Tell a story and tell it well, and you may open wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.
People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them. For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times. They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.
“Most local stories are based on a larger theme,” American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says, “Cinderella, or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”
Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories. She works with prisoners too, helping them knowing who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives. If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story. Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers. “For every advance in business,” she says, “there is a greater need for communication”. Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says.
Pugh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there. “The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere,” she says.
“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,” she says, “What I do is to focus on the value of the stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs. We are all storytellers. We all have a story to tell. We tell everybody’s story.”
1.What do we learn about American storyteller from Paragraph 2?
A. They share the same way of storytelling.
B. They prefer to tell the stories from other cultures.
C. They learn their stories from the American natives.
D. They find storytelling useful for both children and adults.
2.The underlined sentence (Paragraph 4) suggests that prisoners can _____.
A. start a new lifeB. settle down in another place
C. direct filmsD. become good actors
3.Pugh has practiced storytelling with _____ groups of people.
A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5
Science has a lot of uses. It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up. Indeed science is so good at what it does that there’s always a temptation(诱惑) to drag it into problems where it may not be helpful. David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to resist the temptation.
Brooks gained fame for several books. His latest book The Social Animal, however, is more ambitious and serious than his earlier books. It is an attempt to deal with a set of weighty topics. The book focuses on big questions: What has science revealed about human nature? What are the sources of character? And why are some people happy and successful while others aren’t?
To answer these questions, Brooks surveys a wide range of disciplines(学科). Considering this, you might expect the book to be a dry recitation of facts. But Brooks has structured his book in an unorthodox(非常规的), and perhaps unfortunate, way. Instead of introducing scientific theories, he tells a story, within which he tries to make his points, perhaps in order to keep the reader’s attention. So as Harold and Erica, the hero and heroine in his story, live through childhood, we hear about the science of child development, and as they begin to date we hear about the theory of sexual attraction. Brooks carries this through to the death of one of his characters.
On the whole, Brooks’s story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discovers how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks’s attempt to translate his tale into science.
1.The author mentions the functions of science at the beginning of the passage to __________.
A. illustrate where science can be applied
B. demonstrate the value of Brooks’s new book
C. remind the reader of the importance of science
D. explain why many writers use science in their works
2.According to the author, which of the following could be a strength of the book?
A. Its strong basis. B. Its convincing points.
C. Its clear writing. D. Its memorable characters.
3.What is the author’s general attitude towards the book?
A. Contradictory. B. Supportive.
C. Cautious. D. Critical.
4.What is the author likely to write about after the last paragraph?
A. Problems with the book. B. Brooks’s life experiences.
C. Death of the characters. D. Brooks’s translation skills.
Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. One night I went to pick up a passenger at 2:30 a. m. When I arrived to collect, I found the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.
I walked to the door and knocked, "Just a minute," answered a weak, elderly voice.
After a long time, the door opened. A small woman in her eighties stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.
I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to help the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly towards the car.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. "It's nothing," I told her. "I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated."
"Oh, you're such a good man." She said. When we got into the taxi, she gave me an address, and then asked, "Could you drive through downtown?"
"It's not the shortest way," I answered quickly.
"Oh, I'm in no hurry," she said. "I'm on my way to a hospice (临终医院). I don't have any family left. The doctor says I don't have very long."
I quietly reached over and shut off the meter (计价器). For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked, the neighborhood where she had lived, and the furniture shop that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Sometimes she'd ask me to slow down in front of a particular building and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
At dawn, she suddenly said, "I'm tired. Let's go now." We drove in silence according to the address she had given me.
"How much do I owe you?" she asked.
"Nothing." I said.
"You have to make a living," she answered. "Oh, there are other passengers," I answered. She said thanks to me, but she looked so sad.
注意：1.所续写的短文词数应为150左右；
2.应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3.续写部分分为二段，每段的开头语已经为你写好；
4续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.
Paragraph 2
I was on my way to visit her.
