The slavery drama “12 Years a Slave” won the Academy Award for best picture on Sunday, making history as the first movie from a black director to win the film industry’s highest honor in 86 years of the Oscars. Britis
h director Steve McQueen’s brave portrayal of pre-Civil War American slavery won two other Oscars, including best supporting actress for newcomer Lupita Nyong’o and best adapted screenplay based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free man tricked and sold into slavery in Louisiana. “Everyone deserves not just to survive but to live. This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup,” said McQueen in his acceptance speech.
“12 Years a Slave” was better over space thriller “Gravity” from Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, which nevertheless got the most Oscars of the night with seven, including the best director honor for Cuaron, a first for a Latin American director.The film starring Sandra Bullock as an astronaut lost in space swept the technical awards like visual effects and cinematography, a reward for its groundbreaking work on conveying space and weightlessness. Referring to the “transformative” experience he and others undertook in the four-plus years spent making “Gravity”, Cuaron, whose hair is graying, said, “For a lot of these people, that transformation was wisdom. For me, it was just the color of my hair.” In one of the strongest years for film in recent memory, the 6,000-plus voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences scattered golden Oscar statuettes among the many acclaimed movies in contention.
It was a good night for the scrappy, low-budget film “Dallas Buyers Club”, directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, a biopic of an early AIDS activist two decades in the making that won three Oscars, including the two male acting awards.
Matthew McConaughey, in a validation of a remarkable career turnaround, won best actor for his portrayal of the homophobe who turned AIDS victim and then turned treatment crusader Ron Woodroof, a role for which he lost 50 pounds (23 kg). His co-star, Jared Leto, won best supporting actor for his role as Woodroof’s unlikely business partner, the transgender woman Rayon, for which he also slimmed down drastically.
Australia’s Cate Blanchett won the best actress Oscar for her acclaimed role as the socialite unhinged by her husband’s financial crimes in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.” “As random and subjective as this award is, it means a great deal in a year of, yet again, extraordinary performances by women,” said Blanchett, who beat out previous Oscar winners Bullock, Amy Adams, Judi Dench and Meryl Streep.
The film which won the largest number of Oscar awards this year is ______.
| A．12 Years a Slave | B．Gravity |
| C．Dallas Buyers Club | D．Blue Jasmine |
Which director spent the least money in making the film?
| A．Steve McQueen. | B．Alfonso Cuaron. |
| C．Jean-Marc Vallee. | D．Woody Allen. |
How many Oscar best actresses are mentioned in this passage?
| A．One. | B．Three. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
Which of the following statements is WRONG?
| A．12 Years a Slave won two Oscar awards altogether. |
| B．The director of Gravity is from Latin America. |
| C．The character Rayon is played by Jared Leto. |
| D．The woman film star Cate Blanchett comes from Oceania. |
An expensive car speeding down the main street of a small town was soon caught up with by a young motorcycle policeman. As he started to make out the ticket, the woman behind the wheel said proudly, “Before you go any further, young man, I think you should know that the mayor of this city is a good friend of mine.”The officer did not say a word, but kept writing. “I am also a friend of chief of police Barens,”continued the woman, getting more angry each moment, still he kept on writing. “Young man,”she persisted, “I know Judge Lawson and State Senator (参议员) Patton.” Handing the ticket to the woman, the officer asked pleasantly , “Tell me, do you know Bill Bronson.”
“Why, no,”she answered.
“Well, that is the man you should have known,”he said, heading back to his motorcycle, “I am Bill Bronson.” The policeman stopped the car because_____.
| A．it was an expensive car |
| B．the driver was a proud lady |
| C．the driver was driving beyond the speed limit. |
| D．the driver was going to make trouble for the police |
The woman was getting more angry each moment because _____.
| A．the policeman didn’t know her friends |
| B．the policeman didn’t accept her kindness |
| C．the policeman was going to punish her |
| D．she didn’t know the policeman’s name |
The woman was _______.
| A．kind-hearted |
| B．a person who depended on someone else to finish her work |
| C．trying to frighten the policeman on the strength of her friends’ powerful positions |
| D．introducing her good friends’ names to the young officer |
The policeman _______.
| A．had no sense of humor (幽默) | B．had a sense of humor |
| C．had no sense of duty | D．was senseless |
Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the ax (斧子) for the frozen sea inside us.” I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders， and it didn't seem to require any explanation.
We'd just finished John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class，my toughest boy，a star basketball player，wept a little， and so did I. “Are you crying？” one girl asked，as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am，” I told her， “and the funny thing is I've read it many times.”
