Romanian-born German writer Herta Mueller won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature yesterday, honored for work that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, describes the landscape of the dispossessed(被流放者)," the Swedish Academy said.
The 56-year-old author, who immigrated to Germany from Romania in 1987, first gained public attention in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled Niederungen, or Lowlands in English, which was promptly censored(审查通过) by her government.
In 1984 an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany where it was published and her work describing life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania was popular with the readers there. That work was followed by Oppressive Tango in Romania.
"The Romanian national press was very critical of these works while, outside of Romania, the German press received them very positively," the Academy said. "Because Mueller had publicly criticized the dictatorship(独裁) in Romania, she was prohibited from publishing in her own country.” In 1987 she immigrated to Germany with her husband two years before dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was toppled from power.
Mueller's parents were members of the German-speaki
ng minority in Romania and father served in the Waffen SS during World War II. After the war ended, many German Romanians were deported(放逐) to the Soviet Union in 1945, including her mother, who spent five years in a work camp in what is now Ukraine.
Most of her works are in German, but some works have been translated into English, French and Spanish, including The Passport, The Land of Green Plums, Traveling on One Leg and The Appointment.
Mueller has given guest lectures at universities, colleges and other venues in Paderborn, Warwick, Hamburg, Swansea, Gainsville (Florida), Kassel, Gottingen, Tubingen and Zurich among other places. She lives in Berlin. Since 1995 she has served as a member of Deutsche Akademie fur Sprache und Dichtung, in Darmstadt."
Mueller is the 12th woman to win the literature prize. Recent female winners include Austria's Elfriede Jelinek in 2004 and British writer Doris Lessing in 2007.
The award includes a $1.4 million prize and will be handed out on December 10
1．Herta Mueller was awarded Nobel Prize in literature because of____________.
A．her public criticism upon the dictatorship in Romania
B．her works with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose
C．her works describing the life of the dispossessed in Germany
D．the popularity of her works with the readers in the German-speaking village
2．Which of the following statements is mentioned by the author?
A．German Romanians were treated unfairly in Germany in the 1940s.
B．Her parents were dispossessed to Ukraine after the World War II.
C．Her first work was published in Germany in the
early 1980s.
D．Her works were all translated into versions in different languages.
3．It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that _____.
A．people then in Romania had the right to say whatever was true.
B．Herta Mueller left her home country after the dictatorship was ended.
C．Herta Mueller immigrated to Germany together with her 
parents.
D．Romanian citizens lived a hard life without democracy in the 1980s.
4．According to the passage, which of the following works has an English version?
A．Lowlands in English B．Oppressive Tango in Romania.
C．Traveling on One Leg D．The Land of Green Plums
5．What is the passage mainly about?
A．Mueller made great contribution to literature through hard work
B．Mueller won the Nobel Prize for her great literature works.
C．Mueller gained great popularity by describing dictatorship.
D．Mueller was treated badly in Romania and immigrated to Germany.
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy—five, he gave £ 12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment （设备） for a children’s playground.
As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy—five. Johnson had a sense of humour（幽默）. He liked whisky（威士忌酒）and drank some each day. “I have an injection（注射）in my neck each evening.” he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.
The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy—five and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.Johnson became a rich man through
| A．doing business. | B．making whisky. |
| C．cheating. | D．buying and selling land. |
The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson
| A．had no children. |
| B．was a strange man. |
| C．was very fond of children. |
| D．wanted people to know how rich he was. |
Many people wrote to Johnson to find out
| A．what kind of whisky he had. |
| B．how to live happily.. |
| C．how to become wealthy. |
| D．the secret of his daily injection. |
When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that:
| A．he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening. |
| B．he needed an injection in the neck. |
| C．a daily injection in the evening would make him sleep well. |
| D．there was something wrong with his neck. |
If you are looking for a creative solution to a piece of work or a school assignment，don’t lock yourself up in a quiet room.
A new study suggests that moderate background noise is a better spur(动力) to creative thinking than the sound of silence，Time magazine reported.
A paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research says that the perfect working environment should buzz(嗡嗡作响)with a little noise.
Researchers found that test subjects were at their most creative when background noise was measured at 70 decibels，the level one might find in a busy coffee shop.
