Not all the historians in Canada are historians of Canada. Case in point: Timothy Brook.
Brook was born and schooled in Toronto, and he now teaches in Vancouver. But he’s a historian of China, and his recent book Vermeer’s Hat seems at first to be about Holland in the period of the Dutch masters. When I met Brook recently in Vancouver, he did seem truly a global historian. Vancouver is his home, but Vermeer’s Hat has been published around the world.
Brook was just in from Oxford, UK, where he taught part of the year, by way of New York, where Vermeer’s Hat had just been given the Lynton History Prize. He was about to go to California, where he was due to lecture. Still, the author and the book---and the hat---say something fresh about Canada and the world.
“I’ve been looking at Vermeer since 1971,” says Brook. Looking at Dutch interior (室内的) scenes from the mid-1600s, he noticed maps, Chinese porcelains (瓷器), South American silver, Virginia tobacco—all marking the influences of the wide world. In Brook’s telling, Vermeer’s masterworks become doorways to the world, and not least to the largest, richest nation in the world, the China of the late Ming Empire, a field in which Brook happens to be a specialist.
Brook used global history as a way to find common ground with fellow historians. “The sixteenth century is the age of discovery, but the seventeenth century is the age of people starting to move the possibility of a global economy, intercultural relations across the globe,” he said.
It proved not hard for this Canadian historian of the world to find Canada in world history--or the world in Canadian history. In Vermeer’s 1658 painting of a Dutch soldier in a wonderful hat, the felt (毛毡) for the hat was probably made in Lachine, from French la Chine meaning China. Established in Canada by de Champlain, the town was so named because Champlain, like other explorers the French explorer Samuel was hoping to get through Canada to China.
1.Which was the line of Brook’s recent journey back home .
A. Toronto--Oxford→ Vancouver
B. Oxford→ New York→ Vancouver
C. California→ Toronto→ Vancouver
D. New York→ California→ Vancouver.
2.Which is discussed in Brook’s Vermeer’s Hat?
A. The Lynton History Prize
B. Ways to give good lectures
C. The Ming Dynasty of China
D. A hat Vermeer wore for years
3.What can we infer about Vermeer?
A. He was a Dutch painter
B. He was a French explorer
C. He was a UK publisher
D. He was a US teacher
4.What can be suitable title for the text?
A. The Influences of masters’ books
B. An age of moving and possibilities
C. The Importance of Cultural Exchange
D. A Canadian Historian Thinking Globally
As a first responder, you never know what type of situation you might walk into, or who you’ll meet along the way. That’s definitely been the case for Jeffrey Lanenberg, a 51-year-old paramedic(急救医务人员) since 1984.
Ten years into the job, Lanenberg received a call that reported that a man in his early 30s had fallen down in the Mall of America. When Lanenberg and his partner arrived at the scene, they found the young male face down on the ground. He had gone unconscious, making weak attempts to breathe. His wife stood beside him holding their small son in horror. They quickly rushed to defibrillate(除颤) and calm the man to keep him under control. After Lanenberg dropped the patient off at the neighboring hospital, he thought about the man and his family for a long time.
Lanenberg thought he had experienced everything under the sun until one random visit to Office Max three years ago, where he met a man repeatedly walk back and forth while staring at him. As it turned out, the man was the patient he had saved 20 years earlier.
＂You gave me 20 years more than I ever thought I’d have,＂ the man said. He thanked Lanenberg repeatedly and told him he had someone he wanted him to meet. He stepped around the corner and reappeared with a 20-something-year-old man. Lanenberg instantly knew that it was the son he had seen standing by his mother all those years ago.
＂That day changed my life,＂ Lanenberg said. ＂Before that, everything was about work…When I talk to my beginner-training class, I tell them you never know the impact you can have on someone’s life.＂
1.What did Lanenberg do with the young man?
A. He gave the man the first aid. B. He cured the man at the scene.
C. He only sent the man to hospital. D. He took care of the man’s wife and son.
2.What did Lanenberg think of the encounter with the man?
A. It was unbelievable. B. It was a common routine.
C. It was a matter of course. D. It was a dangerous situation.
3.Why was the man thankful to Lanenberg?
A. Lanenberg helped bring up his little son.
B. Lanenberg donated to support his family.
C. Lanenberg gave him the present happy life.
D. Lanenberg taught his son to be a new doctor.
4.How did the meeting change Lanenberg’s life?
