They say that ''a picture is worth a thousand words'', but the briefest look at books and the movies based on them would have anyone questioning this common saying. All too often, great words end up being turned into cinematic ''turkeys''.
Good movies need good stories. If so, why has one of the earliest and greatest works in Western storytelling, Homer's The Odyssey, never had an equally great movie based on it? Movies need strong characters. So why have the movies based on The Great Gatsby never been praised as ''great''? Movies of course need impressive images, so why has Alice in Wonderland only resulted in movies best described as ''interesting''?
One of the key reasons behind this is that while a book usually takes a few days to read, a movie typically lasts under two hours. This means that great books can lose plot details and characters when they move to the big screen. This is something that even the highly successful Harry Potter movies can't escape from, with fans of the books disappointed not to see some of their favorite characters in the movie versions.
Movies also disappoint us when things don't look the way we imagined them in the books. Take, for example, the epic movie Troy, which is in part based on Homer's The Iliad and was met with mixed reviews from the audience. The most questionable issue was the actress chosen to play the part of Helen. Many people thought she didn't live up to Helen's title of ''the most beautiful woman in the world'', influencing opinions of the movie to some extent.
There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. Furthermore, books and movies are two different forms of media and therefore have different rules. With this in mind, perhaps we should judge a movie in its own right, and not against its original source. Interestingly, audiences have in recent years turned to television series such as Sherlock or Mad Men, which can have many characters and gradual plot development. Perhaps, one day, readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's most admired work will find themselves glued to their screens by episodes of The Great Gatsby.
1.Which of the following statements about the movie adaptation is true?
A.The characters in The Odyssey do not stand out.
B.The movie Troy doesn't look the way we visualized while reading the book.
C.The visual images are not as striking as the descriptions in the book The Great Gatsby.
D.Some parts of the story and characters are missing in the movie Alice in Wonderland.
2.One of the reasons why adaptations disappoint the audience is that ________.
A.they lack good storytelling
B.the images are not impressive enough
C.the characters in the movies are not strong and interesting
D.there is not enough time for movies to fully present the whole story
3.What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean?
A.Every shoe fits not every foot.
B.Birds of a feather flock together.
C.Reading is a matter of personal taste.
D.Different people have different ideas about the books and movies.
4.What does the text mainly talk about?
A.People are dissatisfied with the current movies.
B.Reading books is better than watching movies.
C.Good books may not be adapted for great movies.
D.People are expressing their preference to reading books.
Many animals move from one place to another at certain times of the year. This annual movement is called migration. They migrate to find food, seek a partner, or in search of warmer weather. One of the most wonderful migrations in nature is that of the North American monarch butterfly.
Every autumn, millions of these beautiful insects with fine black and orange wings begin a long and difficult journey. Somehow they manage to travel around 4, 000 kilometers south and find their way to California or Mexico. However, until recently no one knew how they did this.
A team of scientists led by Professor Eli Shlizerman at the University of Washington has now found the answer. They have found out that the monarch is able to tell the time of day. It uses its eyes to measure the position of the sun. These two pieces of information—the time of day and the point where the sun is in the sky—allow the butterfly to determine the way to go. Eventually, it manages to reach the places where it will spend the winter.
The solution to the mystery of the monarch’s amazing ability comes at a time when it is in serious trouble. Its population has crashed by as much as 90 per cent in the last few years. Sadly, human activity is the main reason why the number of monarch butterflies is falling. In many of the places where the butterfly can be found, people are destroying the natural environment. They cut down trees and use chemicals that kill the plants that monarch caterpillars eat.
The research on the monarch’s behavior has however led to a greater awareness of this creature. People have been working together to record its migration and make sure that there are enough plants for it to feed on. If this works, there may come a time when the number of monarch butterflies increases once again. The more we know about this lovely creature, the greater the chance it will survive and keep its place in the natural world for a long time to come.
1.Which is not the purpose of animals’ migration according to the text?
A.To search for food. B.To look for a partner.
C.To breed young babies. D.To stay away from cold weather.
2.What mainly caused the decrease in the number of the monarch butterflies?
A.Weather changes. B.Human activities.
C.Trees being cut down. D.The long migration every year.
3.What can we know from the text?
A.All the animals migrate at fixed times of the year.
B.The monarch has the ability to identify the time of day.
C.The population of the monarch is decreasing rapidly every year.
D.No one knows how the monarch butterflies make their way to their destinations.
4.What does the last paragraph imply about the research?
A.It is quite encouraging. B.it is fairly complex.
C.It is very unacceptable. D.It is rather useless.
One day, I was taking a nap in the red chair in my office when I woke up to the sound of a car crash. I sat up and looked, immediately, out my window. Across the street, in a parking lot, a car had just backed into a chain-link fence. The car must have been moving fast, because it was in bad shape: Its hood had popped up. The fence was damaged, bent out in exactly the shape of the car’s back end.
I watched the driver get out of the car. He was strong with a shaved head; he wore cargo shorts and a flannel (法兰绒) shirt unbuttoned to expose his chest hair. I disliked him immediately. After a few seconds of assessing the damage, he attempted to pull the ruined fence back into place, but it wouldn’t move. He tried to push the fallen piece of bumper back onto his car, but that only made the rest of his bumper fall off too.
