1 . Are you ready to get down to a thrilling journey through the pages of captivating stories and profound knowledge? Join us for an unforgettable reading event that promises to ignite your passion for literature and broaden your horizons!
Celebrating the Richness of American Literature
Immerse yourself in a treasure of literary masterpieces that showcase the cultural richness and diversity of American voices. From timeless classics to contemporary gems, there’s something for everyone to discover and enjoy.
Book Highlights:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Delve into the timeless tale of justice, morality, and compassion set against the backdrop of the American South.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Experience the glitz, glamour, and disillusionment of the Jazz Age through the eyes of the enigmatic Jay Gatsby.
Beloved by Toni Morrison: Journey into the haunting world of slavery’s legacy and the enduring power of love and memory.
Meet the Authors: Signed Copies and Book Giveaways!
Don’t miss the opportunity to meet renowned authors and get your books personally signed! Plus, stand a chance to win exclusive giveaways and limited edition merchandise.
Event Details:
Date: Saturday, March 23rd
Time: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Location: Central Public Library, 123 Main Street, Anytown, USA
Who Should Attend?
This event is perfect for crazy readers, literature enthusiasts, and anyone eager to explore the diverse landscape of American literature. Whether you’re a high school student preparing for college or a seasoned bookworm, there’s something here for you!
Registration and More Information:
Visit our website at www.booklovers.com to register for this exciting event and learn more about the featured authors and book selections.
Why It Matters:
By celebrating the rich tapestry of American literature, we not only honor the voices of the past but also inspire future generations to embrace diversity, empathy, and the power of storytelling.
1. Which book is NOT mentioned as an emphasis of the event?| A．To Kill a Mockingbird. | B．The Great Gatsby. |
| C．Moby-Dick. | D．Beloved. |
| A．Sign their own names on books. | B．See and greet famous authors. |
| C．Participate in a reading competition. | D．Watch a movie screening. |
| A．A food magazine. | B．An astronaut’s journal. |
| C．A sci-fi handbook. | D．A reading website. |
2 . Andrew is a teenager from Germany, studying in Garden School. He is very interested in Chinese classic novels. He wants to buy some to read but he doesn’t know what to choose. Therefore, he asked his classmates to recommend some and he has made a list according to their recommendations.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Author: Luo Guanzhong(1330 — 1400) Recommended by: Tom Reason for recommendation: It influences the world most because it is very rich in strategies (策略) and many are applicable (适用的) today. One of them in the story is the Empty Fort Strategy by the famous strategist Zhuge Liang. The story has spread all over the world. Price: ￥ 58 Dream of the Red Chamber Author:Cao Xueqin(1715 — 1763) Recommended by: Coco Reason for recommendation: It is worth reading as there is a whole group of fans around the world called “Redologists (红学研究者)”. They have conferences and debate its details. It offers a panoramic (全景式的) view of society. The female characters in it are especially strong. Cao wished to respect them. Price: ￥ 55 The Journey to the West Author: Wu Cheng’en (about 1501 — 1582) Recommended by: Chen Ying Reason for recommendation: It is a classic novel published in the 16th century. It has positive spirit and no fear of difficulties. It focuses on a “hero’s journey” and the hero must complete difficult tasks, learning lessons along the way. Price: ￥64 The Water Margin Author: Shi Naian(1296 — 1371) Recommended by: Judy Reason for recommendation: It focuses on action and anti-hero themes (主题). Though the 108 people, 105 men and 3 women, may be “bad guys”, they make up their mind to protect their own people. The novel has been translated into many languages, including German. Price: ￥45 |
1. Who was born in the 13th century?
| A．Luo Guanzhong. | B．Cao Xueqin. |
| C．Wu Cheng’en. | D．Shi Naian. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．Romance of the Three Kingdoms. | B．Dream of the Red Chamber. |
| C．The Journey to the West. | D．The Water Margin. |
| A．it is published in the 16th century | B．the edition (版本) in German is easier for him to understand |
| C．Andrew can be one of the Redologists | D．Andrew likes Zhuge Liang very much |
I am most interested in people, in meeting them and finding out about them.
Reading is a pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness make you a good reader. Reading is fun, not because the writer is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work.
Every book stands by itself, like a one-family house, but books in a library are like houses in a city.
| A．If I am interested in people |
| B．Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be |
| C．all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries |
| D．Although they are separate, together they all add up to something |
| E．Your own imagination works along with the author’s or even goes beyond his |
| F．Some of the most remarkable people I’ve met existed only in a writer’s imagination |
| G．as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder, or gentler, you won’t have suffered during the process |
4 . Finding just the right book to read together can open a door to helping a child understand difficult subjects like illness, loss, and big change. Here’s a list of some of the best.