A nearly silent environment(50 decibels)was too quiet. Turning up the volume to 85 decibels (a jackhammer tearing up the pavement outside your building) was counterproductive-the noise became a distraction.
The researchers asked 65 students at the University of British Columbia，Canada，to perform various creative tasks while noises recorded at a roadside restaurant were played in the background.
In one experiment，scientists asked participants to brainstorm ideas for a new type of mattress(气垫). Test subjects had the most successful discussions when the noise in the background was noticeable but not too loud.
While a quiet environment may make it easier to read a book. the authors of the study say that moderate background noise creates just enough of a distraction to force people to think more imaginatively, without breaking their focus so completely that they can’t think at all.
Should we all head for Starbucks to get creative? Not necessarily.
Researchers found limited work time surrounded by the low-level noise of a coffeehouse is what really stimulates creativity.
Equally, working in a care environment isn’t good for everybody. The productivity boost was most obvious among those who were naturally creative to begin with.The recommended level of background noise is__________.
| A．50 decibels | B．65 decibels |
| C．70 decibels | D．85 decibels |
Why is moderate background noise good for creativity?
| A．It relaxes people and stops them from getting bored. |
| B．It can help people to focus on a subject. |
| C．It can absorb sudden noises that cause distraction. |
| D．It pushes people to use their imagination but doesn’t reach a level that disturbs them. |
According to the last three paragraphs，___________.
| A．the low—level noise of a coffeehouse may be too loud for some people to work with |
| B．if a person is not a creative type, then background noise may not be of so much help to them |
| C．a person’s own creative ability is as important as the environment they are in |
| D．working in a coffeehouse is effective for most people |
Which best describes the writer’s tone in the passage?
| A．Negative. | B．Objective. |
| C．Enthusiastic. | D．Doubtful. |
This is not a typical summer camp. Michelle Pawlaw and eight other teenage girls are participating in the three—day camp offered by the Arlington County Fire Department located just outside Washington. Firefighter Clare Burley is in charge of the program，who said the purpose is to try to get young women interested in considering the fire service as a career.
The free-of-charge，overnight camp is designed to let the girls experience what firefighters do to protect the community. That includes some rigorous activities such as moving a fire victim. “I dindn’t think I could pull that 170 pound body with a friend, but I was actually able to do it.” she said.
They take classes and learn how to climb the ladder on a fire truck, operate emergency tools and rescue an injured person. They also do their share of cleaning the firehouse and the equipment.
“Every week without fail on a Saturday，the job is to wash all the equipment. And we wanted the girls to see this is what we do. This is a typical day in a firehouse，”she said.
Firefighting is still a male-dominated service，but Burley says with 22 women on its force of 320 the Arlington County Fire Department is above the national average of 4.5 percent. She joined the department seven years ago.
“We do everything that the guys do to the same standard. We are tested to the same standard. We are expected to operate at the same standard，”she said.
Most of the girls say they had never thought about becoming a firefighter. but the camp was a great learning experience. ”I think it is definitely not a job that only men can do. Women can do it just as well as men can，”said Michelle Pawlaw.What’s the purpose of the summer camp?
| A．To tell the girls how to put firefighting knowledge into practice. |
| B．To teach the girls what to do when caught in fire. |
| C．To provide the girls with a typical summer camp. |
| D．To attract more girls to take firefighting as a career. |
What can we infer from Paragraph 5？
| A．Arlington County Fire Department is in the lead in employing women firefighters. |
| B．Arlington County Fire Department is the first to employ women firefighters. |
| C．More and more women are ready to join the fire department. |
| D．No women ever want to perform the firefighting service. |
What can we infer from Michelle’s words in the last paragraph?
| A．She has determined to join the firefighters in the future. |
| B．She will persuade her fellow students to join in the camp. |
| C．She realizes that women can also be good firefighters. |
| D．She decides that she’ll join in the camp again later. |
What can we learn about the summer camp according to the passage?
| A．American fire departments often hold such events. |
| B．It is sponsored by Arlington County Fire Department. |
| C．The girls spent their night in the summer camp，which lasted 3 days. |
| D．It is very popular among American girl students. |
A few years ago，my friend Al won the lottery. It changed his life. He did not have a rich family. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Instead，my friend was always hard up for cash. He did not have much money. And the money he did earn was chicken feed — very little.
