1 . Jules Verne was a Frenchman who was born in 1828 and died in 1905. He read a great many scientific books and wrote a number of exciting books about the things which he thought that scientists and inventors would one day be able to do. Years later, many of the things really happened. At that time, however, his stories seemed like fairy tales.
Jules Verne’s most famous book is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.（A league is an old word meaning a distance of about three miles《海底二万里》）. In those days submarines（潜艇） had not been invented but he described an underwater ship very like a modern one.
Many of the things Jules wrote about in his books more than a hundred years ago to look into the future, however, were almost the same as we see today. In his book From the Earth to the Moon he wrote at the age of about forty, three men and a dog made a journey around the moon in a hollow ship fired from a gun. After going around the moon, they returned to the earth and splashed down into the sea not far from where the first real moon traveler landed in July, 1969.
1. Jules wrote a lot of exciting books partly because he ________.| A．liked reading on science | B．liked reading fairy tales |
| C．was a great inventor | D．was a famous scientist |
| A．is almost the same as what happened years later |
| B．is quite different from what happened years later |
| C．never comes true |
| D．seems impossible to the people today |
| A．as soon as Jules’ books were published |
| B．some years after his books were published |
| C．at that time |
| D．when Jules was in his forties |
| A．as large as the spaceship today |
| B．similar to the spaceship today |
| C．a gun used to send up a ship |
| D．an underwater ship |
| A．walked | B．slept | C．fell | D．spent |
2 . Not all brilliant reads are behind the paywall, some classics are much more accessible—click and download.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride and Prejudice is a really, really good book. A little bit rigid, a little bit repressed, a little bit tender, and painfully class conscious, it’s the full English romance package. Now more than 200 years old, the novel has been retold time and again, finding new audiences each time. Still, there’s no substitute for the original.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
From the Cheshire Cat to Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Alice’s adventures are as strange and wonderful today as they were 150 years ago. Complete with Arthur Rackham’s wonderful illustrations there’s still nothing quite like it. Everyone should go down the rabbit hole at least once.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Perhaps no book does a better job of condensing Charles Dickens’ brilliance than his 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities. Taking place in London and Paris against the background of the French Revolution, the story has inspired countless projects since—even Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. And the best thing? If you like it, all Dickens’ other books are ready and waiting to be read too.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Although Mary Shelley’s central message of people being destroyed by the monsters they create has been largely ignored in the years since publication, the tale itself continues to be very popular indeed, and with good reason. The book’s masterful combination of horror, romanticism, and science fiction makes it as attractive today as it would have been in 1818. Just the thing for nighttime reading.
1. What can you read about in Pride and Prejudice?| A．Cute animals. | B．French Revolution. |
| C．Scientific discoveries. | D．Class consciousness |
| A．Frankenstein. |
| B．A Tale of Two Cities. |
| C．Pride and Prejudice. |
| D．Alice's Adventures in Wonderland |
| A．They are romantic novels. |
| B．They can be read for free. |
| C．They were created in the early 1900s. |
| D．They were ignored when first published. |
1. What is the man’s new book based on?
| A．His daily life in South Africa. |
| B．A news reporter’s experiences. |
| C．Some big events in South Africa. |
| A．To share his volunteer experience. |
| B．To tell people about South Africa. |
| C．To show his plan after graduation. |
4 . “A novel, like a letter should be loose, cover much ground, run swiftly, take risk of morality and decay,” Saul Bellow once wrote. Like many novelists, in his spare time the author of The Adventures of Augie March was also an enthusiastic letter writer.
A selection of Bellow’s huge correspondence, reproduced in a recent issue of the New Yorker, provides a fascinating insight into the writer’s character. Witty, often brief and almost always entertaining, Bellow’s letters are a reminder of why writers’ letters often prove so popular with readers. At their best, literary letters have something for everyone: general readers get a glimpse of how authors write when freed from the expectation to produce a work of conventional literary worth, and scholars get enough scholarly writings.