I sat in my red chair, looking out my window, silently cheering. I think I laughed out loud. This was a ridiculous masterpiece. He climbed out from under the collapsed fence and limped back to the apartment building above the lot, rubbing his elbow. The man—that disgusting man—was going to leave all the chaos behind for someone else to clean up.
But the man appeared a few minutes later with some tools. He got to work immediately, removing one of the fence’s bent support bars and hammering it straight on the asphalt (沥青). For the next hour, I watched out my window as he doggedly(固执地) fixed the fence, even improved it. Now the fence would be extra secure, stronger than before, impossible to damage.
This strange man was actually a hero. I was the lazy one, with my kneejerk (应激反应) judgments, my superiority (优越感) from three stories up. My ugly assumptions, I realized, were all about myself. I would never have fixed that fence; I would have panicked and run away.
Years later, I still look out my window at that fence almost every day. It still looks brand new, It makes me wonder what else that man has improved, and how I can make myself more like him.
1.Why did the driver leave a bad first impression on the writer?
A.Because he badly damaged the fence.
B.Because he acted rudely and impolitely.
C.Because he escaped and left the mess to others.
D.Because he had a strange appearance and dressed casually.
2.The last two paragraphs tell us that ________.
A.if the writer were the driver, he thought he would do better
B.the writer gave a quick judgment from his previous experiences
C.the driver acted like a hero and had a great influence on the writer
D.the writer looks out his window often and expects to see the driver again
3.Which of the following words can best describe the driver?
A.Rude but honest. B.Lazy but strong-minded.
C.Impatient but generous. D.Ordinary-looking but responsible.
4.What can be the best title of the text?
A.Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
B.One’s Thinking Directs One’s Actions
C.Treat Other People As You Hope They Will Treat You
D.The Environment Depends on What You Think in You Mind
Temples have existed for thousands of years. They are the proof of cultures and civilization that existed many years ago. With their excellent architecture and structure they fascinate visitors from around the world.
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven is a Taoist temple in Beijing, the capital of China. The temple was constructed in the 14th century by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty as his personal temple, where he would pray for good harvest and to make up for the sins of his people. The temple's architecture is quite interesting: Everything in the temple, which represents heaven, is circular whereas the ground levels, which represent the earth, are square. It symbolizes the relationship between the earth and heaven, the human world and God's world, which stands at the heart of Chinese cosmogony.
Wat Rong Khun “White Temple”
Immediately upon entering the grounds of Chiang Rai's ''White Temple'' in Thailand, you’ll realize this contemporary, unconventional temple stands out, even in a country crowded with places of worship. The White Temple is incredibly different and unique in its architecture, art and design. In fact, it's designed in a very modern way, but still sticking to and respecting the conventional Buddhist principles. This temple is all white with many artistic decorations and statues full of mirrors that create nice silvery/glittering reflections.
Kinkaku-ji
Kyoto is filled with beautiful shrines and temples, but none can be compared to the beauty of Kinkaku-ji. This Buddhist temple has acquired a lot of fame recently and has become one of the most visited places in Japan. Whether you visit during the fall when there are red momiji leaves contrasting the gold, in winter when the gold is topped with pure white snow, in spring with the cherry blossoms, or in summer allowing you to see the beautiful temple's golden reflection—there is never a bad time to visit this beautiful temple.
Golden Temple
The Golden Temple in Punjab, India is the most sacred shrine of Sikhism. For the Sikhs, the Golden Temple symbolizes endless freedom and spiritual independence. The site of the temple began with a small lake that was so peaceful that even Buddha came there to meditate (冥想). Thousands of years later, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism also lived and meditated by the lake. The temple itself is decorated with marble sculptures, gilded in gold and covered in precious stones.
1.If you're interested in meditation, you would like to go to _________.
A.Kinkaku-ji B.Temple of Heaven
C.Golden Temple D.Wat Rong Khun “White Temple”
2.What do the four temples in the text have in common?
A.They are all located in Asia.
B.They are all Buddhist temples.
C.They have the same type o£ architecture.
D.They are all suitable to visit all the year around.
3.What's the purpose of the text?
A.To praise the architecture of the temples.
B.To introduce some world-famous temples.
C.To persuade visitors from around the world to come.
D.To inform the long history of the well-known temples.
假定你是李华，你的英国笔友Henry对中国传统乐器感兴趣，想在寒假来中国学习，请你写信给他推荐一种乐器和学习该乐器的方式。内容包括：
1. 表示欢迎；
2. 推荐他学习古筝；
3. 邀请他参加该课程。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯.
Dear Henry,
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
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。
My history teacher, together with my classmates were invited to visit our city museum yesterday. That morning, we gathered at our school gate, which we took a bus to go to our destination. We first went to see an exhibition hold in the museum. After entering in the exhibition hall, we listened o the guider’s introduction careful. We also took photo when admiring the objects. Then, we attended lecture about history there, through which we get a better understanding of our nation. I was very impressed with this visit for I told my teacher I made up our mind to learn history well.