Black Dog
Author: Levi Pinfold
A black dog appears outside the Hope family’s home. As each member of the family sees it and hides, the dog grows bigger and bigger. Only the youngest Hope has the courage to face the black dog. When it chases (追逐) her she shows no fear, so it grows smaller and smaller. Finally, back to the size of a normal dog.
I Remember
Author: Jeanne Willis
A sweet little boy visits an old lady one day. He seems familiar to her. He’s even got the same name as her grandson, George! Of course, he is her grandson George. He gently reminds her of what they’ve done together before. A beautiful book that might help children learn about dementia (痴呆).
I Talk Like a River
Author: Jordan Scott
In class, a boy hides at the back in the hope that he won’t be asked to speak. But the teacher directs a question his way. All his classmates watch him stumbling over (结结巴巴地说) his words. His father collects him from school, and takes him for a walk by the river.
Susan Laughs
Author: Jeanne Willis
Susan can do so many things - she can laugh, sing, fly, dance, swim and much more. The final page of this book reveals that Susan is in a wheelchair, showing that "disabled" doesn’t mean “disadvantaged”.
1. Which book is about overcoming our fears?| A．Black Dog. | B．I Remember. | C．Susan Laughs. | D．I Talk Like a River. |
| A．She has lost her memory. | B．She has problems with speaking. |
| C．She has a poor relationship with George. | D．She completely relies on a wheelchair for mobility. |
| A．They focus on various diseases. | B．They remind readers of their family. |
| C．They were written by the same author. | D．They help children learn about tough topics. |
5 . The Adventures of Huckleberry Fine by Mark Twain is one of the first Great American Novels. It was also one of the first major American novels ever written by using Local Colorism (地方色彩主义). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is famous for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River.
This book is about how a boy called Huck set the slave (奴隶) free and realized his dream of living an adventures life. In order to get out of his father’s control. Hook pretended that he was dead by Jim, who is practical and loyal to friends. Jim went together with Huck in the journey, and they became friends after experience. scenes of adventures. In their voyage, they met two frauds (骗子). One called himself king, the other duke. Because of the king, Jim got caught by his master. By an expected chance, Huck and Tom, best friend of Hack. Got together, and they decided to set Jim free. At last, they made it.
Although the book has been popular with young readers since it came out, the book immediately became controversial (有争论的) and has remained so today because the Southern society that it satirized (讽刺) had already been history.
1. Where did the story happen in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? ________| A．In the northern states. | B．In Canada. | C．Beside the Mississippi River. |
①Huck met two frauds.
②Huck met a run-away slave Jim.
③Jim was caught by his master and then set free.
④Huck pretended to be dead.
| A．④②①③ | B．①②③④ | C．③①②④ |
| A．popularity of the book |
| B．Huck’s experience |
| C．history of Local Colorism |
| A．The book has attracted many attention. |
| B．Buck’s dream was to live a peaceful life. |
| C．Huck succeeded in setting Jim free on his own. |
6 . An ordinary day in 2008, first grade teacher Alvin Irby stopped by a Bronx barbershop after school for a haircut. Before long, one of his students came in.
“He is getting antsy; he’s kind of looking bored,” Irby recalled. “I’m looking at this student (thinking), ‘He should be practicing his reading.’ But I didn’t have a book.” That moment stayed with Irby, and five years later he started Barbershop Books. Since 2013, the nonprofit has brought more than 50,000 free children’s books to more than 200 barbershops in mainly Black neighborhoods across the country.
According to Irby, they are putting books in a male-centered space. “Less than 2% of teachers are Black males and many Black boys are raised by single moms. Black boys don’t see Black men reading.” So, Irby involves the barbers in his mission—training them to engage boys about reading.
“We want them to encourage kids to use the reading spaces,” he said. “Then they can talk to them about how they like reading, how funny a book was, or tell them about another book another kid was reading.” Irby believes that talking about books with a Black man can be powerful for the boys he serves. “Our goal is not to turn barbers into tutors,” he said. “This is an opportunity to provide boys with male role models.”
Denny Moe was the first barber to work with Irby. Moe had previously offered video games at his Harlem shop, to bring in extra income, but he was willing to forego that to help the community. “I decided to pay it forward by getting rid of the video games, putting books in here, just to get the kids’ minds going,” he said. “You want to make an impact.”
