Question

Historian Tom Holland is the award-winning author of Rubicon, Persian Fire and Millennium. He appears regularly on radio, TV and in print. His latest book Dynasty is published in paperback by Abacus.

Moominsummer Madness By Tove Jansoon What I love about this book, as a child and still today, is its mix of the fantastical and normal. On the one hand, it’s about a family and their friends all enjoying themselves, quite happy not doing much. On the other hand, it’s about characters that can change into odd shapes, magicians coming down from the moon and peculiar creatures emerging from the roof. That mix of the familiar and the extraordinary informs all my writing. The Histories By HerodoTus By the time I was 12, I was obsessed by Ancient Greece and Rome. At first, I found the early section of The Histories a real grind because it’s like a long shaggy dog story that never gets to the point.

In the second half I was rewarded with the stories I’d been waiting for, like the battles of Marathon, Salamis and Thermopylae. Over the years, I come to value the infectious curiosity of the first half and the portrait of the world in the fifth century BC seen through the eyes of this extraordinary Greek historian. A Distant Mirror By BarBara W TucHman Tuchman’s book The Guns of August won the Pulitzer Prize, but it’s this slightly less well-known work that provided me with a role model for my own writing. Both scholarly and interesting, it’s a portrait of the 14th century in Western Europe and vividly evokes medieval civilization buffeted by cataclysms: the Black Death, the Peasants’ Revolt and the Great Papal Schism. I felt I knew what it was to die of the plague or to have a sword put through me— real stories told remarkably

1.Tom Holland now finds the first half of The Histories ___________.

A. off the point    B. culture-centered

C. really boring    D. quite entertaining

2.Which book does Tom Holland appreciate and try to copy its style?

A. The Histories    B. A Distant Mirror

C. The Guns of August    D. Moominsummer Madness

Answer

1.D

2.B

【解析】这是一篇应用文。本文介绍历史学家Tom Holland及其作品。Tom Holland是Rubicon, Persian Fire and Millennium的作者，是一名获奖作家。他经常出现在广播、电视和印刷品上。他的最新著作Dynasty由Abacus出版平装本。

1.细节理解题。根据The Histories中Over the years, I come to value the infectious curiosity of the first half and the portrait of the world in the fifth century BC seen through the eyes of this extraordinary Greek historian.可知，Tom Holland现在发现了The Histories的前半部分很有趣。故选D。

2.推理判断题。根据A Distant Mirror中Tuchman’s book The Guns of August won the Pulitzer Prize, but it’s this slightly less well-known work that provided me with a role model for my own writing.可知，Tom Holland喜欢A Distant Mirror，并试着模仿它的风格。故选B。