1 . Here’re some great books that readers might enjoy this season.
Atana and the Firebird
It was written by Vivian Zhou. Atana is a mermaid (美人鱼) who lives alone on an island. One night,she meets a curious firebird named Ren. They go out to other islands. This attracts the attention of the Witch Queen, who invites them to her palace. But is the Witch Queen the protector she seems to be?
Balto and Togo
The book by Helen Moss connects history with imagination. It is an amazing piece of art. The story is set in Nome,a small community in Alaska. A serious disease breaks out, and it’s up to Balto and Togo, along with the rest of the dogsledding (狗拉雪橇) team, to deliver the life-saving medicine. Will they make it in time?
Gossamer
In her novel Gossamer, Lois Lowry explores how dreams come to be. The book follows several storylines involving tiny dream-giving creatures and the humans. Littlest One is a new dream-giver. From her teacher Thin Elderly, she learns how to collect pieces of memories and turn them into dreams. These are given to an elderly woman, a troubled boy, and a young mother. A new edition of this beloved book is coming out in January.
A Young Adventurer’s Workbook
It’s an interactive book by Sarra Scherb. By making a series of choices,readers shape their own story,creating a title for their adventure, drawing their character, and deciding who the villain (反派) will be. It’s all part of the fun. If you enjoy action, fantasy, and role-playing games, you’ll surely love this book!
1. What do we know about Balto and Togo?| A．It’ll be published in January. | B．It reflects a true event. |
| C．It was written by Vivian Zhou. | D．It describes Helen Moss’ bravery. |
| A．A famous publisher. | B．An author of a book. |
| C．A novel’s character. | D．Lois Lowry’s teacher. |
| A．A Young Adventurer’s Workbook. | B．Atana and the Firebird. |
| C．Balto and Togo. | D．Gossamer. |
2 . Although it was a rainy day, that didn’t stop book fans from heading to Beijing’s Ditan Park (the Temple of Earth) for the first day of the famous Beijing Book Fair.
This year marked the return of the fair in Ditan Park after a 10-year hiatus (中断). Despite its fame, the book fair and others of its kind have faced an uncertain future. In 2011, the Beijing Book Fair at Ditan Park, which had been running for 21 years at that time, was reported to “struggle to survive” due to the rise of e-books, online book purchasing and pirated (盗版的) book copies.
But this year’s book fair, which was a sideline event of the 2023 Beijing Culture Forum, seemed full of vitality (活力), aiming to enhance the city’s reputation as the nation’s cultural center. Running under the name “The Temple of Earth and Me”, the book fair brought together a record 400,000 books from 208 exhibitors. It featured eight distinctive exhibition zones, including one on Beijing culture and another containing over 5,000 kinds of foreign language works.
One keen attendee was Rosanna Ho from Canada. She’s a big fan of books and book fairs. “It was very packed, and I think you needed at least an hour just to walk around and see everything,” she said. But luckily, with the free entry ticket, attendees were offered help with the routes from volunteers to know where all the different areas were.
Book readings by famous writers, unique cultural products, children’s toys, and old books — the fair had something for everyone. That was particularly appealing. It seemed very popular with families and children, with the theme of this year related to the life attitude and personal pursuits of young people.
“It was super cool seeing how many people showed up and how popular purchasing physical books is in this digital age,” said Ho.
1. Why did the Beijing Book Fair at DitanPark stop running a decade ago?| A．Limitations from some policies. | B．Competition from digital content. |
| C．A lack of interest from publishers. | D．Not enough funding to support the event. |
| A．To promote Beijing’s local culture. |
| B．To attract more visitors to Ditan Park. |
| C．To raise people’s interest in physical books. |
| D．To strengthen Beijing’s status as a cultural center. |
| A．By applying free ticket entry online. | B．By seeking guidance from volunteers. |
| C．By working around for at least an hour. | D．By consulting a map in the mobile phone. |
| A．It was primarily targeted at kids. |
| B．It was crowded and poorly organized |
| C．It provided a wide range of book choices. |
| D．It combined book readings with digital devices. |
(1)书目名称；
(2)内容简介；
(3)推荐理由。
注意：1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jason,
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Yours sincerely
Li Hua
4 . Book Week Scotland 2023
Book Week Scotland, launched in 2012 by the Scottish Book Trust, is a yearly event that brings people of all ages and backgrounds together to celebrate the joy of reading. It lasts for a week and includes various events that highlight the transformative power of reading. This year, it will be held from November 15 to 19, themed with the social work profession.