And that’s what keeps Irby motivated. “I’m just excited that we get to create a safe space for boys to do something that’s really life changing,” he said. “That’s what I really believe reading is. It unlocks potential.”
1. What inspired Irby to launch the project Barbershop Books?| A．His encounter with his student in the barber’s. |
| B．His childhood experience in his neighborhood. |
| C．His bad impression on Black men. |
| D．Barbers’ enthusiasm and generosity. |
| A．To collect books for Black boys. |
| B．To set a good example as a behaved citizen. |
| C．To help Black boys comprehend books. |
| D．To draw Black boys to reading. |
| A．Give up. | B．Build up. | C．Give away. | D．Open up. |
| A．Black boys’ increased interest in reading. |
| B．New policies concerning barbers’ shops. |
| C．Irby’s firm belief in the power of reading. |
| D．Effective cooperation between Irby and Denny Moe. |
7 . Fu Lei’s Family Letters is a book of letters written by Chinese translator and writer Fu Lei to his elder son Fu Cong, who is a famous pianist. Between 1954 and 1966, Fu Cong spent a lot of time away from home training as a piano player. As a result, writing letters became Fu Lei’s usual way of communicating with his elder son. Fu Min, Fu Lei’s younger son edited the letters and the book came out in 1981.
The book shows Fu Lei’s family tradition and value. To Fu Lei, the purpose of education of a person, is to make that person useful to the society. Fu Lei praised his son Fu Cong after winning a piano competition. Fu Lei wrote, “We are happy because you make your country proud. I am so excited when I think about your future. You will make great progress and serve more people, encourage them and heal them.”
In the family letters, Fu Cong was also advised to read famous Chinese texts. When reading these books, Fu Cong was told to connect ideas and feelings together, for that would help him become a better person. To Fu Lei, learning to be a good person comes before any academic training.
Fu Lei’s Family Letters has a great impact on people in China because it helps many young students understand how they should live their lives. The following contents are teenagers’ favorite:
“We won’t get hurt so long as our moods stay stable.”
“The degree of success is not completely under our control. It’s half through personal efforts and half through destiny. But so long as you stay tough, you can weather failures, blunders and heavy blows — whether such blows stem from interpersonal, livelihood-related, technical or academic matters.
“A person needs to have the courage to confront reality and past mistakes. As such, he can come up with sensible analysis and in-depth appreciation. Only then he won’t be weighed down by bad memories.
1. What can we learn from Fu Lei’s Family Letters?| A．Fu Lei’s family tradition and value are shown in the book. |
| B．People in the 1950s communicated with each other by books. |
| C．It’s difficult for parents to make their children well educated. |
| D．Praising children after taking part in a competition is important. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Difficult. | C．Uncertain. | D．Interesting. |
| A．To be a richer man. |
| B．To help more people. |
| C．To become a better person. |
| D．To do more academic training. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A comic book. |
| C．A travel guide. | D．A fashion magazine. |
8 . TikTok is making a mark on the world of publishing. Much of this is done through BookTok, the app’s community of users who comment on books. It is among the largest communities on the app; videos with this tag have been viewed 179 billion times, more than twice as many as BeautyTok. Whoever said books are dead has not spent much time on TikTok, nor in bookstores, which now have whole displays promoting titles “as seen on TikTok”.
Last year in Britain one in four book buyers used TikTok. Although the sales share is still very small, TikTok’s influence is significant and growing. The largest group of book buyers—women aged 54 and younger—are more likely to use the app than their male peers. TikTok recommendations influence their purchases, creating new literary stars and unearthing unlikely past ones, too.
One way to think about BookTok is as a book club for the Internet age. Just as stars like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama can cause copies to fly off bookstore shelves by updating their lists of recommended reads, BookTok does something similar. However, the tastemakers are not usually celebrities (名人) but attractive book girlies doing reading challenges, often in artfully lit bedrooms.
Some old-fashioned bibliophiles (藏书家) may suspect that BookTok is less about books than about people seeking attention by promoting them. But BookTokers are already swaying bestseller lists. For example, novels categorised as “romance” have enjoyed the biggest push due to the promotion of BookTok. In addition, because TikTok is so visual, the app has an outsize impact on sales of physical books in particular. E-books do not make such attractive visual props. BookTokers show off their notes and flick through pages. Filming themselves finishing a book in a single day against a backdrop of hundreds of them on shelves is all part of the performance, and viewers will be extra impressed if the book looks thick.
