1 . 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. |
1. What does it mean to “hit the books”?
| A．To study. | B．To read a novel. | C．To close one’s books. |
| A．Friday. | B．Saturday. | C．Sunday. |
3 . 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. |
1. 作品名称；
2. 阅读经历；
3. 对你的影响。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Classics and Me
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . 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. |
1. 讲座的时间地点； 2. 讲座的内容； 3. 收获与感想 。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Smith,
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Yours,
Li Hua
7 . 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. |
8 . Here are some of the best nonfiction books of recent years.
Somebody’s Daughter
$ 16 at Amazon
Ashley C. Ford talks about growing up as a black girl in Indiana, dealing with poverty, the complexities of adolescence, and a tense relationship with her mother. She often wished that she could express her feelings with her father, but failed for reasons she didn’t know. Until one day — after going through a heart-broken experience with a boy, which she kept from her family — her grandmother told her. And what she learned turned her entire world upside down.
Crazy Stories About Racism
$ 14 at Amazon
New York-based comedian Amber Ruffin, along with her sister Lacey Lamar, shares their everyday experiences about their bad conditions. It gets especially bad for Lacey who still lives in their home state of Nebraska, and is a start for these ridiculous but all-too-real encounters (遭遇).
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
$ 25 at Amazon
If you want to get in touch with your creative side, this book might just be the trick. As the title suggests, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a literary master class that takes readers into the mind of Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders. He discusses what makes great stories, how they work, and what they say about ourselves and today’s world.
All In
$ 21 at Amazon
Sports legend Billie Jean King writes a self-portrait that talks about the highs and lows of her amazing tennis career, her work in activism, and the ongoing fight for social justice and equality.
1. What is special about Somebody’s Daughter?| A．It tells a girl’s relationship with parents. | B．It tells a confused girl. |
| C．It tells a girl’s education. | D．It describes a girl’s secret. |
| A．The steps of writing a good story. | B．The secret of George Saunders’ success. |
| C．The situations of the present society. | D．Experiences of swimming in a pond. |
| A．All In. | B．Somebody’s Daughter. |
| C．A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. | D．Crazy Stories About Racism. |
9 . Technology seems to discourage slow, immersive reading. Reading on a screen tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. Online writing tends to be more skimmable and list-like than print. The cognitive neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this “new norm” of skim reading is producing “an invisible, game -changing transformation” in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit that sustains the brain’s capacity to read now favors the rapid absorption of information.
We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to bounce around the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gaps by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans. So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention spans lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”
And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly harvested as fodder (素材) to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, desperate to be heard.
Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a social good and source of personal achievement. But this advocacy often emphasizes “enthusiastic” “passionate” or “eager” reading, none of which adjectives suggest slow, quiet absorption. To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow comprehension of a line of thought.
The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly. formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.
1. Selvin Brown would probably agree that ________.| A．poetry reading is vital to attention spans |
| B．the gravity of cultural decline is urgent |
| C．fears of attention spans are unnecessary |
| D．online writing harms immersive reading |
| A．It demands writers to abandon traditional writing modes. |
| B．It leads to too much talking and not enough deep reflection. |
| C．It depends heavily on frequent interaction with the readers. |
| D．It paves the way for enthusiastic, passionate or eager reading. |
| A．Deep-rooted. |
| B．Fast-advanced. |
| C．Slowly-changed. |
| D．Rarely-noticed. |
| A．The Wonder of Deep Reading |
| B．Slow Reading is Here to Stay |
| C．The Internet is Changing the Way We Read |
| D．Digital vs Print: A Life-and-Death Struggle |
One important feature of classic literature is that it often