Events
| Social Work Past, Present& Future | Monday 15th November 16:00~17:00 Join us to look at how social work has changed overtime. Hosted by Sarah McMillan, this session will link to a discussion and reflection on social work over the past years. |
| Poetry Helps Workshop | Thursday 16th November 16:00~17:50 It’ll be led by Dr Samuel Tongue, a widely published poet. In this relaxed workshop, we shall first read some poems about social issues and then work through a few simple exercises to produce poems of our own. |
| Poetry for Practice Workshop | Saturday 18th November 10:00~14:00 In this workshop, Dr Ariane Critchley and Dr Autumn Marsh will work with practitioners to explore poetry to enhance reflection and creativity within social work practice. There will be an opportunity to read poems, share poems and even write poems, both online and offline. |
| A．It is targeted at professional writers. | B．It is a yearly celebration of reading. |
| C．It has a history of less than a decade. | D．It promotes books about social work. |
| A．The historical development of social work. |
| B．Sarah McMillan’s career as a social worker. |
| C．Stories of Scottish People in the social changes. |
| D．The connection between books and social work. |
| A．They are led by well-known poets. | B．They will be broadcast live online. |
| C．They encourage poets to share poems. | D．They involve reading and writing poems. |
| A．Travel books. | B．Sports books. | C．History books. |
6 . 2002 it was, and I, a young girl who set out with the idea of getting my own library card, was permitted by my mother, Nichelle Nichols, to walk the mile from Prince George to the library in nearby Port Perry.
Down the street from Port Perry High was the library—a dark-brown brick building, imposing to a child of only seven years old.
To the left of the sidewalk was a series of steps that I climbed to push through a heavy door into a very large room filled with books. To an older lady I said, “I’d like a library card, please.”
She replied, “The children’s section is downstairs.”
“But I want adult books, because I can read.”
“Well, you are a child. You can’t get a card up here.”
“I’m six and I can read and write.”
“Go along child,” she said in a pleasant but authoritative voice.
I found the side door and walked in, seeing short and low shelves full of children’s books. Upon opening one, I read, “See Spot run. Run Spot. Run.” I opened another book. It read, “Once upon a time there was.” Sighing quietly, I walked out and back up to the main desk. By now, it was getting dark and I had to hurry.
“You’re back.” said the librarian.
“Yes. I will make you a deal. You hand me any book you like. If I can read a paragraph in it, you’ll give me a library card.” Shrugging (耸肩) happily, she handed me a thick book, I opened it and began to read. When I finished, the lady took the book back without a word.
I waited for a while and finally the lady stood up, handing me two cards. On one was printed the days and times the library was open to adults, and on the other were the precious words, Bonita Sue Nichols. I thanked her and quickly left the library.
1. What was the librarian’s response to the author’s request at first?| A．She made fun of it. | B．She turned it down. |
| C．She took it seriously. | D．She considered it reasonable. |
| A．Childish. | B．Outdated. | C．Short. | D．Strange. |
| A．She took pity on the author. |
| B．She was eager to get off work. |
| C．She found the author a good reader. |
| D．She was moved by the author’s courage. |
| A．Courage is a solution. | B．Age is a restriction. |
| C．Optimism leads to success. | D．Ability opens a door. |
7 . Not long ago, Linda Khan was sitting by a hospital bed in Houston, feeling ill at ease. Beside her lay her 88-year-old father, who needed surgery.
What troubled her almost as much as his health was the fact that all day the two of them had engaged in nothing but depressing small talk. She and her father had always had good conversations, but now his once wide-ranging interests seemed to have shrunk to the size of the room. He talked about the terrible hospital food, the tests, the doctors, the diagnosis, the potential outcomes. “It is really hard to sit with a person in a hospital,” Khan says. “It feels like there’s nothing to talk about except their medical situation.”
That day in the hospital, her eye fell on a pile of books that people had brought as gifts. Her father had always been a reader, but lately he didn’t have the energy or focus. She picked up Young Titan, Michael Shelden’s biography of Winston Churchill, and started to read it out loud. “Right away it changed the mood and atmosphere,” she says. That afternoon, Khan read to her father for an hour. It was a relief and a pleasure for both of them. Reading gave the daughter a way to connect with her father and help him in a situation that was otherwise out of her hands. Listening allowed the father to travel on the sound of his daughter’s voice, and back into the realm of mature, intellectual engagement, where he felt himself again.
“He’s in and out of the hospital a lot now,” Khan says, “and I always read to him. ”That may be just what the doctor ordered. In a 2010 survey in the United Kingdom, elderly adults who joined weekly read-aloud groups reported better concentration, less anxiety, and an improved ability to socialize. The survey authors believed these improvements were in large part due to the “rich, varied, nonprescriptive diet of serious literature” that group members consumed, with fiction encouraging feelings of relaxation and calm, poetry promoting focused concentration, and narratives of all sorts giving rise to thoughts, feelings, and memories.
