1 . Best Short Story Collections Everyone Should Read
If you are looking for great storytelling but don’t want to choose a long novel, then short story collections are the answer. Here we have gathered four of the best short stories and collections, from all sorts of backgrounds, to meet your need.
Runaway by Alice Munro
This award-winning collection features eight stories by the Canadian author Alice Munro. She tells stories of women and their relationships—with strong themes of love, friendship, and motherhood, among others. The idea of running away is another theme found in these stories.
The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
Published in 1972, The Complete Stories actually won the National Book Award that same year. This collection includes 31 stories and they are told from the perspective of characters from the American South, as they deal with social issues like gender roles, and more.
The Refugees(难民)by Viet Thanh Nguyen
From Thanh Nguyen comes this Pulitzer Prize winning collection of seven short stories that are all about Vietnamese refugees who have moved to the US. However, instead of describing the difficulties of their trips, Nguyen focuses on the lives they’ve established in their new country. Each story shows a unique immigrant(移民的)experience as characters move between cultures and countries.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
This classic short story is about the journals of Charlie Gordon, a cleaner with an IQ of 68．Charlie’s luck changes when he is selected for an experiment that is intended to turn him into a genius. However, everything that goes up must come down in the end. Flowers for Algernon won the Hugo Award in 1960 for its creative presentation.
1. Whose collection should you choose if you are interested in the topic on friendship?| A．Alice Munro’s. | B．Flannery O’Connor’s. |
| C．Daniel Keyes’. | D．Viet Thanh Nguyen’s. |
| A．Its seven stories share the same characters. |
| B．It focuses on women and their relationships. |
| C．It is about the Vietnamese immigrants’ lives in the US. |
| D．It mainly describes the difficulties of Vietnamese refugees’ trips. |
| A．They are made up of eight stories. |
| B．They all have won certain awards. |
| C．They are told from an immigrant’s eye. |
| D．They show the worries of Canadian authors. |
2 . Thrillers and romance and mystery, oh my!
Scan the text first. Before you kick off the speed-reading adventure, give the text a quick scan.
Silence your inner subvocalizer. Subvocalizing is the act of silently saying words in your head as you read. It means you are taking the time to read each word and “hear” it in your head. Subvocalizing is a handy way to ensure you understand what you read, but it’s also a habit that can slow you down.
And remember: Becoming a speed reader is like learning to salsa dance. Start slow, find your rhythm, and soon you’ll be breezing through pages like a literary Zorro!
| A．Expand your vocabulary. |
| B．A larger vocabulary really counts. |
| C．Try to put your inner voice on vacation. |
| D．Reading outside your usual categories and topics helps. |
| E．There are almost too many great books to read in a lifetime. |
| F．Fast reading helps you complete your booklist more efficiently. |
| G．Look for titles, subtitles, and any visual cue that offers a roadmap. |
3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
The Zhongyong, “Doctrine of the Mean,
The concept of “the mean” is a core idea of Confucianism. The so-called “mean” by Confucius doesn’t mean “compromise (折中)”
4 . Browse through our selected books. Whether you are a parent looking for a special gift or a teenager wanting to find a perfect book, we have what you need.
The Woolly Monkey Mysteries: The Quest to Save a Rain Forest Species
By Sandra Markle. Ages 8 to 10.
Woolly Monkeys spend most of their time high up in 150-foot-tall trees. That makes them difficult animals to count and to study. But cameras have provided valuable information and taken, as this book shows, amazing pictures. Experts now believe that Peru’s lowland monkeys and the waste they produce are necessary to the survival of the rain forest.
Camp Panda: Helping Cubs Return to the Wild
By Catherine Thimmesh. Ages 10 to 12.
The giant panda is much-beloved in China, but in the past 40 years, at least half of its places have been destroyed. Camp Panda tells about efforts to reintroduce the giant pandas into the wild so that they might have a future. As part of the efforts, people wear panda costumes that smell like pandas while weighing and measuring the young pandas. They aren’t supposed to get used to seeing and being around people, because people could bring a threat to them in the wild.
Beyond Words: What Elephants and Whales Think and Feel
By Carl Safina. Ages 10 and older.
Carl Safina studied elephants in an African national park and killer whales off the coast of Washington state. He learned about their strong family bonds, the surprising ways they communicate and how they play and hang out with ome another. This book makes a strong case for protecting the ability of these animals to live freely.
Back from the Brink: Saving Animals from Extinction
By Nancy F. Castaldo. Ages 10 and older.
This book focuses on seven groups of animals—including whooping cranes, California condors and American alligators—that were brought back to healthy numbers by a lot of efforts. As she celebrates these successes, Nancy F. Castaldo also makes clear that dangers, such as the effects of climate change, still cloud the future of these creatures.
1. Which writer’s book talked about the most animal groups?| A．Carl Safina. | B．Nancy F. Castaldo |
| C．Catherine Thimmesh. | D．Sandra Markle. |
| A．The rights of animals. | B．The change of climate. |
| C．The protection of rain forests. | D．The protection of animals. |
| A．To introduce four books. | B．To get some writers known. |
| C．To describe some rare wild animals. | D．To appeal to children to love animals. |
5 . Those who are used to looking through thousands of books in big bookstores may find Japan’s Morioka Shoten a little strange. That’s because this tiny bookstore that is located in Ginza, Tokyo sells only a single book at a time.
Opened in May 2015, Morioka Shoten is the brainchild of Yoshiyuki Morioka. The experienced bookseller began his career as a bookstore clerk in Tokyo’s Kanda district before branching out to open his own store. It was here while organizing book readings that he realized that customers usually came into the store with one title in mind. Morioka began to wonder if a store could exist by selling many copies of just one single book. In November 2014, he partnered with his two friends, to establish a unique bookstore with the idea of “A Single Room, A Single Book.”
Like its offering, the bookstore is simple. The selections that are picked by Morioka change weekly and vary widely to attract customers with different interests. Recent choices include The True Deceiver, an award-winning Swedish novel by Tove Jansson, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, and a collection of artist Karl Blossfeldt’s photography of plants. Morioka has also chosen books written by famous Japanese authors Mimei Ogawa and Akito Akagi.
To highlight his only offering, Morioka often uses clever methods. For example，when selling a book about flowers, he decorated his shop with the ones that had been mentioned in the book. He also encourages authors to hold talks and discussions so they can connect with customers. Morioka says his goal is for the customers to experience being inside a book, not just a bookstore!
Risky as the idea might seem, things appear to be going well. Morioka says he has sold over 2,100 books since he opened it. Things can get better considering that his bookstore is becoming increasingly popular not just among the locals but also visitors from other countries.
1. What inspired Morioka to open such a bookstore?| A．A Swedish novel | B．His present partner |
| C．A bookstore clerk | D．His working experience |
| A．It is popular with foreigners . |
| B．It sells books of different topics. |
| C．It is decorated with colorful flowers. |
| D．It sells various copies of a book in a week. |
| A．To introduce his bookstore. |
| B．To advocate his philosophy. |
| C．To make books better understood. |
| D．To help readers connect with each other. |
| A．Risky | B．Optimistic |
| C．Unpredictable | D．Hopeless |