All this is well and good—except for one small problem: nobody writes letters anymore, at least not the kind of intellectual, humorous letters that distinguish great correspondence. As we are so often told, we live in the digital age. Like the rest of us, authors now largely correspond with their agents, friends, and occasionally, fans through email, not “snail mail”.
As literary vehicles, emails are severely lacking. Digital messages tend to alternate between the deathly dull and formal and the casually daring complete with BTW, LOLs and unclear text—speak with little middle ground. Letters can be revealing, friendly, humorous; emails, even at their best, tend to exhibit only one of these characteristics of good writing.
Future literary archivists (档案管理员) will need to be digital experts, hacking through hard drives and email accounts, mobile phones, in their attempts to fully document the lives and thoughts of their subjects. But who among us has all their email correspondence from the past five years, let alone a lifetime? Hardware is disposed (废弃) of and forgotten about; mobile phones are replaced every few years. The idea that we can construct a complete record of a writer has always been unrealistic, but technological advances have made it physically impossible, too. With so much material digitalized, and often wiped, writers will no longer leave behind boxes suffered with letters, ripe for investigation and possible publication.
Back in 1898, the New York Times named the long-dead Lord Byron the greatest letter writer in the English language, celebrating his letters’ humor, the force and spirit of their substance, the grace and purity of their style. Saul Bellow’s letters might not be remembered quite so fondly 70 years from now, but chances are that, by then, the entire genre of collected writers’ letters will have disappeared completely—leaving readers significantly poorer for their loss.
1. Authors’ letters are often popular with readers probably because ______.| A．well-known magazines like New Yorker choose to publish them |
| B．authors write them with a specific audience in mind |
| C．not only are they scholarly, but they are also funny |
| D．readers can gain an insight into how the classics are created |
| A．email exhibits characteristics of good writing |
| B．email reaches its receivers much faster |
| C．email is full of variation alternating between “formal” and “casual” |
| D．email conveys clear messages with little ambiguous middle ground |
| A．To illustrate that technological advances can contribute to greater literary loss. |
| B．To arouse readers’ interest in how digital property will be treated in the future. |
| C．To point out that it is impossible to document the life experience of a writer. |
| D．To warn that there will be no writers’ letters left for research. |
| A．Exploring Literature through Letters. | B．Well-Written “Letters”: Saul Bellow Shows Us How |
| C．The Dying Art of Letter Writing | D．The Power of a Letter in the Digital Age |
5 .
| Lord of the Flies An airplane evacuating schoolboys from Britain during World War II is shot down over a remote tropical area. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy find the other surviving boys and begin to organize the group. As time passes, rivalries are formed, rules are broken and civilized behavior has turned savage. Lord of the Flies is a classic study on human nature, adolescence, and competition by William Golding. |
| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer’s best friend, stakes out his own adventure in this classic coming-of-age tale. Tired of trying to be good and fearful of his drunken father, Huck Finn runs away and takes Jim, a man who has escaped enslavement, with him. Together they sail down the Mississippi River on a raft and experience dangerous as well as comical adventures along the way. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an enduring classic. |
 | A Separate Peace A friendship forms between two boys attending a New England boarding school during World War IL. Gene, smart and socially awkward, draws the attention of Phineas, a handsome, athletic and outgoing boy. The two become friends, but war and rivalry lead to a tragic accident. John Knowles is the author of A Separate Peace, a classic story about friendship and adolescence. |
 | Of Mice and Men Best friends Lennie and George travel from farm to farm in California looking for work while trying to avoid trouble. Although both men are good workers and have dreams of owning their own farm, they never stay at one job long because of Lennie. Lennie is a simple-minded gentle giant who doesn’t know his own strength and often gets into trouble. When tragedy strike, George must make am awful decision that will alter the plans he and Lennie have made for their future. Of Mice and Men is a classic John Steinbeck story about migrant workers and the downtrodden surviving the Great Depression. |
| A．Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies |
| B．Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace |
| C．The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Lord of the Flies |
| D．A Separate Peace and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| A．George’s tendency to get into trouble. | B．Lennie’s dependence on George. |
| C．Lennie’s inability to manage his own strength. | D．George’s identity as a migrant worker. |
| A．Lord of the Flies | B．A Separate Peace |
| C．Of Mice and Men | D．The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
6 . Pick up something you can’t put down
The Unequal Twins
Sylva Kanderal
www.xlibris.com
Hardback I Paperback I E-book
$28.99 I $16.99 II $3.99
What if the twins Ava and Zoe, who could hardly be distinguished from each other visually and who could not have been more different in character, had to go through a hell of envy, jealousy, and malice?