But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school， I've taught kids with imprisoned parents,abusive parents，irresponsible parents；kids who are parents themselves;kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand,more than I ever will，the novel's terrible logic-the giving way of dreams to fate (命运).
For the last seven years，I have worked as a reading enrichment teacher，reading classic works of literature with small groups of students from grades six to eight. I originally proposed this idea to my headmaster after learning that a former excellent student of mine had transferred out of a selective high school-one that often attracts the literary-minded children of Manhattan's upper classes-into a less competitive setting. The daughter of immigrants， with a father in prison， she perhaps felt uncomfortable with her new classmates. I thought additional “cultural capital” could help students like her develop better in high school, where they would unavoidably meet， perhaps for the first time，students who came from homes lined with bookshelves，whose parents had earned Ph.D.'s.
Along with Of Mice and Men，my groups read：Sounder，The Red Pony，Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.The students didn't always read from the expected point of view.
About The Red Pony，one student said，“it's about being a man，it's about manliness.” I had never before seen the parallels between Scarface and Macbeth, nor had I heard Lady Macbeth's soliloquies (独白) read as raps (说唱)，but both made sense；the interpretations were playful，but serious. Once introduced to Steinbeck's writing，one boy went on to read The Grapes of Wrath and told me repeatedly how amazing it was that “all these people hate each other，and they're all white.” His historical view was broadening，his sense of his own country deepening. Year after year，former students visited and told me how prepared they had felt in their first year in college as a result of the classes.
Year after year, however，we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts，not for emotional punch (碰撞) but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich (充实) the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.The underlined words in Paragraph 1 probably mean that a book helps to __________.
| A．realize our dreams | B．give support to our life |
| C．smooth away difficulties | D．awake our emotions |
Why were the students able to understand the novel Of Mice and Men？
| A．Because they spent much time reading it. |
| B．Because they had read the novel before. |
| C．Because they came from a public school. |
| D．Because they had similar life experiences. |
The girl left the selective high school possibly because__________. .
| A．she was a literary-minded girl |
| B．her parents were immigrants |
| C．she couldn't fit in with her class |
| D．her father was then in prison |
To the author's surprise, the students read the novels__________. .
| A．creatively | B．passively |
| C．repeatedly | D．carelessly |
The author writes the passage mainly to__________. .
| A．introduce classic works of literature |
| B．advocate teaching literature to touch the heart |
| C．argue for equality among high school students |
| D．defend the current testing system |
One of our biggest fears nowadays is that our kids might have spent too much time with electronic devices rather than experiencing the natural world. Fear-producing TV and computer games are leading to a serious disconnect between kids and the great outdoors, which will change the wild places of the world, its creatures and human health for the worse, unless adults get working on child’s play.
Each of us had a place in nature we go sometimes, even if it was torn down. We cannot be the last generation to have that place. At this rate, kids who miss the sense of wonder outdoors will not grow up to be protectors of natural landscapes. “If the decline in parks use continues across North America, who will defend parks against encroachment（蚕食）?” asks Richard Louv , author of Last Child in the Woods.
Without having a nature experience, kids can turn out just fine, but they are missing out a huge enrichment of their lives. That applies to everything from their physical health and mental health, to stress levels, creativity and cognitive（认知的）skills. Experts predict modern kids will have poorer health than their parents---and they say a lack of outside play is surely part of it; research suggests that kids do better academically in schools with a nature component and that play in nature fosters（培养）leadership. Even a tiny outdoor experience can create wonder in a child , The three-year-old turning over his first rock realizes he is not alone in the world. A clump(丛) of trees on the roadside can be the whole universe in his eyes. We really need to value that more.
Kids are not to blame. They are over-protected and frightened. It is dangerous out there from time to time, but repetitive stress from computers is replacing breaking an arm as a childhood rite（仪式）of passage.
Everyone from developers to schools and outdoorsy citizens, should help regain for our kids some of the freedom and joy of exploring, taking friendship in fields and woods that strengthen love, respect and need for the landscape. As parents, we should devote some of our energies to taking our kids into nature. This could yet be our greatest cause.According to Paragraph 2, the writer thinks that_____.
| A．we are the last generation to experience nature. |
| B．Richard Louv does’t defend parks against encroachment |
| C．without a nature experience, kids are missing lots of fun |
| D．children should grow up to be protectors of nature |
Which of the following is not listed as a reason for children being disconnected with nature?
| A．The wild has been more dangerous than ever. |
| B．Parents are too protective of their children. |
| C．TV plays sometimes inspire fear into children’s heart. |
| D．Many children are lost in the world of technology. |
According to the passage, children without experiencing nature will __________.
| A．keep a high sense of wonder |
| B．be over-protected by their parents |
| C．be less healthy both physically and mentally |
| D．change wild places and creatures for the better |
According to the author, children’s breaking an arm is __________.
| A．the fault on the part of their parents |
| B．the natural experience in their growing up |
| C．the result of their own carelessness in play |
| D．the effect of their repetitive stress from computers |
In writing this passage, the author mainly intends to __________.
| A．blame children for getting lost in computer games |
| B．encourage children to protect parks from encroachment |
| C．show his concern about children’s lack of experience in nature |
| D．inspire children to keep the sense of wonder about things around |
Jimmy is an automotive mechanic, but he lost his job a few months ago. He has good heart, but always feared applying for a new job.
