1 . The Best War Novels
The God of that Summer
by Ralf Rothmann
The masterful and painful story is set in Germany. Luisa, a young girl growing up in rural Germany during World War Two, has managed to escape the horrors of city bombing. Unafraid of the realities of life and death, Luisa supports her family until, one day, an incident changes her life forever.
The Librarian of Auschwitz
by Antonio Iturbe
Based on a true story, The Librarian of Auschwitz is about fourteen-year-old Dita. Keeping the libraries’ eight books safe, Dita knows she is putting herself in danger. But she also knows it can help her and her fellow prisoners maintain hope during the darkest of times.
Pippo and Clara
by Diana Rosie
Pippo and Clara are brother and sister. When their mother goes missing one morning, they both go in search of her regardless of the danger of the war. With Clara turning right and Pippo left, the children’s lives are changed forever.
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
This classic war novel of the First World War is written in the first person by a young German soldier. Paul Bauer is just eighteen and he enters the army with six school friends, each filled with optimistic thoughts. However, they witness such horrors and such severe hardship and suffering that they are unable to even speak about it to anyone but each other.
1. What did Luisa and Clara have in common?| A．They are brave and sensitive. |
| B．Their lives are changed by the war. |
| C．They suffer much during World War Two. |
| D．They are separated from their family members. |
| A．It is adapted from a real event. | B．It is written for children to read. |
| C．Its main character is a young girl. | D．It is a novel with a perfect ending. |
| A．Ralf Rothmann. | B．Antonio Iturbe. | C．Diana Rosie. | D．Erich Maria Remarque. |
1. Why does Barry go to The Parent Agency?
| A．To get his dream parents. | B．To meet with his lost parents. | C．To draw his parents’ attention. |
| A．Extra homework. | B．Five birthday parties. | C．A special bedroom. |
| A．Very imaginative. | B．Quite difficult. | C．Too serious. |
| A．New parents. | B．Children. | C．School teachers. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
I enjoy learning English but can remember individual words easy. However, when it comes to reading comprehension, it’s really the challenge. Last weekend, I tried to read a storybook write in English to improve my reading. At first, I refer to the dictionary every time I came across a new word, which I found it not very helpful. I often felt puzzling about what I had read. Then I tried to finish a chapter completely with looking up the new words. What surprised me was I could understand the story merely from the context. I hope I will make great progresses in English in this way.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Last week, one of my favorite day arrived — the Library’s Book Sale Day. When my mom and I waited in line, the workers chatted in the front of us. They said it was ten but the last book sale, because the people who ran them would retire. Hear their words, we were very sad. Then, an idea occurred me that we could volunteer to run the book sale but my mom agreed. Final, we made an application to the library officer. To our delight, we get the chance. It’s exciting for us to be able to run the book sale in person.
1.描述发现好书的方式；
2.简单评论；
3.你的情况。
How do you usually discover the books you read?
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Discovering Good Books
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. 各年级学生课外阅读状况描述；
2. 分析原因(未认识到阅读的重要性，作业多等等)；
3. 你的建议。
注意:
1. 词数100词左右；
2, 文章标题及开头已给出, 不计入总词数。
It’s time to treat after-class reading seriously!
Before the World Book Day, the Students’ Union did a survey about the time which student spent on after-class reading per week.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1.目的;
2.时间和地点;
3.具体安排。
注意：
1.词数100左右;
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Notice
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Student Union
April 18, 2023
8 . Sejal Mehta’s Top 4 Reads
Sejal Mehta, a journalist and editor, has been making the recommended books accessible for her audiences.
A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson
Bryson reminds us how vital humour is in non-fiction in this travelogue that takes us through the author’s insightful, educational and consistently funny journey along the Appalachian Trail. Sequences where he reflects on the possibilities of being attacked by bears are laugh-out-loud funny, followed by moments of deep insight about an unfamiliar ecosystem that he ends up feeling a deep closeness with.
Ghachar Ghochar Vivek Shanbhag
Originally written in Kannada, and translated masterfully by Srinath Perur, this story expertly weaves together family life, the ups and downs of wealth, class anxiety and social ambition. The title loosely means something ‘tangled (纠缠) beyond repair’, a nonsense phrase the narrator learns from his wife.
The Extreme Life of The Sea Anthony R. and Stephen Palumbi
A glorious example of science communication about creatures of the deep, the authors take us on a deep dive with beautiful sentences: “The dark unnerves us. Whether it’s in the space below the stairs or beyond the campfire’s edge, people are nervous about surprises that hide unseen. The deepest reaches of the sea are really similar to life on another planet…Crushing pressures, deep cold and everlasting darkness rule the world’s basement.”