A. He changed his attitude to his job.
B. He was rewarded with much money.
C. He got a promotion to be a team leader.
D. He took up teaching work to train newcomers.
Here's a list of books I'm looking forward to this fall season. Not all of them will rise to the level of the advertisement, but it's an abundant crop.
"Home After Dark" by David Small (Liveright, Sept. 11 )
In 2009, Small published a celebrated graphic memoir (回忆录) called"Stitches". Now the Caldecott Medal winner is back with a graphic novel about a motherless 13-year-old boy brought up in an unhappy home in California. This is a tale told in few words and many striking images. On Sept. 11 at 3p.m., Small will be at Amazonbooks at Union Market. More information at www. amazon.com/graph-tale.
"Waiting for Eden" by Elliot Ackerman (Knopf, Sept. 25)
This brief novel is related by a dead soldier who is watching over a horribly burned partner in a Texas hospital. That sounds embarrassingly emotional, but Ackerman, who served in a Navy in Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of the best soldier-writers of his generation. More information at www. amazon. com/military-essay.
"All You Can Ever Know" by Nicole Chung (Catapult, Oct. 2)
Chung, the editor of the literary magazine Catapult, was adopted as a baby by a white family in Oregon. In this memoir, she writes about her childhood, her Asian American identity and her search for the Korean parents who gave her up. More information at www. amazon. com/politics-prose.
"Unsheltered" by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, Oct. 16)
Alternating between past and present, this novel tells the story of a woman investigating a late-19th-century science teacher who was caught up in the controversy over Darwinism. Like her other novels, this one promises to explore social and scientific problems. Visit www. amazon. com/tech-science for more information.
1.If you hope for a signature of the author, you will probably buy a copy of ________.
A. All You Can Ever Know
B. Waiting for Eden
C. Home After Dark
D. Unsheltered
2.Who joined the army and was sent to the Middle East?
A. Elliot Ackerman.
B. David Small.
C. Barbara Kingsolver.
D. Nicole Chung.
3.If you want to read books about non-fiction, you can surf________.
A. www. amazon. com/graph-tale
B. www. amazon. com/politics-prose
C. www. amazon. com/military-essay
D. www. amazon. com/tech-science
假定你是李华，你的朋友Peter想了解你校于五月举办的中国传统文化艺术节。请你给Peter写封回信，内容包括:
1. 举办艺术节的目的；
2. 介绍你最喜欢的一个艺术节活动；
3. 邀请Peter参加并告之艺术节活动的时间。
注意:
1. 词数 100 左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文， 请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加: 在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除: 把多余的词用斜线( \ )划掉。
修改: 在错的词下划一横线， 并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意: 1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处， 多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Last year, Zhang Pingyu paid visit to London. Worried about the time available, Zhang Pingyu had made a list of the site she wanted to see. It was the Tower which she visited first. Fancy! This solid stone, square tower had been remained standing for one thousand years. Many new buildings had expanded around it. Therefore, it was still part of a royal palace and prison combined. There followed St Paul’s Cathedral built after the terrible fire of London in 1666. It looked splendidly when first built. Westminster Abbey, too, was very interesting. Then just as he came out of the abbey, Pingyu heard the famous sound of the clock Big Ben, ring out the hour.
The next day Pingyu was leaving London to Windsor Castle. “Perhaps I will see the Queen？” she wondered as she fall asleep.
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
Letters as a way of communication have long given way to phone calls and WeChat messages. But a TV show, Letters Alive, is helping bring this old way to keep in touch back 1. the present.
Letters Alive took 2.(it) idea from a UK program, Letters Live, released in 2013. Both 3. (show) feature famous actors and actresses, but there 4.(be) no eye－catching visual effects or any regular showbiz(娱乐圈) activities. Instead, it’s just a live event 5. remarkable letters selected from a wide time span and a diverse range of subjects are read. There is, for example, a passionate letter from Huang Yongyu to playwright Cao Yu 30 years ago to criticize his lack of 6.(create).
Every letter is like a small piece of history. By hearing them 7. (read), it’s as if we are being sent back in time to experience a moment that we would otherwise never have had the chance to.
Compared to 8. (publish) texts, letters also 9.(natural) come with a personal touch. As well as celebrating the pain, joy, wisdom and humor, Letters Alive 10. (commit) to promoting Chinese literature since first run.
