Jack London, one of America’s major writers of adventure tales, was born in California in 1876. During his life, London worked at many jobs. His broad life experiences would become the background for his writing.
London loved to read. As a teenager, he spent many hours educating himself at the Oakland, California, public library. He attended college at the University of California at Berkeley, but he stayed for only six months. He thought Berkeley was “not lively enough” and wanted to do something more exciting.
London wrote stories about working people and the hard times they had making a living. He knew their problems first hand. He worked as a sailor, farmer, factory employee, railroad worker, and gold prospector, to name just a few of his many jobs.
London grew up near the waterfront in Oakland. He loved the water. When he was fifteen years old, he bought a small sailboat called a sloop. Later he sailed to Japan on a schooner, which is a much larger sailing boat. Like many people of the time, London caught the Klondike Gold Rush Fever. In 1897, he headed for Alaska. He didn’t find gold, but he discovered something even more valuable. He discovered that people enjoyed listening to the stories he made up with his vivid imagination. London entertained the miners with story after story. Later, using his experiences during the Gold Rush, he created many more colorful stories.
London resolved to live a full, exciting life. He once said, “I would rather be a superb meteor(流星), every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.” Each day, he pushed himself. Once London determined that he was going to be a writer, nothing could stop him. His goal was to write at least one thousand words every day. He refused to stop even when he was sick. In eighteen years, the writer published fifty-one books and hundreds of articles. He was the best-selling and highest-paid author of his day. Many people also considered him to be the best writer. White Fang and The Call of the Wild are his most famous stories and are about surviving in the Alaskan wilderness. Readers can enjoy Jack London’s energy and his talent for telling wonderful stories each time they open one of his novels.
1.Why was Jack London able to write on many topics?
A. He pushed himself to reach goals.
B. He had a variety of experiences and jobs.
C. He was drawn to the Klondike Gold Rush.
D. He was the best-selling and highest-paid author.
2.What prevented Jack London from finishing college?
A. That he was hired to sail to Japan.
B. That he traveled to Alaska in 1897.
C. That he spent much of his time writing.
D. That he was not interested in college life enough.
3.The underlined sentence in the last paragraph indicates that Jack London______.
A. is expert at universe.
B. aims high and strive to succeed.
C. is excited about life if the wildness.
D. face a choice between life and death.
4.What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To support the statement that London was the “best writer?.
B. To describe life during the klondike Gold Rush.
C. To provide information on Jack ‘s life.
D. To identify books written by Jack London.
Michael Wang was a senior at James Logan High School, US, back in 2012. According to The New Yorker, he was confident that he could get into an Ivy League university, such as Harvard or Yale. He had a high GPA, _______ at debating and co-founded a math club. He was also a talented pianist. _______, his dream universities turned him down. His less talented classmates, who were Hispanic or African-American, were admitted into these schools. It made him wonder if he was _______ because he was Asian.
On Oct 15, a lawsuit against Harvard brought on behalf of Asian-American students like Wang Began. students for Fair Admissions(SFFA),a US non-profit organization. _______ Harvard for using racial balancing in their admissions process. Harvard has denied the _______considers many factors when _______ whether a student should be admitted, including academic performance and extracurricular activities . Harvard added that the number of Asian-Americans admitted to the school had greatly increased since 2010.”Race alone is never the reason a student _______ admission, ”William Lee, a lawyer for Harvard, told the guardian. ”And race is never the reason a student is denied.”
Harvard is not the only university to have been accused of _______against Asian-Americans. In September, the US Justice Department begin to_______whether Yale University discriminates against Asian-Americans, The case has ________ a longstanding debate over affirmative action policies(平均法案政策) that allow universities to use race as a factor when considering applications. The policies________ benefit African-American and latino students in an effort to make up for centuries of racial discrimination, according to THE NEW YORK Times, the SFFA wants the use of race in the admissions process to be ended, ________ that it causes inequality.”People should be judged on character and ________,”However, a student, Havard said that ________ the race criterion would “reduce students’ opportunities to live and learn in a diverse campus environment”.
Although the case has just begun, the________judgement” could influence admissions to US universities for years to come,” according to AI Jaxeera, a Qatar based TV station
1.A. crazy B. amazed C. gifted D. slow
2.A. Besides B. Fortunately C. Undoubtedly D. However
3.A. rejected B. dismissed C. enclosed D. stopped
4.A. trapped B. oppressed C. sued D. blamed
5.A. charge B. mistake C. claim D. compaint
6.A. conforming B. determining C. acknowledging D. surveying
7.A. robbed B. granted C. entitled D. convinced
8.A. preference B. favor C. opposition D. discrimination
9.A. investigate B. research C. wonder D. inquire
10.A. preferred B. infected C. fueled D. brought
11.A. necessarily B. equally C. traditionally D. unintentionally
12.A. considering B. debating C. annoying D. arguing
13.A. academics B. strength C. benefit D. moralities
14.A. dropping B. setting C. implementing D. imposing
15.A. official B. existent C. gradual D. eventual
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
1. (be) a successful speaker is no easy thing. It is essential for you to know why you are speaking and 2. you wish to accomplish by your speech. The four most common purposes of speech are to inform, to convince, to move to action, and to entertain. Do you, like a teacher or an expert in a field, wish to illustrate your ideas in detail to people unfamiliar with your subject 3. they can understand your ideas clearly and thoroughly? Or, like a debater, wish 4. (convince) the judges or the audience? Or, like a fund collector for a naturalist foundation, wish to get money? Or, like a comedian or after-dinner speaker, wish to entertain? The language and tone you use 5. be proper for your purpose, for your audience, and for the occasion. A speech to the graduating class will have quite different language, tone and manner from information 6. (deliver) to a group of your friends.
Furthermore, 7. talented the speaker is, a talk without enough preparation is usually 8. failure. To speak without preparing is to shoot without 9. (take) aim. Decide what your aim or objective is; then state it in a complete topic sentence. Make sure that your subject 10. (be) definite and not too broad.
I regret ______ that you have failed the exam.
A.telling B.to have told C.tell D.to tell
______ money, his parents managed to send him to university.
A.Lacked B.Lacking of C.Though lacking D.Lacked in
______ with such great difficulty, Jack felt at a loss______.
A.Facing; what to say B.Faced; what to say
C.Having faced; how to tell D.Being faced; how to speak
