Little George Adamson ran to the window, hoping to find a white word. But once he drew the curtains, disappointment set in. It was another year without snow on Christmas.
In the UK, where he grew up, December is not a particularly snowy month, yet shops sell cards with white Christmas illustrations and restaurants are decorated with fake snow. This has always intrigued people like Adamson. Where are people taking on these expectations if they haven't lived them? Now, as a college teacher, Adamson knows who to blame for his misplaced expectations Charles Dickens, who populated his stories with snowy Christmas holiday.
Dickens “grew up during the coldest decade England has seen and his short stories and A Christmas Carol seem to owe we much to his impressionable years” , writes anthropologist Brian Fagan in his book .It was so icy during Dickens's early years that the River Thames froze in February of 1814 . For Dickens, who was born in 1812 . Christmas must have been a bitterly cold experience. Years later, when Dickens sat down to write his novels and short stories, the author populated them with his memories of what Christmas looked like back then.
But that doesn't mean a white Christmas' has been common in the decades since. Our program asked the Met Office for more information about Christmas snow in the UK, as tracked by their more than 200 stations across the country. Most years, no more than 20 stations report snow. In the UK, the Met Office explains, it is far more likely to see snow between January and March than in December.
Then how can one man's writing change our collective understanding of a climatic phenomenon?
Dickens is credited, particularly in Britain, as the man who made Christmas fashionable again. As the Industrial Age set in and people moved around the country, traditions and customs were lost. In the first decades of the 1800s, both Sir Walter Scott and Washington Irving felt sorry for the loss of former festivities. When Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843, Britons were attached to the holiday season, as many Britons missed the Christmas of their youth.
1.The underlined word “intrigued" in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .
A.bored B.interested
C.upset D.delighted
2.Adamson's expectation of a white Christmas comes from .
A.literary works B.climatic records
C.Christmas cards D.childhood experience
3.Why is Christmas white in Dickens's writing?
A.He was influenced by other writers of his time,
B.He intended to meet readers' expectation
C.The River Thames froze when he wrote the stories.
D.The snowy Christmas in his childhood impressed him .
4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A.Sir Walter Scout was not in favor of Charles Dickens
B.Christmas was not fashionable before Charles Dickens was born
C.Dickens' literary work brought out the Christmas memories of Britons
D.The Industrial Age accounted for the passion for traditions and customs
My kids sit in Gee's living room and excitedly lit old New Year decorations out of a well-loved cardboard box. She tells me that she and Tom built their decoration collection piece by piece during each year's after-New Year sale. She smiles as we leave with the box
We first met Tom and Gee in the early days of our marriage, someone had been returning our garbage cans to the garage each garbage day, and Jim and I had wondered who. Then one day we spotted him: an elderly man who lived across the street.
I baked cookies and left them on a bench outside the garbage with a thank-you note. When we got home from work that day, a typed letter had replaced the gift. The letter was from Tom and explained how he had come to walk the neighborhood on garbage day, retuning cans for people he barely knew. Back where he'd been fighting a war, his young wife, Gee, had found herself living alone. Neighbors had taken the time to handle her garbage cans so she didn't have to, and he never forgot. Now he paid it forward by doing the same for all of us. Unfortunately a few years after we'd moved in, Tom died.
These days, we're piling up boxes of our own. We're planning a move. The house that seemed so huge six years ago is filled to capacity with furniture and books and toys and, of course, people, We know it's time to go, and yet we can't seem to stick the For Sale sign up on the grassland. Gaining a third bedroom and maybe an office sometimes seems like a lousy trade for all we stand to lose.
It's not just Gee and Tom. It’s the man who lets our kids pick peaches of the tree in his front yard. It's the ladies who call Jim when their pool filter breaks and leave overflowing baskets for our kids on Easter. It's the officer who smiles and waves and makes me feel a little safer when Jim is away. It is they who teach us what it means to be a neighbor.
1.What do we know about the New Year decorations according to paragraph 1?
A.The kids don't like them.
B.Gee is willing to give them to us.
C.Gee sees them as useless now. ,
D.Gee and Tom made them by themselves.
2.How did the author get to know Tom?
A.Tom lived across the street.
B.Tom liked the cookies the author baked.
C.Tom returned the garbage cans for the author.
D.Tom shared their decorations with the author.
3.Tom decided to help his neighbors because
A.they had just moved into the community
B.he had been saved by a neighbor during the war
C.his wife had been helped by the neighbors during his absence
D.there were so many garbage cans in the neighborhood at that time
4.What can we infer from the underlined sentence?
A.Their house couldn't be sold at a high price
B.The author didn't want to leave their neighbors
C.The author's family was in bad need of a third bedroom
D.Their moving out would be a great loss for the neighbors
Pop Culture Happy Hour
From the radio and podcasting giants at NPR, Pop Culture Happy Hour is a joyous celebration of popular culture that dives into movies and TV shows, Enthusiastically presented , it's full of thoughtful and intelligent criticism. Episodes are short and stand alone, each with a singular topic. This means you can dip in and out. Above all, it's fun while being informative.