One day, he gathered up all his strength and decided to attend a job interview. His appointment was at 10 am and it was already 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to be interviewed, he saw an elderly man wildly kicking the tyre of his car. Obviously there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately went up to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished working on the car, the old man asked him how much he should pay for the service. Jimmy said there was no need to pay him; he just helped someone in need, and he had to rush for an interview. Then the old man said, “Well, I could take you to the office for your interview. It’s the least I could do. Please. I insist.” Jimmy agreed.
Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line of applications waiting to be interviewed. Jimmy still had some grease on him after the car repair, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have a change of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer’s office with disappointed look on their faces. Finally his name was called. The interviewer was sitting on a large chair facing the office window. Rocking the chair back and forth, he asked, “Do you really need to be interviewed?” Jimmy’s heart sank. “With the way I look now, how could I possibly pass this interview?” he thought to himself.
Then the interviewer turned the chair and to Jimmy’s surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning. It turned out he was the General Manager of the company.“Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but I was pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforce before you even stepped into the office. I just know you’d be a trustworthy worker. Congratulations!” Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deserved coffee as he landed himself a new job.Why did Jimmy apply for a new job?
| A．He was out of work |
| B．He was bored with his job |
| C．He wanted a higher position |
| D．He hoped to find a better boss |
What did Jimmy see on the way to the interview?
| A．A friend’s car had a flat tyre |
| B．a wild man was pushing a car |
| C．a terrible accident happened |
| D．an old man’s car broke down |
Why did the old man offer Jimmy a ride?
| A．He was also to be interviewed |
| B．He needed a traveling companion |
| C．He always helped people in need |
| D．He was thankful to Jimmy |
How did Jimmy feel on hearing the interviewer’s question?
| A．He was sorry for the other applicants |
| B．There was no hope for him to get the job |
| C．He regretted helping the old man |
| D．The interviewer was very rude |
What can we learn from Jimmy’s experience？
| A．Where there is a will, there’s a way |
| B．A friend in need is a friend indeed |
| C．Good is rewarded with good. |
| D．Two heads are better than one |
Mini Book Excerpts (节选)
Biography（自传）
When Salinger learned that a car park was to be built on the land，the middleaged writer was shocked and quickly bought the neighboring area to protect it ... The towns people never forgot the rescue and came to help their most famous neighbor.
J. D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski (Random House，$27)
Mystery (疑案小说)
“You're a smart boy. Benny's death was no accident, and you're the only one who saw it happen. Do you think the murderer should get away with it? ”The boy was staring stubbornly at his lap again.
A thought suddenly occurred to Annika，“Did you ...You recognized the man in the car, didn't you？”
The boy hesitated, twisting his fingers，“Maybe，”he said quietly.
Red Wolf by Liza Marklund (Atria Books, $25.99)
Short Stories
She wants to say to him what she has learned，none of it in class: Some women are born stupid, and some women are too smart for their own good. Some women are born to give, and some women only know how to take. Some women learn who they want to be from their mothers, some who they don't want to be. Some mothers suffer so their daughters won't. Some mothers love so their daughters won't.
You Are Free by Danzy Senna (Riverhead Books，$15)
Humor
Do your kids like to have fun? Come to Fun Times! Do you like to watch your kids having fun? Bring them to Fun Times! Fun Times's “amusement cycling” is the most fun you can have, legally, in the United States right now. Why spend thousands of dollars flying to Disney World when you can spend less than half of that within a day's drive of most cities?
Happy And Other Bad Thoughts by Larry Doyle (Ecco，$14.99)If the readers want to know about the life of Salinger, they should buy the book published by ________.
| A．Ecco | B．Random House |
| C．Riverhead Books | D．Atria Books |
The book Happy And Other Bad Thoughts is intended for ________.
| A．young children | B．Disney World workers |
| C．middle school teachers | D．parents with young children |
Which book describes women with characters of their own?
A．You Are Free B．J. D. Salinger: A Life
C．Happy And Other Bad Thoughts D．Red Wolf