Where does that trail lead to? To a total loss of their connection, or are they finding the lost path to each other again?
Quotes from the Quiver
Dante P. Galiber, MD, FACC
www. authorhouse. com
Hardback I Paperback I E-book
$43.99 I $22.99 I $3.99
Inspired by time, space, and human interaction, this collection offers a series of original and thought-provoking ideas and quotations designed to uplift and enlighten.
Johnny Catching Fire
Aaron Allen
www. xlibris.com
Hardback I Paperback I E-book
$22.99 I $16.99 I $3.99
God gave Johnny the strength of Samson. Now, he must decide whether to use his power for good or to get even with those who bullied him.
Ting Ting, the Girl Who Saved China
Ryan O’connor
www. xlibris. com
Hardback I Paperback I E-book
$22.99 I $16.99 I $3.99
Ting Ting, the Girl Who Saved China provides insight into China’s biggest holiday, gives a sense of its culture, and shows that girls are just as strong and brave as boys are.
How to Help Yourself to Be Who You Want to Be
A Simple Guide for Those Who Are Ready to Take Charge and Redirect Their Lives
Pam Grewall
www. iuniverse. com
Hardback I Paperback I E-book
$23.99 I $13.99 I $3.99
This self-improvement book offers a simple manual to help one recognize their strengths and weaknesses and to understand how to make their own destiny.
1. If you are a fairy tales lover, you would prefer the works of________.| A．Pam Grewall |
| B．Ryan O’connor |
| C．Dante P. Galiber, MD, FACC |
| D．Aaron Allen |
| A．Johnny Catching Fire |
| B．How to Help Yourself to Be Who You Want to Be |
| C．Ting Ting, the Girl Who Saved China |
| D．The Unequal Twins |
| A．One can buy 3 books in hardback with $60. |
| B．The Unequal Twins will impress the readers with the true love between the twins. |
| C．Quotes from the Quiver is intended to improve readers’ social interaction skills. |
| D．How to Help Yourself to Be Who You Want to Be will be a good choice for those who are at a loss in their lives. |
| A. Inspired B. respect C. series D. extraordinary E. facility F. particular G. journey H. expand I. Determined J. limitless K. require |
Life of Pi
Ang Lee’s “Life is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery.
The story begins in a small family zoo in Pondicherry, India, where the boy Piscine is raised. Piscine translates from French to English as “swimming pool”, but in India where many more speak English than French, his playmates of course nickname him “pee”.
The zoo goes broke, and Pi’s father puts his family and a few valuable animals on a ship bound for Canada. In a forceful
The heart of the film focuses on the sea
Pi and the tiger Richard Parker share the same possible places in and near the boat. Although this point is not specifically made, Pi’s ability to
During the course of 227 days, they come to a form of recognition. The tiger, in
8 . Gold Fame Citrus
by Claire Vaye Watkins（$ 5.99）
With the flight of its characters through a landscape destroyed by climate crisis, this novel does not indicate much hopefulness for the future. Within it is a series of situations and consequences made more severe in a future California short of water. Across the desert. we follow Watkins' characters through a place so transformed that it needs its own field guide of animals newly adapted for strange survival.
