Joanne Rowling, born on 31 July 1965, is an English fiction writer who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has gained international attention, won multiple awards, and sold over 375 million copies worldwide.
JK Rowling's new novel arrives with the high drama and state secrecy of a royal birth. Its due date is announced in February, and in April the disclosure of its title, The Casual Vacancy, makes international news. The release of the cover image in July commands headlines again, and Fleet Street (英国媒体) commissions (委托) a "design guru" to analyze its mysterious artistic beauty, in search of clues as to what might lie within. Waterstones (英国连锁书店) predicts the novel will be " the bestselling fiction title this year". Literary critics begin to publish preliminary (初步的) reviews, revealing what they think they will think about a book they have not yet even read.
I am required to sign more legal documents than would typically be involved in buying a house before I am allowed to read The Casual Vacancy, under tight security in the London offices of Little, Brown. Even the publishers have been forbidden to read it, and they give me the manuscript carefully, religiously, as though handling a priceless Ming vase. Afterwards, I am instructed never to disclose the address of Rowling's Edinburgh office where the interview will take place.
In the 15 years since she published her first Harry Potter, Rowling has become both universally known and almost unrecognizable. The untidy redhair who used to write in the cafes of Leith has slowly transformed into a shiny fashionable lady, one who is beyond recognition behind wealth and control. Once a penniless single mother, she became the first person on earth to make $ 1 billion by writing books, but her rare public appearances suggested a faint ice maiden quality.
Rowling is completely relaxed about this arrangement. Warm and energetic, quick to laugh, she chatters so freely that her publicist gets nervous and tells her to lower her voice. " Am I speaking too loud?" She doesn't look a bit concerned. "Well, I can't get passionate and whisper!" When I tell her I loved the book, her arms shoot up in celebration. "Oh my God! I'm so happy! That's so amazing to hear. Thank you so much! You've made me incredibly happy. Oh my God!" Anyone listening would take her for a debut author, meeting her first ever fan.
In a way, that's what she is. Rowling has written seven Harry Potter books, and sold more than 450m copies, but her first novel for adults is unlike them in every respect.
"Obviously I need to be in some form of vehicle to have a decent idea, " she laughs. Having dreamed up Potter on a train, "This time I was on a plane. And I thought: local election! And I just knew. I had that totally physical response you get to an idea that you know will work. It's a rush of adrenaline (肾上腺素), it's chemical. I had it with Harry Potter and I had it with this. So that's how I know. "The "design guru" in Paragraph 2 is probably __________.
| A．a publisher | B．a reader | C．a writer | D．an expert |
Why was the author required to sign so many legal documents before reading the book?
| A．Because it's a commercial secret before the book is published. |
| B．Because publishers are afraid the author is a commercial spy. |
| C．Because the author is so dishonest that publishers can't trust him. |
| D．Because the author is involved in buying a house. |
From the passage, we can learn the following facts about Rowling EXCEPT that __________.
| A．she used to write stories in the cafes. |
| B．she often makes public appearance after she is famous. |
| C．she was very poor before she became well-known. |
| D．she has become a wealthy lady with good quality. |
According to the interview with Rowling, we can infer that she is __________.
| A．aggressive and energetic | B．quiet and easygoing |
| C．enthusiastic and lovely | D．modest and shy |
The author writes the passage mainly to __________.
| A．introduce JK Rowling and her new book |
| B．describe great changes in JK Rowling |
| C．advocate readers to buy Harry Potter |
| D．tell readers the contents of the new book |
Did you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s? The average women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain consists of “grey matter” and “white matter”. While men have more of the latter, the amount of “thinking” brain is almost exactly the same in both sexes.
It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls tend to learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of information from different sources at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.
There are other important differences between two sexes. As white matter is the key to spatial（空间的） tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: why men refuse to ask for direction and women often need to!
The differences begin when fetuses（胎儿） are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children as young as one. A boy would try to climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would attract help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.
