C
Little Brother
By Cory Doctorow, 382 pages, $19.95
In the very near future, Marcus Yallow is walking with his friends in San Francisco when a 9/11-sized terrorist attack occurs blocks away. Everyone around is secretly taken away by the Department of Homeland Security to see whether they're terrorists. However, during the investigation, one of his friends dies mysteriously. The friends try to find out the truth. If you read only one science-fiction novel this year, make it this one.
The Flying Troutmans
By Miriam Toews, 274 pages, $32
The heart of the book is a road journey in Canada made by Hattie, Thebes and Logan to find Cherkis, the kids' dad. It's rich in dialogue, sometimes funny, sometimes surprisingly sad, always character-true. Toews is an extraordinarily gifted writer, with tough-minded compassion（同情） for her characters.
Reading By Lightning
By Joan Thomas, 388 pages, $22.95
We're in 1930s Canada, where Lily's father arrived three decades earlier to be promised fertile agricultural land. But they had been cheated and thrown in the middle of Manitoba. Now William Piper and his wife farm their land and place little hope in this life.
What They Wanted
By Donna Morrissey, 325 pages,$32
A father has a heart attack; a brother and a sister leave Newfoundland and go to Alberta, Canada to work; a tragedy brings reconciliation（和解）, but also terrible loss. Primarily a novel of character, it’s also a novel of Canada, of two very specific and vividly drawn places. Donna Morrissey's characters are troubled, sensitive, quick to be moved to anger or pain, and just as quick to laughter and affection.
63.If Jim only has 20 dollars, which book could he buy?
A. The Flying Troutmans B. What They Wanted
C. Little Brother D. Reading By Lightning
64.According to the text, we know that The Flying Troutmans is_____.
A. Full of dialogue B. A sad story C. About tourism D. A real story
65.In Reading By Lightning, why did William Piper arrive in Canada?
A. To carry out his promise. B. To work in a big city.
C. To get work experience. D. To seek his fortune.
66.If you want to know about two different places of Canada, whose novel is the best choice?
A. Cory Doctorow's B. Miriam Toews's
C. Joan Thomas's D. Donna Morrissey's
A motivational strategy that parents can employ with their kids, is to frame tasks and responsibilities in the context of what the end benefit is for them. I call this strategy WIIFM
(“What’s in it for me?”).
When a teen can combine an understanding of WIIFM with a sense of passion about achieving a goal, barriers will start to fall away. At our teen summer camps, we arrange an event near the end of the 10-day session that helps campers identify an important life goal and mentally break through their biggest barrier to achieving the goal.
We pass around 12-by-12-inch pine boards. We tell campers that this activity is not about breaking a piece of wood. It’s about how you can get what you want in your life. It’s about breaking barriers to grab on to your goals.
They have the power to break through any barrier. It has nothing to do with body size or physical condition. The skinniest, smallest teens will break through the board almost as easily as the big ones.
We talk to the campers about the reasons they might have had for not reaching their goals in the past. Maybe they got lazy and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Maybe they failed and let their fear of failure hold them back. But this exercise is about putting the past where it belongs. Today is about making new choices.
By this point in the program, we ask them to think of the goal they’ve set for themselves and write their goals on the boards. Then they write the possible obstacles which may hold them back on the opposite sides. An inch of pine now stands between them and their dreams.
The facilitators and their teammates gather around. The support is strong. One by one, they break through the barriers and grab their goals! All around us teens are laughing, crying, hugging, and holding up the broken pieces of their boards. The confidence shown on their faces is beautiful.
While arranging such an activity in one’s home is almost unrealistic for parents, the value of helping a teen break through a personal barrier simply by being there as moral support can not be overestimated. More help for parents in the form of videos and articles is available at our website, in our blogs and in a monthly e-newsletter.The 12-by-12-inch pine boards are used as _________________.
| A．materials to test one’s muscles |
| B．signs of goals in one’s life |
| C．assessments to show one’s progress |
| D．symbols of barriers in one’s life |
We can learn from the passage that through the event the campers _________.
| A．become hard-working | B．get moral support |
| C．gain confidence | D．set right goals |
Which is the best title for the passage?
| A．The Power of WIIFM | B．What’s in It for Me |
| C．The Importance of Goals | D．Motivational Strategies |
The passage is intended for _____________.
| A．teens | B．parents | C．campers | D．Tutors |
My house is made out of wood, glass and stone. It is also made out of software.