The Ministry for the Future
by Kim Stanley Robinson（$ 18.1）
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate will affect us all. Its setting is not a deserted world, but a future that is almost upon us. This extraordinary novel from the visionary science fiction writer will change the way you think about the climate crisis.
Breathing Fire
by Jaim Lowe（$ 27）
The front lines of the fight against climate change are peopled with those society has forgotten. Up to 30 percent of the firefighters battling wildfires in California each year are prisoners performing backbreaking labor while earning a 40th of what a civilian makes. This book follows six female prisoner firefighters and their worried families, looking into the human cost of environmental crisis.
Something Under the Sun
by Alexandra Kleeman（$ 28）
In Alexandra Kleeman's new novel, a novelist new to Los Angeles teams up with a former child actor to investigate a conspiracy（阴谋）. But this is L. A. , where wildfires burn all year long and the rich store water while the poor suffer from the consequence of climate crisis. Human weakness is pushing the city toward a disaster.
1. Which category does Breathing Fire fall into?| A．Science fiction. | B．Play. | C．Non-fiction. | D．Biography. |
| A．A novelist. | B．An actor. | C．A firefighter. | D．A minister. |
| A．They are on sale. | B．They show concern over climate. |
| C．They are intended for teenagers. | D．They are set in California. |
9 . Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a name that every lover of English literature will always remember and cherish. He is the pen father of the extraordinary detective Sherlock Holmes and a number of detective stories.
Arthur chose to go to medical field and become a surgeon from the University of Edinburgh, and this is the place where Arthur met a person who influenced him to become a writer. It was one of his teachers Dr. Joseph Bell who was master at observation, logic, detection and diagnosis. All these qualities were later found in the character of the celebrated detective Sherlock Holmes.
1888 was a significant year that rocketed Doyle to fame with his novel which was named as ‘A Study in Scarlet’ in which he introduced his two immortal characters—Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The story ‘The Sign of Four’ was instrumental in establishing Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle in literature.
The writer tried to open a practice in Paris but not a single patient came to him, which proved to be a blessing in disguise. It gave him a lot of time to think. And it was here that he met an illustrator named Sydney Paget who created the image of Sherlock Holmes which captured the minds of the readers and made the detective famous all over.
Doyle’s next creation was the delightfully violent Professor Challenger. ‘The Lost World’ which involved Professor Challenger was an immediate success.
Finally, because of his wife’s illness, Doyle decided to devote his life to his previous work rather than writing. This was the time when he decided to end the stories of Sherlock Holmes, which he did in ‘The Final Problem’.
The great Arthur Conan Doyle died at the age of 71 in 1930. He has left a legacy (遗产) to last us a lifetime and is still alive through his books and stories.
1. What was Conan Doyle’s job in his early years?| A．A writer. | B．A doctor. | C．A detective. | D．A professor. |
| A．By inspiring him to create Holmes. |
| B．By advising him to go to Paris. |
| C．By encouraging him to be a surgeon. |
| D．By teaching him the art of writing. |
| A．The Lost World. | B．The Sign of Four. | C．A Study in Scarlet. | D．The Final Problem. |
| A．Practice makes perfect. | B．Facts speak louder than words. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. | D．Behind bad luck comes good luck. |
10 . Children's fiction typically refers to any type of fictional work of writing that is written specifically for children.
Though some children's fiction is intended for children of all ages, many works are specifically written for younger or older children. Picture books, for example, are often written for very young children, including toddlers（学步的小孩）and those just beginning to develop language.
Children's fiction that is written for older children, on the other hand, may deal with more complex ideas that older children can understand.
| A．These books are often quite short in length. |
| B．They are typically meant as a bridge for children. |
| C．Kids aren5t the only ones reading children’s fiction. |
| D．There are many different types of children's fiction. |
| E．Books for young readers often deal with very interesting topics. |
| F．This allows such works to be more easily read aloud to young children. |
| G．These works may also repeat words, but often have a larger vocabulary. |