If all this disappoints you, it shouldn’t. “The brain changes throughout our lives according to what we do with it.” says a biologist.The passage mainly tells us ________.
| A．the difference between men’s and women’s brains |
| B．the changes in brain throughout our lives |
| C．that men are better at spatial tasks |
| D．that brain differences are related to our ancestors |
Which of the following is true according to the first paragraph?
| A．Women’s grey matter is 10% less than men’s. |
| B．Grey matter plays the same role as white matter. |
| C．Grey matter controls thinking in the brain. |
| D．Both sexes have the same amount of white matter. |
Which of the following do you agree with according to the fourth paragraph?
| A．Young boys may be stronger than young girls. |
| B．More women take up jobs requiring speech skills. |
| C．Women may have stronger feelings than men. |
| D．Our ancestors needed more spatial skills. |
What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?
| A．Defensive. | B．Persuasive. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
Nelson Mandela is respected and admired across the world. And to South Africans he is a superstar. He is a hero who shocked the world by fighting for peace between races, despite the 27 years he spent in the prison of the South Africa’s white, racist regime(政权).
Mandela who won the nation’s first all-race elections after the fall of apartheid (种族隔离) in 1994, retired 1999.
But he remains as popular as ever.
“He’s loved by all people, whether you’re white or black, whether you’re young or old,” said Ali Bacher, South
Africa’s former cricket (板球) chief.
His popularity has inspired an entire national industry. His portrait(肖像) has appeared at many places, including
on some goods. His face has appeared on a South African coin, a metropolitan area was named in his honour and
some business leaders hope to build a massive, rotating statue in his likeness --- the Statue of Freedom. It would
stand taller than New York’s Statue of Liberty.
His popular appeal is similar to that of John F. Kennedy with US or Winston Churchill in Britain, but few
politicians in this times have achieved his level of admiration, said Tom Lodge, head of the political science
department of the University of the Witwatersrand.
“Sometimes it isn’t completely appreciated what a skilled performer Mandela has been throughout his political
career. He’s a very, very clever man.” However, he is far from perfect.
Most articles for his birthday, which appeared in every major South African newspaper on the day, brief
mentioned that Mandela did have his shortcomings.
Then they returned to their flowing praises.
“Through the ages, the human race has had its icons (偶像) --- men and women who rose above ordinary people
to inspire their generations,” The Mail and Guardian Weekly said. “In our generation, the gods presented us Nelson
Mandela.”Nelson Mandela is loved by all the people of South Africa because _____.
| A．he’s as popular as Kennedy and Churchill |
| B．he spent 27 in prison |
| C．he’s a great fighter against the racialism |
| D．he’s the first all-race elections president |
Which of the following statements about Mandela’s portrait is true?
| A．It helps develop business. |
| B．It appears on the Statue of Freedom. |
| C．It is used to raise money for the Statue of Freedom. |
| D．It is similar to that of John F. Kennedy or Winston Churchill. |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means “________.”
| A．Mandela is as great as a god |
| B．We are proud to live in Mandela’s time |
| C．Mandela lives together with us all |
| D．We are proud to know Mandela |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Mandela is very skilled politician. |
| B．Most articles specially stressed Mandela’s shortcomings. |
| C．The Statue of Freedom is a present for Mandela’s birthday. |
| D．The article may have appeared in a newspaper on Mandela’s birthday. |
On Nov.18th, 1908, three men went up in a balloon. They started early in London. The headman was Augusta Gaudron, and the other two men were Tannar and Maitland. They had a big balloon and they were ready for a long way.
Soon they heard the sea. They were carrying the usual rope, and it was hanging down from the basket of the balloon. At the end of the rope they had tied a metal box. This could hold water, or it could be empty. So they were able to change its weight. It was for use over the sea. They were also carrying some bags of sand.
After the sun rose, the balloon went higher. It went up to 3,000 meters, and the air was very cold. The water in the balloon became ice. Snow fell past the men's basket, and they could see more snow on the ground. The men tried to throw out some more sand, but it was hard. They tried to break the icy sand with their knives, but it was not easy. The work was slow and they were still falling, so they had to drop some whole bags of sand. One of them fell on an icy lake and made a black hole in the ice.