1. How has TikTok influenced the world of publishing?| A．By promoting the celebrity authors and their works. |
| B．By encouraging people to read e-books. |
| C．By creating a community of users who comment on books. |
| D．By focusing on promoting e-books. |
| A．Changing direction rapidly. | B．Causing change. |
| C．Moving back and forth. | D．Remaining still. |
| A．The visual nature of TikTok makes physical books more appealing as props. |
| B．TikTok users prefer reading physical books over e-books. |
| C．E-books already have a more popular platform than TikTok. |
| D．TikTok offers discounts on physical books but not on e-books. |
| A．TikTok’s impact on book sales is limited to specific genres such as romantic novels. |
| B．The popularity of TikTok has significantly decreased the sales of physical books in bookstores. |
| C．TikTok has a great impact on the purchasing decisions of young women aged 54 and below. |
| D．TikTok’s influence on book sales primarily results from the recommendations of celebrities. |
9 . BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
Susie Dent is Britain’s most-loved word expert. She has two new books: Interesting Stories About Curious Words (John Murray) and Roots of Happiness (Puffin), both available now.
Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier
This was the first book that really stopped me in my tracks. I lapped up its romantic but melancholy (忧郁的) story of the dreamy world between childhood and adolescence. I’ve never found as acute a description of longing as I did here, and for many things: for the mysterious castle, for love, and for freedom. It is an mysterious and dreamy book. What adds to the magic is that this was the only story that Fournier wrote—he died on the front line in the early months of the First World War.
The Oxford English Dictionary
If I could take just one book to a desert island it would (of course) be the complete Oxford English Dictionary —all 20 volumes. It may sound predictable, but the OED is anything but. In its pages you’ll find comedy, passion, tragedy, and thousands of hidden stories. Even the simplest of words have had quite a journey— “nice”, for example, has gone from meaning “stupid” to “pleasant”. Add to that a host of words that have unaccountably disappeared when—to my mind—we could really do with them, and you have entertainment forever. And which of us hasn’t met an “ultracrepidarian”: one who loves to talk about something they know nothing about?
Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman
The graphic novels Maus and Maus Ⅱ by the American cartoonist Art Spiegelman are not easy reads, but they’re important ones. They’re really a tale within a tale, in which the narrator (叙述者) interviews his father about his experiences of the Holocaust and his liberation from a concentration camp. Here the Nazis are drawn as cats, and Jews are mice. Overarching it all is an unforgettable tale of a son’s relationship with his broken father. Given that German has always been my first love, it felt necessary to read these books. Spiegelman takes the unspeakable and gives it an immediacy I’ll never forget.
1. What is the probable purpose of this text?| A．To recommend and classify. | B．To encourage and enrich. |
| C．To introduce and inform. | D．To memorize and alarm. |
| A．It inspires her to write stories. | B．It helps her describe something particular. |
| C．It fuels her passion for referring to a dictionary. | D．It entertains her with the development of language. |
| A．German geography. | B．Unexplained tales. |
| C．Adapted life story. | D．Parent-child relationship. |
10 . Reading can make you feel less alone and more connected with the world at large. It can open your eyes to issues, successes and challenges. Here are the top books all teens should read before they turn 18.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Though this book recently became popular again because of the movie based on it, the movie is not a substitute (替代物) for this beautiful story about family and the process of becoming who you truly are.
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Auggie was born with a facial difference that kept him out of school for years. In the fifth grade, he discovered what was like to long for normalcy (常态) and also learned that difference could be the most meaningful teacher.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
The author shares beautiful poetry that will speak to teenagers about her experience of growing up in the South as an African-American in the 1960s and 1970s. The poems enjoy the themes of self-awareness and identity.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
The attractive advice given in this book is perfect for teens going off to college or beginning a new stage of independence. It is a book that can be reread all throughout life without losing its power.
1. What do we know about the book A Wrinkle in Time?| A．It was made into a movie. |
| B．Its story is never popular. |
| C．It is not so good as its movie. |
| D．It talks all about the process. |
| A．Madeleine L’Engle’s. |
| B．R. J. Palacio’s. |
| C．Jacqueline Woodson’s. |
| D．Don Miguel Ruiz’s. |
| A．A Wrinkle in Time. |
| B．Wonder. |
| C．Brown Girl Dreaming. |
| D．The Four Agreements. |
| A．The authors are African-Americans. |
| B．They are intended for teens. |
| C．They are all beautiful stories. |
| D．The poems enjoy the same themes. |