If you come to visit, you’ll probably be surprised when you come in. Someone will give you an electronic PIN （个人身份号码）to wear. This PIN tells the house who and where you are. The house uses this information to give you what you need. When it’s dark outside, the PIN turns on the lights nearest you, and then turns them off as you walk away from them. Music moves with you too. If the house knows your favorite music, it plays it. The music seems to be everywhere, but in fact other people in the house hear different music or no music. If you get a telephone call, only the nearest telephone rings.
Of course, you are also able to tell the house if you want something. There is a home control console (控制台), a small machine that turns things on and off around you.
The PIN and the console are new ideas, but they are in fact like many things we have today. If you want to go to a movie, you need a ticket. If I give you my car keys, you can use my car. The car works for you because you have the keys. My house works for you because you wear the PIN or hold the console.
I believe that ten years from now, most new homes will have the systems that I’ve put in my house. The systems will probably be even bigger and better than the ones I’ve put in today.
I like to try new ideas. I know that some of my ideas will work better than others. But I hope that one day I will stop thinking of these systems as new, and ask myself instead, “How will I live without them?”What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．How to develop a new system. | B．The function of the PIN. |
| C．A home for the future. | D．Easy life in the future. |
What’s the purpose when the writer wrote the fourth paragraph?
| A．To let readers know why his ideas are new. |
| B．To let readers know how special his house is. |
| C．To explain the importance of the PIN and the console. |
| D．To explain more easily what the functions of the PIN and the console are. |
What is the writer most likely to be according to the passage?
| A．An IT expert. | B．A famous doctor. |
| C．An idealist | D．An experienced teacher. |
As I was busy working on my work plan in my bedroom, I could hear my four children playing upstairs. Suddenly, I heard the children running down the stairs and shouting, “Freddie, Freddie.” I heard the word “window” and rushed outside, heart in mouth. My three-year old son Freddie was lying on his side on the ground. I cried for my husband Simon to dial 999 and within minutes the air ambulance arrived. They quickly took him in the helicopter. During the flight, Freddie was looking at me and I remember thinking was a good sign, but then his eyes began to roll. As the doctors tried to stabilize(稳定) him, I couldn’t believe what was happening.
When we arrived at the hospital in Portsmouth, there were some doctors and nurses waiting for us and they immediately set to work on Freddie. I was hopelessly wishing everything would be alright, but Freddie had broken his skull in two places and blood clots were forming in his brain. He needed surgery(外科手术), and only a surgeon at another hospital in Bristol could do it. This meant another helicopter ride, but we couldn’t go with Freddie because there was no enough space. Simon and I drove the long 130 miles from our home in north Devon in silence. Neither of us dared say what we were thinking, “What if we get there and he’s dead?” “Is he going to be brain-damaged?”
Freddie was just coming out of surgery when we arrived. The surgeon said it had gone well. When I finally saw him, I hardly recognize my child—he was covered in tubes and there were wires coming out of his head.
On the third day, Simon went home to see our three girls and to pick up some clean clothes for us. While he was gone, the pressure in Freddie’s brain suddenly increased. He was taken into theater again and this time I fell apart. Luckily, the surgery managed to stabilize Freddie. After almost a week, Freddie was finally woken up. When he opened his eyes, he looked at me. He didn’t say anything, but I knew straight away that it was my old Freddie, and that he was going to be alright. Over the next two weeks, his recovery went well. After help with learning to swallow again and encouragement with speaking, he was soon playing with his Gruffalo cards and eating meals by himself.
I still don’t know how the accident happened, but we got some idea from our girls. Clearly Freddie and Minnie had been sitting on the window ledge, and Freddie must have opened it to look out and fallen 20 feet onto the ground below.
The guilt I feel is awful— for weeks I was full of “ if onlys”, and we put window locks everywhere. Six months later, although the accident seems a lifetime ago, it has changed me. I feel differently about life now. I’ve left my job to put my children first. I want to spend every minute with them.The underlined sentence in paragraph 1 shows the author was ______________.
| A．hopeless | B．worried | C．curious | D．puzzled |
Why did the author’s son have to be moved to another hospital in Bristol?
| A．Because no surgeons were on duty in the first hospital that day. |
| B．Because the author wanted his son to stay in a hospital nearer her home. |
| C．Because no surgeons in the first hospital knew the injuries to the author’s son. |
| D．Because no surgeons in the first hospital could do surgery on the author’s son. |
When the author finally saw her son, she could hardly recognize him probably because his
face_____________.
| A．was seriously injured |
| B．was filled with small pipes |
| C．was too pale to be recognized |
| D．was covered by a piece of cloth |
On the third day after being taken to the hospital, _____________.
| A．the author’s son finally opened his eyes. |
| B．the situation of the author’s son suddenly worsened |
| C．the author’s son was finally out of danger |
| D．the author’s son did not need any more surgery |
After the accident, what did the author probably learn?
| A．Life is full of “if onlys”. |
| B．Being a single mother is not easy. |
| C．Children are more important than work. |
| D．Accidents can happen to every kid. |
A study shows that nearly ninety percent of teens report that they have tried alcohol. That’s an increase of 23 percent in just four years!