At last they pulled the box into the basket. It was still snowing; so they climbed up to get away from the snow. They rose to 5,100 meters! Everything became icy. They were so cold that they decided to land. They came down in Poland heavily but safely. They had travelled 1,797 kilometers from London!The metal box was used for ________.
| A．carrying the bags of sand |
| B．keeping drinking-water |
| C．carrying ropes of the basket |
| D．changing weight |
The balloon landed ________.
| A．in London | B．on the sea |
| C．on a lake | D．in a foreign country |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The three men started their journey before the sun rose. |
| B．The balloon began to go up when they threw bags of sand out of the basket. |
| C．When they pulled the box into the basket, the balloon began to climb up. |
| D．The three men had to land because they felt cold. |
Christian Eijkman, a Dutch doctor, left the Netherlands for the island of Java. Many people on the island had a disease called beri-beri. He was going there to try and find a cure.
At first, Eijkman thought some kind of germ (细菌) caused beri-beri. He raised some chickens. He didn’t eat them, but made experiments on them. The local people were quite surprised at that. One day he noticed that his chickens became sick when they were fed the food most Javanese ate — refined white rice (精炼米). When he fed them with unrefined rice, also known as brown rice, they recovered. Eijkman realized that he had made an important discovery — that some things in food could prevent disease. These things were named vitamins. The Javanese were not getting enough vitamins because they had actually removed the part that contains vitamins. Later, other diseases were also found to be caused by the lack of vitamins in a person’s food.
Today many people know the importance of vitamins and they make sure they have enough vitamins from the food they eat. If they don’t, they can also take vitamin pills.Christian Eijkman went to the island of Java to ______.
| A．help the Javanese with their illness |
| B．find ways to grow better crops |
| C．do some research about the island |
| D．spend his holiday |
Why did Christian Eijkman raise some chickens?
| A．To eat them. |
| B．To make money by selling them. |
| C．To give the Javanese a surprise. |
| D．To carry out his experiments. |
If a person doesn’t get enough vitamins in his diet, he’d better ______.
| A．eat more rice | B．eat vitamin pills |
| C．eat some chicken | D．eat more meat |
We can learn from the passage that ______.
| A．Christian Eijkman’s experiment was successful |
| B．the Javanese didn’t like vitamins |
| C．beri-beri was caused by chickens |
| D．the Javanese’s disease was caused by a kind of germ |
You can't always predict a heavy rain or remember your umbrella. But designer Mikhail Belyaev doesn't think that forgetting to check the weather forecast before heading out should result in you getting wet. That's why he created Lampbrella, a lamp post with its own rain－sensing umbrella.
The designer says he came up with the idea after watching people get wet on streets in Russia. “Once, I was driving on a central Saint Petersburg street and saw the street lamps lighting up people trying to hide from the rain. I thought it would be appropriate to have a canopy(伞篷)built into a street lamp，” he said.
The Lampbrella is a standard－looking street lamp fitted with an umbrella canopy. It has a built－in electric motor which can open or close the umbrella on demand. Sensors(传感器)then ensure that the umbrella offers pedestrians(行人)shelter whenever it starts raining.
In addition to the rain sensor, there's also a 360° motion sensor on the fiberglass street lamp which detects whether anyone is using the Lampbrella.After three minutes of not being used the canopy is closed.
According to the designer, the Lampbrella would move at a relatively low speed, so as not to cause harm to the pedestrians. Besides, it would be grounded to protect from possible lightning strike. Each Lampbrella would offer enough shelter for several people. Being installed(安装) at 2 meters off the ground, it would only be a danger for the tallest of pedestrians.
While there are no plans to take the Lampbrella into production, Belyaev says he recently introduced his creation to one Moscow Department, and insists his creation could be installed on any street where a lot of people walk but there are no canopies to provide shelter.For what purpose did Belyaev create the Lampbrella?
| A．To protect people from the rain. |
| B．To predict a heavy rain. |
| C．To check the weather forecast. |
| D．To remind people to take an umbrella. |
What do we know from Belyaev's words in Paragraph 2?
| A．It rains a lot in the city of Saint Petersburg. |
| B．His creation was inspired by an experience. |
| C．Street lamps are protected by canopies. |
| D．He enjoyed taking walks in the rain. |
What does Paragraph 5 mainly tell us about the Lampbrella?
| A．Its moving speed. | B．Its appearance. |
| C．Its safety. | D．Its installation. |
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．The designer will open a company to promote his product. |
| B．The Lampbrella could be put into immediate production. |
| C．The designer is confident that his creation is practical. |
| D．The Lampbrella would be put on show in Moscow. |