On Writing: A Memoir (回忆录) of the Craft Stephen King
While King is known for his horror stories, there are parts of this book-part life navigation and part writing masterclass-that I return to when I find myself stuck, or unable to find my words. These lines and the paragraph that precedes it always hit home: “The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising.”
1. What do A Walk in the Woods and The Extreme Life of The Sea focus on?| A．Science. | B．Humour. | C．Nature. | D．Reflection. |
| A．Srinath Perur. | B．Vivek Shanbhag. | C．Stephen King. | D．Sejal Mehta. |
| A．To instruct. | B．To entertain. | C．To persuade. | D．To advertise. |
9 . From cottages surrounded by impressive gardens to days spent exploring sandy beaches and deep woods filled with wildlife, in My Family and Other Animals, English writer Gerald Durrell provided a vivid account of his family’s time on the Greek island of Corfu in the 1930s.
Come for the arresting descriptions of Corfu landscapes and stay for Durrell’s laugh-out-loud tales of his unusual family. This book, Durrell wrote humorously in the introduction, “was intended to be a nostalgic(怀旧的)account of natural history, but in the first few pages, I made the mistake of introducing my family.”
Durrell, later known for his zoo keeping and the preservation of wildlife, was just a child during his family’s five-year stay in Corfu. He is 10-year-old Gerry in the book—curious, passionate about animals and a detailed storyteller of his strange family: his imaginative elder brother Larry with his literary ambitions, lovestruck sister Margo, sporty brother Leslie and his ever-calm, loving mother.
Durrell’s attention to detail is what makes the book so winning, with every sight, sound and smell of the island brought to life. One minute you’ll be laughing as Larry’s clever literary friends walk down to the daffodil-yellow cottage, the next you’ll be catching your breath as Durrell describes swimming at night in the Ionian Sea: “Lying on my back in the silky water, staring at the sky, only moving my hands and feet slightly, I was looking at the Milky Way stretching like a silk scarf across the sky and wondering how many stars it contained.”
My Family and Other Animals is quite difficult to classify, being one part travel, one part autobiography, one part natural history, and one part comedy, with a thread of descriptive language running throughout that sometimes raises it nearly to poetry.
As a real delight to read, it’s the perfect literary escapism for any adult or older teenager who is currently walking down a tough road in life.
1. Which word best describes Durrell’s life in Corfu?| A．Diverse. | B．Busy. | C．Risky. | D．Tough. |
| A．I just introduced my family by mistake. | B．I shouldn’t have introduced my family. |
| C．I gave false information about my family. | D．I couldn’t help introducing my family. |
| A．Durrell’s rich imagination. | B．Some interesting plots of the book. |
| C．The book’s writing feature. | D．Some vivid descriptions of the island. |
| A．To share an experience. | B．To introduce a writing style. |
| C．To recommend a book. | D．To describe an unusual place. |
10 . Booklist is a book-review magazine that has been published by the American Library Association for more than 100 years and is widely viewed as offering the most reliable reviews to help libraries decide what to buy and to help library patrons and students decide what to read, view, or listen to.
All the Lonely People. By Mike Gayle. 2021. Grand Central.
Eighty-two-year-old Hubert Bird is a Jamaican immigrant who has called Great Britain home for almost 60 years. To save his daughter from worry, he has created a fictional social life, but when she schedules a visit, he must rustle up some actual friends in this heartwarming story.
Last Chance Texaco. By Rickie Lee Jones. 2021. Grove.
Grammy-winning Rickie Lee Jones explains that her life has not been as polished as her music as she describes her rootless childhood as the granddaughter of vaudeville performers, struggles as a teenage runaway, battles with drugs, and devotion to creativity.
One Italian Summer. By Rebecca Serle. Read by Laurer Graham. 2022. 6.5 hr. Simon & Schuster Audio.
Graham’s pleasant voice immediately draws listeners into this time-travel novel in which a sorrowful daughter meet her recently late mother, in Italy, as she was many years ago.
A Retrospective. By Charles White. Ed. by Sarah Kelly Oehler and Esther Adler. 2018. Yale.
Charles White (1918-79), was fascinated by the illustrated books he read as a child at the Chicago Public Library and quickly demonstrated his own phenomenal artistic talent, ultimately creating unique and arresting portraits, monumental and masterful drawings that profoundly engage with Black history and the realities of African American life.
1. Who has got an award?| A．Mike Gayle. | B．Rickie Lee Jones. |
| C．Rebecca Serle. | D．Charles White. |
| A．A travel guide. | B．A war story. |
| C．An audio book. | D．An immigrant story. |
| A．All the Lonely People. | B．Last Chance Texaco. |
| C．One Italian Summer. | D．A Retrospective. |