Each year, 1.1 billion cans of beer are drunk by students aged 15-19 years old. Beer is the most common alcoholic drink among teens—81 percent of the drinkers had tried it. Beer is followed by wine with 63 percent, hard liquor(烈酒) with 53 percent and wine coolers with 35 percent.
When the young people are asked why they drank, the most common answer is that drinking is “something to do”. If a teen’s parents drink alcohol, the teenager is more likely to start drinking at an early age. Also, tens see all of their friends drinking alcohol so they think it is the must-to-do thing. Peer pressure is probably the hardest thing teens have to deal with. What’s more, teens often drink alcohol because it makes them feel older and cooler.
Researchers asked 56,000 students about their drinking habits and grades, to see how drinking might affect their grades in school. The results seem to be clear. Students who got a C level or lower tend to use three times as much alcohol as those who got B’s or A’s.
Alcohol use can be deadly. About 8,100 young people are killed per year in alcohol-related accidents. Eight young people die per day as a result of a drunk-driving accident. Between 50 and 65 percent of all teen suicides (自杀) occur after the young people drink.
So you see, drinking the alcohol doesn’t always end up with a good time. The next time you try to push someone to drink or someone tries to push you to drink, please remember this. One drink can set the habit for life. Why not throw it away?The reasons for teens’ drinking alcohol are mentioned EXCEPT that _______________.
| A．they think it is cool to drink alcohol |
| B．their parents set a bad example to them |
| C．alcohol can make them happier |
| D．peer pressure plays an important role |
What can we learn from paragraph 4?
| A．Drinking alcohol makes students stupid. |
| B．Good students never try alcohol. |
| C．Drinking habits have something to do with IQ. |
| D．Students with poor grades tend to use more alcohol. |
The passage was written mainly to ______________________.
| A．show the bad effect of drinking alcohol |
| B．show how many teenagers drink alcohol |
| C．tell teenagers not to try alcohol |
| D．tell the reasons why teenagers drink alcohol. |
Growing up, I wanted to be just like my mom. She was kind. People always seemed to feel comfortable in her presence. For years, she was a volunteer in our community. I loved going to the local nursing home with her where she taught a ceramic class.
On one summer day, Mama told me to get changed and meet her at the car.
I had planned to spend the day at the lake with friends. Why did she have to ruin everything? I imagined the cool lake water. Irritated, I climbed into the car and slammed the door shut. We sat in silence. I was too upset to make conversation.
“Tasha, would you like to know where we are going?” Mama asked calmly.
“No,” I said.
“We are going to volunteer at a children’s shelter today. I have been there before and I think it would benefit you,” she explained.
When we reached the shelter, Mama rang the doorbell. Moments later, we were greeted by a woman. She led us to the front room where all of the children were playing. I noticed a baby whose body was scarred with iron marks. I was told it was because she wouldn’t stop crying. The majority of the children had noticeable physical scars. Others hid their emotional wounds.
As I took in my surroundings, I felt a gentle tug on my shirt. I looked down to see a little girl looking up at me. “Hi. You want to play dolls with me?” she asked. I looked over at Mama for reinforcement. She smiled and nodded. I turned back and said, “Sure.” Her tiny hand reached up and held mine, as if to comfort me.
My mom taught me a valuable lesson that summer. I returned to the shelter with her several times. During those visits, some of the children shared their troubled pasts with me and I learned to be grateful for what I had. Today as I strive to instill (逐渐灌输) these values in my own child, I reflect back to that experience. It was a time that I will never forget. The author admired her mom for ________.
| A．her kindness to others | B．her excellent teaching |
| C．her quality of honesty | D．her positive attitude to life |
According to Paragraph 3, when she was asked to go out with her mom, the author was ________.
| A．excited | B．angry | C．surprised | D．worried |
From the passage we learn most children in the shelter ________.
| A．were often punished by staff | B．weren’t allowed to go outside |
| C．were once treated badly | D．all suffered from mental illness |
The underlined word “reinforcement” in the passage is closest in meaning to “________”.
| A．truth | B．help | C．comfort | D．support |