilder regions of the UK, where the land is too hard and the environment too harsh for farming to be an “agribusiness”. Where success, survival of farms, their sheep are dependent on knowledge passed down through generations and shared between farmers and shepherds in a small, close-knit and mutually-dependent community. A story of people hefted to their land every bit as much as their sheep are hefted to their fells.
A Month in the Country by J.L.Carr
Reviewed by L. R. Fisher
It is unbelievably simple and delightfully slow-paced, full of Lawrence-like description of a vanished (消失的) country landscape. The focal points are a casual and peculiar friendship between two war-scarred, shell-shocked men Tom Birkin and Moon. In a book barely 100 pages long, the author not only manages to give us a story that flows like a stream, but also achieves impressive characterization, bitter feelings of war and a corresponding celebration of peace, a little suspense, and even a twist in the tail.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Reviewed by T. Bently
Having read all of Bill Bryson’s travel books, this was the last one left. I hadn’t read this because I had been told it was one of his weakest one. But I decided, through no other reason that I needed a hit of Bryson, to read it. People couldn’t have been more wrong. From the very beginning of assessing the feasibility, arranging for Katz to accompany him to the purchasing of his equipment and the purchasing of “a large knife for killing bears and hillbillies”, Bryson is at his absolute best. His cute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail. His encounters along the trail and Katz anti-social, childish antics (滑稽动作) make the first 150 pages more than a laugh-out-loud hike. I couldn’t have been more surprised. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is destined to become a modern classic.
1. In The Shepherd’s Life, James Rebanks takes readers through a shepherds’ life ________.A.featuring a hard struggle in the remote and beautiful area |
B.alternated by the seasons and changed by the generations |
C.little noticed, and deeply attached to the harsh land |
D.spent in a profitable agricultural and friendly community |
A.have lived in a slow-paced country throughout their life |
B.are war survivors with troubled memories |
C.were deafened by the explosion of a shell in the war |
D.will make the end of their story more fascinating to read |
A.Bryson’s travel book is the best seller in travelling literature |
B.Bryson’s travelling experience is laughable |
C.it’s a pity that people turn a blind eye to Bryson’s travelling experience |
D.A Walk in the Wood combines artistic quality well with natural beauty |
1. ________ thinks kids are having an effect on the climate movement?
A.Joyce Sidman | B.Ellen Nam |
C.Naomi Klein | D.Kushal Konwar Sarma |
A.Hello, Earth! is a collection of poems by young children. |
B.How to Change Everything provides solutions to climate issues. |
C.The Elephant Doctor of India is a non-fiction about a veterinarian. |
D.Each of the three books deals with a specific environmental problem. |
A.a scientific journal | B.an animal brochure |
C.an environmental report | D.a children’s magazine |