FILM DESCRIPTIONS

Back to the Future

With the help of a local inventor’s time machine, Marty travels back to the 1950s. There his 80s hipness stands out, and he inadvertently interferes with the fledgling romance of his parents-to-be. Can Marty keep them together? He’d better, or his own future will fade away. Featuring: Christopher Lloyd, Michael J.Fox. A universal Pictures release, 1 hr. 55 min.

Beethoven’s 2nd

In this sequel to the popular Beethoven, our canine hero falls for Missy, who soon has puppies. Missy’s greedy owner, Regina, who sees only money in the little purebreds, separates mom and pups from Beethoven. His owners rescue the puppies, but Regina still has Missy. Featuring: Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt. A Universal Pictures release, 1 hr. 26 min.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Despite the popularity of his treats, candy maker Willy Wonka shuts himself inside his factory. But then Willy holds a contest, offering five lucky children the chance to see his company. Poor but pleasant Charlie Bucket finds a ticket, as do four less-deserving children. Featuring:

Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore. A Warner Bros. Release, 1 hr. 56 min.

Cinderella Man

Based on actual events, this film follows the life of Jim Braddock, a boxer in New York City during the Great Depression. After a series of losses, Braddock is forced into retirement. But he never gives up his boxing dream, and neither does his manager. Featuring: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger. A Universal Pictures release, 2 hr. 14 min.

Liar Liar

Lawyer Fletcher Reede has never told the truth in his life. Then his son makes a birthday wish that his dad would stop lying for 24 hours. Suddenly, Fletcher’s mouth spouts everything he thinks. His compulsion brings disaster to courtroom, where he must defend a client whose case was built on lies. Featuring: Jim Carrey, Justin Cooper. A Universal Pictures release, 1 hr. 25 min.

1. Which of the following is probably the name of a dog?

2. Willy Wonka is _______.

3. Which film is about the life of a real person?

November not only marks the publication of Toni Morrison’s eagerly anticipated(期待) eighth novel, Love, but it is also the tenth anniversary of her Nobel Prize for Literature. Morrison is the first black woman to receive a Nobel, and so honored before her in literature are only two black men:Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian playwright, poet and novelist, in 1986; and Derek Walcott, the Caribbean-born poet, in 1992. But Morrison is also the first and only American-born Nobel prizewinner for literature since 1962, the year novelist John steinbeck received the award.

Like Song of Solomon, Love is a multigenerational story, revealing the personal and communal legacy() of an outstanding black family. As Morrison scholars will tell you, Love is the third volume of a literary master’s trilogy(三部曲)investigating the many complexities of love. This trilogy began with Beloved(1988), which deals with a black mother’s love under slavery and in freedom. Jazzy(1993), the second volume, tells a story of romantic love in 1920s Harlem. This latest novel looks back from the 1970s to the 1940s and 50s.

The emotional center of Love is Bill Cosey, the former owner and host of the shabby Cosey’s Hotel and Resort in Silk, North Carolina, described in the novel as “the best and best-known vacation sport for colored folk on the East Coast.” We get to know Cosey through the memories of five women who survive and love him: his granddaughter, his widow, two former employees, and a homeless young girl.

The latest novel, Love, had been described in the promotional material from her publisher as “Morrison’s most accessible work since Song of Solomon.” This comparison to her third novel, published in 1977, was an effective selling point.

1. What would be the best title for the text?

2. What can we learn about John Steinbeck?

3. The similarity between Love and Song of Solomon is that they both _____.

4. The novel Love mainly describes ______.

 Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis Cricket—anything with a round ball, I was useless, “he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.

It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.

The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits(成就).Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.

Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many peiole dismissed his dream as fantasy. “John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ‘You are completely crazy,’”Saunders says.

In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter(遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.

Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.

This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.

1.The turning point in Saunders’life came when _____

2.We can learn from the text that Ridgway _______.

3. What do we know about Saunders?

4. The underlined word “Intrigued” in the third paragraph probably means_____.

5.It can be inferred tat Saunders’ journey to the North Pole ______.

The Florida sun baked my shoulders as I worked along the 1-595 freeway near Fort Lauderdale, picking up rubbish. I paused to   16   the sweat off my forehead and look up at the cloudless blue sky. “   17  “ can’t it rain?” I thought. That would   18   things off.

I thought about my  19   , who were  20    sitting in an air-conditioned classroom at the high school right now. I’d had some   21  in school, so my parents decided to let met work   22  with my dad. We both worked for my uncle, who had taken  23  of a road maintenance company. It was up to us to keep the roads  24   of rubbish. The job was   25   and dirty, especially on hot days like this. I  26  why I ever agreed to do it.

We continued our   27   route along 595,   28  for the overpass bridge. Then I noticed an area where some  29  were broken on the ground. They weren’t like that before.

‘ Dad! Pull over! I want to 30  something out.”

I jumped off the truck and rushed to the bridge. Something was telling me to  31  … there wasn’t much time.  32  I saw a Toyota that 33  upside down in the trees. Maybe it was a stolen car that somebody  34  there. Then I noticed something  35  . It was a bloody leg poking out of the driver’s side window.

“ Heeeelp” a lady moaned.

 My old car I had had ____________ yesterday.

The meeting held in 1978 was _________________.

 The weather broadcast this morning says a snowstorm _____________.

 He made eating a boiled shoe funny and we felt as if it ________ his best meal ever.

 Father ________ for London no business upon my arrival, so I didn’t see him.

 The news came as no surprise to me, for I ________ of it.