Sometimes Al even had to accept handouts，gifts from his family and friends. But do not get me wrong. My friend was not a deadbeat. He was not the kind of person who never paid the money he owed. He simply pinched pennies. He was always very careful with the money he spent. In fact，he was often a cheapskate. He did not like to spend money. The worst times were when he was flat broke and had no money at all.
One day，Al scraped together a few dollars for a lottery ticket. He thought he would never strike it rich or gain lots of money unexpectedly. But his combination of numbers was chosen and he won the lottery. He hit the jackpot. He won a great deal of money.
Al was so excited. The first thing he did was buy a costly new ear. He splurged on the one thing that he normally would not buy. Then he started spending money on unnecessary things. He started to waste it. It was like he had money to burn. He had more money than he needed and it was burning a hole in his pocket so he spent it quickly.
When we got together for a meal at a restaurant，Al paid every time. He would always foot the bill，and pick up the tab. He told me the money made him feel like a million dollars. He was very happy.
But，Al spent too much money. Soon my friend was down and out again. He had no money left. He was back to being strapped for cash. He had spent his bottom dollar, his very last amount. He did not even build up a nest egg. He had not saved any of the money.
I admit I do feel sorry for my friend. He had enough money to live like a king. Instead，he is back to living on a shoestring—a very low budget. Some might say he is penny wise and pound foolish. He is wise about small things，but not about important things.The underlined word “pinched” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “___________”.
| A．took | B．carried |
| C．squeezed | D．spent |
How did Al feel at first after he bought a lottery ticket?
| A．He expected to win the lottery. |
| B．He was excited to wait for the money. |
| C．He didn’t think he could win the lottery. |
| D．He regretted spending money for a lottery ticket. |
Why did A1 live a poor life again after he won the lottery?
| A．Because he lost a lot of money he had won. |
| B．Because he spent much money freely on unnecessary things. |
| C．Because his friend borrowed much money from him. |
| D．Because he gave away a lot of money to others. |
What can we learn from the story of Al?
| A．Keep on and you will succeed one day. |
| B．Do not pick up the sesame seeds but overlook the watermelons. |
| C．It is no use crying over spilt milk. |
| D．No pains, no gains. |
By the time I reached junior high，I was sure I wanted to be a nurse. If you didn’t study Latin，you couldn’t be a nurse，so I enrolled. Many Latin words were familiar to me. The hard part turned out to be the usage and creating sentences with the words that seemed so easy to pronounce. Several weeks into the course my teacher came to me，saying，“I think you should withdraw from this course. It seems to be too hard for you. ”
That was the day I learned I wasn’t smart enough to become a nurse. With shame. I handed in my Latin textbook.
After high school，the years raced by. I married and had children. Then one day my husband John came home. “Carol. Max died this afternoon. ”I looked at my husband with disbelief.
John was touched by this tragedy. Finally one evening he said，“Carol，Jackie has never worked and now she’s alone with four children. I've been thinking — if anything happens to me. I want you to be able to take care of yourself and the children. Why don’t you think about what you’d like to do and get the training you’ll need to do it?”
I signed up for the entrance exam for nursing programs. One day I received a letter from the schoo1. I wanted so badly to open it，but with my lack of confidence，I laid it on the kitchen counter saying，” I'm not in the mood for a rejection letter today. ”
Finally I forced myself to open it. “Dear Carol，”I read. ”We are pleased to inform you that you successfully passed the entrance exam.”
An insensitive teacher once stole my dream. If you have a dream, exhaust every effort to reach it. I’ve worked thirty years now as a nurse and I’ve never been more certain that this is what I was meant to be.Why did John advise Carol to find a job?
| A．To support the family |
| B．To be able to live independently |
| C．To live a more colorful life |
| D．To provide more money for her kids |
From the text, we know what the teacher said____________.
| A．saved Carol from wasting her time |
| B．helped Carol find her true interest |
| C．destroyed Carol’s dream to be a nurse |
| D．encouraged Carol to be careful in learning |
After receiving the letter from the schoo1, Caro1____________.
| A．couldn’t wait to open it |
| B．had no mood to read it then |
| C．didn’t take it seriously at all |
| D．was uncertain about the result |
What may be the best title for the text？
| A．Too stupid to be a nurse |
| B．A dream too high to achieve |
| C．Never too late to 1earn |
| D．A chance too important to miss |