1. What do we know about Khan’s father from paragraph 2?| A．He stuck to a wide range of interests. | B．He had no small talk with Khan. |
| C．His mood suffered quite a lot. | D．All his hope was lost. |
| A．Khan got inspiration from Young Titan. |
| B．Khan had specially prepared Young Titan for her father. |
| C．Reading was a win-win way for Khan and her father. |
| D．Khan’s father had had no interest in reading. |
| A．the tolerance of loneliness. | B．the capability of socializing. |
| C．the relieving of anxiety. | D．the promoting of concentration. |
| A．All kinds of literature worked equally. | B．A specific kind of literature worked better. |
| C．It was the amount of reading that counted. | D．It was the variety of reading that counted. |
8 . When I first met Miss Harold, she was the school librarian at Lakeview Elementary, and I was a timid (胆怯的) fourth grader. I was desperately trying to go unnoticed, because I had some big
Miss Harold took me under her wing and helped make it okay for me to be a(n)
She
Looking back on it now, there’s no
| A．plans | B．dreams | C．advantages | D．shortcomings |
| A．notice | B．understand | C．hide | D．find |
| A．clever | B．messy | C．noisy | D．outgoing |
| A．pulled | B．gave | C．put | D．let |
| A．asking | B．answering | C．avoiding | D．sharing |
| A．sold | B．bought | C．found | D．wrote |
| A．challenging | B．confusing | C．expensive | D．understandable |
| A．decision | B．time | C．note | D．list |
| A．anxiously | B．gradually | C．generally | D．patiently |
| A．arguments | B．activities | C．interviews | D．conversations |
| A．question | B．evidence | C．use | D．way |
| A．lose | B．show | C．share | D．excite |
| A．satisfied | B．grateful | C．regretful | D．surprised |
| A．hopes | B．problems | C．strengths | D．hobbies |
| A．giving | B．shaping | C．saving | D．knowing |
Nowadays, a lot of young people seem to spend much of their free time either watching television or playing computer games. Certainly, these things are entertaining, but they don’t contribute much to developing their brains. Many believe that reading books, and especially fiction, is a much more effective way of achieving this. The most obvious benefit we get from reading a good story is a growing vocabulary. We come across new words in reading and try to understand these words through context. Gradually, we become more confident with complex words. In addition, we improve in other areas such as speaking and writing just by reading regularly.
It has also been established that reading fiction is a good way of developing a good self-image. Non-readers or poor readers often have low opinions of themselves. Besides, they may perform poorly in other subjects because they cannot read and understand the material.
Most importantly, however, reading fiction helps us to develop our brains. The human brain can work well when we just do regular things, like driving or walking. However, learning expert Dr. Brian E. Walsh suggested that it can perform more effectively when an element of surprise is added, because this helps to build connections in the brain. In this respect, the positive effects of reading may be much stronger than previously thought.
Recent research has shown that the brain reacts more strongly to unpredictable than to predictable things. This may explain why people enjoy reading fiction, which generally contains lots of unpredictable things. Reading fiction enables us to experience fresh scenarios(情节) and identify with the people we are reading about. When we mentally create the scenes, the look of the characters, the smells, and the sounds in the book, we are exercising our brain. The brain is challenged. This is a positive thing because it will continue to grow and develop if properly stimulated. The more it is used, the better it becomes.
1. How does reading help us improve vocabulary?2. What are the problems for people who seldom read according to the passage?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
> Reading fiction has more positive effects on our brain since fiction shows more predictable things in our daily life.
4. Apart from what are mentioned in the passage, what other benefit(s) have you gained from reading fiction?
My name is Clare, welcome to University College London Library. When you join the university you are given an ID card which also counts as your library card. So when you find the book you want to borrow you get your ID card, go to the reception desk and you give them the card and the book. They scan the book, put it onto your library record, the computer reads the bar code (条形码) — then you can borrow it.
To borrow a book, you need to come to the catalogue hall and get the computer screen. For example, we’re going for “book title”— if you click under “type word or phrase”— so we put in “Oliver Twist”, then click on “go” and it comes up with all the titles with Oliver Twist. So we’ll go with this one say the 1949 edition. It’ll tell you which library it’ll be in and how many copies are available, so we’ll then go and find the book.
The main problems that students have with using the library card are things like when the books haven’t been borrowed but cannot be found on the shelf. It’s likely that they’re often being used by someone in the library, so they are not on the shelf.
My advice when using the library card would be: ask others for help, either the librarians or other students. They’re more than delighted to help. So next time, don’t hesitate to ask, because we are here to help. Another good way is to come to a library tour. Most libraries will hold tours for new students within the first two weeks or so of term —make sure you come on one of the tours and they will show you where everything is and how it all works.
1. What is Clare’s job? (no more than 10 words)2. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about? (no more than 10 words)
3. Where is it if a book that is not borrowed but cannot be found on the shelf? (no more than 10 words)
4. What is the meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4? (no more than 10 words)
5. What do you think of your school library? Why? (no more than 20 words)