阅读下面的短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
Recently, a professor of philosophy in the United States has written a book called Money and the Meaning of Life. He has discovered that how we deal with money in our day-to-day life has more meaning than we usually think. One of the things he asks his students to do is to keep a record of every penny they spend for a week. From the way they spend their money, they often see what they really value in life.
He says our relation with others often becomes clearly defined when money enters the picture. You might have wonderful friendship with somebody and you think that you are very good friends. But you will know him only when you ask him to lend you some money. If he does, it brings something to the relationship that seems stronger than ever before. Or it can suddenly weaken the relationship if he doesn’t. This person may say that he has a certain feeling, but if it is not carried out in the money world, there is something less real about it.
Since money is so important to us, we consider those who possess a lot of it to be very important. The author interviewed some millionaires in researching his book.
Answer: The most surprising thing is why people give me so much respect. I am nothing. I don’t know much. All I am is rich.
People just have an idea of making more and more money, but what is it for? How much do I need for ant given purposes in my life? In his book, the professor uncovered an important need in modern society: to bring back the idea that money is an instrument rather than the end. Money plays an important role in the material world, but expecting money to give happiness may be missing the meaning of life.
The Descendants of the Sun(太阳的后裔) that really __1.__(earn) the praise(reputation)of K－drama fans. It made its debut(首映) on February 24, 2016 with an average of 13 percent in the Seoul National Capital Area. The next night, ratings__2.__(go) up an average of two percent. __ 3.__(apparent), those two episodes set up Descendants of the Sun as it dominated the competition with its third episode. __ 4.__nationwide and Seoul National Capital Area for both TNmS Ratings and AGB Nielson, the K－drama earned over 20 percent viewership ratings(收视率)．
For those _5.__ do not know what Descendants of the Sun is about, it is a drama about the love of people who get _6.__ as they learn to be considerate of each other in desperate times. It is also about the sacrifices made by people who throw themselves __7.__ natural disasters. Captain Yoo Shi Jin(柳大尉) (Song Joong Ki宋仲基) is the team leader of the Special Warfare Command of the United Nations Peacekeeping Troops. By request of the UN, he is _8.__(station) in the war-torn country of Uruk(乌鲁克)．__9.__he meets Kang Mo Yeon(姜暮烟) (Song Hye Kyo宋慧乔), a volunteer doctor with Doctors Without Borders.__ 10.__they work alongside each other, they clash and fall in love.
The word “diary” comes from the Latin word “diarium”, which means “daily allowance”. 1. And it is used for business notes, planning activities, keeping track of scheduled appointments, or documenting what has already happened. Some doctors suggest that writing in a diary is a good form of self-study.
In America, from the 1940s through the 1980s, a diary was thought of mostly as a way to privately express one’s deepest thoughts while keeping notations about the day. 2. Many times, movies would show a teenage girl beginning to write in her diary while she said aloud, “Dear diary…”.
3. A diary kept by a young German Jewish girl by the name of Anne Frank provides us with invaluable lessons about history, for she documented her experiences while she hid from the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Her diary became one of the world’s most widely read books and is the basis for many films.
a.
Samuel Pepys, who lived during the 17th century, is the earliest diary keeper that is famous today. His diary is also an important documentation of history, for it gives personal insight(洞察力) into London’s Great Plague and the Great Fire. His diary is being published on the Internet, and it’s interesting to note that there has been a new entry every day since January of 2003. It will continue over the course of several years to come. 4.
Today’s electronic version of the diary, the web log or “blog” has once again stretched the diary to be much more than a personal account of the day’s events. There are blogs to document recipes, traveling, movies, independent news, product announcements, photos, and anything else that needs to be recorded over time. Search engines like Technorati.com have been created to keep track of the more than 112 million blogs that are currently public. 5.
A. It refers to a book for writings by date.
B. In its newest form, the diary has become more popular than ever.
C. Reading his diary is fascinating, and it makes his life all the more real to us.
D. People love to write diaries, so whenever they are free, they will write a few lines.
E. Those private reflections may have historical significance long after the author’s death.
F. Nowadays, the blog has taken the place of the diary and becomes more and more popular.
G. In those times, and even continuing on today, writing in a diary was like writing to a special friend.