Literary Friction
Running for five years, Literary Friction is a monthly podcast hosted by Carrie Pitt and Octavia Bright. The friends —one from the US, one from the UK interview authors about their lives, work and inspirations, as well as discussing wider literary topics and giving out book recommendations. Literary Friction is a thoughtful podcast, which calls for active listening and Plitt and Bright ask intelligent and profound questions. You will discover great things to read and feel smarter after you've listened to this.
Awaye!
Aboriginal culture is in the spotlight for this Australian podcast from ABC Radio National, which is presented by smooth-voiced broadcaster Daniel Browning. While it focuses on the experience of native Australians, Awaye! also has interviews with, and documentaries about native people and their arts and culture from around the world. A thoughtful podcast, Awaye!’s interviews successfully combine the critical arts interview with in-depth discussions about tradition and history.
Audio Poem of the Day
From the Poetry Foundation, this is a daily dose of poetry delivered by some of the best-placed people to do it. Each day, classic and contemporary poems are read aloud by actors or the poets themselves and delivered to wherever you listen to podcasts. Perfect for when you may need a quiet moment, or just a distraction from modern life. The poems are simply presented, with no background music- -just the voice and the words, Try listening to one or two before bed.
1.Which podcast requires active listening of listeners?
A.Pop Culture Happy Hour B.Literary Friction
C.Awaye! D.Audio Poem of the Day
2.Which is most likely to be talked about in Daniel Browning's podcast?
A.The decline of the aboriginal languages.
B.The exhibition of native American artists
C.Puzzles of modern Australian adolescents
D.His recent interview with a UK singer.
3.What is the purpose of this text?
A.To recommend good podcasts
B.To stress the importance of literature
C.To raise fund for the podcasts
D.To invite audience to participate.
假定你是李华，参加了由学校组织的骑自行车环城游的活动。请你用英语给校报写一篇短文，报道此次活动。内容包括：
1. 活动中的所见所闻；
2. 活动后的感悟。
注意：①词数 100-120 左右；②可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Latin is considered as a dead language, but some people disagree. They insist that Latin is not dead because news 1. (report) by the Roman Catholic Church in Latin recently. 2., Latin is no longer anyone’s native language. While its use is still taught, Latin is no longer considered to be a developing language to the degree of most modern languages.
There are many reasons 3. Latin dying out. The most important one has to do with the fall of the Roman Empire. During the Roman period, Rome was the most powerful country in the Western world, so most of those who wanted to succeed tried 4. (learn) Latin. As a result, 5. language developed quickly. But that rapid development 6. (final) stopped. Latin continued to be used during the Middle Age. Throughout Europe, it remained the language of choice. However, there was no need for a standard language, so Latin began to change when different areas developed their own languages over a period of hundreds of years, of 7. the most commonly spoken are Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French.
Though not directly connected with the Roman languages, Latin still has had an effect on many other 8. (language). English, for example, which is not one of the Roman languages but a Germanic one, can trace nearly two-thirds of its words back to Latin.
I’m going to have a week-long holiday with my friends, Gino and Connie. I’m so ________ that I can hardly type, not only for the wonders in Hawaii, but also for the ________ of meeting my friends.
Isn’t it ________ how certain friends are important to us in our life? Five years ago, I got a job in a famous company and I ________ whether I was making the right decision or if it was really a job I ________. After all, my dream was to work at a magazine or newspaper. And yet I felt like ________ there somehow, though it wasn’t my dream job.
The company was ________ fast. Every week brought new partners, most of them around my age. I met Gino who had just started a week earlier. ________, we became friends and exchanged ________ and thoughts with each other. In this way, I soon ________ my loneliness. One month later, Connie joined the company too, another ________ person to turn to for help when I was ________.
It was two years ________ I got a job as a journalist for a local magazine. Gino and Connie no longer work there ________, either. But we still chat over Wechat twice a week on a ________ basis. I could have never thought, five years ago, that we’d travel together in Hawaii one day and develop lasting ________ .
The job that wasn’t my dream job turned out to be the best job I ________ have ever found. Most of the friends I have today came from that company. We ________ everything with one another. There were still times ________ I wondered what I was doing there and whether my writing dreams would ever come true, but ________, I can hardly imagine my life without those friends.
Now I can’t wait to see what is in store for us—who knows who we’ll meet.
1.A.excited B.interested C.surprised D.upset
2.A.view B.request C.chance D.power
3.A.shocking B.amazing C.hopeful D.unfair
4.A.explored B.bargained C.recognized D.doubted
5.A.cared about B.watched over C.went through D.set up
6.A.surviving B.belonging C.escaping D.deserving
7.A.falling B.recovering C.arising D.growing
8.A.Gradually B.Totally C.Frequently D.Actually
9.A.reality B.evidence C.feelings D.principles
10.A.rebuilt B.removed C.replaced D.rescued
11.A.reliable B.stubborn C.educated D.determined
12.A.in ruins B.in return C.in trouble D.in charge
13.A.until B.unless C.before D.while
14.A.ever since B.at present C.as usual D.on purpose
15.A.regular B.exact C.firm D.equal
16.A.identity B.value C.friendship D.character
17.A.could B.should C.must D.need
18.A.ignored B.selected C.judged D.shared
19.A.that B.when C.what D.which
20.A.extremely B.entirely C.anyhow D.moreover
